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In particular, the sequence ‘$#-...’ in an arithmetic expression is interpreted as the length of the parameter -, q.v. ARGC Same as #. $ The process ID of this shell, set when the shell initializes. Processes forked from the shell without executing a new program, such as command substitutions and commands grouped with (...), are subshells that duplicate the current shell, and thus substitute the same value for $$ as their parent shell. - Flags supplied to the shell on invocation or by the set or setopt commands. * An array containing the positional parameters. argv Same as *. Assigning to argv changes the local positional parameters, but argv is not itself a local parameter. Deleting argv with unset in any function deletes it everywhere, although only the innermost positional parameter array is deleted (so * and @ in other scopes are not affected). @ Same as argv[@], even when argv is not set. ? The exit status returned by the last command. 0 The name used to invoke the current shell, or as set by the -c command line option upon invocation. If the FUNCTION_ARGZERO option is set, $0 is set upon entry to a shell function to the name of the function, and upon entry to a sourced script to the name of the script, and reset to its previous value when the function or script returns. status Same as ?. pipestatus An array containing the exit statuses returned by all commands in the last pipeline. _ The last argument of the previous command. Also, this parameter is set in the environment of every command executed to the full pathname of the command. CPUTYPE The machine type (microprocessor class or machine model), as determined at run time. EGID The effective group ID of the shell process. If you have sufficient privileges, you may change the effective group ID of the shell process by assigning to this parameter. Also (assuming sufficient privileges), you may start a single command with a different effective group ID by ‘(EGID=gid; command)’ If this is made local, it is not implicitly set to 0, but may be explicitly set locally. EUID The effective user ID of the shell process. If you have sufficient privileges, you may change the effective user ID of the shell process by assigning to this parameter. Also (assuming sufficient privileges), you may start a single command with a different effective user ID by ‘(EUID=uid; command)’ If this is made local, it is not implicitly set to 0, but may be explicitly set locally. ERRNO The value of errno (see errno(3)) as set by the most recently failed system call. This value is system dependent and is intended for debugging purposes. It is also useful with the zsh/system module which allows the number to be turned into a name or message. To use this parameter, it must first be assigned a value (typically 0 (zero)). It is initially unset for scripting compatibility. FUNCNEST Integer. If greater than or equal to zero, the maximum nesting depth of shell functions. When it is exceeded, an error is raised at the point where a function is called. The default value is determined when the shell is configured, but is typically 500. Increasing the value increases the danger of a runaway function recursion causing the shell to crash. Setting a negative value turns off the check. GID The real group ID of the shell process. If you have sufficient privileges, you may change the group ID of the shell process by assigning to this parameter. Also (assuming sufficient privileges), you may start a single command under a different group ID by ‘(GID=gid; command)’ If this is made local, it is not implicitly set to 0, but may be explicitly set locally. HISTCMD The current history event number in an interactive shell, in other words the event number for the command that caused $HISTCMD to be read. If the current history event modifies the history, HISTCMD changes to the new maximum history event number. HOST The current hostname. LINENO The line number of the current line within the current script, sourced file, or shell function being executed, whichever was started most recently. Note that in the case of shell functions the line number refers to the function as it appeared in the original definition, not necessarily as displayed by the functions builtin. LOGNAME If the corresponding variable is not set in the environment of the shell, it is initialized to the login name corresponding to the current login session. This parameter is exported by default but this can be disabled using the typeset builtin. The value is set to the string returned by the getlogin(3) system call if that is available. MACHTYPE The machine type (microprocessor class or machine model), as determined at compile time. OLDPWD The previous working directory. This is set when the shell initializes and whenever the directory changes. OPTARG The value of the last option argument processed by the getopts command. OPTIND The index of the last option argument processed by the getopts command. OSTYPE The operating system, as determined at compile time. PPID The process ID of the parent of the shell, set when the shell initializes. As with $$, the value does not change in subshells created as a duplicate of the current shell. PWD The present working directory. This is set when the shell initializes and whenever the directory changes. RANDOM A pseudo-random integer from 0 to 32767, newly generated each time this parameter is referenced. The random number generator can be seeded by assigning a numeric value to RANDOM. sequence; subshells that reference RANDOM will result in identical pseudo-random values unless the value of RANDOM is referenced or seeded in the parent shell in between subshell invocations. SECONDS The number of seconds since shell invocation. If this parameter is assigned a value, then the value returned upon reference will be the value that was assigned plus the number of seconds since the assignment. Unlike other special parameters, the type of the SECONDS parameter can be changed using the typeset command. The type may be changed only to one of the floating point types or back to integer. For example, ‘typeset -F SECONDS’ causes the value to be reported as a floating point number. The value is available to microsecond accuracy, although the shell may show more or fewer digits depending on the use of typeset. See the documentation for the builtin typeset in Shell Builtin Commands for more details. SHLVL Incremented by one each time a new shell is started. signals An array containing the names of the signals. Note that with the standard zsh numbering of array indices, where the first element has index 1, the signals are offset by 1 from the signal number used by the operating system. For example, on typical Unix-like systems HUP is signal number 1, but is referred to as $signals[2]. This is because of EXIT at position 1 in the array, which is used internally by zsh but is not known to the operating system. TRY_BLOCK_ERROR In an always block, indicates whether the preceding list of code caused an error. The value is 1 to indicate an error, 0 otherwise. It may be reset, clearing the error condition. See Complex Commands TRY_BLOCK_INTERRUPT This variable works in a similar way to TRY_BLOCK_ERROR, but represents the status of an interrupt from the signal SIGINT, which typically comes from the keyboard when the user types ^C. If set to 0, any such interrupt will be reset; otherwise, the interrupt is propagated after the always block. Note that it is possible that an interrupt arrives during the execution of the always block; this interrupt is also propagated. TTY The name of the tty associated with the shell, if any. TTYIDLE The idle time of the tty associated with the shell in seconds or -1 if there is no such tty. UID The real user ID of the shell process. If you have sufficient privileges, you may change the user ID of the shell by assigning to this parameter. Also (assuming sufficient privileges), you may start a single command under a different user ID by ‘(UID=uid; command)’ If this is made local, it is not implicitly set to 0, but may be explicitly set locally. USERNAME The username corresponding to the real user ID of the shell process. If you have sufficient privileges, you may change the username (and also the user ID and group ID) of the shell by assigning to this parameter. Also (assuming sufficient privileges), you may start a single command under a different username (and user ID and group ID) by ‘(USERNAME=username; command)’ VENDOR The vendor, as determined at compile time. zsh_eval_context (ZSH_EVAL_CONTEXT ) An array (colon-separated list) indicating the context of shell code that is being run. Each time a piece of shell code that is stored within the shell is executed a string is temporarily appended to the array to indicate the type of operation that is being performed. Read in order the array gives an indication of the stack of operations being performed with the most immediate context last. Note that the variable does not give information on syntactic context such as pipelines or subshells. Use $ZSH_SUBSHELL to detect subshells. The context is one of the following: cmdarg Code specified by the -c option to the command line that invoked the shell. cmdsubst Command substitution using the ‘...‘ or $(...) construct. equalsubst File substitution using the =(...) construct. eval Code executed by the eval builtin. evalautofunc Code executed with the KSH_AUTOLOAD mechanism in order to define an autoloaded function. fc Code from the shell history executed by the -e option to the fc builtin. file Lines of code being read directly from a file, for example by the source builtin. filecode Lines of code being read from a .zwc file instead of directly from the source file. globqual Code executed by the e or + glob qualifier. globsort Code executed to order files by the o glob qualifier. insubst File substitution using the <(...) construct. loadautofunc Code read directly from a file to define an autoloaded function. outsubst File substitution using the >(...) construct. sched Code executed by the sched builtin. shfunc A shell function. stty Code passed to stty by the STTY environment variable. Normally this is passed directly to the system’s stty command, so this value is unlikely to be seen in practice. style Code executed as part of a style retrieved by the zstyle builtin from the zsh/zutil module. toplevel The highest execution level of a script or interactive shell. trap Code executed as a trap defined by the trap builtin. Traps defined as functions have the context shfunc. As traps are asynchronous they may have a different hierarchy from other code. zpty Code executed by the zpty builtin from the zsh/zpty module. zregexparse-guard Code executed as a guard by the zregexparse command from the zsh/zutil module. zregexparse-action Code executed as an action by the zregexparse command from the zsh/zutil module. ZSH_ARGZERO If zsh was invoked to run a script, this is the name of the script. Otherwise, it is the name used to invoke the current shell. This is the same as the value of $0 when the POSIX_ARGZERO option is set, but is always available. ZSH_EXECUTION_STRING If the shell was started with the option -c, this contains the argument passed to the option. Otherwise it is not set. ZSH_NAME Expands to the basename of the command used to invoke this instance of zsh. ZSH_PATCHLEVEL The output of ‘git describe –tags –long’ for the zsh repository used to build the shell. This is most useful in order to keep track of versions of the shell during development between releases; hence most users should not use it and should instead rely on $ZSH_VERSION. zsh_scheduled_events See The zsh/sched Module . ZSH_SCRIPT If zsh was invoked to run a script, this is the name of the script, otherwise it is unset. ZSH_SUBSHELL Readonly integer. Initially zero, incremented each time the shell forks to create a subshell for executing code. Hence ‘(print $ZSH_SUBSHELL)’ and ‘print $(print $ZSH_SUBSHELL)’ output 1, while ‘( (print $ZSH_SUBSHELL) )’ outputs 2. ZSH_VERSION The version number of the release of zsh.","breadcrumbs":"Parameters » ","id":"100","title":""},"101":{"body":"The following parameters are used by the shell. Again, ‘’ indicates that the parameter is special and ‘’ indicates that the parameter does not exist when the shell initializes in sh or ksh emulation mode. In cases where there are two parameters with an upper- and lowercase form of the same name, such as path and PATH, the lowercase form is an array and the uppercase form is a scalar with the elements of the array joined together by colons. These are similar to tied parameters created via ‘typeset -T’. The normal use for the colon-separated form is for exporting to the environment, while the array form is easier to manipulate within the shell. Note that unsetting either of the pair will unset the other; they retain their special properties when recreated, and recreating one of the pair will recreate the other. ARGV0 If exported, its value is used as the argv[0] of external commands. Usually used in constructs like ‘ARGV0=emacs nethack’. BAUD The rate in bits per second at which data reaches the terminal. The line editor will use this value in order to compensate for a slow terminal by delaying updates to the display until necessary. If the parameter is unset or the value is zero the compensation mechanism is turned off. The parameter is not set by default. This parameter may be profitably set in some circumstances, e.g. for slow modems dialing into a communications server, or on a slow wide area network. It should be set to the baud rate of the slowest part of the link for best performance. cdpath (CDPATH ) An array (colon-separated list) of directories specifying the search path for the cd command. COLUMNS The number of columns for this terminal session. Used for printing select lists and for the line editor. CORRECT_IGNORE If set, is treated as a pattern during spelling correction. Any potential correction that matches the pattern is ignored. For example, if the value is ‘_*’ then completion functions (which, by convention, have names beginning with ‘_’) will never be offered as spelling corrections. The pattern does not apply to the correction of file names, as applied by the CORRECT_ALL option (so with the example just given files beginning with ‘_’ in the current directory would still be completed). CORRECT_IGNORE_FILE If set, is treated as a pattern during spelling correction of file names. Any file name that matches the pattern is never offered as a correction. For example, if the value is ‘.*’ then dot file names will never be offered as spelling corrections. This is useful with the CORRECT_ALL option. DIRSTACKSIZE The maximum size of the directory stack, by default there is no limit. If the stack gets larger than this, it will be truncated automatically. This is useful with the AUTO_PUSHD option. ENV If the ENV environment variable is set when zsh is invoked as sh or ksh, $ENV is sourced after the profile scripts. The value of ENV is subjected to parameter expansion, command substitution, and arithmetic expansion before being interpreted as a pathname. Note that ENV is not used unless the shell is interactive and zsh is emulating sh or ksh. FCEDIT The default editor for the fc builtin. If FCEDIT is not set, the parameter EDITOR is used; if that is not set either, a builtin default, usually vi, is used. fignore (FIGNORE ) An array (colon separated list) containing the suffixes of files to be ignored during filename completion. However, if completion only generates files with suffixes in this list, then these files are completed anyway. fpath (FPATH ) An array (colon separated list) of directories specifying the search path for function definitions. This path is searched when a function file is found, then it is read and executed in the current environment. histchars Three characters used by the shell’s history and lexical analysis mechanism. The first character signals the start of a history expansion (default ‘!’). The second character signals the start of a quick history substitution (default ‘^’). The third character is the comment character (default ‘#’). The characters must be in the ASCII character set; any attempt to set histchars to characters with a locale-dependent meaning will be rejected with an error message. HISTCHARS Same as histchars. (Deprecated.) HISTFILE The file to save the history in when an interactive shell exits. If unset, the history is not saved. HISTORY_IGNORE If set, is treated as a pattern at the time history files are written. Any potential history entry that matches the pattern is skipped. For example, if the value is ‘fc *’ then commands that invoke the interactive history editor are never written to the history file. Note that HISTORY_IGNORE defines a single pattern: to specify alternatives use the ‘(first|second|...)’ syntax. Compare the HIST_NO_STORE option or the zshaddhistory hook, either of which would prevent such commands from being added to the interactive history at all. If you wish to use HISTORY_IGNORE to stop history being added in the first place, you can define the following hook: zshaddhistory() { emulate -L zsh ## uncomment if HISTORY_IGNORE ## should use EXTENDED_GLOB syntax # setopt extendedglob [[ $1 != ${~HISTORY_IGNORE} ]]\n} HISTSIZE The maximum number of events stored in the internal history list. If you use the HIST_EXPIRE_DUPS_FIRST option, setting this value larger than the SAVEHIST size will give you the difference as a cushion for saving duplicated history events. If this is made local, it is not implicitly set to 0, but may be explicitly set locally. HOME The default argument for the cd command. This is not set automatically by the shell in sh, ksh or csh emulation, but it is typically present in the environment anyway, and if it becomes set it has its usual special behaviour. IFS Internal field separators (by default space, tab, newline and NUL), that are used to separate words which result from command or parameter expansion and words read by the read builtin. Any characters from the set space, tab and newline that appear in the IFS are called IFS white space . One or more IFS white space characters or one non-IFS white space character together with any adjacent IFS white space character delimit a field. If an IFS white space character appears twice consecutively in the IFS, this character is treated as if it were not an IFS white space character. If the parameter is unset, the default is used. Note this has a different effect from setting the parameter to an empty string. KEYBOARD_HACK This variable defines a character to be removed from the end of the command line before interpreting it (interactive shells only). It is intended to fix the problem with keys placed annoyingly close to return and replaces the SUNKEYBOARDHACK option which did this for backquotes only. Should the chosen character be one of singlequote, doublequote or backquote, there must also be an odd number of them on the command line for the last one to be removed. For backward compatibility, if the SUNKEYBOARDHACK option is explicitly set, the value of KEYBOARD_HACK reverts to backquote. If the option is explicitly unset, this variable is set to empty. KEYTIMEOUT The time the shell waits, in hundredths of seconds, for another key to be pressed when reading bound multi-character sequences. LANG This variable determines the locale category for any category not specifically selected via a variable starting with ‘LC_’. LC_ALL This variable overrides the value of the ‘LANG’ variable and the value of any of the other variables starting with ‘LC_’. LC_COLLATE This variable determines the locale category for character collation information within ranges in glob brackets and for sorting. LC_CTYPE This variable determines the locale category for character handling functions. If the MULTIBYTE option is in effect this variable or LANG should contain a value that reflects the character set in use, even if it is a single-byte character set, unless only the 7-bit subset (ASCII) is used. For example, if the character set Linux distributions) or en_US.ISO8859-1 (MacOS). LC_MESSAGES This variable determines the language in which messages should be written. Note that zsh does not use message catalogs. LC_NUMERIC This variable affects the decimal point character and thousands separator character for the formatted input/output functions and string conversion functions. Note that zsh ignores this setting when parsing floating point mathematical expressions. LC_TIME This variable determines the locale category for date and time formatting in prompt escape sequences. LINES The number of lines for this terminal session. Used for printing select lists and for the line editor. LISTMAX In the line editor, the number of matches to list without asking first. If the value is negative, the list will be shown if it spans at most as many lines as given by the absolute value. If set to zero, the shell asks only if the top of the listing would scroll off the screen. MAIL If this parameter is set and mailpath is not set, the shell looks for mail in the specified file. MAILCHECK The interval in seconds between checks for new mail. mailpath (MAILPATH ) An array (colon-separated list) of filenames to check for new mail. Each filename can be followed by a ‘?’ and a message that will be printed. The message will undergo parameter expansion, command substitution and arithmetic expansion with the variable $_ defined as the name of the file that has changed. The default message is ‘You have new mail’. If an element is a directory instead of a file the shell will recursively check every file in every subdirectory of the element. manpath (MANPATH ) An array (colon-separated list) whose value is not used by the shell. The manpath array can be useful, however, since setting it also sets MANPATH, and vice versa. match mbegin mend Arrays set by the shell when the b globbing flag is used in pattern matches. See the subsection Globbing flags in Filename Generation . MATCH MBEGIN MEND Set by the shell when the m globbing flag is used in pattern matches. See the subsection Globbing flags in Filename Generation . module_path (MODULE_PATH ) An array (colon-separated list) of directories that zmodload searches for dynamically loadable modules. This is initialized to a standard pathname, usually ‘/usr/local/lib/zsh/$ZSH_VERSION’. (The ‘/usr/local/lib’ part varies from installation to installation.) For security reasons, any value set in the environment when the shell is started will be ignored. These parameters only exist if the installation supports dynamic module loading. NULLCMD The command name to assume if a redirection is specified with no command. Defaults to cat. For sh/ksh behavior, change this to :. For csh-like behavior, unset this parameter; the shell will print an error message if null commands are entered. path (PATH ) An array (colon-separated list) of directories to search for commands. When this parameter is set, each directory is scanned POSTEDIT This string is output whenever the line editor exits. It usually contains termcap strings to reset the terminal. PROMPT PROMPT2 PROMPT3 PROMPT4 Same as PS1, PS2, PS3 and PS4, respectively. prompt Same as PS1. PROMPT_EOL_MARK When the PROMPT_CR and PROMPT_SP options are set, the PROMPT_EOL_MARK parameter can be used to customize how the end of partial lines are shown. This parameter undergoes prompt expansion, with the PROMPT_PERCENT option set. If not set, the default behavior is equivalent to the value ‘%B%S%#%s%b’. PS1 The primary prompt string, printed before a command is read. It undergoes a special form of expansion before being displayed; see Prompt Expansion . The default is ‘%m%# ’. PS2 The secondary prompt, printed when the shell needs more information to complete a command. It is expanded in the same way as PS1. The default is ‘%_> ’, which displays any shell constructs or quotation marks which are currently being processed. PS3 Selection prompt used within a select loop. It is expanded in the same way as PS1. The default is ‘?# ’. PS4 The execution trace prompt. Default is ‘+%N:%i> ’, which displays the name of the current shell structure and the line number within it. In sh or ksh emulation, the default is ‘+ ’. psvar (PSVAR ) An array (colon-separated list) whose elements can be used in PROMPT strings. Setting psvar also sets PSVAR, and vice versa. READNULLCMD The command name to assume if a single input redirection is specified with no command. Defaults to more. REPORTMEMORY If nonnegative, commands whose maximum resident set size (roughly speaking, main memory usage) in kilobytes is greater than this value have timing statistics reported. The format used to output statistics is the value of the TIMEFMT parameter, which is the same as for the REPORTTIME variable and the time builtin; note that by default this does not output memory usage. Appending \" max RSS %M\" to the value of TIMEFMT causes it to output the value that triggered the report. If REPORTTIME is also in use, at most a single report is printed for both triggers. This feature requires the getrusage() system call, commonly supported by modern Unix-like systems. REPORTTIME If nonnegative, commands whose combined user and system execution times (measured in seconds) are greater than this value have timing statistics printed for them. Output is suppressed for commands executed within the line editor, including completion; commands explicitly marked with the time keyword still cause the summary to be printed in this case. REPLY This parameter is reserved by convention to pass string values between shell scripts and shell builtins in situations where a function call or redirection are impossible or undesirable. The read builtin and the select complex command may set REPLY, and filename generation both sets and examines its value when evaluating certain expressions. Some modules also employ REPLY for similar purposes. reply As REPLY, but for array values rather than strings. RPROMPT RPS1 This prompt is displayed on the right-hand side of the screen when the primary prompt is being displayed on the left. This does not work if the SINGLE_LINE_ZLE option is set. It is expanded in the same way as PS1. RPROMPT2 RPS2 This prompt is displayed on the right-hand side of the screen when the secondary prompt is being displayed on the left. This does not work if the SINGLE_LINE_ZLE option is set. It is expanded in the same way as PS2. SAVEHIST The maximum number of history events to save in the history file. If this is made local, it is not implicitly set to 0, but may be explicitly set locally. SPROMPT The prompt used for spelling correction. The sequence ‘%R’ expands to the string which presumably needs spelling correction, and ‘%r’ expands to the proposed correction. All other prompt escapes are also allowed. The actions available at the prompt are [nyae]: n (‘no’) (default) Discard the correction and run the command. y (‘yes’) Make the correction and run the command. a (‘abort’) Discard the entire command line without running it. e (‘edit’) Resume editing the command line. STTY If this parameter is set in a command’s environment, the shell runs the stty command with the value of this parameter as arguments in order to set up the terminal before executing the command. The modes apply only to the command, and are reset when it finishes or is suspended. If the command is suspended and continued later with the fg or wait builtins it will see the modes specified by STTY, as if it were not suspended. This (intentionally) does not apply if the command is continued via ‘kill -CONT’. STTY is ignored if the command is run in the background, or if it is in the environment of the shell but not explicitly assigned to in the input line. This avoids running stty at every external command by accidentally exporting it. Also note that STTY should not be used for window size specifications; these will not be local to the command. If the parameter is set and empty, all of the above applies except that stty is not run. This can be useful as a way to freeze the tty around a single command, blocking its changes to tty settings, similar to the ttyctl builtin. TERM The type of terminal in use. This is used when looking up termcap sequences. An assignment to TERM causes zsh to re-initialize the terminal, even if the value does not change (e.g., ‘TERM=$TERM’). It is necessary to make such an assignment upon any change to the terminal definition database or terminal type in order for the new settings to take effect. TERMINFO A reference to your terminfo database, used by the ‘terminfo’ library when the system has it; see terminfo(5). If set, this causes the shell to reinitialise the terminal, making the workaround ‘TERM=$TERM’ unnecessary. TERMINFO_DIRS A colon-seprarated list of terminfo databases, used by the ‘terminfo’ library when the system has it; see terminfo(5). This variable is only used by certain terminal libraries, in particular ncurses; see terminfo(5) to check support on your system. If set, this causes the shell to reinitialise the terminal, making the workaround ‘TERM=$TERM’ unnecessary. Note that unlike other colon-separated arrays this is not tied to a zsh array. TIMEFMT The format of process time reports with the time keyword. The default is ‘%J %U user %S system %P cpu %*E total’. Recognizes the following escape sequences, although not all may be available on all systems, and some that are available may not be useful: %% A ‘%’. %U CPU seconds spent in user mode. %S CPU seconds spent in kernel mode. %E Elapsed time in seconds. %P The CPU percentage, computed as 100*(%U+%S)/%E. %W Number of times the process was swapped. %X The average amount in (shared) text space used in kilobytes. %D The average amount in (unshared) data/stack space used in kilobytes. %K The total space used (%X+%D) in kilobytes. %M The maximum memory the process had in use at any time in kilobytes. %F The number of major page faults (page needed to be brought from disk). %R The number of minor page faults. %I The number of input operations. %O The number of output operations. %r The number of socket messages received. %s The number of socket messages sent. %k The number of signals received. %w Number of voluntary context switches (waits). %c Number of involuntary context switches. %J The name of this job. A star may be inserted between the percent sign and flags printing time (e.g., ‘%*E’); this causes the time to be printed in ‘hh:mm:ss.ttt’ format (hours and minutes are only printed if they are not zero). Alternatively, ‘m’ or ‘u’ may be used (e.g., ‘%mE’) to produce time output in milliseconds or microseconds, respectively. TMOUT If this parameter is nonzero, the shell will receive an ALRM signal if a command is not entered within the specified number of seconds after issuing a prompt. If there is a trap on SIGALRM, it will be executed and a new alarm is scheduled using the value of the TMOUT parameter after executing the trap. If no trap is set, and the idle time of the terminal is not less than the value of the TMOUT parameter, zsh terminates. Otherwise a new alarm is scheduled to TMOUT seconds after the last keypress. TMPPREFIX A pathname prefix which the shell will use for all temporary files. Note that this should include an initial part for the file name as well as any directory names. The default is ‘/tmp/zsh’. TMPSUFFIX A filename suffix which the shell will use for temporary files created by process substitutions (e.g., ‘=(list)’). Note that the value should include a leading dot ‘.’ if intended to be interpreted as a file extension. The default is not to append any suffix, thus this parameter should be assigned only when needed and then unset again. WORDCHARS A list of non-alphanumeric characters considered part of a word by the line editor. ZBEEP If set, this gives a string of characters, which can use all the same codes as the bindkey command as described in The zsh/zle Module , that will be output to the terminal instead of beeping. This may have a visible instead of an audible effect; for example, the string ‘\\e[?5h\\e[?5l’ on a vt100 or xterm will have the effect of flashing reverse video on and off (if you usually use reverse video, you should use the string ‘\\e[?5l\\e[?5h’ instead). This takes precedence over the NOBEEP option. ZDOTDIR The directory to search for shell startup files (.zshrc, etc), if not $HOME. zle_bracketed_paste Many terminal emulators have a feature that allows applications to identify when text is pasted into the terminal rather than being typed normally. For ZLE, this means that special characters such as tabs and newlines can be inserted instead of invoking editor commands. Furthermore, pasted text forms a single undo event and if the region is active, pasted text will replace the region. This two-element array contains the terminal escape sequences for enabling and disabling the feature. These escape sequences are used to enable bracketed paste when ZLE is active and disable it at other times. Unsetting the parameter has the effect of ensuring that bracketed paste remains disabled. zle_highlight An array describing contexts in which ZLE should highlight the input text. See Character Highlighting . ZLE_LINE_ABORTED This parameter is set by the line editor when an error occurs. It contains the line that was being edited at the point of the error. ‘print -zr – $ZLE_LINE_ABORTED’ can be used to recover the line. Only the most recent line of this kind is remembered. ZLE_REMOVE_SUFFIX_CHARS ZLE_SPACE_SUFFIX_CHARS These parameters are used by the line editor. In certain circumstances suffixes (typically space or slash) added by the completion system will be removed automatically, either because the next editing command as requiring the suffix to be removed. These variables can contain the sets of characters that will cause the suffix to be removed. If ZLE_REMOVE_SUFFIX_CHARS is set, those characters will cause the suffix to be removed; if ZLE_SPACE_SUFFIX_CHARS is set, those characters will cause the suffix to be removed and replaced by a space. If ZLE_REMOVE_SUFFIX_CHARS is not set, the default behaviour is equivalent to: ZLE_REMOVE_SUFFIX_CHARS=$' \\t\\n;&|' If ZLE_REMOVE_SUFFIX_CHARS is set but is empty, no characters have this behaviour. ZLE_SPACE_SUFFIX_CHARS takes precedence, so that the following: ZLE_SPACE_SUFFIX_CHARS=$'&|' causes the characters ‘&’ and ‘|’ to remove the suffix but to replace it with a space. To illustrate the difference, suppose that the option AUTO_REMOVE_SLASH is in effect and the directory DIR has just been completed, with an appended /, following which the user types ‘&’. The default result is ‘DIR&’. With ZLE_REMOVE_SUFFIX_CHARS set but without including ‘&’ the result is ‘DIR/&’. With ZLE_SPACE_SUFFIX_CHARS set to include ‘&’ the result is ‘DIR &’. Note that certain completions may provide their own suffix removal or replacement behaviour which overrides the values described here. See the completion system documentation in Completion System . ZLE_RPROMPT_INDENT If set, used to give the indentation between the right hand side of the right prompt in the line editor as given by RPS1 or RPROMPT and the right hand side of the screen. If not set, the value 1 is used. Typically this will be used to set the value to 0 so that the prompt appears flush with the right hand side of the screen. This is not the default as many terminals do not handle this correctly, in particular when the prompt appears at the extreme bottom right of the screen. Recent virtual terminals are more likely to handle this case correctly. Some experimentation is necessary. This document was generated on May 14, 2022 using texi2html 5.0 . Zsh version 5.9, released on May 14, 2022.","breadcrumbs":"Parameters » 15.6 Parameters Used By The Shell","id":"101","title":"15.6 Parameters Used By The Shell"},"102":{"body":"Table of Contents generated with DocToc 16 Options 16.1 Specifying Options 16.2 Description of Options 16.2.1 Changing Directories 16.2.2 Completion 16.2.3 Expansion and Globbing 16.2.4 History 16.2.5 Initialisation 16.2.6 Input/Output 16.2.7 Job Control 16.2.8 Prompting 16.2.9 Scripts and Functions 16.2.10 Shell Emulation 16.2.11 Shell State 16.2.12 Zle 16.3 Option Aliases 16.4 Single Letter Options 16.4.1 Default set 16.4.2 sh/ksh emulation set 16.4.3 Also note","breadcrumbs":"Options » 16 Options","id":"102","title":"16 Options"},"103":{"body":"Options are primarily referred to by name. These names are case insensitive and underscores are ignored. For example, ‘allexport’ is equivalent to ‘A__lleXP_ort’. The sense of an option name may be inverted by preceding it with ‘no’, so ‘setopt No_Beep’ is equivalent to ‘unsetopt beep’. This inversion can only be done once, so ‘nonobeep’ is not a synonym for ‘beep’. Similarly, ‘tify’ is not a synonym for ‘nonotify’ (the inversion of ‘notify’). Some options also have one or more single letter names. There are two sets of single letter options: one used by default, and another used to emulate sh/ksh (used when the SH_OPTION_LETTERS option is set). The single letter options can be used on the shell command line, or with the set, setopt and unsetopt builtins, as normal Unix options preceded by ‘-’. The sense of the single letter options may be inverted by using ‘+’ instead of ‘-’. Some of the single letter option names refer to an option being off, in which case the inversion of that name refers to the option being on. For example, ‘+n’ is the short name of ‘exec’, and ‘-n’ is the short name of its inversion, ‘noexec’. In strings of single letter options supplied to the shell at startup, trailing whitespace will be ignored; for example the string ‘-f ’ will be treated just as ‘-f’, but the string ‘-f i’ is an error. This is because many systems which implement the ‘#!’ mechanism for calling scripts do not strip trailing whitespace. It is possible for options to be set within a function scope. See the description of the option LOCAL_OPTIONS below.","breadcrumbs":"Options » 16.1 Specifying Options","id":"103","title":"16.1 Specifying Options"},"104":{"body":"In the following list, options set by default in all emulations are marked ; those set by default only in csh, ksh, sh, or zsh emulations are marked , , , as appropriate. When listing options (by ‘setopt’, ‘unsetopt’, ‘set -o’ or ‘set +o’), those turned on by default appear in the list prefixed with ‘no’. Hence (unless KSH_OPTION_PRINT is set), ‘setopt’ shows all options whose settings are changed from the default.","breadcrumbs":"Options » 16.2 Description of Options","id":"104","title":"16.2 Description of Options"},"105":{"body":"AUTO_CD (-J) If a command is issued that can’t be executed as a normal command, and the command is the name of a directory, perform the cd command to that directory. This option is only applicable if the option SHIN_STDIN is set, i.e. if commands are being read from standard input. The option is designed for interactive use; it is recommended that cd be used explicitly in scripts to avoid ambiguity. AUTO_PUSHD (-N) Make cd push the old directory onto the directory stack. CDABLE_VARS (-T) If the argument to a cd command (or an implied cd with the AUTO_CD option set) is not a directory, and does not begin with a slash, try to expand the expression as if it were preceded by a ‘~’ (see Filename Expansion ). CD_SILENT Never print the working directory after a cd (whether explicit or implied with the AUTO_CD option set). cd normally prints the working directory when the argument given to it was -, a stack entry, or the name of a directory found under CDPATH. Note that this is distinct from pushd’s stack-printing behaviour, which is controlled by PUSHD_SILENT. This option overrides the printing-related effects of POSIX_CD. CHASE_DOTS When changing to a directory containing a path segment ‘..’ which would otherwise be treated as canceling the previous segment in the path (in other words, ‘foo/..’ would be removed from the path, or if ‘..’ is the first part of the path, the last part of the current working directory would be removed), instead resolve the path to the physical directory. This option is overridden by CHASE_LINKS. For example, suppose /foo/bar is a link to the directory /alt/rod. Without this option set, ‘cd /foo/bar/..’ changes to /foo; with it set, it changes to /alt. The same applies if the current directory is /foo/bar and ‘cd ..’ is used. Note that all other symbolic links in the path will also be resolved. CHASE_LINKS (-w) Resolve symbolic links to their true values when changing directory. This also has the effect of CHASE_DOTS, i.e. a ‘..’ path segment will be treated as referring to the physical parent, even if the preceding path segment is a symbolic link. POSIX_CD Modifies the behaviour of cd, chdir and pushd commands to make them more compatible with the POSIX standard. The behaviour with the option unset is described in the documentation for the cd builtin in Shell Builtin Commands . If the option is set, the shell does not test for directories beneath the local directory (‘.’) until after all directories in cdpath have been tested, and the cd and chdir commands do not recognise arguments of the form ‘{+|-}n’ as directory stack entries. Also, if the option is set, the conditions under which the shell prints the new directory after changing to it are modified. It is no longer restricted to interactive shells (although printing of the directory stack with pushd is still limited to interactive shells); and any use of a component of CDPATH, including a ‘.’ but excluding an empty component that is otherwise treated as ‘.’, causes the directory to be printed. PUSHD_IGNORE_DUPS Don’t push multiple copies of the same directory onto the directory stack. PUSHD_MINUS Exchanges the meanings of ‘+’ and ‘-’ when used with a number to specify a directory in the stack. PUSHD_SILENT (-E) Do not print the directory stack after pushd or popd. PUSHD_TO_HOME (-D) Have pushd with no arguments act like ‘pushd $HOME’.","breadcrumbs":"Options » 16.2.1 Changing Directories","id":"105","title":"16.2.1 Changing Directories"},"106":{"body":"ALWAYS_LAST_PROMPT If unset, key functions that list completions try to return to the last prompt if given a numeric argument. If set these functions try to return to the last prompt if given no numeric argument. ALWAYS_TO_END If a completion is performed with the cursor within a word, and a full completion is inserted, the cursor is moved to the end of the word. That is, the cursor is moved to the end of the word if either a single match is inserted or menu completion is performed. AUTO_LIST (-9) Automatically list choices on an ambiguous completion. AUTO_MENU Automatically use menu completion after the second consecutive request for completion, for example by pressing the tab key repeatedly. This option is overridden by MENU_COMPLETE. AUTO_NAME_DIRS Any parameter that is set to the absolute name of a directory immediately becomes a name for that directory, that will be used by the ‘%~’ and related prompt sequences, and will be available when completion is performed on a word starting with ‘~’. (Otherwise, the parameter must be used in the form ‘~param’ first.) AUTO_PARAM_KEYS If a parameter name was completed and a following character (normally a space) automatically inserted, and the next character typed is one of those that have to come directly after the name (like ‘}’, ‘:’, etc.), the automatically added character is deleted, so that the character typed comes immediately after the parameter name. Completion in a brace expansion is affected similarly: the added character is a ‘,’, which will be removed if ‘}’ is typed next. AUTO_PARAM_SLASH If a parameter is completed whose content is the name of a directory, then add a trailing slash instead of a space. AUTO_REMOVE_SLASH When the last character resulting from a completion is a slash and the next character typed is a word delimiter, a slash, or a character that ends a command (such as a semicolon or an ampersand), remove the slash. BASH_AUTO_LIST On an ambiguous completion, automatically list choices when the completion function is called twice in succession. This takes precedence over AUTO_LIST. The setting of LIST_AMBIGUOUS is respected. If AUTO_MENU is set, the menu behaviour will then start with the third press. Note that this will not work with MENU_COMPLETE, since repeated completion calls immediately cycle through the list in that case. COMPLETE_ALIASES Prevents aliases on the command line from being internally substituted before completion is attempted. The effect is to make the alias a distinct command for completion purposes. COMPLETE_IN_WORD If unset, the cursor is set to the end of the word if completion is started. Otherwise it stays there and completion is done from both ends. GLOB_COMPLETE When the current word has a glob pattern, do not insert all the words resulting from the expansion but generate matches as for completion and cycle through them like MENU_COMPLETE. The matches are generated as if a ‘*’ was added to the end of the word, or inserted at the cursor when COMPLETE_IN_WORD is set. This actually uses pattern matching, not globbing, so it works not only for files but for any completion, such as options, user names, etc. Note that when the pattern matcher is used, matching control (for example, case-insensitive or anchored matching) cannot be used. This limitation only applies when the current word contains a pattern; simply turning on the GLOB_COMPLETE option does not have this effect. HASH_LIST_ALL Whenever a command completion or spelling correction is attempted, make sure the entire command path is hashed first. This makes the first completion slower but avoids false reports of spelling errors. LIST_AMBIGUOUS This option works when AUTO_LIST or BASH_AUTO_LIST is also set. If there is an unambiguous prefix to insert on the command line, that is done without a completion list being displayed; in other words, auto-listing behaviour only takes place when nothing would be inserted. In the case of BASH_AUTO_LIST, this means that the list will be delayed to the third call of the function. LIST_BEEP Beep on an ambiguous completion. More accurately, this forces the completion widgets to return status 1 on an ambiguous completion, which causes the shell to beep if the option BEEP is also set; this may be modified if completion is called from a user-defined widget. LIST_PACKED Try to make the completion list smaller (occupying less lines) by printing the matches in columns with different widths. LIST_ROWS_FIRST Lay out the matches in completion lists sorted horizontally, that is, the second match is to the right of the first one, not under it as usual. LIST_TYPES (-X) When listing files that are possible completions, show the type of each file with a trailing identifying mark. MENU_COMPLETE (-Y) On an ambiguous completion, instead of listing possibilities or beeping, insert the first match immediately. Then when completion is requested again, remove the first match and insert the second match, etc. When there are no more matches, go back to the first one again. reverse-menu-complete may be used to loop through the list in the other direction. This option overrides AUTO_MENU. REC_EXACT (-S) If the string on the command line exactly matches one of the possible completions, it is accepted, even if there is another completion (i.e. that string with something else added) that also matches.","breadcrumbs":"Options » 16.2.2 Completion","id":"106","title":"16.2.2 Completion"},"107":{"body":"BAD_PATTERN (+2) If a pattern for filename generation is badly formed, print an error message. (If this option is unset, the pattern will be left unchanged.) BARE_GLOB_QUAL In a glob pattern, treat a trailing set of parentheses as a qualifier list, if it contains no ‘|’, ‘(’ or (if special) ‘~’ characters. See Filename Generation . BRACE_CCL Expand expressions in braces which would not otherwise undergo brace expansion to a lexically ordered list of all the characters. See Brace Expansion . CASE_GLOB Make globbing (filename generation) sensitive to case. Note that other uses of patterns are always sensitive to case. If the option is unset, the presence of any character which is special to filename generation will cause case-insensitive matching. For example, cvs(/) can match the directory CVS owing to the presence of the globbing flag (unless the option BARE_GLOB_QUAL is unset). CASE_MATCH Make regular expressions using the zsh/regex module (including matches with =~) sensitive to case. CASE_PATHS If CASE_PATHS is not set (the default), CASE_GLOB affects the interpretation of every path component, whenever a special character appears in any component. When CASE_PATHS is set, file path components that do not contain special filename generation characters are always sensitive to case, thus restricting NO_CASE_GLOB to components that contain globbing characters. Note that if the filesystem itself is not sensitive to case, then CASE_PATHS has no effect. CSH_NULL_GLOB If a pattern for filename generation has no matches, delete the pattern from the argument list; do not report an error unless all the patterns in a command have no matches. Overrides NOMATCH. EQUALS Perform = filename expansion. (See Filename Expansion .) EXTENDED_GLOB Treat the ‘#’, ‘~’ and ‘^’ characters as part of patterns for filename generation, etc. (An initial unquoted ‘~’ always produces named directory expansion.) FORCE_FLOAT Constants in arithmetic evaluation will be treated as floating point even without the use of a decimal point; the values of integer variables will be converted to floating point when used in arithmetic expressions. Integers in any base will be converted. GLOB (+F, ksh: +f) Perform filename generation (globbing). (See Filename Generation .) GLOB_ASSIGN If this option is set, filename generation (globbing) is performed on the right hand side of scalar parameter assignments of the form ‘name=pattern (e.g. ‘foo=*’). If the result has more than one word the parameter will become an array with those words as arguments. This option is provided for backwards compatibility only: globbing is always performed on the right hand side of array assignments of the form ‘name=(value)’ (e.g. ‘foo=(*)’) and this form is recommended for clarity; with this option set, it is not possible to predict whether the result will be an array or a scalar. GLOB_DOTS (-4) Do not require a leading ‘.’ in a filename to be matched explicitly. GLOB_STAR_SHORT When this option is set and the default zsh-style globbing is in effect, the pattern ‘**/*’ can be abbreviated to ‘**’ and the pattern ‘***/*’ can be abbreviated to ***. Hence ‘**.c’ finds a file ending in .c in any subdirectory, and ‘***.c’ does the same while also following symbolic links. A / immediately after the ‘**’ or ‘***’ forces the pattern to be treated as the unabbreviated form. GLOB_SUBST Treat any characters resulting from parameter expansion as being eligible for filename expansion and filename generation, and any characters resulting from command substitution as being eligible for filename generation. Braces (and commas in between) do not become eligible for expansion. HIST_SUBST_PATTERN Substitutions using the :s and :& history modifiers are performed with pattern matching instead of string matching. This occurs wherever history modifiers are valid, including glob qualifiers and parameters. See Modifiers . IGNORE_BRACES (-I) Do not perform brace expansion. For historical reasons this also includes the effect of the IGNORE_CLOSE_BRACES option. IGNORE_CLOSE_BRACES When neither this option nor IGNORE_BRACES is set, a sole close brace character ‘}’ is syntactically significant at any point on a command line. This has the effect that no semicolon or newline is necessary before the brace terminating a function or current shell construct. When either option is set, a closing brace is syntactically significant only in command position. Unlike IGNORE_BRACES, this option does not disable brace expansion. For example, with both options unset a function may be defined in the following fashion: args() { echo $# } while if either option is set, this does not work and something equivalent to the following is required: args() { echo $#; } KSH_GLOB In pattern matching, the interpretation of parentheses is affected by a preceding ‘@’, ‘*’, ‘+’, ‘?’ or ‘!’. See Filename Generation . MAGIC_EQUAL_SUBST All unquoted arguments of the form ‘anything=expression’ appearing after the command name have filename expansion (that is, where expression has a leading ‘~’ or ‘=’) performed on expression as if it were a parameter assignment. The argument is not otherwise treated specially; it is passed to the command as a single argument, and not used as an actual parameter assignment. For example, in echo foo=~/bar:~/rod, both occurrences of ~ would be replaced. Note that this happens anyway with typeset and similar statements. This option respects the setting of the KSH_TYPESET option. In other words, if both options are in effect, arguments looking like assignments will not undergo word splitting. MARK_DIRS (-8, ksh: -X) Append a trailing ‘/’ to all directory names resulting from filename generation (globbing). MULTIBYTE Respect multibyte characters when found in strings. When this option is set, strings are examined using the system library to determine how many bytes form a character, depending on the current locale. This affects the way characters are counted in pattern matching, parameter values and various delimiters. The option is on by default if the shell was compiled with MULTIBYTE_SUPPORT; otherwise it is off by default and has no effect if turned on. If the option is off a single byte is always treated as a single character. This setting is designed purely for examining strings known to contain raw bytes or other values that may not be characters in the current locale. It is not necessary to unset the option merely because the character set for the current locale does not contain multibyte characters. The option does not affect the shell’s editor, which always uses the locale to determine multibyte characters. This is because the character set displayed by the terminal emulator is independent of shell settings. NOMATCH (+3) If a pattern for filename generation has no matches, print an error, instead of leaving it unchanged in the argument list. This also applies to file expansion of an initial ‘~’ or ‘=’. NULL_GLOB (-G) If a pattern for filename generation has no matches, delete the pattern from the argument list instead of reporting an error. Overrides NOMATCH. NUMERIC_GLOB_SORT If numeric filenames are matched by a filename generation pattern, sort the filenames numerically rather than lexicographically. RC_EXPAND_PARAM (-P) Array expansions of the form ‘foo${xx}bar’, where the parameter xx is set to (a b c), are substituted with ‘fooabar foobbar foocbar’ instead of the default ‘fooa b cbar’. Note that an empty array will therefore cause all arguments to be removed. REMATCH_PCRE If set, regular expression matching with the =~ operator will use Perl-Compatible Regular Expressions from the PCRE library. (The zsh/pcre module must be available.) If not set, regular expressions will use the extended regexp syntax provided by the system libraries. SH_GLOB Disables the special meaning of ‘(’, ‘|’, ‘)’ and ’<’ for globbing the result of parameter and command substitutions, and in some other places where the shell accepts patterns. If SH_GLOB is set but KSH_GLOB is not, the shell allows the interpretation of subshell expressions enclosed in parentheses in some cases where there is no space before the opening parenthesis, e.g. !(true) is interpreted as if there were a space after the !. This option is set by default if zsh is invoked as sh or ksh. UNSET (+u, ksh: +u) Treat unset parameters as if they were empty when substituting, and as if they were zero when reading their values in arithmetic expansion and arithmetic commands. Otherwise they are treated as an error. WARN_CREATE_GLOBAL Print a warning message when a global parameter is created in a function by an assignment or in math context. This often indicates that a parameter has not been declared local when it should have been. Parameters explicitly declared global from within a function using typeset -g do not cause a warning. Note that there is no warning when a local parameter is assigned to in a nested function, which may also indicate an error. WARN_NESTED_VAR Print a warning message when an existing parameter from an enclosing function scope, or global, is set in a function by an assignment or in math context. Assignment to shell special parameters does not cause a warning. This is the companion to WARN_CREATE_GLOBAL as in this case the warning is only printed when a parameter is not created. Where possible, use of typeset -g to set the parameter suppresses the error, but note that this needs to be used every time the parameter is set. To restrict the effect of this option to a single function scope, use ‘functions -W’. For example, the following code produces a warning for the assignment inside the function nested as that overrides the value within toplevel toplevel() { local foo=\"in fn\" nested\n}\nnested() { foo=\"in nested\"\n}\nsetopt warn_nested_var\ntoplevel","breadcrumbs":"Options » 16.2.3 Expansion and Globbing","id":"107","title":"16.2.3 Expansion and Globbing"},"108":{"body":"APPEND_HISTORY If this is set, zsh sessions will append their history list to the history file, rather than replace it. Thus, multiple parallel zsh sessions will all have the new entries from their history lists added to the history file, in the order that they exit. The file will still be periodically re-written to trim it when the number of lines grows 20% beyond the value specified by $SAVEHIST (see also the HIST_SAVE_BY_COPY option). BANG_HIST (+K) Perform textual history expansion, csh-style, treating the character ‘!’ specially. EXTENDED_HISTORY Save each command’s beginning timestamp (in seconds since the epoch) and the duration (in seconds) to the history file. The format of this prefixed data is: ‘: :;’. HIST_ALLOW_CLOBBER Add ‘|’ to output redirections in the history. This allows history references to clobber files even when CLOBBER is unset. HIST_BEEP Beep in ZLE when a widget attempts to access a history entry which isn’t there. HIST_EXPIRE_DUPS_FIRST If the internal history needs to be trimmed to add the current command line, setting this option will cause the oldest history event that has a duplicate to be lost before losing a unique event from the list. You should be sure to set the value of HISTSIZE to a larger number than SAVEHIST in order to give you some room for the duplicated events, otherwise this option will behave just like HIST_IGNORE_ALL_DUPS once the history fills up with unique events. HIST_FCNTL_LOCK When writing out the history file, by default zsh uses ad-hoc file locking to avoid known problems with locking on some operating systems. With this option locking is done by means of the system’s fcntl call, where this method is available. On recent operating systems this may provide better performance, in particular avoiding history corruption when files are stored on NFS. HIST_FIND_NO_DUPS When searching for history entries in the line editor, do not display duplicates of a line previously found, even if the duplicates are not contiguous. HIST_IGNORE_ALL_DUPS If a new command line being added to the history list duplicates an older one, the older command is removed from the list (even if it is not the previous event). HIST_IGNORE_DUPS (-h) Do not enter command lines into the history list if they are duplicates of the previous event. HIST_IGNORE_SPACE (-g) Remove command lines from the history list when the first character on the line is a space, or when one of the expanded aliases contains a leading space. Only normal aliases (not global or suffix aliases) have this behaviour. Note that the command lingers in the internal history until the next command is entered before it vanishes, allowing you to briefly reuse or edit the line. If you want to make it vanish right away without entering another command, type a space and press return. HIST_LEX_WORDS By default, shell history that is read in from files is split into words on all white space. This means that arguments with quoted whitespace are not correctly handled, with the consequence that references to words in history lines that have been read from a file may be inaccurate. When this option is set, words read in from a history file are divided up in a similar fashion to normal shell command line handling. Although this produces more accurately delimited words, if the size of the history file is large this can be slow. Trial and error is necessary to decide. HIST_NO_FUNCTIONS Remove function definitions from the history list. Note that the function lingers in the internal history until the next command is entered before it vanishes, allowing you to briefly reuse or edit the definition. HIST_NO_STORE Remove the history (fc -l) command from the history list when invoked. Note that the command lingers in the internal history until the next command is entered before it vanishes, allowing you to briefly reuse or edit the line. HIST_REDUCE_BLANKS Remove superfluous blanks from each command line being added to the history list. HIST_SAVE_BY_COPY When the history file is re-written, we normally write out a copy of the file named $HISTFILE.new and then rename it over the old one. However, if this option is unset, we instead truncate the old history file and write out the new version in-place. If one of the history-appending options is enabled, this option only has an effect when the enlarged history file needs to be re-written to trim it down to size. Disable this only if you have special needs, as doing so makes it possible to lose history entries if zsh gets interrupted during the save. When writing out a copy of the history file, zsh preserves the old file’s permissions and group information, but will refuse to write out a new file if it would change the history file’s owner. HIST_SAVE_NO_DUPS When writing out the history file, older commands that duplicate newer ones are omitted. HIST_VERIFY Whenever the user enters a line with history expansion, don’t execute the line directly; instead, perform history expansion and reload the line into the editing buffer. INC_APPEND_HISTORY This option works like APPEND_HISTORY except that new history lines are added to the $HISTFILE incrementally (as soon as they are entered), rather than waiting until the shell exits. The file will still be periodically re-written to trim it when the number of lines grows 20% beyond the value specified by $SAVEHIST (see also the HIST_SAVE_BY_COPY option). INC_APPEND_HISTORY_TIME This option is a variant of INC_APPEND_HISTORY in which, where possible, the history entry is written out to the file after the command is finished, so that the time taken by the command is recorded correctly in the history file in EXTENDED_HISTORY format. This means that the history entry will not be available immediately from other instances of the shell that are using the same history file. This option is only useful if INC_APPEND_HISTORY and SHARE_HISTORY are turned off. The three options should be considered mutually exclusive. SHARE_HISTORY This option both imports new commands from the history file, and also causes your typed commands to be appended to the history file (the latter is like specifying INC_APPEND_HISTORY, which should be turned off if this option is in effect). The history lines are also output with timestamps ala EXTENDED_HISTORY (which makes it easier to find the spot where we left off reading the file after it gets re-written). By default, history movement commands visit the imported lines as well as the local lines, but you can toggle this on and off with the set-local-history zle binding. It is also possible to create a zle widget that will make some commands ignore imported commands, and some include them. If you find that you want more control over when commands get imported, you may wish to turn SHARE_HISTORY off, INC_APPEND_HISTORY or INC_APPEND_HISTORY_TIME (see above) on, and then manually import commands whenever you need them using ‘fc -RI’.","breadcrumbs":"Options » 16.2.4 History","id":"108","title":"16.2.4 History"},"109":{"body":"ALL_EXPORT (-a, ksh: -a) All parameters subsequently defined are automatically exported. GLOBAL_EXPORT If this option is set, passing the -x flag to the builtins declare, float, integer, readonly and typeset (but not local) will also set the -g flag; hence parameters exported to the environment will not be made local to the enclosing function, unless they were already or the flag +g is given explicitly. If the option is unset, exported parameters will be made local in just the same way as any other parameter. This option is set by default for backward compatibility; it is not recommended that its behaviour be relied upon. Note that the builtin export always sets both the -x and -g flags, and hence its effect extends beyond the scope of the enclosing function; this is the GLOBAL_RCS (+d) If this option is unset, the startup files /etc/zprofile, /etc/zshrc, /etc/zlogin and /etc/zlogout will not be run. It can be disabled and re-enabled at any time, including inside local startup files (.zshrc, etc.). RCS (+f) After /etc/zshenv is sourced on startup, source the .zshenv, /etc/zprofile, .zprofile, /etc/zshrc, .zshrc, /etc/zlogin, .zlogin, and .zlogout files, as described in Files . If this option is unset, the /etc/zshenv file is still sourced, but any of the others will not be; it can be set at any time to prevent the remaining startup files after the currently executing one from being sourced.","breadcrumbs":"Options » 16.2.5 Initialisation","id":"109","title":"16.2.5 Initialisation"},"11":{"body":"When it starts, the shell reads commands from various files. These can be created or edited to customize the shell. See Files . If no personal initialization files exist for the current user, a function is run to help you change some of the most common settings. It won’t appear if your administrator has disabled the zsh/newuser module. The function is designed to be self-explanatory. You can run it by hand with ‘autoload -Uz zsh-newuser-install; zsh-newuser-install -f’. See also User Configuration Functions .","breadcrumbs":"Roadmap » 3.1 When the shell starts","id":"11","title":"3.1 When the shell starts"},"110":{"body":"ALIASES Expand aliases. CLOBBER (+C, ksh: +C) Allows ‘>’ redirection to truncate existing files. Otherwise ‘>!’ or ‘>|’ must be used to truncate a file. If the option is not set, and the option APPEND_CREATE is also not set, ‘>>!’ or ‘>>|’ must be used to create a file. If either option is set, ‘>>’ may be used. CLOBBER_EMPTY This option is only used if the option CLOBBER is not set: note that it is set by default. If this option is set, then regular files of zero length may be ovewritten (‘clobbered’). Note that it is possible another process has written to the file between this test and use of the file by the current process. This option should therefore not be used in cases where files to be clobbered may be written to asynchronously. CORRECT (-0) Try to correct the spelling of commands. Note that, when the HASH_LIST_ALL option is not set or when some directories in the path are not readable, this may falsely report spelling errors the first time some commands are used. The shell variable CORRECT_IGNORE may be set to a pattern to match words that will never be offered as corrections. CORRECT_ALL (-O) Try to correct the spelling of all arguments in a line. The shell variable CORRECT_IGNORE_FILE may be set to a pattern to match file names that will never be offered as corrections. DVORAK Use the Dvorak keyboard instead of the standard qwerty keyboard as a basis for examining spelling mistakes for the CORRECT and CORRECT_ALL options and the spell-word editor command. FLOW_CONTROL If this option is unset, output flow control via start/stop characters (usually assigned to ^S/^Q) is disabled in the shell’s editor. IGNORE_EOF (-7) Do not exit on end-of-file. Require the use of exit or logout instead. However, ten consecutive EOFs will cause the shell to exit anyway, to avoid the shell hanging if its tty goes away. Also, if this option is set and the Zsh Line Editor is used, widgets implemented by shell functions can be bound to EOF (normally Control-D) without printing the normal warning message. This works only for normal widgets, not for completion widgets. INTERACTIVE_COMMENTS (-k) Allow comments even in interactive shells. HASH_CMDS Note the location of each command the first time it is executed. Subsequent invocations of the same command will use the saved location, avoiding a path search. If this option is unset, no path hashing is done at all. However, when CORRECT is set, commands whose names do not appear in reporting them as spelling errors. HASH_DIRS Whenever a command name is hashed, hash the directory containing it, as well as all directories that occur earlier in the path. Has no effect if neither HASH_CMDS nor CORRECT is set. HASH_EXECUTABLES_ONLY When hashing commands because of HASH_CMDS, check that the is unset by default as if the path contains a large number of commands, or consists of many remote files, the additional tests can take a long time. Trial and error is needed to show if this option is beneficial. MAIL_WARNING (-U) Print a warning message if a mail file has been accessed since the shell last checked. PATH_DIRS (-Q) Perform a path search even on command names with slashes in them. Thus if ‘/usr/local/bin’ is in the user’s path, and he or she types ‘X11/xinit’, the command ‘/usr/local/bin/X11/xinit’ will be executed (assuming it exists). Commands explicitly beginning with ‘/’, ‘./’ or ‘../’ are not subject to the path search. This also applies to the ‘.’ and source builtins. Note that subdirectories of the current directory are always searched for indicated by this option, and regardless of whether ‘.’ or the current directory appear in the command search path. PATH_SCRIPT If this option is not set, a script passed as the first non-option argument to the shell must contain the name of the file to open. If this option is set, and the script does not specify a directory path, the script is looked for first in the current directory, then in the command path. See Invocation . PRINT_EIGHT_BIT Print eight bit characters literally in completion lists, etc. This option is not necessary if your system correctly returns the printability of eight bit characters (see ctype(3)). PRINT_EXIT_VALUE (-1) Print the exit value of programs with non-zero exit status. This is only available at the command line in interactive shells. RC_QUOTES Allow the character sequence ‘’’’ to signify a single quote within singly quoted strings. Note this does not apply in quoted strings using the format $’...’, where a backslashed single quote can be used. RM_STAR_SILENT (-H) Do not query the user before executing ‘rm *’ or ‘rm path/*’. RM_STAR_WAIT If querying the user before executing ‘rm *’ or ‘rm path/*’, first wait ten seconds and ignore anything typed in that time. This avoids the problem of reflexively answering ‘yes’ to the query when one didn’t really mean it. The wait and query can always be avoided by expanding the ‘*’ in ZLE (with tab). SHORT_LOOPS Allow the short forms of for, repeat, select, if, and function constructs. SHORT_REPEAT Allow the short form repeat as SHORT_LOOPS but without enabling it for the other constructs. SUN_KEYBOARD_HACK (-L) If a line ends with a backquote, and there are an odd number of backquotes on the line, ignore the trailing backquote. This is useful on some keyboards where the return key is too small, and the backquote key lies annoyingly close to it. As an alternative the variable KEYBOARD_HACK lets you choose the character to be removed.","breadcrumbs":"Options » 16.2.6 Input/Output","id":"110","title":"16.2.6 Input/Output"},"111":{"body":"AUTO_CONTINUE with the disown builtin command are automatically sent a CONT signal to make them running. AUTO_RESUME (-W) Treat single word simple commands without redirection as candidates for resumption of an existing job. BG_NICE (-6) Run all background jobs at a lower priority. This option is set by default. CHECK_JOBS Report the status of background and suspended jobs before exiting a shell with job control; a second attempt to exit the shell will succeed. NO_CHECK_JOBS is best used only in combination with NO_HUP, else such jobs will be killed automatically. The check is omitted if the commands run from the previous command line included a ‘jobs’ command, since it is assumed the user is aware that there are background or suspended jobs. A ‘jobs’ command run from one of the hook functions defined in the section ‘Special Functions’ in Functions is not counted for this purpose. CHECK_RUNNING_JOBS Check for both running and suspended jobs when CHECK_JOBS is enabled. When this option is disabled, zsh checks only for suspended jobs, which matches the default behavior of bash. This option has no effect unless CHECK_JOBS is set. HUP Send the HUP signal to running jobs when the shell exits. LONG_LIST_JOBS (-R) Print job notifications in the long format by default. MONITOR (-m, ksh: -m) Allow job control. Set by default in interactive shells. NOTIFY (-5, ksh: -b) Report the status of background jobs immediately, rather than waiting until just before printing a prompt. POSIX_JOBS This option makes job control more compliant with the POSIX standard. When the option is not set, the MONITOR option is unset on entry to subshells, so that job control is no longer active. When the option is set, the MONITOR option and job control remain active in the subshell, but note that the subshell has no access to jobs in the parent shell. When the option is not set, jobs put in the background or foreground with bg or fg are displayed with the same information that would be reported by jobs. When the option is set, only the text is printed. The output from jobs itself is not affected by the option. When the option is not set, job information from the parent shell is saved for output within a subshell (for example, within a pipeline). When the option is set, the output of jobs is empty until a job is started within the subshell. In previous versions of the shell, it was necessary to enable POSIX_JOBS in order for the builtin command wait to return the status of background jobs that had already exited. This is no longer the case.","breadcrumbs":"Options » 16.2.7 Job Control","id":"111","title":"16.2.7 Job Control"},"112":{"body":"PROMPT_BANG If set, ‘!’ is treated specially in prompt expansion. See Prompt Expansion . PROMPT_CR (+V) Print a carriage return just before printing a prompt in the line editor. This is on by default as multi-line editing is only possible if the editor knows where the start of the line appears. PROMPT_SP Attempt to preserve a partial line (i.e. a line that did not end with a newline) that would otherwise be covered up by the command prompt due to the PROMPT_CR option. This works by outputting some cursor-control characters, including a series of spaces, that should make the terminal wrap to the next line when a partial line is present (note that this is only successful if your terminal has automatic margins, which is typical). When a partial line is preserved, by default you will see an inverse+bold character at the end of the partial line: a ‘%’ for a normal user or a ‘#’ for root. If set, the shell parameter PROMPT_EOL_MARK can be used to customize how the end of partial lines are shown. NOTE: if the PROMPT_CR option is not set, enabling this option will have no effect. This option is on by default. PROMPT_PERCENT If set, ‘%’ is treated specially in prompt expansion. See Prompt Expansion . PROMPT_SUBST If set, parameter expansion , command substitution and arithmetic expansion are performed in prompts. Substitutions within prompts do not affect the command status. TRANSIENT_RPROMPT Remove any right prompt from display when accepting a command line. This may be useful with terminals with other cut/paste methods.","breadcrumbs":"Options » 16.2.8 Prompting","id":"112","title":"16.2.8 Prompting"},"113":{"body":"ALIAS_FUNC_DEF By default, zsh does not allow the definition of functions using the ‘name ()’ syntax if name was expanded as an alias: this causes an error. This is usually the desired behaviour, as otherwise the combination of an alias and a function based on the same definition can easily cause problems. When this option is set, aliases can be used for defining functions. For example, consider the following definitions as they might occur in a startup file. alias foo=bar\nfoo() { print This probably does not do what you expect.\n} Here, foo is expanded as an alias to bar before the () is encountered, so the function defined would be named bar. By default this is instead an error in native mode. Note that quoting any part of the function name, or using the keyword function, avoids the problem, so is recommended when the function name can also be an alias. C_BASES Output hexadecimal numbers in the standard C format, for example ‘0xFF’ instead of the usual ‘16#FF’. If the option OCTAL_ZEROES is also set (it is not by default), octal numbers will be treated similarly and hence appear as ‘077’ instead of ‘8#77’. This option has no effect on the choice of the output base, nor on the output of bases other than hexadecimal and octal. Note that these formats will be understood on input irrespective of the setting of C_BASES. C_PRECEDENCES This alters the precedence of arithmetic operators to be more like C and other programming languages; Arithmetic Evaluation has an explicit list. DEBUG_BEFORE_CMD Run the DEBUG trap before each command; otherwise it is run after each command. Setting this option mimics the behaviour of ksh 93; with the option unset the behaviour is that of ksh 88. ERR_EXIT (-e, ksh: -e) If a command has a non-zero exit status, execute the ZERR trap, if set, and exit. This is disabled while running initialization scripts. The behaviour is also disabled inside DEBUG traps. In this case the option is handled specially: it is unset on entry to the trap. If the option DEBUG_BEFORE_CMD is set, as it is by default, and the option ERR_EXIT is found to have been set on exit, then the command for which the DEBUG trap is being executed is skipped. The option is restored after the trap exits. Non-zero status in a command list containing && or || is ignored for commands not at the end of the list. Hence false && true does not trigger exit. Exiting due to ERR_EXIT has certain interactions with asynchronous jobs noted in Jobs & Signals . ERR_RETURN If a command has a non-zero exit status, return immediately from the enclosing function. The logic is similar to that for ERR_EXIT, except that an implicit return statement is executed instead of an exit. This will trigger an exit at the outermost level of a non-interactive script. Normally this option inherits the behaviour of ERR_EXIT that code followed by ‘&&’ ‘||’ does not trigger a return. Hence in the following: summit || true no return is forced as the combined effect always has a zero return status. Note. however, that if summit in the above example is itself a function, code inside it is considered separately: it may force a return from summit (assuming the option remains set within summit), but not from the enclosing context. This behaviour is different from ERR_EXIT which is unaffected by function scope. EVAL_LINENO If set, line numbers of expressions evaluated using the builtin eval are tracked separately of the enclosing environment. This applies both to the parameter LINENO and the line number output by the prompt escape %i. If the option is set, the prompt escape %N will output the string ‘(eval)’ instead of the script or function name as an indication. (The two prompt escapes are typically used in the parameter PS4 to be output when the option XTRACE is set.) If EVAL_LINENO is unset, the line number of the surrounding script or function is retained during the evaluation. EXEC (+n, ksh: +n) Do execute commands. Without this option, commands are read and checked for syntax errors, but not executed. This option cannot be turned off in an interactive shell, except when ‘-n’ is supplied to the shell at startup. FUNCTION_ARGZERO When executing a shell function or sourcing a script, set $0 temporarily to the name of the function/script. Note that toggling FUNCTION_ARGZERO from on to off (or off to on) does not change the current value of $0. Only the state upon entry to the function or script has an effect. Compare POSIX_ARGZERO. LOCAL_LOOPS When this option is not set, the effect of break and continue commands may propagate outside function scope, affecting loops in calling functions. When the option is set in a calling function, a break or a continue that is not caught within a called function (regardless of the setting of the option within that function) produces a warning and the effect is cancelled. LOCAL_OPTIONS If this option is set at the point of return from a shell function, most options (including this one) which were in force upon entry to the function are restored; options that are not restored are PRIVILEGED and RESTRICTED. Otherwise, only this option, and the LOCAL_LOOPS, XTRACE and PRINT_EXIT_VALUE options are restored. Hence if this is explicitly unset by a shell function the other options in force at the point of return will remain so. A shell function can also guarantee itself a known shell configuration with a formulation like ‘emulate -L zsh’; the -L activates LOCAL_OPTIONS. LOCAL_PATTERNS If this option is set at the point of return from a shell function, the state of pattern disables, as set with the builtin command ‘disable -p’, is restored to what it was when the function was entered. The behaviour of this option is similar to the effect of LOCAL_OPTIONS on options; hence ‘emulate -L sh’ (or indeed any other emulation with the -L option) activates LOCAL_PATTERNS. LOCAL_TRAPS If this option is set when a signal trap is set inside a function, then the previous status of the trap for that signal will be restored when the function exits. Note that this option must be set prior to altering the trap behaviour in a function; unlike LOCAL_OPTIONS, the value on exit from the function is irrelevant. However, it does not need to be set before any global trap for that to be correctly restored by a function. For example, unsetopt localtraps\ntrap - INT\nfn() { setopt localtraps; trap '' INT; sleep 3; } will restore normal handling of SIGINT after the function exits. MULTI_FUNC_DEF Allow definitions of multiple functions at once in the form ‘fn1 fn2...()’; if the option is not set, this causes a parse error. Definition of multiple functions with the function keyword is always allowed. Multiple function definitions are not often used and can cause obscure errors. MULTIOS Perform implicit tees or cats when multiple redirections are attempted (see Redirection ). OCTAL_ZEROES Interpret any integer constant beginning with a 0 as octal, per IEEE Std 1003.2-1992 (ISO 9945-2:1993). This is not enabled by default as it causes problems with parsing of, for example, date and time strings with leading zeroes. Sequences of digits indicating a numeric base such as the ‘08’ component in ‘08#77’ are always interpreted as decimal, regardless of leading zeroes. PIPE_FAIL By default, when a pipeline exits the exit status recorded by the shell and returned by the shell variable $? reflects that of the rightmost element of a pipeline. If this option is set, the exit status instead reflects the status of the rightmost element of the pipeline that was non-zero, or zero if all elements exited with zero status. SOURCE_TRACE If set, zsh will print an informational message announcing the name of each file it loads. The format of the output is similar to that for the XTRACE option, with the message . A file may be loaded by the shell itself when it starts up and shuts down (Startup/Shutdown Files) or by the use of the ‘source’ and ‘dot’ builtin commands. TYPESET_SILENT If this is unset, executing any of the ‘typeset’ family of commands with no options and a list of parameters that have no values to be assigned but already exist will display the value of the parameter. If the option is set, they will only be shown when parameters are selected with the ‘-m’ option. The option ‘-p’ is available whether or not the option is set. TYPESET_TO_UNSET When declaring a new parameter with any of the ‘typeset’ family of related commands, the parameter remains unset unless and until a value is explicity assigned to it, either in the ‘typeset’ command itself or as a later assignment statement. VERBOSE (-v, ksh: -v) Print shell input lines as they are read. XTRACE (-x, ksh: -x) Print commands and their arguments as they are executed. The output is preceded by the value of $PS4, formatted as described in Prompt Expansion .","breadcrumbs":"Options » 16.2.9 Scripts and Functions","id":"113","title":"16.2.9 Scripts and Functions"},"114":{"body":"APPEND_CREATE This option only applies when NO_CLOBBER (-C) is in effect. If this option is not set, the shell will report an error when a append redirection (>>) is used on a file that does not already exists (the traditional zsh behaviour of NO_CLOBBER). If the option is set, no error is reported (POSIX behaviour). BASH_REMATCH When set, matches performed with the =~ operator will set the BASH_REMATCH array variable, instead of the default MATCH and match variables. The first element of the BASH_REMATCH array will contain the entire matched text and subsequent elements will contain extracted substrings. This option makes more sense when KSH_ARRAYS is also set, so that the entire matched portion is stored at index 0 and the first substring is at index 1. Without this option, the MATCH variable contains the entire matched text and the match array variable contains substrings. BSD_ECHO Make the echo builtin compatible with the BSD echo(1) command. This disables backslashed escape sequences in echo strings unless the -e option is specified. CONTINUE_ON_ERROR If a fatal error is encountered (see Errors ), and the code is running in a script, the shell will resume execution at the next statement in the script at the top level, in other words outside all functions or shell constructs such as loops and conditions. This mimics the behaviour of interactive shells, where the shell returns to the line editor to read a new command; it was the normal behaviour in versions of zsh before 5.0.1. CSH_JUNKIE_HISTORY A history reference without an event specifier will always refer to the previous command. Without this option, such a history reference refers to the same event as the previous history reference on the current command line, defaulting to the previous command. CSH_JUNKIE_LOOPS Allow loop bodies to take the form ‘list; end’ instead of ‘do list; done’. CSH_JUNKIE_QUOTES Changes the rules for single- and double-quoted text to match that of csh. These require that embedded newlines be preceded by a backslash; unescaped newlines will cause an error message. In double-quoted strings, it is made impossible to escape ‘$’, ‘‘’ or ‘\"’ (and ‘\\’ itself no longer needs escaping). Command substitutions are only expanded once, and cannot be nested. CSH_NULLCMD Do not use the values of NULLCMD and READNULLCMD when running redirections with no command. This make such redirections fail (see Redirection ). KSH_ARRAYS Emulate ksh array handling as closely as possible. If this option is set, array elements are numbered from zero, an array parameter without subscript refers to the first element instead of the whole array, and braces are required to delimit a subscript (‘${path[2]}’ rather than just ‘$path[2]’) or to apply modifiers to any parameter (‘${PWD:h}’ rather than ‘$PWD:h’). KSH_AUTOLOAD Emulate ksh function autoloading. This means that when a function is autoloaded, the corresponding file is merely executed, and must define the function itself. (By default, the function is defined to the contents of the file. However, the most common ksh-style case - of the file containing only a simple definition of the function - is always handled in the ksh-compatible manner.) KSH_OPTION_PRINT Alters the way options settings are printed: instead of separate lists of set and unset options, all options are shown, marked ‘on’ if they are in the non-default state, ‘off’ otherwise. KSH_TYPESET This option is now obsolete: a better appropximation to the behaviour of other shells is obtained with the reserved word interface to declare, export, float, integer, local, readonly and typeset. Note that the option is only applied when the reserved word interface is not in use. Alters the way arguments to the typeset family of commands, including declare, export, float, integer, local and readonly, are processed. Without this option, zsh will perform normal word splitting after command and parameter expansion in arguments of an assignment; with it, word splitting does not take place in those cases. KSH_ZERO_SUBSCRIPT Treat use of a subscript of value zero in array or string expressions as a reference to the first element, i.e. the element that usually has the subscript 1. Ignored if KSH_ARRAYS is also set. If neither this option nor KSH_ARRAYS is set, accesses to an element of an array or string with subscript zero return an empty element or string, while attempts to set element zero of an array or string are treated as an error. However, attempts to set an otherwise valid subscript range that includes zero will succeed. For example, if KSH_ZERO_SUBSCRIPT is not set, array[0]=(element) is an error, while array[0,1]=(element) is not and will replace the first element of the array. This option is for compatibility with older versions of the shell and is not recommended in new code. POSIX_ALIASES When this option is set, reserved words are not candidates for alias expansion: it is still possible to declare any of them as an alias, but the alias will never be expanded. Reserved words are described in Reserved Words . Alias expansion takes place while text is being read; hence when this option is set it does not take effect until the end of any function or other piece of shell code parsed as one unit. Note this may cause differences from other shells even when the option is in effect. For example, when running a command with ‘zsh -c’, or even ‘zsh -o posixaliases -c’, the entire command argument is parsed as one unit, so aliases defined within the argument are not available even in later lines. If in doubt, avoid use of aliases in non-interactive code. POSIX_ARGZERO This option may be used to temporarily disable FUNCTION_ARGZERO and thereby restore the value of $0 to the name used to invoke the shell (or as set by the -c command line option). For compatibility with previous versions of the shell, emulations use NO_FUNCTION_ARGZERO instead of POSIX_ARGZERO, which may result in unexpected scoping of $0 if the emulation mode is changed inside a function or script. To avoid this, explicitly enable POSIX_ARGZERO in the emulate command: emulate sh -o POSIX_ARGZERO Note that NO_POSIX_ARGZERO has no effect unless FUNCTION_ARGZERO was already enabled upon entry to the function or script. POSIX_BUILTINS When this option is set the command builtin can be used to execute shell builtin commands. Parameter assignments specified before shell functions and special builtins are kept after the command completes unless the special builtin is prefixed with the command builtin. Special builtins are ., :, break, continue, declare, eval, exit, export, integer, local, readonly, return, set, shift, source, times, trap and unset. In addition, various error conditions associated with the above builtins or exec cause a non-interactive shell to exit and an interactive shell to return to its top-level processing. Furthermore, functions and shell builtins are not executed after an exec prefix; the command to be executed must be an external command found in the path. Furthermore, the getopts builtin behaves in a POSIX-compatible fashion in that the associated variable OPTIND is not made local to functions, and its value is calculated differently to match other shells. Moreover, the warning and special exit code from [[ -o non_existent_option ]] are suppressed. POSIX_IDENTIFIERS When this option is set, only the ASCII characters a to z, A to Z, 0 to 9 and _ may be used in identifiers (names of shell parameters and modules). In addition, setting this option limits the effect of parameter substitution with no braces, so that the expression $# is treated as the parameter $# even if followed by a valid parameter name. When it is unset, zsh allows expressions of the form $#name to refer to the length of $name, even for special variables, for example in expressions such as $#- and $#*. Another difference is that with the option set assignment to an unset variable in arithmetic context causes the variable to be created as a scalar rather than a numeric type. So after ‘unset t; (( t = 3 ))’. without POSIX_IDENTIFIERS set t has integer type, while with it set it has scalar type. When the option is unset and multibyte character support is enabled (i.e. it is compiled in and the option MULTIBYTE is set), then additionally any alphanumeric characters in the local character set may be used in identifiers. Note that scripts and functions written with this feature are or function is parsed; setting them during execution is not sufficient as the syntax variable=value has already been parsed as a command rather than an assignment. If multibyte character support is not compiled into the shell this option is ignored; all octets with the top bit set may be used in identifiers. This is non-standard but is the traditional zsh behaviour. POSIX_STRINGS This option affects processing of quoted strings. Currently it only affects the behaviour of null characters, i.e. character 0 in the When this option is not set, null characters embedded within strings of the form $’...’ are treated as ordinary characters. The entire string is maintained within the shell and output to files where necessary, although owing to restrictions of the library interface the string is truncated at the null character in file names, environment variables, or in arguments to external programs. When this option is set, the $’...’ expression is truncated at the null character. Note that remaining parts of the same string beyond the termination of the quotes are not truncated. For example, the command line argument a$’b\\0c’d is treated with the option off as the characters a, b, null, c, d, and with the option on as the characters a, b, d. POSIX_TRAPS When this option is set, the usual zsh behaviour of executing traps for EXIT on exit from shell functions is suppressed. In that case, manipulating EXIT traps always alters the global trap for exiting the shell; the LOCAL_TRAPS option is ignored for the EXIT trap. Also, a return statement executed in a trap with no argument passes back from the function the value from the surrounding context, not from code executed within the trap. Furthermore, if a trap is set to be ignored, this state persists when a subshell is entered. Without the option, the trap would be reset to its default state at this point. SH_FILE_EXPANSION Perform filename expansion (e.g., ~ expansion) before parameter expansion, command substitution, arithmetic expansion and brace expansion. If this option is unset, it is performed after brace expansion, so things like ‘~$USERNAME’ and ‘~{pfalstad,rc}’ will work. SH_NULLCMD Do not use the values of NULLCMD and READNULLCMD when doing redirections, use ‘:’ instead (see Redirection ). SH_OPTION_LETTERS If this option is set the shell tries to interpret single letter options (which are used with set and setopt) like ksh does. This also affects the value of the - special parameter. SH_WORD_SPLIT (-y) Causes field splitting to be performed on unquoted parameter expansions. Note that this option has nothing to do with word splitting. (See Parameter Expansion .) TRAPS_ASYNC While waiting for a program to exit, handle signals and run traps immediately. Otherwise the trap is run after a child process has exited. Note this does not affect the point at which traps are run for any case other than when the shell is waiting for a child process.","breadcrumbs":"Options » 16.2.10 Shell Emulation","id":"114","title":"16.2.10 Shell Emulation"},"115":{"body":"INTERACTIVE (-i, ksh: -i) This is an interactive shell. This option is set upon initialisation if the standard input is a tty and commands are being read from standard input. (See the discussion of SHIN_STDIN.) This heuristic may be overridden by specifying a state for this option on the command line. The value of this option can only be changed via flags supplied at invocation of the shell. It cannot be changed once zsh is running. LOGIN (-l, ksh: -l) This is a login shell. If this option is not explicitly set, the shell becomes a login shell if the first character of the argv[0] passed to the shell is a ‘-’. PRIVILEGED (-p, ksh: -p) Turn on privileged mode. Typically this is used when script is to be run with elevated privileges. This should be done as follows directly with the -p option to zsh so that it takes effect during startup. #!/bin/zsh -p The option is enabled automatically on startup if the effective user (group) ID is not equal to the real user (group) ID. In this case, turning the option off causes the effective user and group IDs to be set to the real user and group IDs. Be aware that if that fails the shell may be running with different IDs than was intended so a script should check for failure and act accordingly, for example: unsetopt privileged || exit The PRIVILEGED option disables sourcing user startup files. If zsh is invoked as ‘sh’ or ‘ksh’ with this option set, /etc/suid_profile is sourced (after /etc/profile on interactive shells). Sourcing ~/.profile is disabled and the contents of the ENV variable is ignored. This option cannot be changed using the -m option of setopt and unsetopt, and changing it inside a function always changes it globally regardless of the LOCAL_OPTIONS option. RESTRICTED (-r) Enables restricted mode. This option cannot be changed using unsetopt, and setting it inside a function always changes it globally regardless of the LOCAL_OPTIONS option. See Restricted Shell . SHIN_STDIN (-s, ksh: -s) Commands are being read from the standard input. Commands are read from standard input if no command is specified with -c and no file of commands is specified. If SHIN_STDIN is set explicitly on the command line, any argument that would otherwise have been taken as a file to run will instead be treated as a normal positional parameter. Note that setting or unsetting this option on the command line does not necessarily affect the state the option will have while the shell is running - that is purely an indicator of whether or not commands are actually being read from standard input. The value of this option can only be changed via flags supplied at invocation of the shell. It cannot be changed once zsh is running. SINGLE_COMMAND (-t, ksh: -t) If the shell is reading from standard input, it exits after a single command has been executed. This also makes the shell non-interactive, unless the INTERACTIVE option is explicitly set on the command line. The value of this option can only be changed via flags supplied at invocation of the shell. It cannot be changed once zsh is running.","breadcrumbs":"Options » 16.2.11 Shell State","id":"115","title":"16.2.11 Shell State"},"116":{"body":"BEEP (+B) Beep on error in ZLE. COMBINING_CHARS Assume that the terminal displays combining characters correctly. Specifically, if a base alphanumeric character is followed by one or more zero-width punctuation characters, assume that the zero-width characters will be displayed as modifications to the base character within the same width. Not all terminals handle this. If this option is not set, zero-width characters are displayed separately with special mark-up. If this option is set, the pattern test [[:WORD:]] matches a zero-width punctuation character on the assumption that it will be used as part of a word in combination with a word character. Otherwise the base shell does not handle combining characters specially. EMACS If ZLE is loaded, turning on this option has the equivalent effect of ‘bindkey -e’. In addition, the VI option is unset. Turning it off has no effect. The option setting is not guaranteed to reflect the current keymap. This option is provided for compatibility; bindkey is the recommended interface. OVERSTRIKE Start up the line editor in overstrike mode. SINGLE_LINE_ZLE (-M) Use single-line command line editing instead of multi-line. Note that although this is on by default in ksh emulation it only provides superficial compatibility with the ksh line editor and reduces the effectiveness of the zsh line editor. As it has no effect on shell syntax, many users may wish to disable this option when using ksh emulation interactively. VI If ZLE is loaded, turning on this option has the equivalent effect of ‘bindkey -v’. In addition, the EMACS option is unset. Turning it off has no effect. The option setting is not guaranteed to reflect the current keymap. This option is provided for compatibility; bindkey is the recommended interface. ZLE (-Z) Use the zsh line editor. Set by default in interactive shells connected to a terminal.","breadcrumbs":"Options » 16.2.12 Zle","id":"116","title":"16.2.12 Zle"},"117":{"body":"Some options have alternative names. These aliases are never used for output, but can be used just like normal option names when specifying options to the shell. BRACE_EXPAND *NO_*IGNORE_BRACES (ksh and bash compatibility) DOT_GLOB GLOB_DOTS (bash compatibility) HASH_ALL HASH_CMDS (bash compatibility) HIST_APPEND APPEND_HISTORY (bash compatibility) HIST_EXPAND BANG_HIST (bash compatibility) LOG *NO_*HIST_NO_FUNCTIONS (ksh compatibility) MAIL_WARN MAIL_WARNING (bash compatibility) ONE_CMD SINGLE_COMMAND (bash compatibility) PHYSICAL CHASE_LINKS (ksh and bash compatibility) PROMPT_VARS PROMPT_SUBST (bash compatibility) STDIN SHIN_STDIN (ksh compatibility) TRACK_ALL HASH_CMDS (ksh compatibility)","breadcrumbs":"Options » 16.3 Option Aliases","id":"117","title":"16.3 Option Aliases"},"118":{"body":"","breadcrumbs":"Options » 16.4 Single Letter Options","id":"118","title":"16.4 Single Letter Options"},"119":{"body":"-0 CORRECT -1 PRINT_EXIT_VALUE -2 *NO_*BAD_PATTERN -3 *NO_*NOMATCH -4 GLOB_DOTS -5 NOTIFY -6 BG_NICE -7 IGNORE_EOF -8 MARK_DIRS -9 AUTO_LIST -B *NO_*BEEP -C *NO_*CLOBBER -D PUSHD_TO_HOME -E PUSHD_SILENT -F *NO_*GLOB -G NULL_GLOB -H RM_STAR_SILENT -I IGNORE_BRACES -J AUTO_CD -K *NO_*BANG_HIST -L SUN_KEYBOARD_HACK -M SINGLE_LINE_ZLE -N AUTO_PUSHD -O CORRECT_ALL -P RC_EXPAND_PARAM -Q PATH_DIRS -R LONG_LIST_JOBS -S REC_EXACT -T CDABLE_VARS -U MAIL_WARNING -V *NO_*PROMPT_CR -W AUTO_RESUME -X LIST_TYPES -Y MENU_COMPLETE -Z ZLE -a ALL_EXPORT -e ERR_EXIT -f *NO_*RCS -g HIST_IGNORE_SPACE -h HIST_IGNORE_DUPS -i INTERACTIVE -k INTERACTIVE_COMMENTS -l LOGIN -m MONITOR -n *NO_*EXEC -p PRIVILEGED -r RESTRICTED -s SHIN_STDIN -t SINGLE_COMMAND -u *NO_*UNSET -v VERBOSE -w CHASE_LINKS -x XTRACE -y SH_WORD_SPLIT","breadcrumbs":"Options » 16.4.1 Default set","id":"119","title":"16.4.1 Default set"},"12":{"body":"Interaction with the shell uses the builtin Zsh Line Editor, ZLE. This is described in detail in Zsh Line Editor . The first decision a user must make is whether to use the Emacs or Vi editing mode as the keys for editing are substantially different. Emacs editing mode is probably more natural for beginners and can be selected explicitly with the command bindkey -e. A history mechanism for retrieving previously typed lines (most simply with the Up or Down arrow keys) is available; note that, unlike other shells, zsh will not save these lines when the shell exits unless you set appropriate variables, and the number of history lines retained by default is quite small (30 lines). See the description of the shell variables (referred to in the documentation as parameters) HISTFILE, HISTSIZE and SAVEHIST in Parameters Used By The Shell . Note that it’s currently only possible to read and write files saving history when the shell is interactive, i.e. it does not work from scripts. The shell now supports the UTF-8 character set (and also others if supported by the operating system). This is (mostly) handled transparently by the shell, but the degree of support in terminal emulators is variable. There is some discussion of this in the shell FAQ, https://www.zsh.org/FAQ/ . Note in particular that for combining characters to be handled the option COMBINING_CHARS needs to be set. Because the shell is now more sensitive to the definition of the character set, note that if you are upgrading from an older version of the shell you should ensure that the appropriate variable, either LANG (to affect all aspects of the shell’s operation) or LC_CTYPE (to affect only the handling of character sets) is set to an appropriate value. This is true even if you are using a single-byte character set including extensions of ASCII such as ISO-8859-1 or ISO-8859-15. See the description of LC_CTYPE in Parameters .","breadcrumbs":"Roadmap » 3.2 Interactive Use","id":"12","title":"3.2 Interactive Use"},"120":{"body":"-C *NO_*CLOBBER -T TRAPS_ASYNC -X MARK_DIRS -a ALL_EXPORT -b NOTIFY -e ERR_EXIT -f *NO_*GLOB -i INTERACTIVE -l LOGIN -m MONITOR -n *NO_*EXEC -p PRIVILEGED -r RESTRICTED -s SHIN_STDIN -t SINGLE_COMMAND -u *NO_*UNSET -v VERBOSE -x XTRACE","breadcrumbs":"Options » 16.4.2 sh/ksh emulation set","id":"120","title":"16.4.2 sh/ksh emulation set"},"121":{"body":"-A Used by set for setting arrays -b Used on the command line to specify end of option processing -c Used on the command line to specify a single command -m Used by setopt for pattern-matching option setting -o Used in all places to allow use of long option names -s Used by set to sort positional parameters This document was generated on May 14, 2022 using texi2html 5.0 . Zsh version 5.9, released on May 14, 2022.","breadcrumbs":"Options » 16.4.3 Also note","id":"121","title":"16.4.3 Also note"},"122":{"body":"Table of Contents generated with DocToc 17 Shell Builtin Commands Some shell builtin commands take options as described in individual entries; these are often referred to in the list below as ‘flags’ to avoid confusion with shell options, which may also have an effect on the behaviour of builtin commands. In this introductory section, ‘option’ always has the meaning of an option to a command that should be familiar to most command line users. Typically, options are single letters preceded by a hyphen (-). Options that take an argument accept it either immediately following the option letter or after white space, for example ‘print -C3 {1..9}’ or ‘print -C 3 {1..9}’ are equivalent. Arguments to options are not the same as arguments to the command; the documentation indicates which is which. Options that do not take an argument may be combined in a single word, for example ‘print -rca – *’ and ‘print -r -c -a – *’ are equivalent. Some shell builtin commands also take options that begin with ‘+’ instead of ‘-’. The list below makes clear which commands these are. Options (together with their individual arguments, if any) must appear in a group before any non-option arguments; once the first non-option argument has been found, option processing is terminated. All builtin commands other than ‘echo’ and precommand modifiers, even those that have no options, can be given the argument ‘--’ to terminate option processing. This indicates that the following words are non-option arguments, but is otherwise ignored. This is useful in cases where arguments to the command may begin with ‘-’. For historical reasons, most builtin commands (including ‘echo’) also recognize a single ‘-’ in a separate word for this purpose; note that this is less standard and use of ‘--’ is recommended. - simple command See Precommand Modifiers . . file [ arg ... ] Read commands from file and execute them in the current shell environment. If file does not contain a slash, or if PATH_DIRS is set, the shell looks in the components of $path to find the directory containing file. Files in the current directory are not read unless ‘.’ appears somewhere in $path. If a file named ‘file.zwc’ is found, is newer than file, and is the compiled form (created with the zcompile builtin) of file, then commands are read from that file instead of file. If any arguments arg are given, they become the positional parameters; the old positional parameters are restored when the file is done executing. However, if no arguments are given, the positional parameters remain those of the calling context, and no restoring is done. If file was not found the return status is 127; if file was found but contained a syntax error the return status is 126; else the return status is the exit status of the last command executed. : [ arg ... ] This command does nothing, although normal argument expansions is performed which may have effects on shell parameters. A zero exit status is returned. alias [ {+|-}gmrsL ] [ name[=value] ... ] For each name with a corresponding value, define an alias with that value. A trailing space in value causes the next word to be checked for alias expansion. If the -g flag is present, define a global alias; global aliases are expanded even if they do not occur in command position: % perldoc --help 2>&1 | grep 'built-in functions' -f Search Perl built-in functions\n% alias -g HG='--help 2>&1 | grep'\n% perldoc HG 'built-in functions' -f Search Perl built-in functions If the -s flag is present, define a suffix alias: if the command word on a command line is in the form ‘text.name’, where text is any non-empty string, it is replaced by the text ‘value text.name’. Note that name is treated as a literal string, not a pattern. A trailing space in value is not special in this case. For example, alias -s ps='gv --' will cause the command ‘*.ps’ to be expanded to ‘gv – *.ps’. As alias expansion is carried out earlier than globbing, the ‘*.ps’ will then be expanded. Suffix aliases constitute a different name space from other aliases (so in the above example it is still possible to create an alias for the command ps) and the two sets are never listed together. For each name with no value, print the value of name, if any. With no arguments, print all currently defined aliases other than suffix aliases. If the -m flag is given the arguments are taken as patterns (they should be quoted to preserve them from being interpreted as glob patterns), and the aliases matching these patterns are printed. When printing aliases and one of the -g, -r or -s flags is present, restrict the printing to global, regular or suffix aliases, respectively; a regular alias is one which is neither a global nor a suffix alias. Using ‘+’ instead of ‘-’, or ending the option list with a single ‘+’, prevents the values of the aliases from being printed. If the -L flag is present, then print each status is nonzero if a name (with no value) is given for which no alias has been defined. For more on aliases, include common problems, see Aliasing . autoload [ {+|-}RTUXdkmrtWz ] [ -w ] [ name ... ] See the section ‘Autoloading Functions’ in Functions for full details. The fpath parameter will be searched to find the function definition when the function is first referenced. If name consists of an absolute path, the function is defined to load from the file given (searching as usual for dump files in the given location). The name of the function is the basename (non-directory part) of the file. It is normally an error if the function is not found in the given location; however, if the option -d is given, searching for the function defaults to $fpath. If a function is loaded by absolute path, any functions loaded from it that are marked for autoload without an absolute path have the load path of the parent function temporarily prepended to $fpath. If the option -r or -R is given, the function is searched for immediately and the location is recorded internally for use when the function is executed; a relative path is expanded using the value of $PWD. This protects against a change to $fpath after the call to autoload. With -r, if the function is not found, it is silently left unresolved until execution; with -R, an error message is printed and command processing aborted immediately the search fails, i.e. at the autoload command rather than at function execution.. The flag -X may be used only inside a shell function. It causes the calling function to be marked for autoloading and then immediately loaded and executed, with the current array of positional parameters as arguments. This replaces the previous definition of the function. If no function definition is found, an error is printed and the function remains undefined and marked for autoloading. If an argument is given, it is used as a directory (i.e. it does not include the name of the function) in which the function is to be found; this may be combined with the -d option to allow the function search to default to $fpath if it is not in the given location. The flag +X attempts to load each name as an autoloaded function, but does not execute it. The exit status is zero (success) if the function was not previously defined and a definition for it was found. This does not replace any existing definition of the function. The exit status is nonzero (failure) if the function was already defined or when no definition was found. In the latter case the function remains undefined and marked for autoloading. If ksh-style autoloading is enabled, the function created will contain the contents of the file plus a call to the function itself appended to it, thus giving normal ksh autoloading behaviour on the first call to the function. If the -m flag is also given each name is treated as a pattern and all functions already marked for autoload that match the pattern are loaded. With the -t flag, turn on execution tracing; with -T, turn on execution tracing only for the current function, turning it off on entry to any called functions that do not also have tracing enabled. With the -U flag, alias expansion is suppressed when the function is loaded. With the -w flag, the names are taken as names of files compiled with the zcompile builtin, and all functions defined in them are marked for autoloading. The flags -z and -k mark the function to be autoloaded using the zsh or ksh style, as if the option KSH_AUTOLOAD were unset or were set, respectively. The flags override the setting of the option at the time the function is loaded. Note that the autoload command makes no attempt to ensure the shell options set during the loading or execution of the file have any particular value. For this, the emulate command can be used: emulate zsh -c 'autoload -Uz func' arranges that when func is loaded the shell is in native zsh emulation, and this emulation is also applied when func is run. Some of the functions of autoload are also provided by functions -u or functions -U, but autoload is a more comprehensive interface. bg [ job ... ] job ... & Put each specified job in the background, or the current job if none is specified. bindkey See Zle Builtins . break [ n ] Exit from an enclosing for, while, until, select or repeat loop. If an arithmetic expression n is specified, then break n levels instead of just one. builtin name [ args ... ] Executes the builtin name, with the given args. bye Same as exit. cap See The zsh/cap Module . cd [ -qsLP ] [ arg ] cd [ -qsLP ] old new cd [ -qsLP ] {+|-}n Change the current directory. In the first form, change the current directory to arg, or to the value of $HOME if arg is not specified. If arg is ‘-’, change to the previous directory. Otherwise, if arg begins with a slash, attempt to change to the directory given by arg. If arg does not begin with a slash, the behaviour depends on whether the current directory ‘.’ occurs in the list of directories contained in the shell parameter cdpath. If it does not, first attempt to change to the directory arg under the current directory, and if that fails but cdpath is set and contains at least one element attempt to change to the directory arg under each component of cdpath in turn until successful. If ‘.’ occurs in cdpath, then cdpath is searched strictly in order so that ‘.’ is only tried at the appropriate point. The order of testing cdpath is modified if the option POSIX_CD is set, as described in the documentation for the option. If no directory is found, the option CDABLE_VARS is set, and a parameter named arg exists whose value begins with a slash, treat its value as the directory. In that case, the parameter is added to the named The second form of cd substitutes the string new for the string old in the name of the current directory, and tries to change to this new directory. The third form of cd extracts an entry from the directory stack, and changes to that directory. An argument of the form ‘+n’ identifies a stack entry by counting from the left of the list shown by the dirs command, starting with zero. An argument of the form ‘-n’ counts from the right. If the PUSHD_MINUS option is set, the meanings of ‘+’ and ‘-’ in this context are swapped. If the POSIX_CD option is set, this form of cd is not recognised and will be interpreted as the first form. If the -q (quiet) option is specified, the hook function chpwd and the functions in the array chpwd_functions are not called. This is useful for calls to cd that do not change the environment seen by an interactive user. If the -s option is specified, cd refuses to change the current directory if the given pathname contains symlinks. If the -P option is given or the CHASE_LINKS option is set, symbolic links are resolved to their true values. If the -L option is given symbolic links are retained in the directory (and not resolved) regardless of the state of the CHASE_LINKS option. chdir Same as cd. clone See The zsh/clone Module . command [ -pvV ] simple command The simple command argument is taken as an external command instead of a function or builtin and is executed. If the POSIX_BUILTINS option is set, builtins will also be executed but certain special properties of them are suppressed. The -p flag causes a default path to be searched instead of that in $path. With the -v flag, command is similar to whence and with -V, it is equivalent to whence -v. See also Precommand Modifiers . comparguments See The zsh/computil Module . compcall See The zsh/compctl Module . compctl See The zsh/compctl Module . compdescribe See The zsh/computil Module . compfiles See The zsh/computil Module . compgroups See The zsh/computil Module . compquote See The zsh/computil Module . comptags See The zsh/computil Module . comptry See The zsh/computil Module . compvalues See The zsh/computil Module . continue [ n ] Resume the next iteration of the enclosing for, while, until, select or repeat loop. If an arithmetic expression n is specified, break out of n-1 loops and resume at the nth enclosing loop. declare Same as typeset. dirs [ -c ] [ arg ... ] dirs [ -lpv ] With no arguments, print the contents of the directory stack. Directories are added to this stack with the pushd command, and removed with the cd or popd commands. If arguments are specified, load them onto the directory stack, replacing anything that was there, and push the current directory onto the stack. -c clear the directory stack. -l print directory names in full instead of using of using ~ expressions ( Filename Expansion ). -p print directory entries one per line. -v number the directories in the stack when printing. disable [ -afmprs ] name ... ’?’ The pattern character ? wherever it occurs, including when preceding a parenthesis with KSH_GLOB. ’*’ The pattern character * wherever it occurs, including recursive globbing and when preceding a parenthesis with KSH_GLOB. ’[’ Character classes. ’<’ (NO_SH_GLOB) Numeric ranges. ’|’ (NO_SH_GLOB) Alternation in grouped patterns, case statements, or KSH_GLOB parenthesised expressions. ’(’ (NO_SH_GLOB) Grouping using single parentheses. Disabling this does not disable the use of parentheses for KSH_GLOB where they are introduced by a special character, nor for glob qualifiers (use ‘setopt NO_BARE_GLOB_QUAL’ to disable glob qualifiers that use parentheses only). ’~’ (EXTENDED_GLOB) Exclusion in the form A~B. ’^’ (EXTENDED_GLOB) Exclusion in the form A^B. ’#’ (EXTENDED_GLOB) The pattern character # wherever it occurs, both for repetition of a previous pattern and for indicating globbing flags. ’?(’ (KSH_GLOB) The grouping form ?(...). Note this is also disabled if ’?’ is disabled. ’*(’ (KSH_GLOB) The grouping form *(...). Note this is also disabled if ’*’ is disabled. ’+(’ (KSH_GLOB) The grouping form +(...). ’!(’ (KSH_GLOB) The grouping form !(...). ’@(’ (KSH_GLOB) The grouping form @(...). disown [ job ... ] job ... &| job ... &! no longer report their status, and will not complain if you try to exit an interactive shell with them running or stopped. If no job is specified, disown the current job. If the jobs are currently stopped and the AUTO_CONTINUE option is not set, a warning is printed containing information about how to make them running after they have been disowned. If one of the latter two forms is used, the jobs will automatically be made running, independent of the setting of the AUTO_CONTINUE option. echo [ -neE ] [ arg ... ] Write each arg on the standard output, with a space separating each one. If the -n flag is not present, print a newline at the end. echo recognizes the following escape sequences: \\a bell character \\b backspace \\c suppress subsequent characters and final newline \\e escape \\f form feed \\n linefeed (newline) \\r carriage return \\t horizontal tab \\v vertical tab \\\\ backslash \\0NNN character code in octal \\xNN character code in hexadecimal \\uNNNN unicode character code in hexadecimal \\UNNNNNNNN unicode character code in hexadecimal The -E flag, or the BSD_ECHO option, can be used to disable these escape sequences. In the latter case, -e flag can be used to enable them. Note that for standards compliance a double dash does not terminate option processing; instead, it is printed directly. However, a single dash does terminate option processing, so the first dash, possibly following options, is not printed, but everything following it is printed as an argument. The single dash behaviour is different printf, and for a more controllable way of printing text within zsh, see print. echotc See The zsh/termcap Module . echoti See The zsh/terminfo Module . emulate [ -lLR ] [ {zsh|sh|ksh|csh} [ flags ... ] ] Without any argument print current emulation mode. With single argument set up zsh options to emulate the specified shell as much as possible. csh will never be fully emulated. If the argument is not one of the shells listed above, zsh will be used as a default; more precisely, the tests performed on the argument are the same as those used to determine the emulation at startup based on the shell name, see Compatibility . In addition to setting shell options, the command also restores the pristine state of pattern enables, as if all patterns had been enabled using enable -p. If the emulate command occurs inside a function that has been marked for execution tracing with functions -t then the xtrace option will be turned on regardless of emulation mode or other options. Note that code executed inside the function by the ., source, or eval commands is not considered to be running directly from the function, hence does not provoke this behaviour. are reset to their default value corresponding to the specified emulation mode, except for certain options describing the interactive environment; otherwise, only those options likely to cause portability problems in scripts and functions are altered. If the -L switch is given, the options LOCAL_OPTIONS, LOCAL_PATTERNS and LOCAL_TRAPS will be set as well, causing the effects of the emulate command and any setopt, disable -p or enable -p, and trap commands to be local to the immediately surrounding shell function, if any; normally these options are turned off in all emulation modes except ksh. The -L switch is mutually exclusive with the use of -c in flags. If there is a single argument and the -l switch is given, the options that would be set or unset (the latter indicated with the prefix ‘no’) are listed. -l can be combined with -L or -R and the list will be modified in the appropriate way. Note the list does not depend on the current setting of options, i.e. it includes all options that may in principle change, not just those that would actually change. The flags may be any of the invocation-time flags described in Invocation , except that ‘-o EMACS’ and ‘-o VI’ may not be used. Flags such as ‘+r’/‘+o RESTRICTED’ may be prohibited in some circumstances. If -c arg appears in flags, arg is evaluated while the requested emulation is temporarily in effect. In this case the emulation mode and all options are restored to their previous values before emulate returns. The -R switch may precede the name of the shell to emulate; note this has a meaning distinct from including -R in flags. Use of -c enables ‘sticky’ emulation mode for functions defined within the evaluated expression: the emulation mode is associated thereafter with the function so that whenever the function is executed the emulation (respecting the -R switch, if present) and all options are set (and pattern disables cleared) before entry to the function, and the state is restored after exit. If the function is called when the sticky emulation is already in effect, either within an ‘emulate shell -c’ expression or within another function with the same sticky emulation, entry and exit from the function do not cause options to be altered (except due to standard processing such as the LOCAL_OPTIONS option). This also applies to functions marked for autoload within the sticky emulation; the appropriate set of options will be applied at the point the function is loaded as well as when it is run. For example: emulate sh -c 'fni() { setopt cshnullglob; }\nfno() { fni; }'\nfno The two functions fni and fno are defined with sticky sh emulation. fno is then executed, causing options associated with emulations to be set to their values in sh. fno then calls fni; because fni is also marked for sticky sh emulation, no option changes take place on entry to or exit from it. Hence the option cshnullglob, turned off by sh emulation, will be turned on within fni and remain on return to fno. On exit from fno, the emulation mode and all options will be restored to the state they were in before entry to the temporary emulation. The documentation above is typically sufficient for the intended environment. More detailed rules follow. 1. The sticky emulation environment provided by ‘emulate shell -c’ is identical to that provided by entry to a function marked for sticky emulation as a consequence of being defined in such an environment. Hence, for example, the sticky emulation is inherited by subfunctions defined within functions with sticky emulation. 2. No change of options takes place on entry to or exit from functions that are not marked for sticky emulation, other than those that would normally take place, even if those functions are called within sticky emulation. 3. No special handling is provided for functions marked for autoload nor for functions present in wordcode created by the zcompile command. 4. The presence or absence of the -R switch to emulate corresponds to different sticky emulation modes, so for example ‘emulate sh -c’, ‘emulate -R sh -c’ and ‘emulate csh -c’ are treated as three distinct sticky emulations. 5. Difference in shell options supplied in addition to the basic emulation also mean the sticky emulations are different, so for example ‘emulate zsh -c’ and ‘emulate zsh -o cbases -c’ are treated as distinct sticky emulations. enable [ -afmprs ] name ... earlier with disable. The default is to enable builtin commands. The -a option causes enable to act on regular or global aliases. The -s option causes enable to act on suffix aliases. The -f option causes enable to act on shell functions. The -r option causes enable to act on reserved words. Without arguments printed. With the -m flag the arguments are taken as patterns disabled with the disable builtin command. enable -p reenables patterns disabled with disable -p. Note that it does not override globbing options; for example, ‘enable -p \"~\"’ does not cause the pattern character ~ to be active unless the EXTENDED_GLOB option is also set. To enable all possible patterns (so that they may be individually disabled with disable -p), use ‘setopt EXTENDED_GLOB KSH_GLOB NO_SH_GLOB’. eval [ arg ... ] Read the arguments as input to the shell and execute the resulting command(s) in the current shell process. The return status is the same as if the commands had been executed directly by the shell; if there are no args or they contain no commands (i.e. are an empty string or whitespace) the return status is zero. exec [ -cl ] [ -a argv0 ] [ command [ arg ... ] ] Replace the current shell with command rather than forking. If command is a shell builtin command or a shell function, the shell executes it, and exits when the command is complete. With -c clear the environment; with -l prepend - to the argv[0] string of the command executed (to simulate a login shell); with -a argv0 set the argv[0] string of the command executed. See Precommand Modifiers . If the option POSIX_BUILTINS is set, command is never interpreted as a shell builtin command or shell function. This means further precommand modifiers such as builtin and noglob are also not interpreted within the shell. Hence command is always found by searching the command path. If command is omitted but any redirections are specified, then the redirections will take effect in the current shell. exit [ n ] Exit the shell with the exit status specified by an arithmetic expression n; if none is specified, use the exit status from the last command executed. An EOF condition will also cause the shell to exit, unless the IGNORE_EOF option is set. See notes at the end of Jobs & Signals for some possibly unexpected interactions of the exit command with jobs. export [ name[=value] ... ] The specified names are marked for automatic export to the environment of subsequently executed commands. Equivalent to typeset -gx. If a parameter specified does not already exist, it is created in the global scope. false [ arg ... ] Do nothing and return an exit status of 1. fc [ -e ename ] [ -s ] [ -LI ] [ -m match ] [ old=new ... ] [ first [ last ] ] fc -l [ -LI ] [ -nrdfEiD ] [ -t timefmt ] [ -m match ] [ old=new ... ] [ first [ last ] ] fc -p [ -a ] [ filename [ histsize [ savehistsize ] ] ] fc -P fc -ARWI [ filename ] The fc command controls the interactive history mechanism. Note that reading and writing of history options is only performed if the shell is interactive. Usually this is detected automatically, but it can be forced by setting the interactive option when starting the shell. The first two forms of this command select a range of events from first to last from the history list. The arguments first and last may be specified as a number or as a string. A negative number is used as an offset to the current history event number. A string specifies the most recent event beginning with the given string. All substitutions old=new, if any, are then performed on the text of the events. The range of events selected by numbers can be narrowed further by the following flags. -I restricts to only internal events (not from $HISTFILE) -L restricts to only local events (not from other shells, see SHARE_HISTORY in Description of Options – note that $HISTFILE is considered local when read at startup) -m takes the first argument as a pattern (which should be quoted) and only the history events matching this pattern are considered If first is not specified, it will be set to -1 (the most recent event), or to -16 if the -l flag is given. If last is not specified, it will be set to first, or to -1 if the -l flag is given. However, if the current event has added entries to the history with ‘print -s’ or ‘fc -R’, then the default last for -l includes all new history entries since the current event began. When the -l flag is given, the resulting events are listed on standard output. Otherwise the editor program specified by -e ename is invoked on a file containing these history events. If -e is not given, the value of the parameter FCEDIT is used; if that is not set the value of the parameter EDITOR is used; if that is not set a builtin default, usually ‘vi’ is used. If ename is ‘-’, no editor is invoked. When editing is complete, the edited command is executed. The flag ‘-s’ is equivalent to ‘-e -’. The flag -r reverses the order of the events and the flag -n suppresses event numbers when listing. Also when listing, -d prints timestamps for each event -f prints full time-date stamps in the US ‘MM/DD/YY hh:mm’ format -E prints full time-date stamps in the European ‘dd.mm.yyyy hh:mm’ format -i prints full time-date stamps in ISO8601 ‘yyyy-mm-dd hh:mm’ format -t fmt prints time and date stamps in the given format; fmt is formatted with the strftime function with the zsh extensions described for the %D{string} prompt format in Prompt Expansion . The resulting formatted string must be no more than 256 characters or will not be printed -D prints elapsed times; may be combined with one of the options above ‘fc -p’ pushes the current history list onto a stack and switches to a new history list. If the -a option is also specified, this history list will be automatically popped when the current function scope is exited, which is a much better solution than creating a trap function to call ‘fc -P’ manually. If no arguments are specified, the history list is left empty, $HISTFILE is unset, and $HISTSIZE & $SAVEHIST are set to their default values. If one argument is given, $HISTFILE is set to that filename, $HISTSIZE & $SAVEHIST are left unchanged, and the history file is read in (if it exists) to initialize the new list. If a second argument is specified, $HISTSIZE & $SAVEHIST are instead set to the single specified numeric value. Finally, if a third argument is specified, $SAVEHIST is set to a separate value from $HISTSIZE. You are free to change these environment values for the new history list however you desire in order to manipulate the new history list. ‘fc -P’ pops the history list back to an older list saved by ‘fc -p’. The current list is saved to its $HISTFILE before it is destroyed (assuming that $HISTFILE and $SAVEHIST are set appropriately, of course). The values of $HISTFILE, $HISTSIZE, and $SAVEHIST are restored to the values they had when ‘fc -p’ was called. Note that this restoration can conflict with making these variables \"local\", so your best bet is to avoid local declarations for these variables in functions that use ‘fc -p’. The one other guaranteed-safe combination is declaring these variables to be local at the top of your function and using the automatic option (-a) with ‘fc -p’. Finally, note that it is legal to manually pop a push marked for automatic popping if you need to do so before the function exits. ‘fc -R’ reads the history from the given file, ‘fc -W’ writes the history out to the given file, and ‘fc -A’ appends the history out to the given file. If no filename is specified, the $HISTFILE is assumed. If the -I option is added to -R, only those events that are not already contained within the internal history list are added. If the -I option is added to -A or -W, only those events that are new since last incremental append/write to the history file are appended/written. In any case, the created file will have no more than $SAVEHIST entries. fg [ job ... ] job ... Bring each specified job in turn to the foreground. If no job is specified, resume the current job. float [ {+|-}Hghlprtux ] [ {+|-}EFLRZ [ n ] ] [ name[=value] ... ] Equivalent to typeset -E, except that options irrelevant to floating point numbers are not permitted. functions [ {+|-}UkmtTuWz ] [ -x num ] [ name ... ] functions -c oldfn newfn functions -M [-s] mathfn [ min [ max [ shellfn ] ] ] functions -M [ -m pattern ... ] functions +M [ -m ] mathfn ... Equivalent to typeset -f, with the exception of the -c, -x, -M and -W options. For functions -u and functions -U, see autoload, which provides additional options. For functions -t and functions -T, see typeset -f. The -x option indicates that any functions output will have each leading tab for indentation, added by the shell to show syntactic structure, expanded to the given number num of spaces. num can also be 0 to suppress all indentation. The -W option turns on the option WARN_NESTED_VAR for the named function or functions only. The option is turned off at the start of nested functions (apart from anonoymous functions) unless the called function also has the -W attribute. The -c option causes oldfn to be copied to newfn. The copy is efficiently handled internally by reference counting. If oldfn was marked for autoload it is first loaded and if this fails the copy fails. Either function may subsequently be redefined without affecting the other. A typical idiom is that oldfn is the name of a library shell function which is then redefined to call newfn, thereby installing a modified version of the function. The -M and +M flags Use of the -M option may not be combined with any of the options handled by typeset -f. functions -M mathfn defines mathfn as the name of a mathematical function recognised in all forms of arithmetical expressions; see Arithmetic Evaluation . By default mathfn may take any number of comma-separated arguments. If min is given, it must have exactly min args; if min and max are both given, it must have at least min and at most max args. max may be -1 to indicate that there is no upper limit. By default the function is implemented by a shell function of the same name; if shellfn is specified it gives the name of the corresponding shell function while mathfn remains the name used in arithmetical expressions. The name of the function in $0 is mathfn (not shellfn as would usually be the case), provided the option FUNCTION_ARGZERO is in effect. The positional parameters in the shell function correspond to the arguments of the mathematical function call. The result of the last arithmetical expression evaluated inside the shell function gives the result of the mathematical function. This is not limited to arithmetic substitutions of the form $((...)), but also includes arithmetical expressions evaluated in any other way, including by the let builtin, by ((...)) statements, and even by the return builtin and by array subscripts. Therefore, care must be taken not to use syntactical constructs that perform arithmetic evaluation after evaluating what is to be the result of the function. For example: # WRONG\nzmath_cube() { (( $1 * $1 * $1 )) return 0\n}\nfunctions -M cube 1 1 zmath_cube\nprint $(( cube(3) )) This will print ‘0’ because of the return. Commenting the return out would lead to a different problem: the ((...)) statement would become the last statement in the function, so the return status ($?) of the function would be non-zero (indicating failure) whenever the arithmetic result of the function would happen to be zero (numerically): # WRONG\nzmath_cube() { (( $1 * $1 * $1 ))\n}\nfunctions -M cube 1 1 zmath_cube\nprint $(( cube(0) )) Instead, the true builtin can be used: # RIGHT\nzmath_cube() { (( $1 * $1 * $1 )) true\n}\nfunctions -M cube 1 1 zmath_cube\nprint $(( cube(3) )) If the additional option -s is given to functions -M, the argument to the function is a single string: anything between the opening and matching closing parenthesis is passed to the function as a single argument, even if it includes commas or white space. The minimum and maximum argument specifiers must therefore be 1 if given. An empty argument list is passed as a zero-length string. Thus, the following string function takes a single argument, including the commas, and prints 11: stringfn() { (( $#1 )); true }\nfunctions -Ms stringfn\nprint $(( stringfn(foo,bar,rod) )) functions -M with no arguments lists all such user-defined functions in the same form as a definition. With the additional option -m and a list of arguments, all functions whose mathfn matches one of the pattern arguments are listed. function +M removes the list of mathematical functions; with the additional option -m the arguments are treated as patterns and all functions whose mathfn matches the pattern are removed. Note that the shell function implementing the behaviour is not removed (regardless of whether its name coincides with mathfn). getcap See The zsh/cap Module . getln [ -AclneE ] name ... Read the top value from the buffer stack and put it in the shell parameter name. Equivalent to read -zr. getopts optstring name [ arg ... ] Checks the args for legal options. If the args are omitted, use the positional parameters. A valid option argument begins with a ‘+’ or a ‘-’. An argument not beginning with a ‘+’ or a ‘-’, or the argument ‘--’, ends the options. Note that a single ‘-’ is not considered a valid option argument. optstring contains the letters that getopts recognizes. If a letter is followed by a ‘:’, that option requires an argument. The options can be separated from the argument by blanks. Each time it is invoked, getopts places the option letter it finds in the shell parameter name, prepended with a ‘+’ when arg begins with a ‘+’. The index of the next arg is stored in OPTIND. The option argument, if any, is stored in OPTARG. The first option to be examined may be changed by explicitly assigning to OPTIND. OPTIND has an initial value of 1, and is normally set to 1 upon entry to a shell function and restored upon exit. (The POSIX_BUILTINS option disables this, and also changes the way the value is calculated to match other shells.) OPTARG is not reset and retains its value from the most recent call to getopts. If either of OPTIND or OPTARG is explicitly unset, it remains unset, and the index or option argument is not stored. The option itself is still stored in name in this case. A leading ‘:’ in optstring causes getopts to store the letter of any invalid option in OPTARG, and to set name to ‘?’ for an unknown option and to ‘:’ when a required argument is missing. Otherwise, getopts sets name to ‘?’ and prints an error message when an option is invalid. The exit status is nonzero when there are no more options. hash [ -Ldfmrv ] [ name[=value] ] ... hash can be used to directly modify the contents of the command A command name starting with a / is never hashed, whether by explicit use of the hash command or otherwise. Such a command is always found by direct look up in the file system. Given no arguments, and neither the -r or -f options, It will be subsequently rebuilt in the normal fashion. all the absolute directories in the PATH, These two options cannot be used with any arguments. The -m option causes the arguments to be taken as patterns matching those patterns are printed. This is the only way to display For each name with a corresponding value, put ‘name’ in whenever ‘name’ is used as a command argument, the shell will try to execute the file given by ‘value’. that ‘value’ may be referred to as ‘~name’. For each name with no checking what the appropriate value is in the normal manner for added by explicit specification. If has no effect if used with -f. the form of a call to hash. history Same as fc -l. integer [ {+|-}Hghlprtux ] [ {+|-}LRZi [ n ] ] [ name[=value] ... ] Equivalent to typeset -i, except that options irrelevant to integers are not permitted. jobs [ -dlprs ] [ job ... ] jobs -Z string Lists information about each given job, or all jobs if job is omitted. The -l flag lists process IDs, and the -p flag lists process groups. If the -r flag is specified only running jobs will be listed and if the -s flag is given only stopped jobs are shown. If the -d flag is given, the directory from which the job was started (which may not be the current directory of the job) will also be shown. The -Z option replaces the shell’s argument and environment space with the given string, truncated if necessary to fit. This will normally be visible in ps (ps(1)) listings. This feature is typically used by daemons, to indicate their state. Full job control is only available in the top-level interactive shell, not in commands run in the left hand side of pipelines or within the (...) construct. However, a snapshot of the job state at that point is taken, so it is still possible to use the jobs builtin, or any parameter providing job information. This gives information about the state of jobs at the point the subshell was created. If background processes are created within the subshell, then instead information about those processes is provided. For example, sleep 10 & # Job in background\n( # Shell forks\njobs # Shows information about \"sleep 10 &\"\nsleep 5 & # Process in background (no job control)\njobs # Shows information about \"sleep 5 &\"\n) kill [ -s signal_name | -n signal_number | -sig ] job ... kill -l [ sig ... ] Sends either SIGTERM or the specified signal to the given jobs or processes. Signals are given by number or by names, with or without the ‘SIG’ prefix. If the signal being sent is not ‘KILL’ or ‘CONT’, then the job will be sent a ‘CONT’ signal if it is stopped. The argument job can be the process ID of a job not in the job list. In the second form, kill -l, if sig is not specified the signal names are listed. Otherwise, for each sig that is a name, the corresponding signal number is listed. For each sig that is a signal number or a number representing the exit status of a process which was terminated or stopped by a signal the name of the signal is printed. On some systems, alternative signal names are allowed for a few signals. Typical examples are SIGCHLD and SIGCLD or SIGPOLL and SIGIO, assuming they correspond to the same signal number. kill -l will only list the preferred form, however kill -l alt will show if the alternative form corresponds to a signal number. For example, under Linux kill -l IO and kill -l POLL both output 29, hence kill -IO and kill -POLL have the same effect. Many systems will allow process IDs to be negative to kill a process group or zero to kill the current process group. let arg ... Evaluate each arg as an arithmetic expression. See Arithmetic Evaluation for a description of arithmetic expressions. The exit status is 0 if the value of the last expression is nonzero, 1 if it is zero, and 2 if an error occurred. limit [ -hs ] [ resource [ limit ] ] ... Set or display resource limits. Unless the -s flag is given, the limit applies only the children of the shell. If -s is given without other arguments, the resource limits of the current shell is set to the previously set resource limits of the children. If limit is not specified, print the current limit placed on resource, otherwise set the limit to the specified value. If the -h flag is given, use hard limits instead of soft limits. If no resource is given, print all limits. When looping over multiple resources, the shell will abort immediately if it detects a badly formed argument. However, if it fails to set a limit for some other reason it will continue trying to set the remaining limits. resource can be one of: addressspace Maximum amount of address space used. aiomemorylocked Maximum amount of memory locked in RAM for AIO operations. aiooperations Maximum number of AIO operations. cachedthreads Maximum number of cached threads. coredumpsize Maximum size of a core dump. cputime Maximum CPU seconds per process. datasize Maximum data size (including stack) for each process. descriptors Maximum value for a file descriptor. filesize Largest single file allowed. kqueues Maximum number of kqueues allocated. maxproc Maximum number of processes. maxpthreads Maximum number of threads per process. memorylocked Maximum amount of memory locked in RAM. memoryuse Maximum resident set size. msgqueue Maximum number of bytes in POSIX message queues. posixlocks Maximum number of POSIX locks per user. pseudoterminals Maximum number of pseudo-terminals. resident Maximum resident set size. sigpending Maximum number of pending signals. sockbufsize Maximum size of all socket buffers. stacksize Maximum stack size for each process. swapsize Maximum amount of swap used. vmemorysize Maximum amount of virtual memory. Which of these resource limits are available depends on the system. resource can be abbreviated to any unambiguous prefix. It can also be an integer, which corresponds to the integer defined for the resource by the operating system. If argument corresponds to a number which is out of the range of the resources configured into the shell, the shell will try to read or write the limit anyway, and will report an error if this fails. As the shell does not store such resources internally, an attempt to set the limit will fail unless the -s option is present. limit is a number, with an optional scaling factor, as follows: nh hours nk kilobytes (default) nm megabytes or minutes ng gigabytes [mm:]ss minutes and seconds The limit command is not made available by default when the shell starts in a mode emulating another shell. It can be made available with the command ‘zmodload -F zsh/rlimits b:limit’. local [ {+|-}AHUahlprtux ] [ {+|-}EFLRZi [ n ] ] [ name[=value] ... ] Same as typeset, except that the options -g, and -f are not permitted. In this case the -x option does not force the use of -g, i.e. exported variables will be local to functions. logout [ n ] Same as exit, except that it only works in a login shell. noglob simple command See Precommand Modifiers . popd [ -q ] [ {+|-}n ] Remove an entry from the directory stack, and perform a cd to the new top directory. With no argument, the current top entry is removed. An argument of the form ‘+n’ identifies a stack entry by counting from the left of the list shown by the dirs command, starting with zero. An argument of the form -n counts from the right. If the PUSHD_MINUS option is set, the meanings of ‘+’ and ‘-’ in this context are swapped. If the -q (quiet) option is specified, the hook function chpwd and the functions in the array $chpwd_functions are not called, and the new directory stack is not printed. This is useful for calls to popd that do not change the environment seen by an interactive user. print [ -abcDilmnNoOpPrsSz ] [ -u n ] [ -f format ] [ -C cols ] [ -v name ] [ -xX tabstop ] [ -R [ -en ]] [ arg ... ] With the ‘-f’ option the arguments are printed as described by printf. With no flags or with the flag ‘-’, the arguments are printed on the standard output as described by echo, with the following differences: the escape sequence ‘\\M-x’ (or ‘\\Mx’) metafies the character x (sets the highest bit), ‘\\C-x’ (or ‘\\Cx’) produces a control character (‘\\C-@’ and ‘\\C-?’ give the characters NULL and delete), a character code in octal is represented by ‘\\NNN’ (instead of ‘\\0NNN’), and ‘\\E’ is a synonym for ‘\\e’. Finally, if not in an escape sequence, ‘\\’ escapes the following character and is not printed. -a Print arguments with the column incrementing first. Only useful with the -c and -C options. -b Recognize all the escape sequences defined for the bindkey command, see Zle Builtins . -c Print the arguments in columns. Unless -a is also given, arguments are printed with the row incrementing first. -C cols Print the arguments in cols columns. Unless -a is also given, arguments are printed with the row incrementing first. -D Treat the arguments as paths, replacing directory prefixes with ~ expressions corresponding to directory names, as appropriate. -i If given together with -o or -O, sorting is performed case-independently. -l Print the arguments separated by newlines instead of spaces. Note: if the list of arguments is empty, print -l will still output one empty line. To print a possibly-empty list of arguments one per line, use print -C1, as in ‘print -rC1 – \"$list[@]\"’. -m Take the first argument as a pattern (should be quoted), and remove it from the argument list together with subsequent arguments that do not match this pattern. -n Do not add a newline to the output. -N Print the arguments separated and terminated by nulls. Again, print -rNC1 – \"$list[@]\" is a canonical way to print an arbitrary list as null-delimited records. -o Print the arguments sorted in ascending order. -O Print the arguments sorted in descending order. -p Print the arguments to the input of the coprocess. -P Perform prompt expansion (see Prompt Expansion ). In combination with ‘-f’, prompt escape sequences are parsed only within interpolated arguments, not within the format string. -r Ignore the escape conventions of echo. -R Emulate the BSD echo command, which does not process escape sequences unless the -e flag is given. The -n flag suppresses the trailing newline. Only the -e and -n flags are recognized after -R; all other arguments and options are printed. -s Place the results in the history list instead of on the standard output. Each argument to the print command is treated as a single word in the history, regardless of its content. -S Place the results in the history list instead of on the standard output. In this case only a single argument is allowed; it will be split into words as if it were a full shell command line. The effect is similar to reading the line from a history file with the HIST_LEX_WORDS option active. -u n Print the arguments to file descriptor n. -v name Store the printed arguments as the value of the parameter name. -x tab-stop Expand leading tabs on each line of output in the printed string assuming a tab stop every tab-stop characters. This is appropriate for formatting code that may be indented with tabs. Note that leading tabs of any argument to print, not just the first, are expanded, even if print is using spaces to separate arguments (the column count is maintained across arguments but may be incorrect on output owing to previous unexpanded tabs). The start of the output of each print command is assumed to be aligned with a tab stop. Widths of multibyte characters are handled if the option MULTIBYTE is in effect. This option is ignored if other formatting options are in effect, namely column alignment or printf style, or if output is to a special location such as shell history or the command line editor. -X tab-stop This is similar to -x, except that all tabs in the printed string are expanded. This is appropriate if tabs in the arguments are -z Push the arguments onto the editing buffer stack, separated by spaces. If any of ‘-m’, ‘-o’ or ‘-O’ are used in combination with ‘-f’ and there are no arguments (after the removal process in the case of ‘-m’) then nothing is printed. printf [ -v name ] format [ arg ... ] Print the arguments according to the format specification. Formatting rules are the same as used in C. The same escape sequences as for echo are recognised in the format. All C conversion specifications ending in one of csdiouxXeEfgGn are handled. In addition to this, ‘%b’ can be used instead of ‘%s’ to cause escape sequences in the argument to be recognised and ‘%q’ can be used to quote the argument in such a way that allows it to be reused as shell input. With the numeric format specifiers, if the corresponding argument starts with a quote character, the numeric value of the following character is used as the number to print; otherwise the argument is evaluated as an arithmetic expression. See Arithmetic Evaluation for a description of arithmetic expressions. With ‘%n’, the corresponding argument is taken as an identifier which is created as an integer parameter. Normally, conversion specifications are applied to each argument in order but they can explicitly specify the nth argument is to be used by replacing ‘%’ by ‘%n$’ and ‘*’ by ‘*n$’. It is recommended that you do not mix references of this explicit style with the normal style and the handling of such mixed styles may be subject to future change. If arguments remain unused after formatting, the format string is reused until all arguments have been consumed. With the print builtin, this can be suppressed by using the -r option. If more arguments are required by the format than have been specified, the behaviour is as if zero or an empty string had been specified as the argument. The -v option causes the output to be stored as the value of the parameter name, instead of printed. If name is an array and the format string is reused when consuming arguments then one array element will be used for each use of the format string. pushd [ -qsLP ] [ arg ] pushd [ -qsLP ] old new pushd [ -qsLP ] {+|-}n Change the current directory, and push the old current directory onto the directory stack. In the first form, change the current directory to arg. If arg is not specified, change to the second directory on the stack (that is, exchange the top two entries), or change to $HOME if the PUSHD_TO_HOME option is set or if there is only one entry on the stack. Otherwise, arg is interpreted as it would be by cd. The meaning of old and new in the second form is also the same as for cd. The third form of pushd changes directory by rotating the directory list. An argument of the form ‘+n’ identifies a stack entry by counting from the left of the list shown by the dirs command, starting with zero. An argument of the form ‘-n’ counts from the right. If the PUSHD_MINUS option is set, the meanings of ‘+’ and ‘-’ in this context are swapped. If the -q (quiet) option is specified, the hook function chpwd and the functions in the array $chpwd_functions are not called, and the new directory stack is not printed. This is useful for calls to pushd that do not change the environment seen by an interactive user. If the option -q is not specified and the shell option PUSHD_SILENT is not set, the directory stack will be printed after a pushd is performed. The options -s, -L and -P have the same meanings as for the cd builtin. pushln [ arg ... ] Equivalent to print -nz. pwd [ -rLP ] Print the absolute pathname of the current working directory. If the -r or the -P flag is specified, or the CHASE_LINKS option is set and the -L flag is not given, the printed path will not contain symbolic links. r Same as fc -e -. read [ -rszpqAclneE ] [ -t [ num ] ] [ -k [ num ] ] [ -d delim ] [ -u n ] [ [name][?prompt] ] [ name ... ] Read one line and break it into fields using the characters in $IFS as separators, except as noted below. The first field is assigned to the first name, the second field to the second name, etc., with leftover fields assigned to the last name. If name is omitted then REPLY is used for scalars and reply for arrays. -r Raw mode: a ‘\\’ at the end of a line does not signify line continuation and backslashes in the line don’t quote the following character and are not removed. -s Don’t echo back characters if reading from the terminal. -q Read only one character from the terminal and set name to ‘y’ if this character was ‘y’ or ‘Y’ and to ‘n’ otherwise. With this flag set the return status is zero only if the character was ‘y’ or ‘Y’. This option may be used with a timeout (see -t); if the read times out, or encounters end of file, status 2 is returned. Input is read from the terminal unless one of -u or -p is present. This option may also be used within zle widgets. -k [ num ] Read only one (or num) characters. All are assigned to the first name, without word splitting. This flag is ignored when -q is present. Input is read from the terminal unless one of -u or -p is present. This option may also be used within zle widgets. Note that despite the mnemonic ‘key’ this option does read full characters, which may consist of multiple bytes if the option MULTIBYTE is set. -z Read one entry from the editor buffer stack and assign it to the first name, without word splitting. Text is pushed onto the stack with ‘print -z’ or with push-line from the line editor (see Zsh Line Editor ). This flag is ignored when the -k or -q flags are present. -e -E The input read is printed (echoed) to the standard output. If the -e flag is used, no input is assigned to the parameters. -A The first name is taken as the name of an array and all words are assigned to it. -c -l These flags are allowed only if called inside a function used for completion (specified with the -K flag to compctl). If the -c flag is given, the words of the current command are read. If the -l flag is given, the whole line is assigned as a scalar. If both flags are present, -l is used and -c is ignored. -n Together with -c, the number of the word the cursor is on is read. With -l, the index of the character the cursor is on is read. Note that the command name is word number 1, not word 0, and that when the cursor is at the end of the line, its character index is the length of the line plus one. -u n Input is read from file descriptor n. -p Input is read from the coprocess. -d delim Input is terminated by the first character of delim instead of by newline. -t [ num ] Test if input is available before attempting to read. If num is present, it must begin with a digit and will be evaluated to give a number of seconds, which may be a floating point number; in this case the read times out if input is not available within this time. If num is not present, it is taken to be zero, so that read returns immediately if no input is available. If no input is available, return status 1 and do not set any variables. This option is not available when reading from the editor buffer with -z, when called from within completion with -c or -l, with -q which clears the input queue before reading, or within zle where other mechanisms should be used to test for input. Note that read does not attempt to alter the input processing mode. The default mode is canonical input, in which an entire line is read at a time, so usually ‘read -t’ will not read anything until an entire line has been typed. However, when reading from the terminal with -k input is processed one key at a time; in this case, only availability of the first character is tested, so that e.g. ‘read -t -k 2’ can still block on the second character. Use two instances of ‘read -t -k’ if this is not what is wanted. If the first argument contains a ‘?’, the remainder of this word is used as a prompt on standard error when the shell is interactive. The value (exit status) of read is 1 when an end-of-file is encountered, or when -c or -l is present and the command is not called from a compctl function, or as described for -q. Otherwise the value is 0. The behavior of some combinations of the -k, -p, -q, -u and -z flags is undefined. Presently -q cancels all the others, -p cancels -u, -k cancels -z, and otherwise -z cancels both -p and -u. The -c or -l flags cancel any and all of -kpquz. readonly Same as typeset -r. With the POSIX_BUILTINS option set, same as typeset -gr. rehash Same as hash -r. return [ n ] Causes a shell function or ‘.’ script to return to the invoking script with the return status specified by an arithmetic expression n. For example, the following prints ‘42’: () { integer foo=40; return \"foo + 2\" }\necho $? If n is omitted, the return status is that of the last command executed. If return was executed from a trap in a TRAPNAL function, the effect is different for zero and non-zero return status. With zero status (or after an implicit return at the end of the trap), the shell will return to whatever it was previously processing; with a non-zero status, the shell will behave as interrupted except that the return status of the trap is retained. Note that the numeric value of the signal which caused the trap is passed as the first argument, so the statement ‘return \"128+$1\"’ will return the same status as if the signal had not been trapped. sched See The zsh/sched Module . set [ {+|-}options | {+|-}o [ option_name ] ] ... [ {+|-}A [ name ] ] [ arg ... ] Set the options for the shell and/or set the positional parameters, or declare and set an array. If the -s option is given, it causes the specified arguments to be sorted before assigning them to the positional parameters (or to the array name if -A is used). With +s sort arguments in descending order. For the meaning of the other flags, see Options . Flags may be specified by name using the -o option. If no option name is supplied with -o, the current option states are printed: see the description of setopt below for more information on the format. With +o they are printed in a form that can be used as input to the shell. If the -A flag is specified, name is set to an array containing the given args; if no name is specified, all arrays are printed together with their values. If +A is used and name is an array, the given arguments will replace the initial elements of that array; if no name is specified, all arrays are printed without their values. The behaviour of arguments after -A name or +A name depends on whether the option KSH_ARRAYS is set. If it is not set, all arguments following name are treated as values for the array, regardless of their form. If the option is set, normal option processing continues at that point; only regular arguments are treated as values for the array. This means that set -A array -x -- foo sets array to ‘-x -- foo’ if KSH_ARRAYS is not set, but sets the array to foo and turns on the option ‘-x’ if it is set. If the -A flag is not present, but there are arguments beyond the options, the positional parameters are set. If the option list (if any) is terminated by ‘--’, and there are no further arguments, the positional parameters will be unset. If no arguments and no ‘--’ are given, then the names and values of all parameters are printed on the standard output. If the only argument is ‘+’, the names of all parameters are printed. For historical reasons, ‘set -’ is treated as ‘set +xv’ and ‘set - args’ as ‘set +xv – args’ when in any other emulation mode than zsh’s native mode. setcap See The zsh/cap Module . setopt [ {+|-}options | {+|-}o option_name ] [ -m ] [ name ... ] Set the options for the shell. All options specified either with flags or by name are set. If no arguments are supplied, the names of all options currently set are printed. The form is chosen so as to minimize the differences from the default options for the current emulation (the default emulation being native zsh, shown as in Description of Options ). Options that are on by default for the emulation are shown with the prefix no only if they are off, while other options are shown without the prefix no and only if they are on. In addition to options changed from the default state by the user, any options activated automatically by the shell (for example, SHIN_STDIN or INTERACTIVE) will be shown in the list. The format is further modified by the option KSH_OPTION_PRINT, however the rationale for choosing options with or without the no prefix remains the same in this case. If the -m flag is given the arguments are taken as patterns (which should be quoted to protect them from filename expansion), and all options with names matching these patterns are set. Note that a bad option name does not cause execution of subsequent shell code to be aborted; this is behaviour is different from that of ‘set -o’. This is because set is regarded as a special builtin by the POSIX standard, but setopt is not. shift [ -p ] [ n ] [ name ... ] The positional parameters ${n+1} ... are renamed to $1 ..., where n is an arithmetic expression that defaults to 1. If any names are given then the arrays with these names are shifted instead of the positional parameters. If the option -p is given arguments are instead removed (popped) from the end rather than the start of the array. source file [ arg ... ] Same as ‘.’, except that the current directory is always searched and is always searched first, before directories in $path. stat See The zsh/stat Module . suspend [ -f ] Suspend the execution of the shell (send it a SIGTSTP) until it receives a SIGCONT. Unless the -f option is given, this will refuse to suspend a login shell. test [ arg ... ] [ [ arg ... ] ] Like the system version of test. Added for compatibility; use conditional expressions instead (see Conditional Expressions ). The main differences between the conditional expression syntax and the test and [ builtins are: these commands are not handled syntactically, so for example an empty variable expansion may cause an argument to be omitted; syntax errors cause status 2 to be returned instead of a shell error; and arithmetic operators expect integer arguments rather than arithmetic expressions. The command attempts to implement POSIX and its extensions where these are specified. Unfortunately there are intrinsic ambiguities in the syntax; in particular there is no distinction between test operators and strings that resemble them. The standard attempts to resolve these for small numbers of arguments (up to four); for five or more arguments compatibility cannot be relied on. Users are urged wherever possible to use the ‘[[’ test syntax which does not have these ambiguities. times Print the accumulated user and system times for the shell and for processes run from the shell. trap [ arg ] [ sig ... ] arg is a series of commands (usually quoted to protect it from immediate evaluation by the shell) to be read and executed when the shell receives any of the signals specified by one or more sig args. Each sig can be given as a number, or as the name of a signal either with or without the string SIG in front (e.g. 1, HUP, and SIGHUP are all the same signal). If arg is ‘-’, then the specified signals are reset to their defaults, or, if no sig args are present, all traps are reset. If arg is an empty string, then the specified signals are ignored by the shell (and by the commands it invokes). If arg is omitted but one or more sig args are provided (i.e. the first argument is a valid signal number or name), the effect is the same as if arg had been specified as ‘-’. The trap command with no arguments prints a list of commands associated with each signal. If sig is ZERR then arg will be executed after each command with a nonzero exit status. ERR is an alias for ZERR on systems that have no SIGERR signal (this is the usual case). If sig is DEBUG then arg will be executed before each command if the option DEBUG_BEFORE_CMD is set (as it is by default), else after each command. Here, a ‘command’ is what is described as a ‘sublist’ in the shell grammar, see Simple Commands & Pipelines . If DEBUG_BEFORE_CMD is set various additional features are available. First, it is possible to skip the next command by setting the option ERR_EXIT; see the description of the ERR_EXIT option in Description of Options . Also, the shell parameter ZSH_DEBUG_CMD is set to the string corresponding to the command to be executed following the trap. Note that this string is reconstructed from the internal format and may not be formatted the same way as the original text. The parameter is unset after the trap is executed. If sig is 0 or EXIT and the trap statement is executed inside the body of a function, then the command arg is executed after the function completes. The value of $? at the start of execution is the exit status of the shell or the return status of the function exiting. If sig is 0 or EXIT and the trap statement is not executed inside the body of a function, then the command arg is executed when the shell terminates; the trap runs before any zshexit hook functions. ZERR, DEBUG, and EXIT traps are not executed inside other traps. ZERR and DEBUG traps are kept within subshells, while other traps are reset. Note that traps defined with the trap builtin are slightly different from those defined as ‘TRAPNAL () { ... }’, as the latter have their own function environment (line numbers, local variables, etc.) while the former use the environment of the command in which they were called. For example, trap 'print $LINENO' DEBUG will print the line number of a command executed after it has run, while TRAPDEBUG() { print $LINENO; } will always print the number zero. Alternative signal names are allowed as described under kill above. Defining a trap under either name causes any trap under an alternative name to be removed. However, it is recommended that for consistency users stick exclusively to one name or another. true [ arg ... ] Do nothing and return an exit status of 0. ttyctl [ -fu ] The -f option freezes the tty (i.e. terminal or terminal emulator), and -u unfreezes it. When the tty is frozen, no changes made to the tty settings by external programs will be honored by the shell, except for changes in the size of the screen; the shell will simply reset the settings to their previous values as soon as each command exits or is suspended. Thus, stty and similar programs have no effect when the tty is frozen. Freezing the tty does not cause the current state to be remembered: instead, it causes future changes to the state to be blocked. Without options it reports whether the terminal is frozen or not. Note that, regardless of whether the tty is frozen or not, the shell needs to change the settings when the line editor starts, so unfreezing the tty does not guarantee settings made on the command line are preserved. Strings of commands run between editing the command line will see a consistent tty state. See also the shell variable STTY for a means of initialising the tty before running external commands and/or freezing the tty around a single command. type [ -wfpamsS ] name ... Equivalent to whence -v. typeset [ {+|-}AHUaghlmrtux ] [ {+|-}EFLRZip [ n ] ] [ + ] [ name[=value] ... ] typeset -T [ {+|-}Uglrux ] [ {+|-}LRZp [ n ] ] [ + | SCALAR[=value] array[=(value ...)] [ sep ] ] typeset -f [ {+|-}TUkmtuz ] [ + ] [ name ... ] Set or display attributes and values for shell parameters. Except as noted below for control flags that change the behavior, a parameter is created for each name that does not already refer to one. When inside a function, a new parameter is created for every name (even those that already exist), and is unset again when the function completes. See Local Parameters . The same rules apply to special shell parameters, which retain their special attributes when made local. For each name=value assignment, the parameter name is set to value. If the assignment is omitted and name does not refer to an existing parameter, a new parameter is intialized to empty string, zero, or empty array (as appropriate), unless the shell option TYPESET_TO_UNSET is set. When that option is set, the parameter attributes are recorded but the parameter remains unset. If the shell option TYPESET_SILENT is not set, for each remaining name that refers to a parameter that is already set, the name and value of the parameter are printed in the form of an assignment. Nothing is printed for newly-created parameters, or when any attribute flags listed below are given along with the name. Using ‘+’ instead of minus to introduce an attribute turns it off. If no name is present, the names and values of all parameters are printed. In this case the attribute flags restrict the display to only those parameters that have the specified attributes, and using ‘+’ rather than ‘-’ to introduce the flag suppresses printing of the values of parameters when there is no parameter name. All forms of the command handle scalar assignment. Array assignment is possible if any of the reserved words declare, export, float, integer, local, readonly or typeset is matched when the line is parsed (N.B. not when it is executed). In this case the arguments are parsed as assignments, except that the ‘+=’ syntax and the GLOB_ASSIGN option are not supported, and scalar values after = are not split further into words, even if expanded (regardless of the setting of the KSH_TYPESET option; this option is obsolete). Examples of the differences between command and reserved word parsing: # Reserved word parsing\ntypeset svar=$(echo one word) avar=(several words) The above creates a scalar parameter svar and an array parameter avar as if the assignments had been svar=\"one word\"\navar=(several words) On the other hand: # Normal builtin interface\nbuiltin typeset svar=$(echo two words) The builtin keyword causes the above to use the standard builtin interface to typeset in which argument parsing is performed in the same way as for other commands. This example creates a scalar svar containing the value two and another scalar parameter words with no value. An array value in this case would either cause an error or be treated as an obscure set of glob qualifiers. Arbitrary arguments are allowed if they take the form of assignments after command line expansion; however, these only perform scalar assignment: var='svar=val'\ntypeset $var The above sets the scalar parameter svar to the value val. Parentheses around the value within var would not cause array assignment as they will be treated as ordinary characters when $var is substituted. Any non-trivial expansion in the name part of the assignment causes the argument to be treated in this fashion: typeset {var1,var2,var3}=name The above syntax is valid, and has the expected effect of setting the three parameters to the same value, but the command line is parsed as a set of three normal command line arguments to typeset after expansion. Hence it is not possible to assign to multiple arrays by this means. Note that each interface to any of the commands may be disabled separately. For example, ‘disable -r typeset’ disables the reserved word interface to typeset, exposing the builtin interface, while ‘disable typeset’ disables the builtin. Note that disabling the reserved word interface for typeset may cause problems with the output of ‘typeset -p’, which assumes the reserved word interface is available in order to restore array and associative array values. Unlike parameter assignment statements, typeset’s exit status on an assignment that involves a command substitution does not reflect the exit status of the command substitution. Therefore, to test for an error in a command substitution, separate the declaration of the parameter from its initialization: # WRONG\ntypeset var1=$(exit 1) || echo \"Trouble with var1\" # RIGHT\ntypeset var1 && var1=$(exit 1) || echo \"Trouble with var1\" To initialize a parameter param to a command output and mark it readonly, use typeset -r param or readonly param after the parameter assignment statement. If no attribute flags are given, and either no name arguments are present or the flag +m is used, then each parameter name printed is preceded by a list of the attributes of that parameter (array, association, exported, float, integer, readonly, or undefined for autoloaded parameters not yet loaded). If +m is used with attribute flags, and all those flags are introduced with +, the matching parameter names are printed but their values are not. The following control flags change the behavior of typeset: + If ‘+’ appears by itself in a separate word as the last option, then the names of all parameters (functions with -f) are printed, but the values (function bodies) are not. No name arguments may appear, and it is an error for any other options to follow ‘+’. The effect of ‘+’ is as if all attribute flags which precede it were given with a ‘+’ prefix. For example, ‘typeset -U +’ is equivalent to ‘typeset +U’ and displays the names of all arrays having the uniqueness attribute, whereas ‘typeset -f -U +’ displays the names of all autoloadable functions. If + is the only option, then type information (array, readonly, etc.) is also printed for each parameter, in the same manner as ‘typeset +m \"*\"’. -g The -g (global) means that any resulting parameter will not be restricted to local scope. Note that this does not necessarily mean that the parameter will be global, as the flag will apply to any existing parameter (even if unset) from an enclosing function. This flag does not affect the parameter after creation, hence it has no effect when listing existing parameters, nor does the flag +g have any effect except in combination with -m (see below). -m If the -m flag is given the name arguments are taken as patterns (use quoting to prevent these from being interpreted as file patterns). With no attribute flags, all parameters (or functions with the -f flag) with matching names are printed (the shell option TYPESET_SILENT is not used in this case). If the +g flag is combined with -m, a new local parameter is created for every matching parameter that is not already local. Otherwise -m applies all other flags or assignments to the existing parameters. Except when assignments are made with name=value, using +m forces the matching parameters and their attributes to be printed, even inside a function. Note that -m is ignored if no patterns are given, so ‘typeset -m’ displays attributes but ‘typeset -a +m’ does not. -p [ n ] If the -p option is given, parameters and values are printed in the form of a typeset command with an assignment, regardless of other flags and options. Note that the -H flag on parameters is respected; no value will be shown for these parameters. -p may be followed by an optional integer argument. Currently only the value 1 is supported. In this case arrays and associative arrays are printed with newlines between indented elements for readability. -T [ scalar[=value] array[=(value ...)] [ sep ] ] This flag has a different meaning when used with -f; see below. Otherwise the -T option requires zero, two, or three arguments to be present. With no arguments, the list of parameters created in this fashion is shown. With two or three arguments, the first two are the name of a scalar and of an array parameter (in that order) that will be tied together in the manner of $PATH and $path. The optional third argument is a single-character separator which will be used to join the elements of the array to form the scalar; if absent, a colon is used, as with $PATH. Only the first character of the separator is significant; any remaining characters are ignored. Multibyte characters are not yet supported. Only one of the scalar and array parameters may be assigned an initial value (the restrictions on assignment forms described above also apply). Both the scalar and the array may be manipulated as normal. If one is unset, the other will automatically be unset too. There is no way of untying the variables without unsetting them, nor of converting the type of one of them with another typeset command; +T does not work, assigning an array to scalar is an error, and assigning a scalar to array sets it to be a single-element array. Note that both ‘typeset -xT ...’ and ‘export -T ...’ work, but only the scalar will be marked for export. Setting the value using the scalar version causes a split on all separators (which cannot be quoted). It is possible to apply -T to two previously tied variables but with a different separator character, in which case the variables remain joined as before but the separator is changed. When an existing scalar is tied to a new array, the value of the scalar is preserved but no attribute other than export will be preserved. Attribute flags that transform the final value (-L, -R, -Z, -l, -u) are only applied to the expanded value at the point of a parameter expansion expression using ‘$’. They are not applied when a parameter is retrieved internally by the shell for any purpose. The following attribute flags may be specified: -A The names refer to associative array parameters; see Array Parameters . -L [ n ] Left justify and remove leading blanks from the value when the parameter is expanded. If n is nonzero, it defines the width of the field. If n is zero, the width is determined by the width of the value of the first assignment. In the case of numeric parameters, the length of the complete value assigned to the parameter is used to determine the width, not the value that would be output. The width is the count of characters, which may be multibyte characters if the MULTIBYTE option is in effect. Note that the screen width of the character is not taken into account; if this is required, use padding with parameter expansion flags ${(ml...)...} as described in ‘Parameter Expansion Flags’ in Parameter Expansion . When the parameter is expanded, it is filled on the right with blanks or truncated if necessary to fit the field. Note truncation can lead to unexpected results with numeric parameters. Leading zeros are removed if the -Z flag is also set. -R [ n ] Similar to -L, except that right justification is used; when the parameter is expanded, the field is left filled with blanks or truncated from the end. May not be combined with the -Z flag. -U For arrays (but not for associative arrays), keep only the first occurrence of each duplicated value. This may also be set for tied parameters (see -T) or colon-separated special parameters like PATH or FIGNORE, etc. Note the flag takes effect on assignment, and the type of the variable being assigned to is determinative; for variables with shared values it is therefore recommended to set the flag for all interfaces, e.g. ‘typeset -U PATH path’. This flag has a different meaning when used with -f; see below. -Z [ n ] Specially handled if set along with the -L flag. Otherwise, similar to -R, except that leading zeros are used for padding instead of blanks if the first non-blank character is a digit. Numeric parameters are specially handled: they are always eligible for padding with zeroes, and the zeroes are inserted at an appropriate place in the output. -a The names refer to array parameters. An array parameter may be created this way, but it may be assigned to in the typeset statement only if the reserved word form of typeset is enabled (as it is by default). When displaying, both normal and associative arrays are shown. -f The names refer to functions rather than parameters. No assignments can be made, and the only other valid flags are -t, -T, -k, -u, -U and -z. The flag -t turns on execution tracing for this function; the flag -T does the same, but turns off tracing for any named (not anonymous) function called from the present one, unless that function also has the -t or -T flag. The -u and -U flags cause the function to be marked for autoloading; -U also causes alias expansion to be suppressed when the function is loaded. See the description of the ‘autoload’ builtin for details. Note that the builtin functions provides the same basic capabilities as typeset -f but gives access to a few extra options; autoload gives further additional options for the case typeset -fu and typeset -fU. -h -H Hide value: specifies that typeset will not display the value of the parameter when listing parameters; the display for such parameters is always as if the ‘+’ flag had been given. Use of the parameter is in other respects normal, and the option does not apply if the parameter is specified by name, or by pattern with the -m option. This is on by default for the parameters in the zsh/parameter and zsh/mapfile modules. Note, however, that unlike the -h flag this is also useful for non-special parameters. -i [ n ] Use an internal integer representation. If n is nonzero it defines the output arithmetic base, otherwise it is determined by the first assignment. Bases from 2 to 36 inclusive are allowed. -E [ n ] Use an internal double-precision floating point representation. On output the variable will be converted to scientific notation. If n is nonzero it defines the number of significant figures to display; the default is ten. -F [ n ] Use an internal double-precision floating point representation. On output the variable will be converted to fixed-point decimal notation. If n is nonzero it defines the number of digits to display after the decimal point; the default is ten. -l Convert the result to lower case whenever the parameter is expanded. The value is not converted when assigned. -r The given names are marked readonly. Note that if name is a special parameter, the readonly attribute can be turned on, but cannot then be turned off. If the POSIX_BUILTINS option is set, the readonly attribute is more restrictive: unset variables can be marked readonly and cannot then be set; furthermore, the readonly attribute cannot be removed from any variable. It is still possible to change other attributes of the variable though, some of which like -U or -Z would affect the value. More generally, the readonly attribute should not be relied on as a security mechanism. Note that in zsh (like in pdksh but unlike most other shells) it is still possible to create a local variable of the same name as this is considered a different variable (though this variable, too, can be marked readonly). Special variables that have been made readonly retain their value and readonly attribute when made local. -t Tags the named parameters. Tags have no special meaning to the shell. This flag has a different meaning when used with -f; see above. -u Convert the result to upper case whenever the parameter is expanded. The value is not converted when assigned. This flag has a different meaning when used with -f; see above. -x Mark for automatic export to the environment of subsequently executed commands. If the option GLOBAL_EXPORT is set, this implies the option -g, unless +g is also explicitly given; in other words the parameter is not made local to the enclosing function. This is for compatibility with previous versions of zsh. ulimit [ -HSa ] [ { -bcdfiklmnpqrsTtvwx | -N resource } [ limit ] ... ] Set or display resource limits of the shell and the processes started by the shell. The value of limit can be a number in the unit specified below or one of the values ‘unlimited’, which removes the limit on the resource, or ‘hard’, which uses the current value of the hard limit on the resource. By default, only soft limits are manipulated. If the -H flag is given use hard limits instead of soft limits. If the -S flag is given together with the -H flag set both hard and soft limits. If no options are used, the file size limit (-f) is assumed. If limit is omitted the current value of the specified resources are printed. When more than one resource value is printed, the limit name and unit is printed before each value. When looping over multiple resources, the shell will abort immediately if it detects a badly formed argument. However, if it fails to set a limit for some other reason it will continue trying to set the remaining limits. Not all the following resources are supported on all systems. Running ulimit -a will show which are supported. -a Lists all of the current resource limits. -b Socket buffer size in bytes (N.B. not kilobytes) -c 512-byte blocks on the size of core dumps. -d Kilobytes on the size of the data segment. -f 512-byte blocks on the size of files written. -i The number of pending signals. -k The number of kqueues allocated. -l Kilobytes on the size of locked-in memory. -m Kilobytes on the size of physical memory. -n open file descriptors. -p The number of pseudo-terminals. -q Bytes in POSIX message queues. -r Maximum real time priority. On some systems where this is not available, such as NetBSD, this has the same effect as -T for compatibility with sh. -s Kilobytes on the size of the stack. -T The number of simultaneous threads available to the user. -t CPU seconds to be used. -u The number of processes available to the user. -v Kilobytes on the size of virtual memory. On some systems this refers to the limit called ‘address space’. -w Kilobytes on the size of swapped out memory. -x The number of locks on files. A resource may also be specified by integer in the form ‘-N resource’, where resource corresponds to the integer defined for the resource by the operating system. This may be used to set the limits for resources known to the shell which do not correspond to option letters. Such limits will be shown by number in the output of ‘ulimit -a’. The number may alternatively be out of the range of limits compiled into the shell. The shell will try to read or write the limit anyway, and will report an error if this fails. umask [ -S ] [ mask ] The umask is set to mask. mask can be either an octal number or a symbolic value as described in the chmod(1) man page. If mask is omitted, the current value is printed. The -S option causes the mask to be printed as a symbolic value. Otherwise, the mask is printed as an octal number. Note that in the symbolic form the permissions you specify are those which are to be allowed (not denied) to the users specified. unalias [ -ams ] name ... Removes aliases. This command works the same as unhash -a, except that the -a option removes all regular or global aliases, or with -s all suffix aliases: in this case no name arguments may appear. The options -m (remove by pattern) and -s without -a (remove listed suffix aliases) behave as for unhash -a. Note that the meaning of -a is different between unalias and unhash. unfunction Same as unhash -f. unhash [ -adfms ] name ... option causes unhash to remove regular or global aliases; note when removing a global aliases that the argument must be quoted to prevent it from being expanded before being passed to the command. The -s option causes unhash to remove suffix aliases. The -f option causes unhash to remove shell functions. The -d options causes unhash to remove named directories. If the -m flag is given the arguments are taken as patterns (should be quoted) and all elements unlimit [ -hs ] resource ... The resource limit for each resource is set to the hard limit. If the -h flag is given and the shell has appropriate privileges, the hard resource limit for each resource is removed. The resources of the shell process are only changed if the -s flag is given. The unlimit command is not made available by default when the shell starts in a mode emulating another shell. It can be made available with the command ‘zmodload -F zsh/rlimits b:unlimit’. unset [ -fmv ] name ... Each named parameter is unset. Local parameters remain local even if unset; they appear unset within scope, but the previous value will still reappear when the scope ends. Individual elements of associative array parameters may be unset by using subscript syntax on name, which should be quoted (or the entire command prefixed with noglob) to protect the subscript from filename generation. If the -m flag is specified the arguments are taken as patterns (should be quoted) and all parameters with matching names are unset. Note that this cannot be used when unsetting associative array elements, as the subscript will be treated as part of the pattern. The -v flag specifies that name refers to parameters. This is the default behaviour. unset -f is equivalent to unfunction. unsetopt [ {+|-}options | {+|-}o option_name ] [ name ... ] Unset the options for the shell. All options specified either with flags or by name are unset. If no arguments are supplied, the names of all options currently unset are printed. If the -m flag is given the arguments are taken as patterns (which should be quoted to preserve them from being interpreted as glob patterns), and all options with names matching these patterns are unset. vared See Zle Builtins . wait [ job ... ] Wait for the specified jobs or processes. If job is not given then all currently active child processes are waited for. Each job can be either a job specification or the process ID The exit status from this command is that of the job waited for. If job represents an unknown job or process ID, a warning is printed (unless the POSIX_BUILTINS option is set) and the exit status is 127. It is possible to wait for recent processes (specified by process ID, not by job) that were running in the background even if the process has exited. Typically the process ID will be recorded by capturing the value of the variable $! immediately after the process has been started. There is a limit on the number of process IDs remembered by the shell; this is given by the value of the system configuration parameter CHILD_MAX. When this limit is reached, older process IDs are discarded, least recently started processes first. Note there is no protection against the process ID wrapping, i.e. if the wait is not executed soon enough there is a chance the process waited for is the wrong one. A conflict implies both process IDs have been generated by the shell, as other processes are not recorded, and that the user is potentially interested in both, so this problem is intrinsic to process IDs. whence [ -vcwfpamsS ] [ -x num ] name ... For each name, indicate how it would be interpreted if used as a command name. If name is not an alias, built-in command, external command, shell function, hashed command, or a reserved word, the exit status shall be non-zero, and — if -v, -c, or -w was passed — a message will be written to standard output. (This is different from other shells that write that message to standard error.) whence is most useful when name is only the last path component of a command, i.e. does not include a ‘/’; in particular, pattern matching only succeeds if just the non-directory component of the command is passed. -v Produce a more verbose report. -c Print the results in a csh-like format. This takes precedence over -v. -w For each name, print ‘name: word’ where word is one of alias, builtin, command, function, hashed, reserved or none, according as name corresponds to an alias, a built-in command, an external command, a shell function, a command defined with the hash builtin, a reserved word, or is not recognised. This takes precedence over -v and -c. -f Causes the contents of a shell function to be displayed, which would otherwise not happen unless the -c flag were used. -p Do a path search for name even if it is an alias, reserved word, shell function or builtin. -a Do a search for all occurrences of name throughout the command path. Normally only the first occurrence is printed. -m The arguments are taken as patterns (pattern characters should be quoted), and the information is displayed for each command matching one of these patterns. -s If a pathname contains symlinks, print the symlink-free pathname as well. -S As -s, but if the pathname had to be resolved by following multiple symlinks, the intermediate steps are printed, too. The symlink resolved at each step might be anywhere in the path. -x num Expand tabs when outputting shell functions using the -c option. This has the same effect as the -x option to the functions builtin. where [ -wpmsS ] [ -x num ] name ... Equivalent to whence -ca. which [ -wpamsS ] [ -x num ] name ... Equivalent to whence -c. zcompile [ -U ] [ -z | -k ] [ -R | -M ] file [ name ... ] zcompile -ca [ -m ] [ -R | -M ] file [ name ... ] zcompile -t file [ name ... ] This builtin command can be used to compile functions or scripts, storing the compiled form in a file, and to examine files containing the compiled form. This allows faster autoloading of functions and sourcing of scripts by avoiding parsing of the text when the files are read. The first form (without the -c, -a or -t options) creates a compiled file. If only the file argument is given, the output file has the name ‘file.zwc’ and will be placed in the same directory as the file. The shell will load the compiled file instead of the normal function file when the function is autoloaded; see Functions for a description of how autoloaded functions are searched. The extension .zwc stands for ‘zsh word code’. If there is at least one name argument, all the named files are compiled into the output file given as the first argument. If file does not end in .zwc, this extension is automatically appended. Files containing multiple compiled functions are called ‘digest’ files, and are intended to be used as elements of the FPATH/fpath special array. The second form, with the -c or -a options, writes the compiled definitions for all the named functions into file. For -c, the names must be functions currently defined in the shell, not those marked for autoloading. Undefined functions that are marked for autoloading may be written by using the -a option, in which case the fpath is searched and the contents of the definition files for those functions, if found, are compiled into file. If both -c and -a are given, names of both defined functions and functions marked for autoloading may be given. In either case, the functions in files written with the -c or -a option will be autoloaded as if the KSH_AUTOLOAD option were unset. The reason for handling loaded and not-yet-loaded functions with different options is that some definition files for autoloading define multiple functions, including the function with the same name as the file, and, at the end, call that function. In such cases the output of ‘zcompile -c’ does not include the additional functions defined in the file, and any other initialization code in the file is lost. Using ‘zcompile -a’ captures all this extra information. If the -m option is combined with -c or -a, the names are used as patterns and all functions whose names match one of these patterns will be written. If no name is given, the definitions of all functions currently defined or marked as autoloaded will be written. Note the second form cannot be used for compiling functions that include redirections as part of the definition rather than within the body of the function; for example fn1() { { ... } >~/logfile } can be compiled but fn1() { ... } >~/logfile cannot. It is possible to use the first form of zcompile to compile autoloadable functions that include the full function definition instead of just the body of the function. The third form, with the -t option, examines an existing compiled file. Without further arguments, the names of the original files compiled into it are listed. The first line of output shows the version of the shell which compiled the file and how the file will be used (i.e. by reading it directly or by mapping it into memory). With arguments, nothing is output and the return status is set to zero if definitions for all names were found in the compiled file, and non-zero if the definition for at least one name was not found. Other options: -U Aliases are not expanded when compiling the named files. -R When the compiled file is read, its contents are copied into the shell’s memory, rather than memory-mapped (see -M). This happens automatically on systems that do not support memory mapping. When compiling scripts instead of autoloadable functions, it is often desirable to use this option; otherwise the whole file, including the code to define functions which have already been defined, will remain mapped, consequently wasting memory. -M The compiled file is mapped into the shell’s memory when read. This is done in such a way that multiple instances of the shell running on the same host will share this mapped file. If neither -R nor -M is given, the zcompile builtin decides what to do based on the size of the compiled file. -k -z These options are used when the compiled file contains functions which are to be autoloaded. If -z is given, the function will be autoloaded as if the KSH_AUTOLOAD option is not set, even if it is set at the time the compiled file is read, while if the -k is given, the function will be loaded as if KSH_AUTOLOAD is set. These options also take precedence over any -k or -z options specified to the autoload builtin. If neither of these options is given, the function will be loaded as determined by the setting of the KSH_AUTOLOAD option at the time the compiled file is read. These options may also appear as many times as necessary between the listed names to specify the loading style of all following functions, up to the next -k or -z. The created file always contains two versions of the compiled format, one for big-endian machines and one for small-endian machines. The upshot of this is that the compiled file is machine independent and if it is read or mapped, only one half of the file is actually used (and mapped). zformat See The zsh/zutil Module . zftp See The zsh/zftp Module . zle See Zle Builtins . zmodload [ -dL ] [ -s ] [ ... ] zmodload -F [ -alLme -P param ] module [ [+-]feature ... ] zmodload -e [ -A ] [ ... ] zmodload [ -a [ -bcpf [ -I ] ] ] [ -iL ] ... zmodload -u [ -abcdpf [ -I ] ] [ -iL ] ... zmodload -A [ -L ] [ modalias[=module] ... ] zmodload -R modalias ... Performs operations relating to zsh’s loadable modules. Loading of modules while the shell is running (‘dynamical loading’) is not available on all operating systems, or on all installations on a particular operating system, although the zmodload command itself is always available and can be used to manipulate modules built into versions of the Without arguments the names of all currently loaded binary modules are printed. The -L option causes this list to be in the form of a series of zmodload commands. Forms with arguments are: zmodload [ -is ] name ... zmodload -u [ -i ] name ... In the simplest case, zmodload loads a binary module. The module must be in a file with a name consisting of the specified name followed by a standard suffix, usually ‘.so’ (‘.sl’ on HPUX). If the module to be loaded is already loaded the duplicate module is ignored. If zmodload detects an inconsistency, such as an invalid module name or circular dependency list, the current code block is aborted. If it is available, the module is loaded if necessary, while if it is not available, non-zero status is silently returned. The option -i is accepted for compatibility but has no effect. The named module is searched for in the same way a command is, using $module_path instead of $path. However, the path search is performed even when the module name contains a ‘/’, which it usually does. There is no way to prevent the path search. If the module supports features (see below), zmodload tries to enable all features when loading a module. If the module was successfully loaded but not all features could be enabled, zmodload returns status 2. If the option -s is given, no error is printed if the module was not available (though other errors indicating a problem with the module are printed). The return status indicates if the module was loaded. This is appropriate if the caller considers the module optional. With -u, zmodload unloads modules. The same name must be given that was given when the module was loaded, but it is not necessary for the module to exist in the file system. The -i option suppresses the error if the module is already unloaded (or was never loaded). Each module has a boot and a cleanup function. The module will not be loaded if its boot function fails. Similarly a module can only be unloaded if its cleanup function runs successfully. zmodload -F [ -almLe -P param ] module [ [+-]feature ... ] zmodload -F allows more selective control over the features provided by modules. With no options apart from -F, the module named module is loaded, if it was not already loaded, and the list of features is set to the required state. If no features are specified, the module is loaded, if it was not already loaded, but the state of features is unchanged. Each feature may be preceded by a + to turn the feature on, or - to turn it off; the + is assumed if neither character is present. Any feature not explicitly mentioned is left in its current state; if the module was not previously loaded this means any such features will remain disabled. The return status is zero if all features were set, 1 if the module failed to load, and 2 if some features could not be set (for example, a parameter couldn’t be added because there was a different parameter of the same name) but the module was loaded. The standard features are builtins, conditions, parameters and math functions; these are indicated by the prefix ‘b:’, ‘c:’ (‘C:’ for an infix condition), ‘p:’ and ‘f:’, respectively, followed by the name that the corresponding feature would have in the shell. For example, ‘b:strftime’ indicates a builtin named strftime and p:EPOCHSECONDS indicates a parameter named EPOCHSECONDS. The module may provide other (‘abstract’) features of its own as indicated by its documentation; these have no prefix. With -l or -L, features provided by the module are listed. With -l alone, a list of features together with their states is shown, one feature per line. With -L alone, a zmodload -F command that would cause enabled features of the module to be turned on is shown. With -lL, a zmodload -F command that would cause all the features to be set to their current state is shown. If one of these combinations is given with the option -P param then the parameter param is set to an array of features, either features together with their state or (if -L alone is given) enabled features. With the option -L the module name may be omitted; then a list of all enabled features for all modules providing features is printed in the form of zmodload -F commands. If -l is also given, the state of both enabled and disabled features is output in that form. A set of features may be provided together with -l or -L and a module name; in that case only the state of those features is considered. Each feature may be preceded by + or - but the character has no effect. If no set of features is provided, all features are considered. With -e, the command first tests that the module is loaded; if it is not, status 1 is returned. If the module is loaded, the list of features given as an argument is examined. Any feature given with no prefix is simply tested to see if the module provides it; any feature given with a prefix + or - is tested to see if is provided and in the given state. If the tests on all features in the list succeed, status 0 is returned, else status 1. With -m, each entry in the given list of features is taken as a pattern to be matched against the list of features provided by the module. An initial + or - must be given explicitly. This may not be combined with the -a option as autoloads must be specified explicitly. With -a, the given list of features is marked for autoload from the specified module, which may not yet be loaded. An optional + may appear before the feature name. If the feature is prefixed with -, any existing autoload is removed. The options -l and -L may be used to list autoloads. Autoloading is specific to individual features; when the module is loaded only the requested feature is enabled. Autoload requests are preserved if the module is subsequently unloaded until an explicit ‘zmodload -Fa module -feature’ is issued. It is not an error to request an autoload for a feature of a module that is already loaded. When the module is loaded each autoload is checked against the features actually provided by the module; if the feature is not provided the autoload request is deleted. A warning message is output; if the module is being loaded to provide a different feature, and that autoload is successful, there is no effect on the status of the current command. If the module is already loaded at the time when zmodload -Fa is run, an error message is printed and status 1 returned. zmodload -Fa can be used with the -l, -L, -e and -P options for listing and testing the existence of autoloadable features. In this case -l is ignored if -L is specified. zmodload -FaL with no module name lists autoloads for all modules. Note that only standard features as described above can be autoloaded; other features require the module to be loaded before enabling. zmodload -d [ -L ] [ name ] zmodload -d name dep ... zmodload -ud name [ dep ... ] The -d option can be used to specify module dependencies. The modules named in the second and subsequent arguments will be loaded before the module named in the first argument. With -d and one argument, all dependencies for that module are listed. With -d and no arguments, all module dependencies are listed. This listing is by default in a Makefile-like format. The -L option changes this format to a list of zmodload -d commands. If -d and -u are both used, dependencies are removed. If only one argument is given, all dependencies for that module are removed. zmodload -ab [ -L ] zmodload -ab [ -i ] name [ builtin ... ] zmodload -ub [ -i ] builtin ... The -ab option defines autoloaded builtins. It defines the specified builtins. When any of those builtins is called, the module specified in the first argument is loaded and all its features are enabled (for selective control of features use ‘zmodload -F -a’ as described above). If only the name is given, one builtin is defined, with the same name as the module. -i suppresses the error if the builtin is already defined or autoloaded, but not if another builtin of the same name is already defined. With -ab and no arguments, all autoloaded builtins are listed, with the module name (if different) shown in parentheses after the builtin name. The -L option changes this format to a list of zmodload -a commands. If -b is used together with the -u option, it removes builtins previously defined with -ab. This is only possible if the builtin is not yet loaded. -i suppresses the error if the builtin is already removed (or never existed). Autoload requests are retained if the module is subsequently unloaded until an explicit ‘zmodload -ub builtin’ is issued. zmodload -ac [ -IL ] zmodload -ac [ -iI ] name [ cond ... ] zmodload -uc [ -iI ] cond ... The -ac option is used to define autoloaded condition codes. The cond strings give the names of the conditions defined by the module. The optional -I option is used to define infix condition names. Without this option prefix condition names are defined. If given no condition names, all defined names are listed (as a series of zmodload commands if the -L option is given). The -uc option removes definitions for autoloaded conditions. zmodload -ap [ -L ] zmodload -ap [ -i ] name [ parameter ... ] zmodload -up [ -i ] parameter ... The -p option is like the -b and -c options, but makes zmodload work on autoloaded parameters instead. zmodload -af [ -L ] zmodload -af [ -i ] name [ function ... ] zmodload -uf [ -i ] function ... The -f option is like the -b, -p, and -c options, but makes zmodload work on autoloaded math functions instead. zmodload -a [ -L ] zmodload -a [ -i ] name [ builtin ... ] zmodload -ua [ -i ] builtin ... Equivalent to -ab and -ub. zmodload -e [ -A ] [ string ... ] The -e option without arguments lists all loaded modules; if the -A option is also given, module aliases corresponding to loaded modules are also shown. If arguments are provided, nothing is printed; the return status is set to zero if all strings given as arguments are names of loaded modules and to one if at least on string is not the name of a loaded module. This can be used to test for the availability of things implemented by modules. In this case, any aliases are automatically resolved and the -A flag is not used. zmodload -A [ -L ] [ modalias[=module] ... ] For each argument, if both modalias and module are given, define modalias to be an alias for the module module. If the module modalias is ever subsequently requested, either via a call to zmodload or implicitly, the shell will attempt to load module instead. If module is not given, show the definition of modalias. If no arguments are given, list all defined module aliases. When listing, if the -L flag was also given, list the definition as a zmodload command to recreate the alias. The existence of aliases for modules is completely independent of whether the name resolved is actually loaded as a module: while the alias exists, loading and unloading the module under any alias has exactly the same effect as using the resolved name, and does not affect the connection between the alias and the resolved name which can be removed either by zmodload -R or by redefining the alias. Chains of aliases (i.e. where the first resolved name is itself an alias) are valid so long as these are not circular. As the aliases take the same format as module names, they may include path separators: in this case, there is no requirement for any part of the path named to exist as the alias will be resolved first. For example, ‘any/old/alias’ is always a valid alias. Dependencies added to aliased modules are actually added to the resolved module; these remain if the alias is removed. It is valid to create an alias whose name is one of the standard shell modules and which resolves to a different module. However, if a module has dependencies, it will not be possible to use the module name as an alias as the module will already be marked as a loadable module in its own right. Apart from the above, aliases can be used in the zmodload command anywhere module names are required. However, aliases will not be shown in lists of loaded modules with a bare ‘zmodload’. zmodload -R modalias ... For each modalias argument that was previously defined as a module alias via zmodload -A, delete the alias. If any was not defined, an error is caused and the remainder of the line is ignored. Note that zsh makes no distinction between modules that were linked into the shell and modules that are loaded dynamically. In both cases this builtin command has to be used to make available the builtins and other things defined by modules (unless the module is autoloaded on these definitions). This is true even for systems that don’t support dynamic loading of modules. zparseopts See The zsh/zutil Module . zprof See The zsh/zprof Module . zpty See The zsh/zpty Module . zregexparse See The zsh/zutil Module . zsocket See The zsh/net/socket Module . zstyle See The zsh/zutil Module . ztcp See The zsh/net/tcp Module . This document was generated on May 14, 2022 using texi2html 5.0 . Zsh version 5.9, released on May 14, 2022.","breadcrumbs":"Shell Builtin Commands » 17 Shell Builtin Commands","id":"122","title":"17 Shell Builtin Commands"},"123":{"body":"Table of Contents generated with DocToc 18 Zsh Line Editor 18.1 Description 18.2 Keymaps 18.2.1 Reading Commands 18.2.2 Local Keymaps 18.3 Zle Builtins 18.4 Zle Widgets 18.5 User-Defined Widgets 18.5.1 Special Widgets 18.6 Standard Widgets 18.6.1 Movement 18.6.2 History Control 18.6.3 Modifying Text 18.6.4 Arguments 18.6.5 Completion 18.6.6 Miscellaneous 18.6.7 Text Objects 18.7 Character Highlighting","breadcrumbs":"Zsh Line Editor » 18 Zsh Line Editor","id":"123","title":"18 Zsh Line Editor"},"124":{"body":"If the ZLE option is set (which it is by default in interactive shells) and the shell input is attached to the terminal, the user is able to edit command lines. There are two display modes. The first, multiline mode, is the default. It only works if the TERM parameter is set to a valid terminal type that can move the cursor up. The second, single line mode, is used if TERM is invalid or incapable of moving the cursor up, or if the SINGLE_LINE_ZLE option is set. This mode is similar to ksh, and uses no termcap sequences. If TERM is \"emacs\", the ZLE option will be unset by default. The parameters BAUD, COLUMNS, and LINES are also used by the line editor. See Parameters Used By The Shell . The parameter zle_highlight is also used by the line editor; see Character Highlighting . Highlighting of special characters and the region between the cursor and the mark (as set with set-mark-command in Emacs mode, or by visual-mode in Vi mode) is enabled by default; consult this reference for more information. Irascible conservatives will wish to know that all highlighting may be disabled by the following setting: zle_highlight=(none) In many places, references are made to the numeric argument. This can by default be entered in emacs mode by holding the alt key and typing a number, or pressing escape before each digit, and in vi command mode by typing the number before entering a command. Generally the numeric argument causes the next command entered to be repeated the specified number of times, unless otherwise noted below; this is implemented by the digit-argument widget. See also Arguments for some other ways the numeric argument can be modified.","breadcrumbs":"Zsh Line Editor » 18.1 Description","id":"124","title":"18.1 Description"},"125":{"body":"A keymap in ZLE contains a set of bindings between key sequences and ZLE commands. The empty key sequence cannot be bound. There can be any number of keymaps at any time, and each keymap has one or more names. If all of a keymap’s names are deleted, it disappears. bindkey can be used to manipulate keymap names. Initially, there are eight keymaps: emacs EMACS emulation viins vi emulation - insert mode vicmd vi emulation - command mode viopp vi emulation - operator pending visual vi emulation - selection active isearch incremental search mode command read a command name .safe fallback keymap The ‘.safe’ keymap is special. It can never be altered, and the name can never be removed. However, it can be linked to other names, which can be removed. In the future other special keymaps may be added; users should avoid using names beginning with ‘.’ for their own keymaps. In addition to these names, either ‘emacs’ or ‘viins’ is also linked to the name ‘main’. If one of the VISUAL or EDITOR environment variables contain the string ‘vi’ when the shell starts up then it will be ‘viins’, otherwise it will be ‘emacs’. bindkey’s -e and -v options provide a convenient way to override this default choice. When the editor starts up, it will select the ‘main’ keymap. If that keymap doesn’t exist, it will use ‘.safe’ instead. In the ‘.safe’ keymap, each single key is bound to self-insert, except for ^J (line feed) and ^M (return) which are bound to accept-line. This is deliberately not pleasant to use; if you are using it, it means you deleted the main keymap, and you should put it back.","breadcrumbs":"Zsh Line Editor » 18.2 Keymaps","id":"125","title":"18.2 Keymaps"},"126":{"body":"When ZLE is reading a command from the terminal, it may read a sequence that is bound to some command and is also a prefix of a longer bound string. In this case ZLE will wait a certain time to see if more characters are typed, and if not (or they don’t match any longer string) it will execute the binding. This timeout is defined by the KEYTIMEOUT parameter; its default is 0.4 sec. There is no timeout if the prefix string is not itself bound to a command. The key timeout is also applied when ZLE is reading the bytes from a multibyte character string when it is in the appropriate mode. (This requires that the shell was compiled with multibyte mode enabled; typically also the locale has characters with the UTF-8 encoding, although any multibyte encoding known to the operating system is supported.) If the second or a subsequent byte is not read within the timeout period, the shell acts as if ? were typed and resets the input state. As well as ZLE commands, key sequences can be bound to other strings, by using ‘bindkey -s’. When such a sequence is read, the replacement string is pushed back as input, and the command reading process starts again using these fake keystrokes. This input can itself invoke further replacement strings, but in order to detect loops the process will be stopped if there are twenty such replacements without a real command being read. A key sequence typed by the user can be turned into a command name for use in user-defined widgets with the read-command widget, described in Miscellaneous below.","breadcrumbs":"Zsh Line Editor » 18.2.1 Reading Commands","id":"126","title":"18.2.1 Reading Commands"},"127":{"body":"While for normal editing a single keymap is used exclusively, in many modes a local keymap allows for some keys to be customised. For example, in an incremental search mode, a binding in the isearch keymap will override a binding in the main keymap but all keys that are not overridden can still be used. If a key sequence is defined in a local keymap, it will hide a key sequence in the global keymap that is a prefix of that sequence. An example of this occurs with the binding of iw in viopp as this hides the binding of i in vicmd. However, a longer sequence in the global keymap that shares the same prefix can still apply so for example the binding of ^Xa in the global keymap will be unaffected by the binding of ^Xb in the local keymap.","breadcrumbs":"Zsh Line Editor » 18.2.2 Local Keymaps","id":"127","title":"18.2.2 Local Keymaps"},"128":{"body":"The ZLE module contains three related builtin commands. The bindkey command manipulates keymaps and key bindings; the vared command invokes ZLE on the value of a shell parameter; and the zle command manipulates editing widgets and allows command line access to ZLE commands from within shell functions. bindkey [ options ] -l [ -L ] [ keymap ... ] bindkey [ options ] -d bindkey [ options ] -D keymap ... bindkey [ options ] -A old-keymap new-keymap bindkey [ options ] -N new-keymap [ old-keymap ] bindkey [ options ] -m bindkey [ options ] -r in-string ... bindkey [ options ] -s in-string out-string ... bindkey [ options ] in-string command ... bindkey [ options ] [ in-string ] bindkey’s options can be divided into three categories: keymap selection for the current command, operation selection, and others. The keymap selection options are: -e Selects keymap ‘emacs’ for any operations by the current command, and also links ‘emacs’ to ‘main’ so that it is selected by default the next time the editor starts. -v Selects keymap ‘viins’ for any operations by the current command, and also links ‘viins’ to ‘main’ so that it is selected by default the next time the editor starts. -a Selects keymap ‘vicmd’ for any operations by the current command. -M keymap The keymap specifies a keymap name that is selected for any operations by the current command. If a keymap selection is required and none of the options above are used, the ‘main’ keymap is used. Some operations do not permit a keymap to be selected, namely: -l List all existing keymap names; if any arguments are given, list just those keymaps. If the -L option is also used, list in the form of bindkey commands to create or link the keymaps. ‘bindkey -lL main’ shows which keymap is linked to ‘main’, if any, and hence if the standard emacs or vi emulation is in effect. This option does not show the .safe keymap because it cannot be created in that fashion; however, neither is ‘bindkey -lL .safe’ reported as an error, it simply outputs nothing. -d Delete all existing keymaps and reset to the default state. -D keymap ... Delete the named keymaps. -A old-keymap new-keymap Make the new-keymap name an alias for old-keymap, so that both names refer to the same keymap. The names have equal standing; if either is deleted, the other remains. If there is already a keymap with the new-keymap name, it is deleted. -N new-keymap [ old-keymap ] Create a new keymap, named new-keymap. If a keymap already has that name, it is deleted. If an old-keymap name is given, the new keymap is initialized to be a duplicate of it, otherwise the new keymap will be empty. To use a newly created keymap, it should be linked to main. Hence the sequence of commands to create and use a new keymap ‘mymap’ initialized from the emacs keymap (which remains unchanged) is: bindkey -N mymap emacs\nbindkey -A mymap main Note that while ‘bindkey -A newmap main’ will work when newmap is emacs or viins, it will not work for vicmd, as switching from vi insert to command mode becomes impossible. The following operations act on the ‘main’ keymap if no keymap selection option was given: -m Add the built-in set of meta-key bindings to the selected keymap. Only keys that are unbound or bound to self-insert are affected. -r in-string ... Unbind the specified in-strings in the selected keymap. This is exactly equivalent to binding the strings to undefined-key. When -R is also used, interpret the in-strings as ranges. When -p is also used, the in-strings specify prefixes. Any binding that has the given in-string as a prefix, not including the binding for the in-string itself, if any, will be removed. For example, bindkey -rpM viins '^[' will remove all bindings in the vi-insert keymap beginning with an escape character (probably cursor keys), but leave the binding for the escape character itself (probably vi-cmd-mode). This is incompatible with the option -R. -s in-string out-string ... Bind each in-string to each out-string. When in-string is typed, out-string will be pushed back and treated as input to the line editor. When -R is also used, interpret the in-strings as ranges. Note that both in-string and out-string are subject to the same form of interpretation, as described below. in-string command ... Bind each in-string to each command. When -R is used, interpret the in-strings as ranges. [ in-string ] List key bindings. If an in-string is specified, the binding of that string in the selected keymap is displayed. Otherwise, all key bindings in the selected keymap are displayed. (As a special case, if the -e or -v option is used alone, the keymap is not displayed - the implicit linking of keymaps is the only thing that happens.) When the option -p is used, the in-string must be present. The listing shows all bindings which have the given key sequence as a prefix, not including any bindings for the key sequence itself. When the -L option is used, the list is in the form of bindkey commands to create the key bindings. When the -R option is used as noted above, a valid range consists of two characters, with an optional ‘-’ between them. All characters between the two specified, inclusive, are bound as specified. For either in-string or out-string, the following escape sequences are recognised: \\a bell character \\b backspace \\e, \\E escape \\f form feed \\n linefeed (newline) \\r carriage return \\t horizontal tab \\v vertical tab \\NNN character code in octal \\xNN character code in hexadecimal \\uNNNN unicode character code in hexadecimal \\UNNNNNNNN unicode character code in hexadecimal \\M[-]X character with meta bit set \\C[-]X control character ^X control character In all other cases, ‘\\’ escapes the following character. Delete is written as ‘^?’. Note that ‘\\M^?’ and ‘^\\M?’ are not the same, and that (unlike emacs), the bindings ‘\\M-X’ and ‘\\eX’ are entirely distinct, although they are initialized to the same bindings by ‘bindkey -m’. vared [ -Aacghe ] [ -p prompt ] [ -r rprompt ] [ -M main-keymap ] [ -m vicmd-keymap ] [ -i init-widget ] [ -f finish-widget ] [ -t tty ] name The value of the parameter name is loaded into the edit buffer, and the line editor is invoked. When the editor exits, name is set to the string value returned by the editor. When the -c flag is given, the parameter is created if it doesn’t already exist. The -a flag may be given with -c to create an array parameter, or the -A flag to create an associative array. If the type of an existing parameter does not match the type to be created, the parameter is unset and recreated. The -g flag may be given to suppress warnings from the WARN_CREATE_GLOBAL and WARN_NESTED_VAR options. If an array or array slice is being edited, separator characters as defined in $IFS will be shown quoted with a backslash, as will backslashes themselves. Conversely, when the edited text is split into an array, a backslash quotes an immediately following separator character or backslash; no other special handling of backslashes, or any handling of quotes, is performed. Individual elements of existing array or associative array parameters may be edited by using subscript syntax on name. New elements are created automatically, even without -c. If the -p flag is given, the following string will be taken as the prompt to display at the left. If the -r flag is given, the following string gives the prompt to display at the right. If the -h flag is specified, the history can be accessed from ZLE. If the -e flag is given, typing ^D (Control-D) on an empty line causes vared to exit immediately with a non-zero return value. The -M option gives a keymap to link to the main keymap during editing, and the -m option gives a keymap to link to the vicmd keymap during editing. For vi-style editing, this allows a pair of keymaps to override viins and vicmd. For emacs-style editing, only -M is normally needed but the -m option may still be used. On exit, the previous keymaps will be restored. Vared calls the usual ‘zle-line-init’ and ‘zle-line-finish’ hooks before and after it takes control. Using the -i and -f options, it is possible to replace these with other custom widgets. If ‘-t tty’ is given, tty is the name of a terminal device to be used instead of the default /dev/tty. If tty does not refer to a terminal an error is reported. zle zle -l [ -L | -a ] [ string ... ] zle -D widget ... zle -A old-widget new-widget zle -N widget [ function ] zle -f flag [ flag... ] zle -C widget completion-widget function zle -R [ -c ] [ display-string ] [ string ... ] zle -M string zle -U string zle -K keymap zle -F [ -L | -w ] [ fd [ handler ] ] zle -I zle -T [ tc function | -r tc | -L ] zle widget [ -n num ] [ -f flag ] [ -Nw ] [ -K keymap ] args ... The zle builtin performs a number of different actions concerning ZLE. With no options and no arguments, only the return status will be set. It is zero if ZLE is currently active and widgets could be invoked using this builtin command and non-zero otherwise. Note that even if non-zero status is returned, zle may still be active as part of the completion system; this does not allow direct calls to ZLE widgets. Otherwise, which operation it performs depends on its options: -l [ -L | -a ] [ string ] List all existing user-defined widgets. If the -L option is used, list in the form of zle commands to create the widgets. When combined with the -a option, all widget names are listed, including the builtin ones. In this case the -L option is ignored. If at least one string is given, and -a is present or -L is not used, nothing will be printed. The return status will be zero if all strings are names of existing widgets and non-zero if at least one string is not a name of a defined widget. If -a is also present, all widget names are used for the comparison including builtin widgets, else only user-defined widgets are used. If at least one string is present and the -L option is used, user-defined widgets matching any string are listed in the form of zle commands to create the widgets. -D widget ... Delete the named widgets. -A old-widget new-widget Make the new-widget name an alias for old-widget, so that both names refer to the same widget. The names have equal standing; if either is deleted, the other remains. If there is already a widget with the new-widget name, it is deleted. -N widget [ function ] Create a user-defined widget. If there is already a widget with the specified name, it is overwritten. When the new widget is invoked from within the editor, the specified shell function is called. If no function name is specified, it defaults to the same name as the widget. For further information, see Zle Widgets . -f flag [ flag... ] Set various flags on the running widget. Possible values for flag are: yank for indicating that the widget has yanked text into the buffer. If the widget is wrapping an existing internal widget, no further action is necessary, but if it has inserted the text manually, then it should also take care to set YANK_START and YANK_END correctly. yankbefore does the same but is used when the yanked text appears after the cursor. kill for indicating that text has been killed into the cutbuffer. When repeatedly invoking a kill widget, text is appended to the cutbuffer instead of replacing it, but when wrapping such widgets, it is necessary to call ‘zle -f kill’ to retain this effect. vichange for indicating that the widget represents a vi change that can be repeated as a whole with ‘vi-repeat-change’. The flag should be set early in the function before inspecting the value of NUMERIC or invoking other widgets. This has no effect for a widget invoked from insert mode. If insert mode is active when the widget finishes, the change extends until next returning to command mode. -C widget completion-widget function Create a user-defined completion widget named widget. The completion widget will behave like the built-in completion-widget whose name is given as completion-widget. To generate the completions, the shell function function will be called. For further information, see Completion Widgets . -R [ -c ] [ display-string ] [ string ... ] Redisplay the command line. If a display-string is given and not empty, this is shown in the status line (immediately below the line being edited). If the optional strings are given they are listed below the prompt in the same way as completion lists are printed. If no strings are given but the -c option is used such a list is cleared. Note that immediately after returning from running widgets, the command line will be redisplayed and the strings displayed will be erased. Therefore, this option is only useful for widgets that do not exit immediately after using it. This command can safely be called outside user defined widgets; if zle is active, the display will be refreshed, while if zle is not active, the command has no effect. In this case there will usually be no other arguments. The status is zero if zle was active, else one. -M string As with the -R option, the string will be displayed below the command line; unlike the -R option, the string will not be put into the status line but will instead be printed normally below the prompt. This means that the string will still be displayed after the widget returns (until it is overwritten by subsequent commands). -U string This pushes the characters in the string onto the input stack of ZLE. After the widget currently executed finishes ZLE will behave as if the characters in the string were typed by the user. As ZLE uses a stack, if this option is used repeatedly the last string pushed onto the stack will be processed first. However, the characters in each string will be processed in the order in which they appear in the string. -K keymap Selects the keymap named keymap. An error message will be displayed if there is no such keymap. This keymap selection affects the interpretation of following keystrokes within this invocation of ZLE. Any following invocation (e.g., the next command line) will start as usual with the ‘main’ keymap selected. -F [ -L | -w ] [ fd [ handler ] ] Only available if your system supports one of the ‘poll’ or ‘select’ system calls; most modern systems do. Installs handler (the name of a shell function) to handle input from file descriptor fd. Installing a handler for an fd which is already handled causes the existing handler to be replaced. Any number of handlers for any number of readable file descriptors may be installed. Note that zle makes no attempt to check whether this fd is actually readable when installing the handler. The user must make their own arrangements for handling the file descriptor when zle is not active. When zle is attempting to read data, it will examine both the terminal and the list of handled fd’s. If data becomes available on a handled fd, zle calls handler with the fd which is ready for reading as the first argument. Under normal circumstances this is the only argument, but if an error was detected, a second argument provides details: ‘hup’ for a disconnect, ‘nval’ for a closed or otherwise invalid descriptor, or ‘err’ for any other condition. Systems that support only the ‘select’ system call always use ‘err’. If the option -w is also given, the handler is instead a line editor widget, typically a shell function made into a widget using ‘zle -N’. In that case handler can use all the facilities of zle to update the current editing line. Note, however, that as handling fd takes place at a low level changes to the display will not automatically appear; the widget should call ‘zle -R’ to force redisplay. As of this writing, widget handlers only support a single argument and thus are never passed a string for error state, so widgets must be prepared to test the descriptor themselves. If either type of handler produces output to the terminal, it should call ‘zle -I’ before doing so (see below). Handlers should not attempt to read from the terminal. If no handler is given, but an fd is present, any handler for that fd is removed. If there is none, an error message is printed and status 1 is returned. If no arguments are given, or the -L option is supplied, a list of handlers is printed in a form which can be stored for later execution. An fd (but not a handler) may optionally be given with the -L option; in this case, the function will list the handler if any, else silently return status 1. Note that this feature should be used with care. Activity on one of the fd’s which is not properly handled can cause the terminal to become unusable. Removing an fd handler from within a signal trap may cause Here is a simple example of using this feature. A connection to a remote TCP port is created using the ztcp command; see The zsh/net/tcp Module . Then a handler is installed which simply prints out any data which arrives on this connection. Note that ‘select’ will indicate that the file descriptor needs handling if the remote side has closed the connection; we handle that by testing for a failed read. if ztcp pwspc 2811; then tcpfd=$REPLY handler() { zle -I local line if ! read -r line <&$1; then # select marks this fd if we reach EOF, # so handle this specially. print \"[Read on fd $1 failed, removing.]\" >&2 zle -F $1 return 1 fi print -r - $line } zle -F $tcpfd handler\nfi -I Unusually, this option is most useful outside ordinary widget functions, though it may be used within if normal output to the terminal is required. It invalidates the current zle display in preparation for output; typically this will be from a trap function. It has no effect if zle is not active. When a trap exits, the shell checks to see if the display needs restoring, hence the following will print output in such a way as not to disturb the line being edited: TRAPUSR1() { # Invalidate zle display [[ -o zle ]] && zle -I # Show output print Hello\n} In general, the trap function may need to test whether zle is active before using this method (as shown in the example), since the zsh/zle module may not even be loaded; if it is not, the command can be skipped. It is possible to call ‘zle -I’ several times before control is returned to the editor; the display will only be invalidated the first time to minimise disruption. Note that there are normally better ways of manipulating the display from within zle widgets; see, for example, ‘zle -R’ above. The returned status is zero if zle was invalidated, even though this may have been by a previous call to ‘zle -I’ or by a system notification. To test if a zle widget may be called at this point, execute zle with no arguments and examine the return status. -T This is used to add, list or remove internal transformations on the processing performed by the line editor. It is typically used only for debugging or testing and is therefore of little interest to the general user. ‘zle -T transformation func’ specifies that the given transformation (see below) is effected by shell function func. ‘zle -Tr transformation’ removes the given transformation if it was present (it is not an error if none was). ‘zle -TL’ can be used to list all transformations currently in operation. Currently the only transformation is tc. This is used instead of outputting termcap codes to the terminal. When the transformation is in operation the shell function is passed the termcap code that would be output as its first argument; if the operation required a numeric argument, that is passed as a second argument. The function should set the shell variable REPLY to the transformed termcap code. Typically this is used to produce some simply formatted version of the code and optional argument for debugging or testing. Note that this transformation is not applied to other non-printing characters such as carriage returns and newlines. widget [ -n num ] [ -f flag ] [ -Nw ] [ -K keymap ] args ... Invoke the specified widget. This can only be done when ZLE is active; normally this will be within a user-defined widget. With the options -n and -N, the current numeric argument will be saved and then restored after the call to widget; ‘-n num’ sets the numeric argument temporarily to num, while ‘-N’ sets it to the default, i.e. as if there were none. With the option -K, keymap will be used as the current keymap during the execution of the widget. The previous keymap will be restored when the widget exits. Normally, calling a widget in this way does not set the special parameter WIDGET and related parameters, so that the environment appears as if the top-level widget called by the user were still active. With the option -w, WIDGET and related parameters are set to reflect the widget being executed by the zle call. Normally, when widget returns the special parameter LASTWIDGET will point to it. This can be inhibited by passing the option -f nolast. Any further arguments will be passed to the widget; note that as standard argument handling is performed, any general argument list should be preceded by --. If it is a shell function, these are passed down as positional parameters; for builtin widgets it is up to the widget in question what it does with them. Currently arguments are only handled by the incremental-search commands, the history-search-forward and -backward and the corresponding functions prefixed by vi-, and by universal-argument. No error is flagged if the command does not use the arguments, or only uses some of them. The return status reflects the success or failure of the operation carried out by the widget, or if it is a user-defined widget the return status of the shell function. A non-zero return status causes the shell to beep when the widget exits, unless the BEEP options was unset or the widget was called via the zle command. Thus if a user defined widget requires an immediate beep, it should call the beep widget directly.","breadcrumbs":"Zsh Line Editor » 18.3 Zle Builtins","id":"128","title":"18.3 Zle Builtins"},"129":{"body":"All actions in the editor are performed by ‘widgets’. A widget’s job is simply to perform some small action. The ZLE commands that key sequences in keymaps are bound to are in fact widgets. Widgets can be user-defined or built in. The standard widgets built into ZLE are listed in Standard Widgets . Other built-in widgets can be defined by other modules (see Zsh Modules ). Each built-in widget has two names: its normal canonical name, and the same name preceded by a ‘.’. The ‘.’ name is special: it can’t be rebound to a different widget. This makes the widget available even when its usual name has been redefined. User-defined widgets are defined using ‘zle -N’, and implemented as shell functions. When the widget is executed, the corresponding shell function is executed, and can perform editing (or other) actions. It is recommended that user-defined widgets should not have names starting with ‘.’.","breadcrumbs":"Zsh Line Editor » 18.4 Zle Widgets","id":"129","title":"18.4 Zle Widgets"},"13":{"body":"Completion is a feature present in many shells. It allows the user to type only a part (usually the prefix) of a word and have the shell fill in the rest. The completion system in zsh is programmable. For example, the shell can be set to complete email addresses in arguments to the mail command from your ~/.abook/addressbook; usernames, hostnames, and even remote paths in arguments to scp, and so on. Anything that can be written in or glued together with zsh can be the source of what the line editor offers as possible completions. Zsh has two completion systems, an old, so called compctl completion (named after the builtin command that serves as its complete and only user interface), and a new one, referred to as compsys, organized as library of builtin and user-defined functions. The two systems differ in their interface for specifying the completion behavior. The new system is more customizable and is supplied with completions for many commonly used commands; it is therefore to be preferred. The completion system must be enabled explicitly when the shell starts. For more information see Completion System .","breadcrumbs":"Roadmap » 3.2.1 Completion","id":"13","title":"3.2.1 Completion"},"130":{"body":"User-defined widgets, being implemented as shell functions, can execute any normal shell command. They can also run other widgets (whether built-in or user-defined) using the zle builtin command. The standard input of the function is redirected from /dev/null to prevent external commands from unintentionally blocking ZLE by reading from the terminal, but read -k or read -q can be used to read characters. Finally, they can examine and edit the ZLE buffer being edited by reading and setting the special parameters described below. These special parameters are always available in widget functions, but are not in any way special outside ZLE. If they have some normal value outside ZLE, that value is temporarily inaccessible, but will return when the widget function exits. These special parameters in fact have local scope, like parameters created in a function using local. Inside completion widgets and traps called while ZLE is active, these parameters are available read-only. Note that the parameters appear as local to any ZLE widget in which they appear. Hence if it is desired to override them this needs to be done within a nested function: widget-function() { # $WIDGET here refers to the special variable # that is local inside widget-function () { # This anonymous nested function allows WIDGET # to be used as a local variable. The -h # removes the special status of the variable. local -h WIDGET }\n} BUFFER (scalar) The entire contents of the edit buffer. If it is written to, the cursor remains at the same offset, unless that would put it outside the buffer. BUFFERLINES (integer) The number of screen lines needed for the edit buffer currently displayed on screen (i.e. without any changes to the preceding parameters done after the last redisplay); read-only. CONTEXT (scalar) The context in which zle was called to read a line; read-only. One of the values: start The start of a command line (at prompt PS1). cont A continuation to a command line (at prompt PS2). select In a select loop (at prompt PS3). vared Editing a variable in vared. CURSOR (integer) The offset of the cursor, within the edit buffer. This is in the range 0 to $#BUFFER, and is by definition equal to $#LBUFFER. Attempts to move the cursor outside the buffer will result in the cursor being moved to the appropriate end of the buffer. CUTBUFFER (scalar) The last item cut using one of the ‘kill-’ commands; the string which the next yank would insert in the line. Later entries in the kill ring are in the array killring. Note that the command ‘zle copy-region-as-kill string’ can be used to set the text of the cut buffer from a shell function and cycle the kill ring in the same way as interactively killing text. HISTNO (integer) The current history number. Setting this has the same effect as moving up or down in the history to the corresponding history line. An attempt to set it is ignored if the line is not stored in the history. Note this is not the same as the parameter HISTCMD, which always gives the number of the history line being added to the main shell’s history. HISTNO refers to the line being retrieved within zle. ISEARCHMATCH_ACTIVE (integer) ISEARCHMATCH_START (integer) ISEARCHMATCH_END (integer) ISEARCHMATCH_ACTIVE indicates whether a part of the BUFFER is currently matched by an incremental search pattern. ISEARCHMATCH_START and ISEARCHMATCH_END give the location of the matched part and are in the same units as CURSOR. They are only valid for reading when ISEARCHMATCH_ACTIVE is non-zero. All parameters are read-only. KEYMAP (scalar) The name of the currently selected keymap; read-only. KEYS (scalar) The keys typed to invoke this widget, as a literal string; read-only. KEYS_QUEUED_COUNT (integer) The number of bytes pushed back to the input queue and therefore available for reading immediately before any I/O is done; read-only. See also PENDING; the two values are distinct. killring (array) The array of previously killed items, with the most recently killed first. This gives the items that would be retrieved by a yank-pop in the same order. Note, however, that the most recently killed item is in $CUTBUFFER; $killring shows the array of previous entries. The default size for the kill ring is eight, however the length may be changed by normal array operations. Any empty string in the kill ring is ignored by the yank-pop command, hence the size of the array effectively sets the maximum length of the kill ring, while the number of non-zero strings gives the current length, both as seen by the user at the command line. LASTABORTEDSEARCH (scalar) The last search string used by an interactive search that was aborted by the user (status 3 returned by the search widget). LASTSEARCH (scalar) The last search string used by an interactive search; read-only. This is set even if the search failed (status 0, 1 or 2 returned by the search widget), but not if it was aborted by the user. LASTWIDGET (scalar) The name of the last widget that was executed; read-only. LBUFFER (scalar) The part of the buffer that lies to the left of the cursor position. If it is assigned to, only that part of the buffer is replaced, and the cursor remains between the new $LBUFFER and the old $RBUFFER. MARK (integer) Like CURSOR, but for the mark. With vi-mode operators that wait for a movement command to select a region of text, setting MARK allows the selection to extend in both directions from the initial cursor position. NUMERIC (integer) The numeric argument. If no numeric argument was given, this parameter is unset. When this is set inside a widget function, builtin widgets called with the zle builtin command will use the value assigned. If it is unset inside a widget function, builtin widgets called behave as if no numeric argument was given. PENDING (integer) The number of bytes pending for input, i.e. the number of bytes which have already been typed and can immediately be read. On systems where the shell is not able to get this information, this parameter will always have a value of zero. Read-only. See also KEYS_QUEUED_COUNT; the two values are distinct. PREBUFFER (scalar) In a multi-line input at the secondary prompt, this read-only parameter contains the contents of the lines before the one the cursor is currently in. PREDISPLAY (scalar) does not have to be a complete line; to display a complete line, a newline must be appended explicitly. The text is reset on each new invocation (but not recursive invocation) of zle. POSTDISPLAY (scalar) does not have to be a complete line; to display a complete line, a newline must be prepended explicitly. The text is reset on each new invocation (but not recursive invocation) of zle. RBUFFER (scalar) The part of the buffer that lies to the right of the cursor position. If it is assigned to, only that part of the buffer is replaced, and the cursor remains between the old $LBUFFER and the new $RBUFFER. REGION_ACTIVE (integer) Indicates if the region is currently active. It can be assigned 0 or 1 to deactivate and activate the region respectively. A value of 2 activates the region in line-wise mode with the highlighted text extending for whole lines only; see Character Highlighting . region_highlight (array) Each element of this array may be set to a string that describes highlighting for an arbitrary region of the command line that will take effect the next time the command line is redisplayed. Highlighting and POSTDISPLAY are possible, but note that the P flag is needed for character indexing to include PREDISPLAY. Each string consists of the following whitespace-separated parts: Optionally, a ‘P’ to signify that the start and end offset that follow include any string set by the PREDISPLAY special parameter; this is needed if the predisplay string itself is to be highlighted. Whitespace between the ‘P’ and the start offset is optional. A start offset in the same units as CURSOR. An end offset in the same units as CURSOR. A highlight specification in the same format as used for contexts in the parameter zle_highlight, see Character Highlighting ; for example, standout or fg=red,bold. Optionally, a string of the form ‘memo=token’. The token consists of everything between the ‘=’ and the next whitespace, comma, NUL, or the end of the string. The token is preserved verbatim but not parsed in any way. Plugins may use this to identify array elements they have added: for example, a plugin might set token to its (the plugin’s) name and then use ‘region_highlight=( ${region_highlight:#*memo=token} )’ in order to remove array elements it have added. (This example uses the ‘${name:#pattern}’ array-grepping syntax described in Parameter Expansion .) For example, region_highlight=(\"P0 20 bold memo=foobar\") specifies that the first twenty characters of the text including any predisplay string should be highlighted in bold. Note that the effect of region_highlight is not saved and disappears as soon as the line is accepted. Note that zsh 5.8 and older do not support the ‘memo=token’ field and may misparse the third (highlight specification) field when a memo is given. The final highlighting on the command line depends on both region_highlight and zle_highlight; see Character Highlighting for details. registers (associative array) The contents of each of the vi register buffers. These are typically set using vi-set-buffer followed by a delete, change or yank command. SUFFIX_ACTIVE (integer) SUFFIX_START (integer) SUFFIX_END (integer) SUFFIX_ACTIVE indicates whether an auto-removable completion suffix is currently active. SUFFIX_START and SUFFIX_END give the location of the suffix and are in the same units as CURSOR. They are only valid for reading when SUFFIX_ACTIVE is non-zero. All parameters are read-only. UNDO_CHANGE_NO (integer) A number representing the state of the undo history. The only use of this is passing as an argument to the undo widget in order to undo back to the recorded point. Read-only. UNDO_LIMIT_NO (integer) A number corresponding to an existing change in the undo history; compare UNDO_CHANGE_NO. If this is set to a value greater than zero, the undo command will not allow the line to be undone beyond the given change number. It is still possible to use ‘zle undo change’ in a widget to undo beyond that point; in that case, it will not be possible to undo at all until UNDO_LIMIT_NO is reduced. Set to 0 to disable the limit. A typical use of this variable in a widget function is as follows (note the additional function scope is required): () { local UNDO_LIMIT_NO=$UNDO_CHANGE_NO # Perform some form of recursive edit.\n} WIDGET (scalar) The name of the widget currently being executed; read-only. WIDGETFUNC (scalar) The name of the shell function that implements a widget defined with either zle -N or zle -C. In the former case, this is the second argument to the zle -N command that defined the widget, or the first argument if there was no second argument. In the latter case this is the third argument to the zle -C command that defined the widget. Read-only. WIDGETSTYLE (scalar) Describes the implementation behind the completion widget currently being executed; the second argument that followed zle -C when the widget was defined. This is the name of a builtin completion widget. For widgets defined with zle -N this is set to the empty string. Read-only. YANK_ACTIVE (integer) YANK_START (integer) YANK_END (integer) YANK_ACTIVE indicates whether text has just been yanked (pasted) into the buffer. YANK_START and YANK_END give the location of the pasted text and are in the same units as CURSOR. They are only valid for reading when YANK_ACTIVE is non-zero. They can also be assigned by widgets that insert text in a yank-like fashion, for example wrappers of bracketed-paste. See also zle -f. YANK_ACTIVE is read-only. ZLE_RECURSIVE (integer) Usually zero, but incremented inside any instance of recursive-edit. Hence indicates the current recursion level. ZLE_RECURSIVE is read-only. ZLE_STATE (scalar) Contains a set of space-separated words that describe the current zle state. Currently, the states shown are the insert mode as set by the overwrite-mode or vi-replace widgets and whether history commands will visit imported entries as controlled by the set-local-history widget. The string contains ‘insert’ if characters to be inserted on the command line move existing characters to the right or ‘overwrite’ if characters to be inserted overwrite existing characters. It contains ‘localhistory’ if only local history commands will be visited or ‘globalhistory’ if imported history commands will also be visited. The substrings are sorted in alphabetical order so that if you want to test for two specific substrings in a future-proof way, you can do match by doing: if [[ $ZLE_STATE == *globalhistory*insert* ]]; then ...; fi","breadcrumbs":"Zsh Line Editor » 18.5 User-Defined Widgets","id":"130","title":"18.5 User-Defined Widgets"},"131":{"body":"There are a few user-defined widgets which are special to the shell. If they do not exist, no special action is taken. The environment provided is identical to that for any other editing widget. zle-isearch-exit Executed at the end of incremental search at the point where the isearch prompt is removed from the display. See zle-isearch-update for an example. zle-isearch-update Executed within incremental search when the display is about to be redrawn. Additional output below the incremental search prompt can be generated by using ‘zle -M’ within the widget. For example, zle-isearch-update() { zle -M \"Line $HISTNO\"; }\nzle -N zle-isearch-update Note the line output by ‘zle -M’ is not deleted on exit from incremental search. This can be done from a zle-isearch-exit widget: zle-isearch-exit() { zle -M \"\"; }\nzle -N zle-isearch-exit zle-line-pre-redraw Executed whenever the input line is about to be redrawn, providing an opportunity to update the region_highlight array. zle-line-init Executed every time the line editor is started to read a new line of input. The following example puts the line editor into vi command mode when it starts up. zle-line-init() { zle -K vicmd; }\nzle -N zle-line-init (The command inside the function sets the keymap directly; it is equivalent to zle vi-cmd-mode.) zle-line-finish This is similar to zle-line-init but is executed every time the line editor has finished reading a line of input. zle-history-line-set Executed when the history line changes. zle-keymap-select Executed every time the keymap changes, i.e. the special parameter KEYMAP is set to a different value, while the line editor is active. Initialising the keymap when the line editor starts does not cause the widget to be called. The value $KEYMAP within the function reflects the new keymap. The old keymap is passed as the sole argument. This can be used for detecting switches between the vi command (vicmd) and insert (usually main) keymaps.","breadcrumbs":"Zsh Line Editor » 18.5.1 Special Widgets","id":"131","title":"18.5.1 Special Widgets"},"132":{"body":"The following is a list of all the standard widgets, and their default bindings in emacs mode, vi command mode and vi insert mode (the ‘emacs’, ‘vicmd’ and ‘viins’ keymaps, respectively). Note that cursor keys are bound to movement keys in all three keymaps; the shell assumes that the cursor keys send the key sequences reported by the terminal-handling library (termcap or terminfo). The key sequences shown in the list are those based on the VT100, common on many modern terminals, but in fact these are not necessarily bound. In the case of the viins keymap, the initial escape character of the sequences serves also to return to the vicmd keymap: whether this happens is determined by the KEYTIMEOUT parameter, see Parameters .","breadcrumbs":"Zsh Line Editor » 18.6 Standard Widgets","id":"132","title":"18.6 Standard Widgets"},"133":{"body":"vi-backward-blank-word (unbound) (B) (unbound) Move backward one word, where a word is defined as a series of non-blank characters. vi-backward-blank-word-end (unbound) (gE) (unbound) Move to the end of the previous word, where a word is defined as a series of non-blank characters. backward-char (^B ESC-[D) (unbound) (unbound) Move backward one character. vi-backward-char (unbound) (^H h ^?) (ESC-[D) Move backward one character, without changing lines. backward-word (ESC-B ESC-b) (unbound) (unbound) Move to the beginning of the previous word. emacs-backward-word Move to the beginning of the previous word. vi-backward-word (unbound) (b) (unbound) Move to the beginning of the previous word, vi-style. vi-backward-word-end (unbound) (ge) (unbound) Move to the end of the previous word, vi-style. beginning-of-line (^A) (unbound) (unbound) Move to the beginning of the line. If already at the beginning of the line, move to the beginning of the previous line, if any. vi-beginning-of-line Move to the beginning of the line, without changing lines. down-line (unbound) (unbound) (unbound) Move down a line in the buffer. end-of-line (^E) (unbound) (unbound) Move to the end of the line. If already at the end of the line, move to the end of the next line, if any. vi-end-of-line (unbound) ($) (unbound) Move to the end of the line. If an argument is given to this command, the cursor will be moved to the end of the line (argument - 1) lines down. vi-forward-blank-word (unbound) (W) (unbound) Move forward one word, where a word is defined as a series of non-blank characters. vi-forward-blank-word-end (unbound) (E) (unbound) Move to the end of the current word, or, if at the end of the current word, to the end of the next word, where a word is defined as a series of non-blank characters. forward-char (^F ESC-[C) (unbound) (unbound) Move forward one character. vi-forward-char (unbound) (space l) (ESC-[C) Move forward one character. vi-find-next-char (^X^F) (f) (unbound) Read a character from the keyboard, and move to the next occurrence of it in the line. vi-find-next-char-skip (unbound) (t) (unbound) Read a character from the keyboard, and move to the position just before the next occurrence of it in the line. vi-find-prev-char (unbound) (F) (unbound) Read a character from the keyboard, and move to the previous occurrence of it in the line. vi-find-prev-char-skip (unbound) (T) (unbound) Read a character from the keyboard, and move to the position just after the previous occurrence of it in the line. vi-first-non-blank (unbound) (^) (unbound) Move to the first non-blank character in the line. vi-forward-word (unbound) (w) (unbound) Move forward one word, vi-style. forward-word (ESC-F ESC-f) (unbound) (unbound) Move to the beginning of the next word. The editor’s idea of a word is specified with the WORDCHARS parameter. emacs-forward-word Move to the end of the next word. vi-forward-word-end (unbound) (e) (unbound) Move to the end of the next word. vi-goto-column (ESC-|) (|) (unbound) Move to the column specified by the numeric argument. vi-goto-mark (unbound) (‘) (unbound) Move to the specified mark. vi-goto-mark-line (unbound) (’) (unbound) Move to beginning of the line containing the specified mark. vi-repeat-find (unbound) (;) (unbound) Repeat the last vi-find command. vi-rev-repeat-find (unbound) (,) (unbound) Repeat the last vi-find command in the opposite direction. up-line (unbound) (unbound) (unbound) Move up a line in the buffer.","breadcrumbs":"Zsh Line Editor » 18.6.1 Movement","id":"133","title":"18.6.1 Movement"},"134":{"body":"beginning-of-buffer-or-history (ESC-<) (gg) (unbound) Move to the beginning of the buffer, or if already there, move to the first event in the history list. beginning-of-line-hist Move to the beginning of the line. If already at the beginning of the buffer, move to the previous history line. beginning-of-history Move to the first event in the history list. down-line-or-history (^N ESC-[B) (j) (ESC-[B) Move down a line in the buffer, or if already at the bottom line, move to the next event in the history list. vi-down-line-or-history (unbound) (+) (unbound) Move down a line in the buffer, or if already at the bottom line, move to the next event in the history list. Then move to the first non-blank character on the line. down-line-or-search Move down a line in the buffer, or if already at the bottom line, search forward in the history for a line beginning with the first word in the buffer. If called from a function by the zle command with arguments, the first argument is taken as the string for which to search, rather than the first word in the buffer. down-history (unbound) (^N) (unbound) Move to the next event in the history list. history-beginning-search-backward Search backward in the history for a line beginning with the current line up to the cursor. This leaves the cursor in its original position. end-of-buffer-or-history (ESC->) (unbound) (unbound) Move to the end of the buffer, or if already there, move to the last event in the history list. end-of-line-hist Move to the end of the line. If already at the end of the buffer, move to the next history line. end-of-history Move to the last event in the history list. vi-fetch-history (unbound) (G) (unbound) Fetch the history line specified by the numeric argument. This defaults to the current history line (i.e. the one that isn’t history yet). history-incremental-search-backward (^R ^Xr) (unbound) (unbound) Search backward incrementally for a specified string. The search is case-insensitive if the search string does not have uppercase letters and no numeric argument was given. The string may begin with ‘^’ to anchor the search to the beginning of the line. When called from a user-defined function returns the following statuses: 0, if the search succeeded; 1, if the search failed; 2, if the search term was a bad pattern; 3, if the search was aborted by the send-break command. A restricted set of editing functions is available in the mini-buffer. Keys are looked up in the special isearch keymap, and if not found there in the main keymap (note that by default the isearch keymap is empty). An interrupt signal, as defined by the stty setting, will stop the search and go back to the original line. An undefined key will have the same effect. Note that the following always perform the same task within incremental searches and cannot be replaced by user defined widgets, nor can the set of functions be extended. The supported functions are: accept-and-hold accept-and-infer-next-history accept-line accept-line-and-down-history Perform the usual function after exiting incremental search. The command line displayed is executed. backward-delete-char vi-backward-delete-char Back up one place in the search history. If the search has been repeated this does not immediately erase a character in the minibuffer. accept-search Exit incremental search, retaining the command line but performing no further action. Note that this function is not bound by default and has no effect outside incremental search. backward-delete-word backward-kill-word vi-backward-kill-word Back up one character in the minibuffer; if multiple searches have been performed since the character was inserted the search history is rewound to the point just before the character was entered. Hence this has the effect of repeating backward-delete-char. clear-screen Clear the screen, remaining in incremental search mode. history-incremental-search-backward Find the next occurrence of the contents of the mini-buffer. If the mini-buffer is empty, the most recent previously used search string is reinstated. history-incremental-search-forward Invert the sense of the search. magic-space Inserts a non-magical space. quoted-insert vi-quoted-insert Quote the character to insert into the minibuffer. redisplay Redisplay the command line, remaining in incremental search mode. vi-cmd-mode Select the ‘vicmd’ keymap; the ‘main’ keymap (insert mode) will be selected initially. In addition, the modifications that were made while in vi insert mode are merged to form a single undo event. vi-repeat-search vi-rev-repeat-search Repeat the search. The direction of the search is indicated in the mini-buffer. Any character that is not bound to one of the above functions, or self-insert or self-insert-unmeta, will cause the mode to be exited. The character is then looked up and executed in the keymap in effect at that point. When called from a widget function by the zle command, the incremental search commands can take a string argument. This will be treated as a string of keys, as for arguments to the bindkey command, and used as initial input for the command. Any characters in the string which are unused by the incremental search will be silently ignored. For example, zle history-incremental-search-backward forceps will search backwards for forceps, leaving the minibuffer containing the string ‘forceps’. history-incremental-search-forward (^S ^Xs) (unbound) (unbound) Search forward incrementally for a specified string. The search is case-insensitive if the search string does not have uppercase letters and no numeric argument was given. The string may begin with ‘^’ to anchor the search to the beginning of the line. The functions available in the mini-buffer are the same as for history-incremental-search-backward. history-incremental-pattern-search-backward history-incremental-pattern-search-forward These widgets behave similarly to the corresponding widgets with no -pattern, but the search string typed by the user is treated as a pattern, respecting the current settings of the various options affecting pattern matching. See Filename Generation for a description of patterns. If no numeric argument was given lowercase letters in the search string may match uppercase letters in the history. The string may begin with ‘^’ to anchor the search to the beginning of the line. The prompt changes to indicate an invalid pattern; this may simply indicate the pattern is not yet complete. Note that only non-overlapping matches are reported, so an expression with wildcards may return fewer matches on a line than are visible by inspection. history-search-backward (ESC-P ESC-p) (unbound) (unbound) Search backward in the history for a line beginning with the first word in the buffer. If called from a function by the zle command with arguments, the first argument is taken as the string for which to search, rather than the first word in the buffer. vi-history-search-backward (unbound) (/) (unbound) Search backward in the history for a specified string. The string may begin with ‘^’ to anchor the search to the beginning of the line. A restricted set of editing functions is available in the mini-buffer. An interrupt signal, as defined by the stty setting, will stop the search. The functions available in the mini-buffer are: accept-line, backward-delete-char, vi-backward-delete-char, backward-kill-word, vi-backward-kill-word, clear-screen, redisplay, quoted-insert and vi-quoted-insert. vi-cmd-mode is treated the same as accept-line, and magic-space is treated as a space. Any other character that is not bound to self-insert or self-insert-unmeta will beep and be ignored. If the function is called from vi command mode, the bindings of the current insert mode will be used. If called from a function by the zle command with arguments, the first argument is taken as the string for which to search, rather than the first word in the buffer. history-search-forward (ESC-N ESC-n) (unbound) (unbound) Search forward in the history for a line beginning with the first word in the buffer. If called from a function by the zle command with arguments, the first argument is taken as the string for which to search, rather than the first word in the buffer. vi-history-search-forward (unbound) (?) (unbound) Search forward in the history for a specified string. The string may begin with ‘^’ to anchor the search to the beginning of the line. The functions available in the mini-buffer are the same as for vi-history-search-backward. Argument handling is also the same as for that command. infer-next-history (^X^N) (unbound) (unbound) Search in the history list for a line matching the current one and fetch the event following it. insert-last-word (ESC-_ ESC-.) (unbound) (unbound) Insert the last word from the previous history event at the cursor position. If a positive numeric argument is given, insert that word from the end of the previous history event. If the argument is zero or negative insert that word from the left (zero inserts the previous command word). Repeating this command replaces the word just inserted with the last word from the history event prior to the one just used; numeric arguments can be used in the same way to pick a word from that event. When called from a shell function invoked from a user-defined widget, the command can take one to three arguments. The first argument specifies a history offset which applies to successive calls to this widget: if it is -1, the default behaviour is used, while if it is 1, successive calls will move forwards through the history. The value 0 can be used to indicate that the history line examined by the previous execution of the command will be reexamined. Note that negative numbers should be preceded by a ‘--’ argument to avoid confusing them with options. If two arguments are given, the second specifies the word on the command line in normal array index notation (as a more natural alternative to the numeric argument). Hence 1 is the first word, and -1 (the default) is the last word. If a third argument is given, its value is ignored, but it is used to signify that the history offset is relative to the current history line, rather than the one remembered after the previous invocations of insert-last-word. For example, the default behaviour of the command corresponds to zle insert-last-word -- -1 -1 while the command zle insert-last-word -- -1 1 - always copies the first word of the line in the history immediately before the line being edited. This has the side effect that later invocations of the widget will be relative to that line. vi-repeat-search (unbound) (n) (unbound) Repeat the last vi history search. vi-rev-repeat-search (unbound) (N) (unbound) Repeat the last vi history search, but in reverse. up-line-or-history (^P ESC-[A) (k) (ESC-[A) Move up a line in the buffer, or if already at the top line, move to the previous event in the history list. vi-up-line-or-history (unbound) (-) (unbound) Move up a line in the buffer, or if already at the top line, move to the previous event in the history list. Then move to the first non-blank character on the line. up-line-or-search Move up a line in the buffer, or if already at the top line, search backward in the history for a line beginning with the first word in the buffer. If called from a function by the zle command with arguments, the first argument is taken as the string for which to search, rather than the first word in the buffer. up-history (unbound) (^P) (unbound) Move to the previous event in the history list. history-beginning-search-forward Search forward in the history for a line beginning with the current line up to the cursor. This leaves the cursor in its original position. set-local-history By default, history movement commands visit the imported lines as well as the local lines. This widget lets you toggle this on and off, or set it with the numeric argument. Zero for both local and imported lines and nonzero for only local lines.","breadcrumbs":"Zsh Line Editor » 18.6.2 History Control","id":"134","title":"18.6.2 History Control"},"135":{"body":"vi-add-eol (unbound) (A) (unbound) Move to the end of the line and enter insert mode. vi-add-next (unbound) (a) (unbound) Enter insert mode after the current cursor position, without changing lines. backward-delete-char (^H ^?) (unbound) (unbound) Delete the character behind the cursor. vi-backward-delete-char (unbound) (X) (^H) Delete the character behind the cursor, without changing lines. If in insert mode, this won’t delete past the point where insert mode was last entered. backward-delete-word Delete the word behind the cursor. backward-kill-line Kill from the beginning of the line to the cursor position. backward-kill-word (^W ESC-^H ESC-^?) (unbound) (unbound) Kill the word behind the cursor. vi-backward-kill-word (unbound) (unbound) (^W) Kill the word behind the cursor, without going past the point where insert mode was last entered. capitalize-word (ESC-C ESC-c) (unbound) (unbound) Capitalize the current word and move past it. vi-change (unbound) (c) (unbound) Read a movement command from the keyboard, and kill from the cursor position to the endpoint of the movement. Then enter insert mode. If the command is vi-change, change the current line. For compatibility with vi, if the command is vi-forward-word or vi-forward-blank-word, the whitespace after the word is not included. If you prefer the more consistent behaviour with the whitespace included use the following key binding: bindkey -a -s cw dwi vi-change-eol (unbound) (C) (unbound) Kill to the end of the line and enter insert mode. vi-change-whole-line (unbound) (S) (unbound) Kill the current line and enter insert mode. copy-region-as-kill (ESC-W ESC-w) (unbound) (unbound) Copy the area from the cursor to the mark to the kill buffer. If called from a ZLE widget function in the form ‘zle copy-region-as-kill string’ then string will be taken as the text to copy to the kill buffer. The cursor, the mark and the text on the command line are not used in this case. copy-prev-word (ESC-^_) (unbound) (unbound) Duplicate the word to the left of the cursor. copy-prev-shell-word Like copy-prev-word, but the word is found by using shell parsing, whereas copy-prev-word looks for blanks. This makes a difference when the word is quoted and contains spaces. vi-delete (unbound) (d) (unbound) Read a movement command from the keyboard, and kill from the cursor position to the endpoint of the movement. If the command is vi-delete, kill the current line. delete-char Delete the character under the cursor. vi-delete-char (unbound) (x) (unbound) Delete the character under the cursor, without going past the end of the line. delete-word Delete the current word. down-case-word (ESC-L ESC-l) (unbound) (unbound) Convert the current word to all lowercase and move past it. vi-down-case (unbound) (gu) (unbound) Read a movement command from the keyboard, and convert all characters from the cursor position to the endpoint of the movement to lowercase. If the movement command is vi-down-case, swap the case of all characters on the current line. kill-word (ESC-D ESC-d) (unbound) (unbound) Kill the current word. gosmacs-transpose-chars Exchange the two characters behind the cursor. vi-indent (unbound) (>) (unbound) Indent a number of lines. vi-insert (unbound) (i) (unbound) Enter insert mode. vi-insert-bol (unbound) (I) (unbound) Move to the first non-blank character on the line and enter insert mode. vi-join (^X^J) (J) (unbound) Join the current line with the next one. kill-line (^K) (unbound) (unbound) Kill from the cursor to the end of the line. If already on the end of the line, kill the newline character. vi-kill-line (unbound) (unbound) (^U) Kill from the cursor back to wherever insert mode was last entered. vi-kill-eol (unbound) (D) (unbound) Kill from the cursor to the end of the line. kill-region Kill from the cursor to the mark. kill-buffer (^X^K) (unbound) (unbound) Kill the entire buffer. kill-whole-line (^U) (unbound) (unbound) Kill the current line. vi-match-bracket (^X^B) (%) (unbound) Move to the bracket character (one of {}, () or []) that matches the one under the cursor. If the cursor is not on a bracket character, move forward without going past the end of the line to find one, and then go to the matching bracket. vi-open-line-above (unbound) (O) (unbound) Open a line above the cursor and enter insert mode. vi-open-line-below (unbound) (o) (unbound) Open a line below the cursor and enter insert mode. vi-oper-swap-case (unbound) (g~) (unbound) Read a movement command from the keyboard, and swap the case of all characters from the cursor position to the endpoint of the movement. If the movement command is vi-oper-swap-case, swap the case of all characters on the current line. overwrite-mode (^X^O) (unbound) (unbound) Toggle between overwrite mode and insert mode. vi-put-before (unbound) (P) (unbound) Insert the contents of the kill buffer before the cursor. If the kill buffer contains a sequence of lines (as opposed to characters), paste it above the current line. vi-put-after (unbound) (p) (unbound) Insert the contents of the kill buffer after the cursor. If the kill buffer contains a sequence of lines (as opposed to characters), paste it below the current line. put-replace-selection (unbound) (unbound) (unbound) Replace the contents of the current region or selection with the contents of the kill buffer. If the kill buffer contains a sequence of lines (as opposed to characters), the current line will be split by the pasted lines. quoted-insert (^V) (unbound) (unbound) Insert the next character typed into the buffer literally. An interrupt character will not be inserted. vi-quoted-insert (unbound) (unbound) (^Q ^V) Display a ‘^’ at the cursor position, and insert the next character typed into the buffer literally. An interrupt character will not be inserted. quote-line (ESC-’) (unbound) (unbound) Quote the current line; that is, put a ‘’’ character at the beginning and the end, and convert all ‘’’ characters to ‘’\\’’’. quote-region (ESC-\") (unbound) (unbound) Quote the region from the cursor to the mark. vi-replace (unbound) (R) (unbound) Enter overwrite mode. vi-repeat-change (unbound) (.) (unbound) Repeat the last vi mode text modification. If a count was used with the modification, it is remembered. If a count is given to this command, it overrides the remembered count, and is remembered for future uses of this command. The cut buffer specification is similarly remembered. vi-replace-chars (unbound) (r) (unbound) Replace the character under the cursor with a character read from the keyboard. Insert a character into the buffer at the cursor position. self-insert-unmeta (ESC-^I ESC-^J ESC-^M) (unbound) (unbound) Insert a character into the buffer after stripping the meta bit and converting ^M to ^J. vi-substitute (unbound) (s) (unbound) Substitute the next character(s). vi-swap-case (unbound) (~) (unbound) Swap the case of the character under the cursor and move past it. transpose-chars (^T) (unbound) (unbound) Exchange the two characters to the left of the cursor if at end of line, else exchange the character under the cursor with the character to the left. transpose-words (ESC-T ESC-t) (unbound) (unbound) Exchange the current word with the one before it. With a positive numeric argument N , the word around the cursor, or following it if the cursor is between words, is transposed with the preceding N words. The cursor is put at the end of the resulting group of words. With a negative numeric argument -N , the effect is the same as using a positive argument N except that the original cursor position is retained, regardless of how the words are rearranged. vi-unindent (unbound) (<) (unbound) Unindent a number of lines. vi-up-case (unbound) (gU) (unbound) Read a movement command from the keyboard, and convert all characters from the cursor position to the endpoint of the movement to lowercase. If the movement command is vi-up-case, swap the case of all characters on the current line. up-case-word (ESC-U ESC-u) (unbound) (unbound) Convert the current word to all caps and move past it. yank (^Y) (unbound) (unbound) Insert the contents of the kill buffer at the cursor position. yank-pop (ESC-y) (unbound) (unbound) Remove the text just yanked, rotate the kill-ring (the history of previously killed text) and yank the new top. Only works following yank, vi-put-before, vi-put-after or yank-pop. vi-yank (unbound) (y) (unbound) Read a movement command from the keyboard, and copy the region from the cursor position to the endpoint of the movement into the kill buffer. If the command is vi-yank, copy the current line. vi-yank-whole-line (unbound) (Y) (unbound) Copy the current line into the kill buffer. vi-yank-eol Copy the region from the cursor position to the end of the line into the kill buffer. Arguably, this is what Y should do in vi, but it isn’t what it actually does.","breadcrumbs":"Zsh Line Editor » 18.6.3 Modifying Text","id":"135","title":"18.6.3 Modifying Text"},"136":{"body":"digit-argument (ESC-0..ESC-9) (1-9) (unbound) Start a new numeric argument, or add to the current one. See also vi-digit-or-beginning-of-line. This only works if bound to a key sequence ending in a decimal digit. Inside a widget function, a call to this function treats the last key of the key sequence which called the widget as the digit. neg-argument (ESC--) (unbound) (unbound) Changes the sign of the following argument. universal-argument Multiply the argument of the next command by 4. Alternatively, if this command is followed by an integer (positive or negative), use that as the argument for the next command. Thus digits cannot be repeated using this command. For example, if this command occurs twice, followed immediately by forward-char, move forward sixteen spaces; if instead it is followed by -2, then forward-char, move backward two spaces. Inside a widget function, if passed an argument, i.e. ‘zle universal-argument num’, the numeric argument will be set to num; this is equivalent to ‘NUMERIC=num’. argument-base Use the existing numeric argument as a numeric base, which must be in the range 2 to 36 inclusive. Subsequent use of digit-argument and universal-argument will input a new numeric argument in the given base. The usual hexadecimal convention is used: the letter a or A corresponds to 10, and so on. Arguments in bases requiring digits from 10 upwards are more conveniently input with universal-argument, since ESC-a etc. are not usually bound to digit-argument. The function can be used with a command argument inside a user-defined widget. The following code sets the base to 16 and lets the user input a hexadecimal argument until a key out of the digit range is typed: zle argument-base 16\nzle universal-argument","breadcrumbs":"Zsh Line Editor » 18.6.4 Arguments","id":"136","title":"18.6.4 Arguments"},"137":{"body":"accept-and-menu-complete In a menu completion, insert the current completion into the buffer, and advance to the next possible completion. complete-word Attempt completion on the current word. delete-char-or-list (^D) (unbound) (unbound) Delete the character under the cursor. If the cursor is at the end of the line, list possible completions for the current word. expand-cmd-path Expand the current command to its full pathname. expand-or-complete (TAB) (unbound) (TAB) Attempt shell expansion on the current word. If that fails, attempt completion. expand-or-complete-prefix Attempt shell expansion on the current word up to cursor. expand-history (ESC-space ESC-!) (unbound) (unbound) Perform history expansion on the edit buffer. expand-word (^X*) (unbound) (unbound) Attempt shell expansion on the current word. list-choices (ESC-^D) (^D =) (^D) List possible completions for the current word. list-expand (^Xg ^XG) (^G) (^G) List the expansion of the current word. magic-space Perform history expansion and insert a space into the buffer. This is intended to be bound to space. menu-complete Like complete-word, except that menu completion is used. See the MENU_COMPLETE option. menu-expand-or-complete Like expand-or-complete, except that menu completion is used. reverse-menu-complete Perform menu completion, like menu-complete, except that if a menu completion is already in progress, move to the previous completion rather than the next. end-of-list When a previous completion displayed a list below the prompt, this widget can be used to move the prompt below the list.","breadcrumbs":"Zsh Line Editor » 18.6.5 Completion","id":"137","title":"18.6.5 Completion"},"138":{"body":"accept-and-hold (ESC-A ESC-a) (unbound) (unbound) Push the contents of the buffer on the buffer stack and execute it. accept-and-infer-next-history Execute the contents of the buffer. Then search the history list for a line matching the current one and push the event following onto the buffer stack. accept-line (^J ^M) (^J ^M) (^J ^M) Finish editing the buffer. Normally this causes the buffer to be executed as a shell command. accept-line-and-down-history (^O) (unbound) (unbound) Execute the current line, and push the next history event on the buffer stack. auto-suffix-remove If the previous action added a suffix (space, slash, etc.) to the word on the command line, remove it. Otherwise do nothing. Removing the suffix ends any active menu completion or menu selection. This widget is intended to be called from user-defined widgets to enforce a desired suffix-removal behavior. auto-suffix-retain If the previous action added a suffix (space, slash, etc.) to the word on the command line, force it to be preserved. Otherwise do nothing. Retaining the suffix ends any active menu completion or menu selection. This widget is intended to be called from user-defined widgets to enforce a desired suffix-preservation behavior. beep Beep, unless the BEEP option is unset. bracketed-paste (^[[200~) (^[[200~) (^[[200~) This widget is invoked when text is pasted to the terminal emulator. It is not intended to be bound to actual keys but instead to the special sequence generated by the terminal emulator when text is pasted. When invoked interactively, the pasted text is inserted to the buffer and placed in the cutbuffer. If a numeric argument is given, shell quoting will be applied to the pasted text before it is inserted. When a named buffer is specified with vi-set-buffer (\"x), the pasted text is stored in that named buffer but not inserted. When called from a widget function as ‘bracketed-paste name‘, the pasted text is assigned to the variable name and no other processing is done. See also the zle_bracketed_paste parameter. vi-cmd-mode (^X^V) (unbound) (^[) Enter command mode; that is, select the ‘vicmd’ keymap. Yes, this is bound by default in emacs mode. vi-caps-lock-panic Hang until any lowercase key is pressed. This is for vi users without the mental capacity to keep track of their caps lock key (like the author). clear-screen (^L ESC-^L) (^L) (^L) Clear the screen and redraw the prompt. deactivate-region Make the current region inactive. This disables vim-style visual selection mode if it is active. describe-key-briefly Reads a key sequence, then prints the function bound to that sequence. exchange-point-and-mark (^X^X) (unbound) (unbound) Exchange the cursor position (point) with the position of the mark. Unless a negative numeric argument is given, the region between point and mark is activated so that it can be highlighted. If a zero numeric argument is given, the region is activated but point and mark are not swapped. execute-named-cmd (ESC-x) (:) (unbound) Read the name of an editor command and execute it. Aliasing this widget with ‘zle -A’ or replacing it with ‘zle -N’ has no effect when interpreting key bindings, but ‘zle execute-named-cmd’ will invoke such an alias or replacement. A restricted set of editing functions is available in the mini-buffer. Keys are looked up in the special command keymap, and if not found there in the main keymap. An interrupt signal, as defined by the stty setting, will abort the function. Note that the following always perform the same task within the executed-named-cmd environment and cannot be replaced by user defined widgets, nor can the set of functions be extended. The allowed functions are: backward-delete-char, vi-backward-delete-char, clear-screen, redisplay, quoted-insert, vi-quoted-insert, backward-kill-word, vi-backward-kill-word, kill-whole-line, vi-kill-line, backward-kill-line, list-choices, delete-char-or-list, complete-word, accept-line, expand-or-complete and expand-or-complete-prefix. kill-region kills the last word, and vi-cmd-mode is treated the same as accept-line. The space and tab characters, if not bound to one of these functions, will complete the name and then list the possibilities if the AUTO_LIST option is set. Any other character that is not bound to self-insert or self-insert-unmeta will beep and be ignored. The bindings of the current insert mode will be used. Currently this command may not be redefined or called by name. execute-last-named-cmd (ESC-z) (unbound) (unbound) Redo the last function executed with execute-named-cmd. Like execute-named-cmd, this command may not be redefined, but it may be called by name. get-line (ESC-G ESC-g) (unbound) (unbound) Pop the top line off the buffer stack and insert it at the cursor position. pound-insert (unbound) (#) (unbound) If there is no # character at the beginning of the buffer, add one to the beginning of each line. If there is one, remove a # from each line that has one. In either case, accept the current line. The INTERACTIVE_COMMENTS option must be set for this to have any usefulness. vi-pound-insert If there is no # character at the beginning of the current line, add one. If there is one, remove it. The INTERACTIVE_COMMENTS option must be set for this to have any usefulness. push-input Push the entire current multiline construct onto the buffer stack and return to the top-level (PS1) prompt. If the current parser construct is only a single line, this is exactly like push-line. Next time the editor starts up or is popped with get-line, the construct will be popped off the top of the buffer stack and loaded into the editing buffer. push-line (^Q ESC-Q ESC-q) (unbound) (unbound) Push the current buffer onto the buffer stack and clear the buffer. Next time the editor starts up, the buffer will be popped off the top of the buffer stack and loaded into the editing buffer. push-line-or-edit At the top-level (PS1) prompt, equivalent to push-line. At a secondary (PS2) prompt, move the entire current multiline construct into the editor buffer. The latter is equivalent to push-input followed by get-line. read-command Only useful from a user-defined widget. A keystroke is read just as in normal operation, but instead of the command being executed the name of the command that would be executed is stored in the shell parameter REPLY. This can be used as the argument of a future zle command. If the key sequence is not bound, status 1 is returned; typically, however, REPLY is set to undefined-key to indicate a useless key sequence. recursive-edit Only useful from a user-defined widget. At this point in the function, the editor regains control until one of the standard widgets which would normally cause zle to exit (typically an accept-line caused by hitting the return key) is executed. Instead, control returns to the user-defined widget. The status returned is non-zero if the return was caused by an error, but the function still continues executing and hence may tidy up. This makes it safe for the user-defined widget to alter the command line or key bindings temporarily. The following widget, caps-lock, serves as an example. self-insert-ucase() { LBUFFER+=${(U)KEYS[-1]}\n} integer stat zle -N self-insert self-insert-ucase\nzle -A caps-lock save-caps-lock\nzle -A accept-line caps-lock zle recursive-edit\nstat=$? zle -A .self-insert self-insert\nzle -A save-caps-lock caps-lock\nzle -D save-caps-lock (( stat )) && zle send-break return $stat This causes typed letters to be inserted capitalised until either accept-line (i.e. typically the return key) is typed or the caps-lock widget is invoked again; the later is handled by saving the old definition of caps-lock as save-caps-lock and then rebinding it to invoke accept-line. Note that an error from the recursive edit is detected as a non-zero return status and propagated by using the send-break widget. redisplay (unbound) (^R) (^R) Redisplays the edit buffer. reset-prompt (unbound) (unbound) (unbound) Force the prompts on both the left and right of the screen to be re-expanded, then redisplay the edit buffer. This reflects changes both to the prompt variables themselves and changes in the expansion of the values (for example, changes in time or directory, or changes to the value of variables referred to by the prompt). Otherwise, the prompt is only expanded each time zle starts, and when the display has been interrupted by output from another part of the shell (such as a job notification) which causes the command line to be reprinted. reset-prompt doesn’t alter the special parameter LASTWIDGET. send-break (^G ESC-^G) (unbound) (unbound) Abort the current editor function, e.g. execute-named-command, or the editor itself, e.g. if you are in vared. Otherwise abort the parsing of the current line; in this case the aborted line is available in the shell variable ZLE_LINE_ABORTED. If the editor is aborted from within vared, the variable ZLE_VARED_ABORTED is set. run-help (ESC-H ESC-h) (unbound) (unbound) Push the buffer onto the buffer stack, and execute the command ‘run-help cmd’, where cmd is the current command. run-help is normally aliased to man. vi-set-buffer (unbound) (\") (unbound) Specify a buffer to be used in the following command. There are 37 buffers that can be specified: the 26 ‘named’ buffers \"a to \"z, the ‘yank’ buffer \"0, the nine ‘queued’ buffers \"1 to \"9 and the ‘black hole’ buffer \"_. The named buffers can also be specified as \"A to \"Z. When a buffer is specified for a cut, change or yank command, the text concerned replaces the previous contents of the specified buffer. If a named buffer is specified using a capital, the newly cut text is appended to the buffer instead of overwriting it. When using the \"_ buffer, nothing happens. This can be useful for deleting text without affecting any buffers. If no buffer is specified for a cut or change command, \"1 is used, and the contents of \"1 to \"8 are each shifted along one buffer; the contents of \"9 is lost. If no buffer is specified for a yank command, \"0 is used. Finally, a paste command without a specified buffer will paste the text from the most recent command regardless of any buffer that might have been used with that command. When called from a widget function by the zle command, the buffer can optionally be specified with an argument. For example, zle vi-set-buffer A vi-set-mark (unbound) (m) (unbound) Set the specified mark at the cursor position. set-mark-command (^@) (unbound) (unbound) Set the mark at the cursor position. If called with a negative numeric argument, do not set the mark but deactivate the region so that it is no longer highlighted (it is still usable for other purposes). Otherwise the region is marked as active. spell-word (ESC-$ ESC-S ESC-s) (unbound) (unbound) Attempt spelling correction on the current word. split-undo Breaks the undo sequence at the current change. This is useful in vi mode as changes made in insert mode are coalesced on entering command mode. Similarly, undo will normally revert as one all the changes made by a user-defined widget. undefined-key This command is executed when a key sequence that is not bound to any command is typed. By default it beeps. undo (^_ ^Xu ^X^U) (u) (unbound) Incrementally undo the last text modification. When called from a user-defined widget, takes an optional argument indicating a previous state of the undo history as returned by the UNDO_CHANGE_NO variable; modifications are undone until that state is reached, subject to any limit imposed by the UNDO_LIMIT_NO variable. Note that when invoked from vi command mode, the full prior change made in insert mode is reverted, the changes having been merged when command mode was selected. redo (unbound) (^R) (unbound) Incrementally redo undone text modifications. vi-undo-change (unbound) (unbound) (unbound) Undo the last text modification. If repeated, redo the modification. visual-mode (unbound) (v) (unbound) Toggle vim-style visual selection mode. If line-wise visual mode is currently enabled then it is changed to being character-wise. If used following an operator, it forces the subsequent movement command to be treated as a character-wise movement. visual-line-mode (unbound) (V) (unbound) Toggle vim-style line-wise visual selection mode. If character-wise visual mode is currently enabled then it is changed to being line-wise. If used following an operator, it forces the subsequent movement command to be treated as a line-wise movement. what-cursor-position (^X=) (ga) (unbound) Print the character under the cursor, its code as an octal, decimal and hexadecimal number, the current cursor position within the buffer and the column of the cursor in the current line. where-is Read the name of an editor command and print the listing of key sequences that invoke the specified command. A restricted set of editing functions is available in the mini-buffer. Keys are looked up in the special command keymap, and if not found there in the main keymap. which-command (ESC-?) (unbound) (unbound) Push the buffer onto the buffer stack, and execute the command ‘which-command cmd’. where cmd is the current command. which-command is normally aliased to whence. vi-digit-or-beginning-of-line (unbound) (0) (unbound) If the last command executed was a digit as part of an argument, continue the argument. Otherwise, execute vi-beginning-of-line.","breadcrumbs":"Zsh Line Editor » 18.6.6 Miscellaneous","id":"138","title":"18.6.6 Miscellaneous"},"139":{"body":"Text objects are commands that can be used to select a block of text according to some criteria. They are a feature of the vim text editor and so are primarily intended for use with vi operators or from visual selection mode. However, they can also be used from vi-insert or emacs mode. Key bindings listed below apply to the viopp and visual keymaps. select-a-blank-word (aW) Select a word including adjacent blanks, where a word is defined as a series of non-blank characters. With a numeric argument, multiple words will be selected. select-a-shell-word (aa) Select the current command argument applying the normal rules for quoting. select-a-word (aw) Select a word including adjacent blanks, using the normal vi-style word definition. With a numeric argument, multiple words will be selected. select-in-blank-word (iW) Select a word, where a word is defined as a series of non-blank characters. With a numeric argument, multiple words will be selected. select-in-shell-word (ia) Select the current command argument applying the normal rules for quoting. If the argument begins and ends with matching quote characters, these are not included in the selection. select-in-word (iw) Select a word, using the normal vi-style word definition. With a numeric argument, multiple words will be selected.","breadcrumbs":"Zsh Line Editor » 18.6.7 Text Objects","id":"139","title":"18.6.7 Text Objects"},"14":{"body":"Apart from completion, the line editor is highly extensible by means of shell functions. Some useful functions are provided with the shell; they provide facilities such as: insert-composed-char composing characters not found on the keyboard match-words-by-style configuring what the line editor considers a word when moving or deleting by word history-beginning-search-backward-end, etc. alternative ways of searching the shell history replace-string, replace-pattern functions for replacing strings or patterns globally in the command line edit-command-line edit the command line with an external editor. See ZLE Functions for descriptions of these.","breadcrumbs":"Roadmap » 3.2.2 Extending the line editor","id":"14","title":"3.2.2 Extending the line editor"},"140":{"body":"The line editor has the ability to highlight characters or regions of the line that have a particular significance. This is controlled by the array parameter zle_highlight, if it has been set by the user. If the parameter contains the single entry none all highlighting is turned off. Note the parameter is still expected to be an array. Otherwise each entry of the array should consist of a word indicating a context for highlighting, then a colon, then a comma-separated list of the types of highlighting to apply in that context. The contexts available for highlighting are the following: default Any text within the command line not affected by any other highlighting. isearch When one of the incremental history search widgets is active, the area of the command line matched by the search string or pattern. region The currently selected text. In emacs terminology, this is referred to as the region and is bounded by the cursor (point) and the mark. The region is only highlighted if it is active, which is the case after the mark is modified with set-mark-command or exchange-point-and-mark. Note that whether or not the region is active has no effect on its use within emacs style widgets, it simply determines whether it is highlighted. In vi mode, the region corresponds to selected text in visual mode. special representation but are shown in a special manner by the line editor. These characters are described below. suffix This context is used in completion for characters that are marked as suffixes that will be removed if the completion ends at that point, the most obvious example being a slash (/) after a directory name. Note that suffix removal is configurable; the circumstances under which the suffix will be removed may differ for different completions. paste Following a command to paste text, the characters that were inserted. When region_highlight is set, the contexts that describe a region — isearch, region, suffix, and paste — are applied first, then region_highlight is applied, then the remaining zle_highlight contexts are applied. If a particular character is affected by multiple specifications, the last specification wins. zle_highlight may contain additional fields for controlling how terminal sequences to change colours are output. Each of the following is followed by a colon and a string in the same form as for key bindings. This will not be necessary for the vast majority of terminals as the defaults shown in parentheses are widely used. fg_start_code (\\e[3) The start of the escape sequence for the foreground colour. This is followed by one to three ASCII digits representing the colour. Only used for palette colors, i.e. not 24-bit colors specified via a color triplet. fg_default_code (9) The number to use instead of the colour to reset the default foreground colour. fg_end_code (m) The end of the escape sequence for the foreground colour. bg_start_code (\\e[4) The start of the escape sequence for the background colour. See fg_start_code above. bg_default_code (9) The number to use instead of the colour to reset the default background colour. bg_end_code (m) The end of the escape sequence for the background colour. The available types of highlighting are the following. Note that not all types of highlighting are available on all terminals: none No highlighting is applied to the given context. It is not useful for this to appear with other types of highlighting; it is used to override a default. fg=colour The foreground colour should be set to colour, a decimal integer, the name of one of the eight most widely-supported colours or as a ‘#’ followed by an RGB triplet in hexadecimal format. Not all terminals support this and, of those that do, not all provide facilities to test the support, hence the user should decide based on the terminal type. Most terminals support the colours black, red, green, yellow, blue, magenta, cyan and white, which can be set by name. In addition. default may be used to set the terminal’s default foreground colour. Abbreviations are allowed; b or bl selects black. Some terminals may generate additional colours if the bold attribute is also present. On recent terminals and on systems with an up-to-date terminal database the number of colours supported may be tested by the command ‘echotc Co’; if this succeeds, it indicates a limit on the number of colours which will be enforced by the line editor. The number of colours is in any case limited to 256 (i.e. the range 0 to 255). Some modern terminal emulators have support for 24-bit true colour (16 million colours). In this case, the hex triplet format can be used. This consists of a ‘#’ followed by either a three or six digit hexadecimal number describing the red, green and blue components of the colour. Hex triplets can also be used with 88 and 256 colour terminals via the zsh/nearcolor module (see The zsh/nearcolor Module ). Colour is also known as color. bg=colour The background colour should be set to colour. This works similarly to the foreground colour, except the background is not usually affected by the bold attribute. bold The characters in the given context are shown in a bold font. Not all terminals distinguish bold fonts. standout The characters in the given context are shown in the terminal’s standout mode. The actual effect is specific to the terminal; on many terminals it is inverse video. On some such terminals, where the cursor does not blink it appears with standout mode negated, making it less than clear where the cursor actually is. On such terminals one of the other effects may be preferable for highlighting the region and matched search string. underline The characters in the given context are shown underlined. Some terminals show the foreground in a different colour instead; in this case whitespace will not be highlighted. The characters described above as ‘special’ are as follows. The formatting described here is used irrespective of whether the characters are highlighted: ASCII control characters Control characters in the ASCII range are shown as ‘^’ followed by the base character. This item applies to control characters not in the ASCII range, plus other characters as follows. If the MULTIBYTE option is in effect, multibyte characters not in the ASCII character set that are reported as having zero width are treated as combining characters when the option COMBINING_CHARS is on. If the option is off, or if a character appears where a combining character is not valid, the character angle brackets. The number is the code point of the character in the wide character set; this may or may not be Unicode, depending on the operating system. Invalid multibyte characters If the MULTIBYTE option is in effect, any sequence of one or more bytes that does not form a valid character in the current character set is treated as a series of bytes each shown as a special character. as the bytes are represented as two hexadecimal digits between angle brackets, as distinct from the four or eight digits that are used for character set. Not all systems support this: for it to work, the system’s representation of wide characters must be code values from the Universal Character Set, as defined by IS0 10646 (also known as Unicode). Wrapped double-width characters When a double-width character appears in the final column of a line, it is instead shown on the next line. The empty space left in the original position is highlighted as a special character. If zle_highlight is not set or no value applies to a particular context, the defaults applied are equivalent to zle_highlight=(region:standout special:standout\nsuffix:bold isearch:underline paste:standout) i.e. both the region and special characters are shown in standout mode. Within widgets, arbitrary regions may be highlighted by setting the special array parameter region_highlight; see Zle Widgets . This document was generated on May 14, 2022 using texi2html 5.0 . Zsh version 5.9, released on May 14, 2022.","breadcrumbs":"Zsh Line Editor » 18.7 Character Highlighting","id":"140","title":"18.7 Character Highlighting"},"141":{"body":"Table of Contents generated with DocToc 19 Completion Widgets 19.1 Description 19.2 Completion Special Parameters 19.3 Completion Builtin Commands - 19.4 Completion Condition Codes 19.5 Completion Matching Control 19.6 Completion Widget Example","breadcrumbs":"Completion Widgets » 19 Completion Widgets","id":"141","title":"19 Completion Widgets"},"142":{"body":"The shell’s programmable completion mechanism can be manipulated in two ways; here the low-level features supporting the newer, function-based mechanism are defined. A complete set of shell functions based on these features is described in the next chapter, Completion System , and users with no interest in adding to that system (or, potentially, writing their own — see dictionary entry for ‘hubris’) should skip the current section. The older system based on the compctl builtin command is described in Completion Using compctl . Completion widgets are defined by the -C option to the zle builtin command provided by the zsh/zle module (see The zsh/zle Module ). For example, zle -C complete expand-or-complete completer defines a widget named ‘complete’. The second argument is the name of any of the builtin widgets that handle completions: complete-word, expand-or-complete, expand-or-complete-prefix, menu-complete, menu-expand-or-complete, reverse-menu-complete, list-choices, or delete-char-or-list. Note that this will still work even if the widget in question has been re-bound. When this newly defined widget is bound to a key using the bindkey builtin command defined in the zsh/zle module ( Zsh Line Editor ), typing that key will call the shell function ‘completer’. This function is responsible for generating completion matches using the builtins described below. As with other ZLE widgets, the function is called with its standard input closed. Once the function returns, the completion code takes over control again and treats the matches in the same manner as the specified builtin widget, in this case expand-or-complete.","breadcrumbs":"Completion Widgets » 19.1 Description","id":"142","title":"19.1 Description"},"143":{"body":"The parameters ZLE_REMOVE_SUFFIX_CHARS and ZLE_SPACE_SUFFIX_CHARS are used by the completion mechanism, but are not special. See Parameters Used By The Shell . Inside completion widgets, and any functions called from them, some parameters have special meaning; outside these functions they are not special to the shell in any way. These parameters are used to pass information between the completion code and the completion widget. Some of the builtin commands and the condition codes use or change the current values of these parameters. Any existing values will be hidden during execution of completion widgets; except for compstate, the parameters are reset on each function exit (including nested function calls from within the completion widget) to the values they had when the function was entered. CURRENT This is the number of the current word, i.e. the word the cursor is currently on in the words array. Note that this value is only correct if the ksharrays option is not set. IPREFIX Initially this will be set to the empty string. This parameter functions like PREFIX; it contains a string which precedes the one in PREFIX and is not considered part of the list of matches. Typically, a string is transferred from the beginning of PREFIX to the end of IPREFIX, for example: IPREFIX=${PREFIX%%\\=*}=\nPREFIX=${PREFIX#*=} causes the part of the prefix up to and including the first equal sign not to be treated as part of a matched string. This can be done automatically by the compset builtin, see below. ISUFFIX As IPREFIX, but for a suffix that should not be considered part of the matches; note that the ISUFFIX string follows the SUFFIX string. PREFIX Initially this will be set to the part of the current word from the beginning of the word up to the position of the cursor; it may be altered to give a common prefix for all matches. QIPREFIX This parameter is read-only and contains the quoted string up to the word being completed. E.g. when completing ‘\"foo’, this parameter contains the double quote. If the -q option of compset is used (see below), and the original string was ‘\"foo bar’ with the cursor on the ‘bar’, this parameter contains ‘\"foo ’. QISUFFIX Like QIPREFIX, but containing the suffix. SUFFIX Initially this will be set to the part of the current word from the cursor position to the end; it may be altered to give a common suffix for all matches. It is most useful when the option COMPLETE_IN_WORD is set, as otherwise the whole word on the command line is treated as a prefix. compstate This is an associative array with various keys and values that the completion code uses to exchange information with the completion widget. The keys are: all_quotes The -q option of the compset builtin command (see below) allows a quoted string to be broken into separate words; if the cursor is on one of those words, that word will be completed, possibly invoking ‘compset -q’ recursively. With this key it is possible to test the types of quoted strings which are currently broken into parts in this fashion. Its value contains one character for each quoting level. The characters are a single quote or a double quote for strings quoted with these characters, a dollars sign for strings quoted with $’...’ and a backslash for strings not starting with a quote character. The first character in the value always corresponds to the innermost quoting level. context This will be set by the completion code to the overall context in which completion is attempted. Possible values are: array_value when completing inside the value of an array parameter assignment; in this case the words array contains the words inside the parentheses. brace_parameter when completing the name of a parameter in a parameter expansion beginning with ${. This context will also be set when completing parameter flags following ${(; the full command line argument is presented and the handler must test the value to be completed to ascertain that this is the case. assign_parameter when completing the name of a parameter in a parameter assignment. command when completing for a normal command (either in command position or for an argument of the command). condition when completing inside a ‘[[...]]’ conditional expression; in this case the words array contains only the words inside the conditional expression. math when completing in a mathematical environment such as a ‘((...))’ construct. parameter when completing the name of a parameter in a parameter expansion beginning with $ but not ${. redirect when completing after a redirection operator. subscript when completing inside a parameter subscript. value when completing the value of a parameter assignment. exact Controls the behaviour when the REC_EXACT option is set. It will be set to accept if an exact match would be accepted, and will be unset otherwise. If it was set when at least one match equal to the string on the line was generated, the match is accepted. exact_string The string of an exact match if one was found, otherwise unset. ignored The number of completions that were ignored because they matched one of the patterns given with the -F option to the compadd builtin command. insert This controls the manner in which a match is inserted into the command line. On entry to the widget function, if it is unset the command line is not to be changed; if set to unambiguous, any prefix common to all matches is to be inserted; if set to automenu-unambiguous, the common prefix is to be inserted and the next invocation of the completion code may start menu completion (due to the AUTO_MENU option being set); if set to menu or automenu menu completion will be started for the matches currently generated (in the latter case this will happen because the AUTO_MENU is set). The value may also contain the string ‘tab’ when the completion code would normally not really do completion, but only insert the TAB character. On exit it may be set to any of the values above (where setting it to the empty string is the same as unsetting it), or to a number, in which case the match whose number is given will be inserted into the command line. Negative numbers count backward from the last match (with ‘-1’ selecting the last match) and out-of-range values are wrapped around, so that a value of zero selects the last match and a value one more than the maximum selects the first. Unless the value of this key ends in a space, the match is inserted as in a menu completion, i.e. without automatically appending a space. Both menu and automenu may also specify the number of the match to insert, given after a colon. For example, ‘menu:2’ says to start menu completion, beginning with the second match. Note that a value containing the substring ‘tab’ makes the matches generated be ignored and only the TAB be inserted. Finally, it may also be set to all, which makes all matches generated be inserted into the line. insert_positions When the completion system inserts an unambiguous string into the line, there may be multiple places where characters are missing or where the character inserted differs from at least one match. The value of this key contains a colon separated list of all these positions, as indexes into the command line. last_prompt If this is set to a non-empty string for every match added, the completion code will move the cursor back to the previous prompt after the list of completions has been displayed. Initially this is set or unset according to the ALWAYS_LAST_PROMPT option. list This controls whether or how the list of matches will be displayed. If it is unset or empty they will never be listed; if its value begins with list, they will always be listed; if it begins with autolist or ambiguous, they will be listed when the AUTO_LIST or LIST_AMBIGUOUS options respectively would normally cause them to be. If the substring force appears in the value, this makes the list be shown even if there is only one match. Normally, the list would be shown only if there are at least two matches. The value contains the substring packed if the LIST_PACKED option is set. If this substring is given for all matches added to a group, this group will show the LIST_PACKED behavior. The same is done for the LIST_ROWS_FIRST option with the substring rows. Finally, if the value contains the string explanations, only the explanation strings, if any, will be listed and if it contains messages, only the messages (added with the -x option of compadd) will be listed. If it contains both explanations and messages both kinds of explanation strings will be listed. It will be set appropriately on entry to a completion widget and may be changed there. list_lines This gives the number of lines that are needed to display the full list of completions. Note that to calculate the total number of lines to display you need to add the number of lines needed for the command line to this value, this is available as the value of the BUFFERLINES special parameter. list_max Initially this is set to the value of the LISTMAX parameter. It may be set to any other value; when the widget exits this value will be used in the same way as the value of LISTMAX. nmatches The number of matches added by the completion code so far. old_insert On entry to the widget this will be set to the number of the match of an old list of completions that is currently inserted into the command line. If no match has been inserted, this is unset. As with old_list, the value of this key will only be used if it is the string keep. If it was set to this value by the widget and there was an old match inserted into the command line, this match will be kept and if the value of the insert key specifies that another match should be inserted, this will be inserted after the old one. old_list This is set to yes if there is still a valid list of completions from a previous completion at the time the widget is invoked. This will usually be the case if and only if the previous editing operation was a completion widget or one of the builtin completion functions. If there is a valid list and it is also currently shown on the screen, the value of this key is shown. After the widget has exited the value of this key is only used if it was set to keep. In this case the completion code will continue to use this old list. If the widget generated new matches, they will not be used. parameter The name of the parameter when completing in a subscript or in the value of a parameter assignment. pattern_insert Normally this is set to menu, which specifies that menu completion will be used whenever a set of matches was generated using pattern_match (see below). If it is set to any other non-empty string by the user and menu completion is not selected by other option settings, the code will instead insert any common prefix for the generated matches as with normal completion. pattern_match Locally controls the behaviour given by the GLOB_COMPLETE option. Initially it is set to ‘*’ if and only if the option is set. The completion widget may set it to this value, to an empty string (which has the same effect as unsetting it), or to any other non-empty string. If it is non-empty, unquoted metacharacters on the command line will be treated as patterns; if it is ‘*’, then additionally a wildcard ‘*’ is assumed at the cursor position; if it is empty or unset, metacharacters will be treated literally. Note that the match specifications given to the compadd builtin command are not used if this is set to a non-empty string. quote When completing inside quotes, this contains the quotation character (i.e. either a single quote, a double quote, or a backtick). Otherwise it is unset. quoting When completing inside single quotes, this is set to the string single; inside double quotes, the string double; inside backticks, the string backtick. Otherwise it is unset. redirect The redirection operator when completing in a redirection position, i.e. one of <, >, etc. restore This is set to auto before a function is entered, which forces the special parameters mentioned above (words, CURRENT, PREFIX, IPREFIX, SUFFIX, and ISUFFIX) to be restored to their previous values when the function exits. If a function unsets it or sets it to any other string, they will not be restored. to_end Specifies the occasions on which the cursor is moved to the end of a string when a match is inserted. On entry to a widget function, it may be single if this will happen when a single unambiguous match was inserted or match if it will happen any time a match is inserted (for example, by menu completion; this is likely to be the effect of the ALWAYS_TO_END option). On exit, it may be set to single as above. It may also be set to always, or to the empty string or unset; in those cases the cursor will be moved to the end of the string always or never respectively. Any other string is treated as match. unambiguous This key is read-only and will always be set to the common (unambiguous) prefix the completion code has generated for all matches added so far. unambiguous_cursor This gives the position the cursor would be placed at if the common prefix in the unambiguous key were inserted, relative to the value of that key. The cursor would be placed before the character whose index is given by this key. unambiguous_positions This contains all positions where characters in the unambiguous string are missing or where the character inserted differs from at least one of the matches. The positions are given as indexes into the string given by the value of the unambiguous key. vared If completion is called while editing a line using the vared builtin, the value of this key is set to the name of the parameter given as an argument to vared. This key is only set while a vared command is active. words This array contains the words present on the command line currently being edited.","breadcrumbs":"Completion Widgets » 19.2 Completion Special Parameters","id":"143","title":"19.2 Completion Special Parameters"},"144":{"body":"compadd [ -akqQfenUl12C ] [ -F array ] [-P prefix ] [ -S suffix ] [-p hidden-prefix ] [ -s hidden-suffix ] [-i ignored-prefix ] [ -I ignored-suffix ] [-W file-prefix ] [ -d array ] [-J group-name ] [ -X explanation ] [ -x message ] [-V group-name ] [ -o [ order ] ] [-r remove-chars ] [ -R remove-func ] [-D array ] [ -O array ] [ -A array ] [-E number ] [-M match-spec ] [ -- ] [ completions ... ] This builtin command can be used to add matches directly and control all the information the completion code stores with each possible completion. The return status is zero if at least one match was added and non-zero if no matches were added. The completion code breaks each match into seven fields in the order: The first field is an ignored prefix taken from the command line, the contents of the IPREFIX parameter plus the string given with the -i option. With the -U option, only the string from the -i option is used. The field is an optional prefix string given with the -P option. The field is a string that is considered part of the match but that should not be shown when listing completions, given with the -p option; for example, functions that do filename generation might specify a common path prefix this way. is the part of the match that should appear in the list of matches shown to the user. The suffixes , and correspond to the prefixes , and and are given by the options -s, -S and -I, respectively. The supported flags are: -P prefix This gives a string to be inserted before each match. The string given is not considered as part of the match and any shell metacharacters in it will not be quoted when the string is inserted. -S suffix Like -P, but gives a string to be inserted after each match. -p hidden-prefix This gives a string that should be inserted before each match but that should not appear in the list of matches. Unless the -U option is given, this string must be matched as part of the string on the command line. -s hidden-suffix Like ‘-p’, but gives a string to insert after each match. -i ignored-prefix This gives a string to insert just before any string given with the ‘-P’ option. Without ‘-P’ the string is inserted before the string given with ‘-p’ or directly before each match. -I ignored-suffix Like -i, but gives an ignored suffix. -a With this flag the completions are taken as names of arrays and the actual completions are their values. If only some elements of the arrays are needed, the completions may also contain subscripts, as in ‘foo[2,-1]’. -k With this flag the completions are taken as names of associative arrays and the actual completions are their keys. As for -a, the words may also contain subscripts, as in ‘foo[(R)*bar*]’. -d array This adds per-completion display strings. The array should contain one element per completion given. The completion code will then display the first element instead of the first completion, and so on. The array may be given as the name of an array parameter or directly as a space-separated list of words in parentheses. If there are fewer display strings than completions, the leftover completions will be displayed unchanged and if there are more display strings than completions, the leftover display strings will be silently ignored. -l This option only has an effect if used together with the -d option. If it is given, the display strings are listed one per line, not arrayed in columns. -o [ order ] This controls the order in which matches are sorted. order is a comma-separated list comprising the following possible values. These values can be abbreviated to their initial two or three characters. Note that the order forms part of the group name space so matches with different orderings will not be in the same group. match If given, the order of the output is determined by the match strings; otherwise it is determined by the display strings (i.e. the strings given by the -d option). This is the default if ‘-o’ is specified but the order argument is omitted. nosort This specifies that the completions are pre-sorted and their order should be preserved. This value only makes sense alone and cannot be combined with any others. numeric If the matches include numbers, sort them numerically rather than lexicographically. reverse Arrange the matches backwards by reversing the sort ordering. -J group-name Gives the name of the group that the matches should be stored in. -V group-name Like -J but naming an unsorted group. This option is identical to the combination of -J and -o nosort. -1 If given together with the -V option, makes only consecutive duplicates in the group be removed. If combined with the -J option, this has no visible effect. Note that groups with and without this flag are in different name spaces. -2 If given together with the -J or -V option, makes all duplicates be kept. Again, groups with and without this flag are in different name spaces. -X explanation The explanation string will be printed with the list of matches, above the group currently selected. Within the explanation, the following sequences may be used to specify output attributes (see Prompt Expansion ): ‘%B’, ‘%S’, ‘%U’, ‘%F’, ‘%K’ and their lower case counterparts, as well as ‘%{...%}’. ‘%F’, ‘%K’ and ‘%{...%}’ take arguments in the same form as prompt expansion. (Note that the sequence ‘%G’ is not available; an argument to ‘%{’ should be used instead.) The sequence ‘%%’ produces a literal ‘%’. These sequences are most often employed by users when customising the format style (see Completion System ), but they must also be taken into account when writing completion functions, as passing descriptions with unescaped ‘%’ characters to utility functions such as _arguments and _message may produce unexpected results. If arbitrary text is to be passed in a description, it can be escaped using e.g. ${my_str//\\%/%%}. -x message Like -X, but the message will be printed even if there are no matches in the group. -q The suffix given with -S will be automatically removed if the next character typed is a blank or does not insert anything, or if the suffix consists of only one character and the next character typed is the same character. -r remove-chars This is a more versatile form of the -q option. The suffix given with -S or the slash automatically added after completing directories will be automatically removed if the next character typed inserts one of the characters given in the remove-chars. This string is parsed as a characters class and understands the backslash sequences used by the print command. For example, ‘-r \"a-z\\t\"’ removes the suffix if the next character typed inserts a lower case character or a TAB, and ‘-r \"^0-9\"’ removes the suffix if the next character typed inserts anything but a digit. One extra backslash sequence is understood in this string: ‘\\-’ stands for all characters that insert nothing. Thus ‘-S \"=\" -q’ is the same as ‘-S \"=\" -r \"= \\t\\n\\-\"’. This option may also be used without the -S option; then any automatically added space will be removed when one of the characters in the list is typed. -R remove-func This is another form of the -r option. When a match has been accepted and a suffix has been inserted, the function remove-func will be called after the next character typed. It is passed the length of the suffix as an argument and can use the special parameters available in ordinary (non-completion) zle widgets (see Zsh Line Editor ) to analyse and modify the command line. -f If this flag is given, all of the matches built from the completions are marked as being the names of files. They are not required to be actual filenames, but if they are, and the option LIST_TYPES is set, the characters describing the types of the files in the completion lists will be shown. This also forces a slash to be added when the name of a directory is completed. -e This flag can be used to tell the completion code that the matches added are parameter names for a parameter expansion. This will make the AUTO_PARAM_SLASH and AUTO_PARAM_KEYS options be used for the matches. -W file-prefix This string is a pathname that will be prepended to each match together with any prefix specified by the -p option to form a complete filename for testing. Hence it is only useful if combined with the -f flag, as the tests will not otherwise be performed. -F array Specifies an array containing patterns. completions that match one of these patterns are ignored, that is, not considered to be matches. The array may be the name of an array parameter or a list of literal patterns enclosed in parentheses and quoted, as in ‘-F \"(*?.o *?.h)\"’. If the name of an array is given, the elements of the array are taken as the patterns. -Q This flag instructs the completion code not to quote any metacharacters in the matches when inserting them into the command line. -M match-spec This gives local match specifications as described below in Completion Matching Control . This option may be given more than once. In this case all match-specs given are concatenated with spaces between them to form the specification string to use. Note that they will only be used if the -U option is not given. -n Specifies that matching completions are to be added to the set of matches, but are not to be listed to the user. -U If this flag is given, all completions are added to the set of matches and no matching will be done by the completion code. Normally this is used in functions that do the matching themselves. -O array If this option is given, the completions are not added to the set of matches. Instead, matching is done as usual and all of the completions that match will be stored in the array parameter whose name is given as array. -A array As the -O option, except that instead of those of the completions which match being stored in array, the strings generated internally by the completion code are stored. For example, with a match specification of ‘-M \"L:|no=\"’, a current word of ‘nof’ and completions of ‘foo’, this option stores the string ‘nofoo’ in the array, whereas the -O option stores the ‘foo’ originally given. -D array As with -O, the completions are not added to the set of matches. Instead, whenever the nth completion does not match, the nth element of the array is removed. Elements for which the corresponding completion matches are retained. This option can be used more than once to remove elements from multiple arrays. -C This option adds a special match which expands to all other matches when inserted into the line, even those that are added after this option is used. Together with the -d option it is possible to specify a string that should be displayed in the list for this special match. If no string is given, it will be shown as a string containing the strings that would be inserted for the other matches, truncated to the width of the screen. -E number This option adds number empty matches after matching completions have been added. An empty match takes up space in completion listings but will never be inserted in the line and can’t be selected with menu completion or menu selection. This makes empty matches only useful to format completion lists and to make explanatory string be shown in completion lists (since empty matches can be given display strings with the -d option). And because all but one empty string would otherwise be removed, this option implies the -V and -2 options (even if an explicit -J option is given). This can be important to note as it affects the name space into which matches are added.","breadcrumbs":"Completion Widgets » 19.3 Completion Builtin Commands","id":"144","title":"19.3 Completion Builtin Commands"},"145":{"body":"This flag ends the list of flags and options. All arguments after it will be taken as the completions even if they begin with hyphens. Except for the -M flag, if any of these flags is given more than once, the first one (and its argument) will be used. compset -p number compset -P [ number ] pattern compset -s number compset -S [ number ] pattern compset -n begin [ end ] compset -N beg-pat [ end-pat ] compset -q This command simplifies modification of the special parameters, while its return status allows tests on them to be carried out. The options are: -p number If the value of the PREFIX parameter is at least number characters long, the first number characters are removed from it and appended to the contents of the IPREFIX parameter. -P [ number ] pattern If the value of the PREFIX parameter begins with anything that matches the pattern, the matched portion is removed from PREFIX and appended to IPREFIX. Without the optional number, the longest match is taken, but if number is given, anything up to the numberth match is moved. If the number is negative, the numberth longest match is moved. For example, if PREFIX contains the string ‘a=b=c’, then compset -P ’*\\=’ will move the string ‘a=b=’ into the IPREFIX parameter, but compset -P 1 ’*\\=’ will move only the string ‘a=’. -s number As -p, but transfer the last number characters from the value of SUFFIX to the front of the value of ISUFFIX. -S [ number ] pattern As -P, but match the last portion of SUFFIX and transfer the matched portion to the front of the value of ISUFFIX. -n begin [ end ] If the current word position as specified by the parameter CURRENT is greater than or equal to begin, anything up to the beginth word is removed from the words array and the value of the parameter CURRENT is decremented by begin. If the optional end is given, the modification is done only if the current word position is also less than or equal to end. In this case, the words from position end onwards are also removed from the words array. Both begin and end may be negative to count backwards from the last element of the words array. -N beg-pat [ end-pat ] If one of the elements of the words array before the one at the index given by the value of the parameter CURRENT matches the pattern beg-pat, all elements up to and including the matching one are removed from the words array and the value of CURRENT is changed to point to the same word in the changed array. If the optional pattern end-pat is also given, and there is an element in the words array matching this pattern, the parameters are modified only if the index of this word is higher than the one given by the CURRENT parameter (so that the matching word has to be after the cursor). In this case, the words starting with the one matching end-pat are also removed from the words array. If words contains no word matching end-pat, the testing and modification is performed as if it were not given. -q The word currently being completed is split on spaces into separate words, respecting the usual shell quoting conventions. The resulting words are stored in the words array, and CURRENT, PREFIX, SUFFIX, QIPREFIX, and QISUFFIX are modified to reflect the word part that is completed. In all the above cases the return status is zero if the test succeeded and the parameters were modified and non-zero otherwise. This allows one to use this builtin in tests such as: if compset -P '*\\='; then ... This forces anything up to and including the last equal sign to be ignored by the completion code. compcall [ -TD ] This allows the use of completions defined with the compctl builtin from within completion widgets. The list of matches will be generated as if one of the non-widget completion functions (complete-word, etc.) had been called, except that only compctls given for specific commands are used. To force the code to try completions defined with the -T option of compctl and/or the default completion (whether defined by compctl -D or the builtin default) in the appropriate places, the -T and/or -D flags can be passed to compcall. The return status can be used to test if a matching compctl definition was found. It is non-zero if a compctl was found and zero otherwise. Note that this builtin is defined by the zsh/compctl module.","breadcrumbs":"Completion Widgets » -","id":"145","title":"-"},"146":{"body":"The following additional condition codes for use within the [[ ... ]] construct are available in completion widgets. These work on the special parameters. All of these tests can also be performed by the compset builtin, but in the case of the condition codes the contents of the special parameters are not modified. -prefix [ number ] pattern true if the test for the -P option of compset would succeed. -suffix [ number ] pattern true if the test for the -S option of compset would succeed. -after beg-pat true if the test of the -N option with only the beg-pat given would succeed. -between beg-pat end-pat true if the test for the -N option with both patterns would succeed.","breadcrumbs":"Completion Widgets » 19.4 Completion Condition Codes","id":"146","title":"19.4 Completion Condition Codes"},"147":{"body":"When the user invokes completion, the current word on the command line (that is, the word the cursor is currently on) is used to generate a match pattern . Only those completions that match the pattern are offered to the user as matches . The default match pattern is generated from the current word by either appending a ‘*’ (matching any number of characters in a completion) or, if the shell option COMPLETE_IN_WORD is set, inserting a ‘*’ at the cursor position. This narrow pattern can be broadened selectively by passing a match specification to the compadd builtin command through its -M option (see Completion Builtin Commands ). A match specification consists of one or more matchers separated by whitespace. Matchers in a match specification are applied one at a time, from left to right. Once all matchers have been applied, completions are compared to the final match pattern and non-matching ones are discarded. Note that the -M option is ignored if the current word contains a glob pattern and the shell option GLOB_COMPLETE is set or if the pattern_match key of the special associative array compstate is set to a non-empty value (see Completion Special Parameters ). Users of the Completion System should generally not use the -M option directly, but rather use the matcher-list and matcher styles (see the subsection Standard Styles in Completion System Configuration ). Each matcher consists of a case-sensitive letter a ‘:’, one or more patterns separated by pipes (‘|’), an equals sign (‘=’), and another pattern. The patterns before the ‘=’ are used to match substrings of the current word. For each matched substring, the corresponding part of the match pattern is broadened with the pattern after the ‘=’, by means of a logical OR. Each pattern in a matcher cosists of either the empty string or a sequence of literal characters (which may be quoted with a ‘\\’), question marks (‘?’), bracket expressions (‘[...]’; see the subsection Glob Operators in Filename Generation ), and/or brace expressions (see below). Other shell patterns are not allowed. A brace expression, like a bracket expression, consists of a list of literal characters, ranges (‘0-9’), and/or character classes (‘[:name:]’). However, they differ from each other as follows: A brace expression is delimited by a pair of braces (‘{...}’). Brace expressions do not support negations. That is, an initial ‘!’ or ‘^’ has no special meaning and will be interpreted as a literal character. When a character in the current word matches the nth pattern in a brace expression, the corresponding part of the match pattern is broadened only with the nth pattern of the brace expression on the other side of the ‘=’, if there is one; if there is no brace expression on the other side, then this pattern is the empty string. However, if either brace expression has more elements than the other, then the excess entries are simply ignored. When comparing indexes, each literal character or character class counts as one element, but each range is instead expanded to the full list of literal characters it represents. Additionally, if on both sides of the ‘=’, the nth pattern is ‘[:upper:]’ or ‘[:lower:]’, then these are expanded as ranges, too. Note that, although the matching system does not yet handle multibyte characters, this is likely to be a future extension. Hence, using ‘[:upper:]’ and ‘[:lower:]’ is recommended over ‘A-Z’ and ‘a-z’. Below are the different forms of matchers supported. Each uppercase form behaves exactly like its lowercase counterpart, but adds an additional step after the match pattern has filtered out non-matching completions: Each of a match’s substrings that was matched by a subpattern from an uppercase matcher is replaced with the corresponding substring of the current word. However, patterns from lowercase matchers have higher weight: If a substring of the current word was matched by patterns from both a lowercase and an uppercase matcher, then the lowercase matcher’s pattern wins and the corresponding part of the match is not modified. Unless indicated otherwise, each example listed assumes COMPLETE_IN_WORD to be unset (as it is by default). m:word-pat=match-pat M:word-pat=match-pat For each substring of the current word that matches word-pat, broaden the corresponding part of the match pattern to additionally match match-pat. Examples: m:{[:lower:]}={[:upper:]} lets any lower case character in the current word be completed to itself or its uppercase counterpart. So, the completions ‘foo’, ‘FOO’ and ‘Foo’ will are be considered matches for the word ‘fo’. M:_= inserts every underscore from the current word into each match, in the same relative position, determined by matching the substrings around it. So, given a completion ‘foo’, the word ‘f_o’ will be completed to the match ‘f_oo’, even though the latter was not present as a completion. b:word-pat=match-pat B:word-pat=match-pat e:word-pat=match-pat E:word-pat=match-pat For each consecutive substring at the b:eginning or e:nd of the current word that matches word-pat, broaden the corresponding part of the match pattern to additionally match match-pat. Examples: ‘b:-=+’ lets any number of minuses at the start of the current word be completed to a minus or a plus. ‘B:0=’ adds all zeroes at the beginning of the current word to the beginning of each match. l:|word-pat=match-pat L:|word-pat=match-pat R:word-pat|=match-pat r:word-pat|=match-pat If there is a substring at the l:eft or r:ight edge of the current word that matches word-pat, then broaden the corresponding part of the match pattern to additionally match match-pat. For each l:, L:, r: and R: matcher (including the ones below), the pattern match-pat may also be a ‘*’. This matches any number of characters in a completion. Examples: ‘r:|=*’ appends a ‘*’ to the match pattern, even when COMPLETE_IN_WORD is set and the cursor is not at the end of the current word. If the current word starts with a minus, then ‘L:|-=’ will prepend it to each match. l:anchor|word-pat=match-pat L:anchor|word-pat=match-pat r:word-pat|anchor=match-pat R:word-pat|anchor=match-pat For each substring of the current word that matches word-pat and has on its l:eft or r:ight another substring matching anchor, broaden the corresponding part of the match pattern to additionally match match-pat. Note that these matchers (and the ones below) modify only what is matched by word-pat; they do not change the matching behavior of what is matched by anchor (or coanchor; see the matchers below). Thus, unless its corresponding part of the match pattern has been modified, the anchor in the current word has to match literally in each completion, just like any other substring of the current word. If a matcher includes at least one anchor (which includes the matchers with two anchors, below), then match-pat may also be ‘*’ or ‘**’. ‘*’ can match any part of a completion that does not contain any substrings matching anchor, whereas a ‘**’ can match any part of a completion, period. (Note that this is different from the behavior of ‘*’ in the anchorless forms of ‘l:’ and ‘r:’ and and also different from ‘*’ and ‘**’ in glob expressions.) Examples: ‘r:|.=*’ makes the completion ‘comp.sources.unix’ a match for the word ‘..u’ — but not for the word ‘.u’. Given a completion ‘--foo’, the matcher ‘L:–|no-=’ will complete the word ‘--no-’ to the match ‘--no-foo’. l:anchor||coanchor=match-pat L:anchor||coanchor=match-pat r:coanchor||anchor=match-pat R:coanchor||anchor=match-pat For any two consecutive substrings of the current word that match anchor and coanchor, in the order given, insert the pattern match-pat between their corresponding parts in the match pattern. Note that, unlike anchor, the pattern coanchor does not change what ‘*’ can match. Examples: ‘r:?||[[:upper:]]=*’ will complete the current word ‘fB’ to ‘fooBar’, but it will not complete it to ‘fooHooBar’ (because ‘*’ here cannot match anything that includes a match for ‘[[:upper:]]), nor will it complete ‘B’ to ‘fooBar’ (because there is no character in the current word to match coanchor). Given the current word ‘pass.n’ and a completion ‘pass.byname’, the matcher ‘L:.||[[:alpha:]]=by’ will produce the match ‘pass.name’. x: Ignore this matcher and all matchers to its right. This matcher is used to mark the end of a match specification. In a single standalone list of matchers, this has no use, but where match specifications are concatenated, as is often the case when using the Completion System , it can allow one match specification to override another.","breadcrumbs":"Completion Widgets » 19.5 Completion Matching Control","id":"147","title":"19.5 Completion Matching Control"},"148":{"body":"The first step is to define the widget: zle -C complete complete-word complete-files Then the widget can be bound to a key using the bindkey builtin command: bindkey '^X\\t' complete After that the shell function complete-files will be invoked after typing control-X and TAB. The function should then generate the matches, e.g.: complete-files () { compadd - * } This function will complete files in the current directory matching the current word. This document was generated on May 14, 2022 using texi2html 5.0 . Zsh version 5.9, released on May 14, 2022.","breadcrumbs":"Completion Widgets » 19.6 Completion Widget Example","id":"148","title":"19.6 Completion Widget Example"},"149":{"body":"Table of Contents generated with DocToc 20 Completion System 20.1 Description 20.2 Initialization 20.2.1 Use of compinit 20.2.2 Autoloaded files 20.2.3 Functions 20.3 Completion System Configuration 20.3.1 Overview 20.3.2 Standard Tags 20.3.3 Standard Styles 20.4 Control Functions 20.5 Bindable Commands 20.6 Utility Functions 20.7 Completion System Variables 20.8 Completion Directories","breadcrumbs":"Completion System » 20 Completion System","id":"149","title":"20 Completion System"},"15":{"body":"The shell has a large number of options for changing its behaviour. These cover all aspects of the shell; browsing the full documentation is the only good way to become acquainted with the many possibilities. See Options .","breadcrumbs":"Roadmap » 3.3 Options","id":"15","title":"3.3 Options"},"150":{"body":"This describes the shell code for the ‘new’ completion system, referred to as compsys. It is written in shell functions based on the features described in the previous chapter, Completion Widgets . The features are contextual, sensitive to the point at which completion is started. Many completions are already provided. For this reason, a user can perform a great many tasks without knowing any details beyond how to initialize the system, which is described in Initialization . The context that decides what completion is to be performed may be an argument or option position: these describe the position on the command line at which completion is requested. For example ‘first argument to rmdir, the word being completed names a directory’; a special context, denoting an element in the shell’s syntax. For example ‘a word in command position’ or ‘an array subscript’. A full context specification contains other elements, as we shall describe. Besides commands names and contexts, the system employs two more concepts, styles and tags . These provide ways for the user to configure the system’s behaviour. Tags play a dual role. They serve as a classification system for the matches, typically indicating a class of object that the user may need to distinguish. For example, when completing arguments of the ls command the user may prefer to try files before directories, so both of these are tags. They also appear as the rightmost element in a context specification. Styles modify various operations of the completion system, such as output formatting, but also what kinds of completers are used (and in what order), or which tags are examined. Styles may accept arguments and are manipulated using the zstyle command described in The zsh/zutil Module . In summary, tags describe what the completion objects are, and style how they are to be completed. At various points of execution, the completion system checks what styles and/or tags are defined for the current context, and uses that to modify its behavior. The full description of context handling, which determines how tags and other elements of the context influence the behaviour of styles, is described in Completion System Configuration . When a completion is requested, a dispatcher function is called; see the description of _main_complete in the list of control functions below. This dispatcher decides which function should be called to produce the completions, and calls it. The result is passed to one or more completers , functions that implement individual completion strategies: simple completion, error correction, completion with error correction, menu selection, etc. More generally, the shell functions contained in the completion system are of two types: those beginning ‘comp’ are to be called directly; there are only a few of these; those beginning ‘_’ are called by the completion code. The shell functions of this set, which implement completion behaviour and may be bound to keystrokes, are referred to as ‘widgets’. These proliferate as new completions are required.","breadcrumbs":"Completion System » 20.1 Description","id":"150","title":"20.1 Description"},"151":{"body":"If the system was installed completely, it should be enough to call the shell function compinit from your initialization file; see the next section. However, the function compinstall can be run by a user to configure various aspects of the completion system. Usually, compinstall will insert code into .zshrc, although if file’s location. Note that it is up to you to make sure that the lines added to .zshrc are actually run; you may, for example, need to move them to an earlier place in the file if .zshrc usually returns early. So long as you keep them all together (including the comment lines at the start and finish), you can rerun compinstall and it will correctly locate and modify these lines. Note, however, that any code you add to this section by hand is likely to be lost if you rerun compinstall, although lines using the command ‘zstyle’ should be gracefully handled. The new code will take effect next time you start the shell, or run .zshrc by hand; there is also an option to make them take effect immediately. However, if compinstall has removed definitions, you will need to restart the shell to see the changes. To run compinstall you will need to make sure it is in a directory mentioned in your fpath parameter, which should already be the case if zsh was properly configured as long as your startup files do not remove the appropriate directories from fpath. Then it must be autoloaded (‘autoload -U compinstall’ is recommended). You can abort the installation any time you are being prompted for information, and your .zshrc will not be altered at all; changes only take place right at the end, where you are specifically asked for confirmation.","breadcrumbs":"Completion System » 20.2 Initialization","id":"151","title":"20.2 Initialization"},"152":{"body":"This section describes the use of compinit to initialize completion for the current session when called directly; if you have run compinstall it will be called automatically from your .zshrc. To initialize the system, the function compinit should be in a directory mentioned in the fpath parameter, and should be autoloaded (‘autoload -U compinit’ is recommended), and then run simply as ‘compinit’. This will define a few utility functions, arrange for all the necessary shell functions to be autoloaded, and will then re-define all widgets that do completion to use the new system. If you use the menu-select widget, which is part of the zsh/complist module, you should make sure that that module is loaded before the call to compinit so that that widget is also re-defined. If completion styles (see below) are set up to perform expansion as well as completion by default, and the TAB key is bound to expand-or-complete, compinit will rebind it to complete-word; this is necessary to use the correct form of expansion. Should you need to use the original completion commands, you can still bind keys to the old widgets by putting a ‘.’ in front of the widget name, e.g. ‘.expand-or-complete’. To speed up the running of compinit, it can be made to produce a dumped configuration that will be read in on future invocations; this is the default, but can be turned off by calling compinit with the option -D. The dumped file is .zcompdump in the same directory as the startup files (i.e. $ZDOTDIR or $HOME); alternatively, an explicit file name can be given by ‘compinit -d dumpfile’. The next invocation of compinit will read the dumped file instead of performing a full initialization. If the number of completion files changes, compinit will recognise this and produce a new dump file. However, if the name of a function or the arguments in the first line of a #compdef function (as described below) change, it is easiest to delete the dump file by hand so that compinit will re-create it the next time it is run. The check performed to see if there are new functions can be omitted by giving the option -C. In this case the dump file will only be created if there isn’t one already. The dumping is actually done by another function, compdump, but you will only need to run this yourself if you change the configuration (e.g. using compdef) and then want to dump the new one. The name of the old dumped file will be remembered for this purpose. If the parameter _compdir is set, compinit uses it as a directory where completion functions can be found; this is only necessary if they are not already in the function search path. For security reasons compinit also checks if the completion system would use files not owned by root or by the current user, or files in root or by the current user. If such files or directories are found, compinit will ask if the completion system should really be used. To avoid these tests and make all files found be used without asking, use the option -u, and to make compinit silently ignore all insecure files and directories use the option -i. This security check is skipped entirely when the -C option is given, provided the dumpfile exists. The security check can be retried at any time by running the function compaudit. This is the same check used by compinit, but when it is executed directly any changes to fpath are made local to the function so they do not persist. The directories to be checked may be passed as arguments; if none are given, compaudit uses fpath and _compdir to find completion system directories, adding missing ones to fpath as necessary. To force a check of exactly the directories currently named in fpath, set _compdir to an empty string before calling compaudit or compinit. The function bashcompinit provides compatibility with bash’s programmable completion system. When run it will define the functions, compgen and complete which correspond to the bash builtins with the same names. It will then be possible to use completion specifications and functions written for bash.","breadcrumbs":"Completion System » 20.2.1 Use of compinit","id":"152","title":"20.2.1 Use of compinit"},"153":{"body":"The convention for autoloaded functions used in completion is that they start with an underscore; as already mentioned, the fpath/FPATH parameter must contain the directory in which they are stored. If zsh was properly installed on your system, then fpath/FPATH automatically contains the required directories for the standard functions. For incomplete installations, if compinit does not find enough files beginning with an underscore (fewer than twenty) in the search path, it will try to find more by adding the directory _compdir to the search path. If that directory has a subdirectory named Base, all subdirectories will be added to the path. Furthermore, if the subdirectory Base has a subdirectory named Core, compinit will add all subdirectories of the subdirectories to the path: this allows the functions to be in the same format as in the zsh source distribution. When compinit is run, it searches all such files accessible via fpath/FPATH and reads the first line of each of them. This line should contain one of the tags described below. Files whose first line does not start with one of these tags are not considered to be part of the completion system and will not be treated specially. The tags are: #compdef name ... [ -{p|P} pattern ... [ -N name ... ] ] The file will be made autoloadable and the function defined in it will be called when completing names, each of which is either the name of a command whose arguments are to be completed or one of a number of special contexts in the form -context- described below. Each name may also be of the form ‘cmd=service’. When completing the command cmd, the function typically behaves as if the command (or special context) service was being completed instead. This provides a way of altering the behaviour of functions that can perform many different completions. It is implemented by setting the parameter $service when calling the function; the function may choose to interpret this how it wishes, and simpler functions will probably ignore it. If the #compdef line contains one of the options -p or -P, the words following are taken to be patterns. The function will be called when completion is attempted for a command or context that matches one of the patterns. The options -p and -P are used to specify patterns to be tried before or after other completions respectively. Hence -P may be used to specify default actions. The option -N is used after a list following -p or -P; it specifies that remaining words no longer define patterns. It is possible to toggle between the three options as many times as necessary. #compdef -k style key-sequence ... This option creates a widget behaving like the builtin widget style and binds it to the given key-sequences, if any. The style must be one of the builtin widgets that perform completion, namely complete-word, delete-char-or-list, expand-or-complete, expand-or-complete-prefix, list-choices, menu-complete, menu-expand-or-complete, or reverse-menu-complete. If the zsh/complist module is loaded (see The zsh/complist Module ) the widget menu-select is also available. When one of the key-sequences is typed, the function in the file will be invoked to generate the matches. Note that a key will not be re-bound if it already was (that is, was bound to something other than undefined-key). The widget created has the same name as the file and can be bound to any other keys using bindkey as usual. #compdef -K widget-name style key-sequence [ name style seq ... ] This is similar to -k except that only one key-sequence argument may be given for each widget-name style pair. However, the entire set of three arguments may be repeated with a different set of arguments. Note in particular that the widget-name must be distinct in each set. If it does not begin with ‘_’ this will be added. The widget-name should not clash with the name of any existing widget: names based on the name of the function are most useful. For example, #compdef -K _foo_complete complete-word \"^X^C\" \\ _foo_list list-choices \"^X^D\" (all on one line) defines a widget _foo_complete for completion, bound to ‘^X^C’, and a widget _foo_list for listing, bound to ‘^X^D’. #autoload [ options ] Functions with the #autoload tag are marked for autoloading but are not otherwise treated specially. Typically they are to be called from within one of the completion functions. Any options supplied will be passed to the autoload builtin; a typical use is +X to force the function to be loaded immediately. Note that the -U and -z flags are always added implicitly. The # is part of the tag name and no white space is allowed after it. The #compdef tags use the compdef function described below; the main difference is that the name of the function is supplied implicitly. The special contexts for which completion functions can be defined are: -array-value- The right hand side of an array-assignment (‘name=(...)’) -assign-parameter- The name of a parameter in an assignment, i.e. on the left hand side of an ‘=’ -brace-parameter- The name of a parameter expansion within braces (‘${...}’) -command- A word in command position -condition- A word inside a condition (‘[[...]]’) -default- Any word for which no other completion is defined -equal- A word beginning with an equals sign -first- This is tried before any other completion function. The function called may set the _compskip parameter to one of various values: all: no further completion is attempted; a string containing the substring patterns: no pattern completion functions will be called; a string containing default: the function for the ‘-default-’ context will not be called, but functions defined for commands will be. -math- Inside mathematical contexts, such as ‘((...))’ -parameter- The name of a parameter expansion (‘$...’) -redirect- The word after a redirection operator. -subscript- The contents of a parameter subscript. -tilde- After an initial tilde (‘~’), but before the first slash in the word. -value- On the right hand side of an assignment. Default implementations are supplied for each of these contexts. In most cases the context -context- is implemented by a corresponding function _context, for example the context ‘-tilde-’ and the function ‘_tilde’). The contexts -redirect- and -value- allow extra context-specific information. (Internally, this is handled by the functions for each context calling the function _dispatch.) The extra information is added separated by commas. For the -redirect- context, the extra information is in the form ‘-redirect-,op,command’, where op is the redirection operator and command is the name of the command on the line. If there is no command on the line yet, the command field will be empty. For the -value- context, the form is ‘-value-,name,command’, where name is the name of the parameter on the left hand side of the assignment. In the case of elements of an associative array, for example ‘assoc=(key ’, name is expanded to ‘name-key’. In certain special contexts, such as completing after ‘make CFLAGS=’, the command part gives the name of the command, here make; otherwise it is empty. It is not necessary to define fully specific completions as the functions provided will try to generate completions by progressively replacing the elements with ‘-default-’. For example, when completing after ‘foo=’, _value will try the names ‘-value-,foo,’ (note the empty command part), ‘-value-,foo,-default-’ and‘-value-,-default-,-default-’, in that order, until it finds a function to handle the context. As an example: compdef '_files -g \"*.log\"' '-redirect-,2>,-default-' completes files matching ‘*.log’ after ‘2> ’ for any command with no more specific handler defined. Also: compdef _foo -value-,-default-,-default- specifies that _foo provides completions for the values of parameters for which no special function has been defined. This is usually handled by the function _value itself. The same lookup rules are used when looking up styles (as described below); for example zstyle ':completion:*:*:-redirect-,2>,*:*' file-patterns '*.log' is another way to make completion after ‘2> ’ complete files matching ‘*.log’.","breadcrumbs":"Completion System » 20.2.2 Autoloaded files","id":"153","title":"20.2.2 Autoloaded files"},"154":{"body":"The following function is defined by compinit and may be called directly. compdef [ -ane ] function name ... [ -{p|P} pattern ... [ -N name ...]] compdef -d name ... compdef -k [ -an ] function style key-sequence [ key-sequence ... ] compdef -K [ -an ] function name style key-seq [ name style seq ... ] The first form defines the function to call for completion in the given contexts as described for the #compdef tag above. Alternatively, all the arguments may have the form ‘cmd=service’. Here service should already have been defined by ‘cmd1=service’ lines in #compdef files, as described above. The argument for cmd will be completed in the same way as service. The function argument may alternatively be a string containing almost any shell code. If the string contains an equal sign, the above will take precedence. The option -e may be used to specify the first argument is to be evaluated as shell code even if it contains an equal sign. The string will be executed using the eval builtin command to generate completions. This provides a way of avoiding having to define a new completion function. For example, to complete files ending in ‘.h’ as arguments to the command foo: compdef '_files -g \"*.h\"' foo The option -n prevents any completions already defined for the command or context from being overwritten. The option -d deletes any completion defined for the command or contexts listed. The names may also contain -p, -P and -N options as described for the #compdef tag. The effect on the argument list is identical, switching between definitions of patterns tried initially, patterns tried finally, and normal commands and contexts. The parameter $_compskip may be set by any function defined for a pattern context. If it is set to a value containing the substring ‘patterns’ none of the pattern-functions will be called; if it is set to a value containing the substring ‘all’, no other function will be called. Setting $_compskip in this manner is of particular utility when using the -p option, as otherwise the dispatcher will move on to additional functions (likely the default one) after calling the pattern-context one, which can mangle the display of completion possibilities if not handled properly. The form with -k defines a widget with the same name as the function that will be called for each of the key-sequences; this is like the #compdef -k tag. The function should generate the completions needed and will otherwise behave like the builtin widget whose name is given as the style argument. The widgets usable for this are: complete-word, delete-char-or-list, expand-or-complete, expand-or-complete-prefix, list-choices, menu-complete, menu-expand-or-complete, and reverse-menu-complete, as well as menu-select if the zsh/complist module is loaded. The option -n prevents the key being bound if it is already to bound to something other than undefined-key. The form with -K is similar and defines multiple widgets based on the same function, each of which requires the set of three arguments name, style and key-sequence, where the latter two are as for -k and the first must be a unique widget name beginning with an underscore. Wherever applicable, the -a option makes the function autoloadable, equivalent to autoload -U function. The function compdef can be used to associate existing completion functions with new commands. For example, compdef _pids foo uses the function _pids to complete process IDs for the command foo. Note also the _gnu_generic function described below, which can be used to complete options for commands that understand the ‘--help’ option.","breadcrumbs":"Completion System » 20.2.3 Functions","id":"154","title":"20.2.3 Functions"},"155":{"body":"This section gives a short overview of how the completion system works, and then more detail on how users can configure how and when matches are generated.","breadcrumbs":"Completion System » 20.3 Completion System Configuration","id":"155","title":"20.3 Completion System Configuration"},"156":{"body":"When completion is attempted somewhere on the command line the completion system begins building the context. The context represents everything that the shell knows about the meaning of the command line and the significance of the cursor position. This takes account of a number of things including the command word (such as ‘grep’ or ‘zsh’) and options to which the current word may be an argument (such as the ‘-o’ option to zsh which takes a shell option as an argument). The context starts out very generic (\"we are beginning a completion\") and becomes more specific as more is learned (\"the current word is in a position that is usually a command name\" or \"the current word might be a variable name\" and so on). Therefore the context will vary during the same call to the completion system. This context information is condensed into a string consisting of multiple fields separated by colons, referred to simply as ‘the context’ in the remainder of the documentation. Note that a user of the completion system rarely needs to compose a context string, unless for example a new function is being written to perform completion for a new command. What a user may need to do is compose a style pattern, which is matched against a context when needed to look up context-sensitive options that configure the completion system. The next few paragraphs explain how a context is composed within the completion function suite. Following that is discussion of how styles are defined. Styles determine such things as how the matches are generated, similarly to shell options but with much more control. They are defined with the zstyle builtin command ( The zsh/zutil Module ). The context string always consists of a fixed set of fields, separated by colons and with a leading colon before the first. Fields which are not yet known are left empty, but the surrounding colons appear anyway. The fields are always in the order :completion:function:completer:command:argument:tag. These have the following meaning: The literal string completion, saying that this style is used by the completion system. This distinguishes the context from those used by, for example, zle widgets and ZFTP functions. The function, if completion is called from a named widget rather than through the normal completion system. Typically this is blank, but it is set by special widgets such as predict-on and the various functions in the Widget directory of the distribution to the name of that function, often in an abbreviated form. The completer currently active, the name of the function without the leading underscore and with other underscores converted to hyphens. A ‘completer’ is in overall control of how completion is to be performed; ‘complete’ is the simplest, but other completers exist to perform related tasks such as correction, or to modify the behaviour of a later completer. See Control Functions for more information. The command or a special -context-, just at it appears following the #compdef tag or the compdef function. Completion functions for commands that have sub-commands usually modify this field to contain the name of the command followed by a minus sign and the sub-command. For example, the completion function for the cvs command sets this field to cvs-add when completing arguments to the add subcommand. The argument; this indicates which command line or option argument we are completing. For command arguments this generally takes the form argument-n, where n is the number of the argument, and for arguments to options the form option-opt-n where n is the number of the argument to option opt. However, this is only the case if the command line is parsed with standard UNIX-style options and arguments, so many completions do not set this. The tag. As described previously, tags are used to discriminate between the types of matches a completion function can generate in a certain context. Any completion function may use any tag name it likes, but a list of the more common ones is given below. The context is gradually put together as the functions are executed, starting with the main entry point, which adds :completion: and the function element if necessary. The completer then adds the completer element. The contextual completion adds the command and argument options. Finally, the tag is added when the types of completion are known. For example, the context name :completion::complete:dvips:option-o-1:files says that normal completion was attempted as the first argument to the option -o of the command dvips: dvips -o ... and the completion function will generate filenames. Usually completion will be tried for all possible tags in an order given by the completion function. However, this can be altered by using the tag-order style. Completion is then restricted to the list of given tags in the given order. The _complete_help bindable command shows all the contexts and tags available for completion at a particular point. This provides an easy way of finding information for tag-order and other styles. It is described in Bindable Commands . When looking up styles the completion system uses full context names, including the tag. Looking up the value of a style therefore consists of two things: the context, which is matched to the most specific (best fitting) pattern, and the name of the style itself, which must be matched exactly. The following examples demonstrate that patterns may be loosely defined for styles that apply broadly, or as tightly defined as desired for styles that apply in narrower circumstances. For example, many completion functions can generate matches in a simple and a verbose form and use the verbose style to decide which form should be used. To make all such functions use the verbose form, put zstyle ':completion:*' verbose yes in a startup file (probably .zshrc). This gives the verbose style the value yes in every context inside the completion system, unless that context has a more specific definition. It is best to avoid giving the pattern as ‘*’ in case the style has some meaning outside the completion system. Many such general purpose styles can be configured simply by using the compinstall function. A more specific example of the use of the verbose style is by the completion for the kill builtin. If the style is set, the builtin lists full job texts and process command lines; otherwise it shows the bare job numbers and PIDs. To turn the style off for this use only: zstyle ':completion:*:*:kill:*:*' verbose no For even more control, the style can use one of the tags ‘jobs’ or ‘processes’. To turn off verbose display only for jobs: zstyle ':completion:*:*:kill:*:jobs' verbose no The -e option to zstyle even allows completion function code to appear as the argument to a style; this requires some understanding of the internals of completion functions (see Completion Widgets )). For example, zstyle -e ':completion:*' hosts 'reply=($myhosts)' This forces the value of the hosts style to be read from the variable myhosts each time a host name is needed; this is useful if the value of myhosts can change dynamically. For another useful example, see the example in the description of the file-list style below. This form can be slow and should be avoided for commonly examined styles such as menu and list-rows-first. Note that the order in which styles are defined does not matter; the style mechanism uses the most specific possible match for a particular style to determine the set of values. Strings are preferred over patterns (for example, ‘:completion::complete:::foo’ is more specific than ‘:completion::complete:::*’), and longer patterns are preferred over the pattern ‘*’. See The zsh/zutil Module for details. Context patterns that use something other than a wildcard (*) to match the middle parts of the context — the completer, command, and argument in :completion:function:completer:command:argument:tag — should include all six colons (:) explicitly. Without this, a pattern such as :completion:*:foo:* could match foo against a component other than the intended one (for example, against completer when a match against command was intended). Style names like those of tags are arbitrary and depend on the completion function. However, the following two sections list some of the most common tags and styles.","breadcrumbs":"Completion System » 20.3.1 Overview","id":"156","title":"20.3.1 Overview"},"157":{"body":"Some of the following are only used when looking up particular styles and do not refer to a type of match. accounts used to look up the users-hosts style all-expansions used by the _expand completer when adding the single string containing all possible expansions all-files for the names of all files (as distinct from a particular subset, see the globbed-files tag). arguments for arguments to a command arrays for names of array parameters association-keys for keys of associative arrays; used when completing inside a subscript to a parameter of this type bookmarks when completing bookmarks (e.g. for URLs and the zftp function suite) builtins for names of builtin commands characters for single characters in arguments of commands such as stty. Also used when completing character classes after an opening bracket colormapids for X colormap ids colors for color names commands for names of external commands. Also used by complex commands such as cvs when completing names subcommands. contexts for contexts in arguments to the zstyle builtin command corrections used by the _approximate and _correct completers for possible corrections cursors for cursor names used by X programs default used in some contexts to provide a way of supplying a default when more specific tags are also valid. Note that this tag is used when only the function field of the context name is set descriptions used when looking up the value of the format style to generate descriptions for types of matches devices for names of device special files directories for names of directories — local-directories is used instead when completing arguments of cd and related builtin commands when the cdpath array is set directory-stack for entries in the directory stack displays for X display names domains for network domains email-plugin for email addresses from the ‘_email-plugin’ backend of _email_addresses expansions used by the _expand completer for individual words (as opposed to the complete set of expansions) resulting from the expansion of a word on the command line extensions for X server extensions file-descriptors for numbers of open file descriptors files the generic file-matching tag used by functions completing filenames fonts for X font names fstypes for file system types (e.g. for the mount command) functions names of functions — normally shell functions, although certain commands may understand other kinds of function globbed-files for filenames when the name has been generated by pattern matching groups for names of user groups history-words for words from the history hosts for hostnames indexes for array indexes interfaces for network interfaces jobs for jobs (as listed by the ‘jobs’ builtin) keymaps for names of zsh keymaps keysyms for names of X keysyms libraries for names of system libraries limits for system limits local-directories for names of directories that are subdirectories of the current working directory when completing arguments of cd and related builtin commands (compare path-directories) — when the cdpath array is unset, directories is used instead mailboxes for e-mail folders manuals for names of manual pages maps for map names (e.g. NIS maps) messages used to look up the format style for messages modifiers for names of X modifiers modules for modules (e.g. zsh modules) my-accounts used to look up the users-hosts style named-directories for named directories (you wouldn’t have guessed that, would you?) names for all kinds of names newsgroups for USENET groups nicknames for nicknames of NIS maps options for command options original used by the _approximate, _correct and _expand completers when offering the original string as a match other-accounts used to look up the users-hosts style packages for packages (e.g. rpm or installed Debian packages) parameters for names of parameters path-directories for names of directories found by searching the cdpath array when completing arguments of cd and related builtin commands (compare local-directories) paths used to look up the values of the expand, ambiguous and special-dirs styles pods for perl pods (documentation files) ports for communication ports prefixes for prefixes (like those of a URL) printers for print queue names processes for process identifiers processes-names used to look up the command style when generating the names of processes for killall sequences for sequences (e.g. mh sequences) sessions for sessions in the zftp function suite signals for signal names strings for strings (e.g. the replacement strings for the cd builtin command) styles for styles used by the zstyle builtin command suffixes for filename extensions tags for tags (e.g. rpm tags) targets for makefile targets time-zones for time zones (e.g. when setting the TZ parameter) types for types of whatever (e.g. address types for the xhost command) urls used to look up the urls and local styles when completing URLs users for usernames values for one of a set of values in certain lists variant used by _pick_variant to look up the command to run when determining what program is installed for a particular command name. visuals for X visuals warnings used to look up the format style for warnings widgets for zsh widget names windows for IDs of X windows zsh-options for shell options","breadcrumbs":"Completion System » 20.3.2 Standard Tags","id":"157","title":"20.3.2 Standard Tags"},"158":{"body":"Note that the values of several of these styles represent boolean values. Any of the strings ‘true’, ‘on’, ‘yes’, and ‘1’ can be used for the value ‘true’ and any of the strings ‘false’, ‘off’, ‘no’, and ‘0’ for the value ‘false’. The behavior for any other value is undefined except where explicitly mentioned. The default value may be either ‘true’ or ‘false’ if the style is not set. Some of these styles are tested first for every possible tag corresponding to a type of match, and if no style was found, for the list-colors and styles controlling completion listing such as list-packed and last-prompt. When tested for the default tag, only the function field of the context will be set so that a style using the default tag will normally be defined along the lines of: zstyle ':completion:*:default' menu ... accept-exact This is tested for the default tag in addition to the tags valid for the current context. If it is set to ‘true’ and any of the trial matches is the same as the string on the command line, this match will immediately be accepted (even if it would otherwise be considered ambiguous). When completing pathnames (where the tag used is ‘paths’) this style accepts any number of patterns as the value in addition to the boolean values. Pathnames matching one of these patterns will be accepted immediately even if the command line contains some more partially typed pathname components and these match no file under the directory accepted. This style is also used by the _expand completer to decide if words beginning with a tilde or parameter expansion should be expanded. For example, if there are parameters foo and foobar, the string ‘$foo’ will only be expanded if accept-exact is set to ‘true’; otherwise the completion system will be allowed to complete $foo to $foobar. If the style is set to ‘continue’, _expand will add the expansion as a match and the completion system will also be allowed to continue. accept-exact-dirs This is used by filename completion. Unlike accept-exact it is a boolean. By default, filename completion examines all components of a path to see if there are completions of that component, even if the component matches an existing directory. For example, when completion after /usr/bin/, the function examines possible completions to /usr. When this style is ‘true’, any prefix of a path that matches an existing directory is accepted without any attempt to complete it further. Hence, in the given example, the path /usr/bin/ is accepted immediately and completion tried in that directory. This style is also useful when completing after directories that magically appear when referenced, such as ZFS .zfs directories or NetApp .snapshot directories. When the style is set the shell does not check for the existence of the directory within the parent directory. If you wish to inhibit this behaviour entirely, set the path-completion style (see below) to ‘false’. add-space This style is used by the _expand completer. If it is ‘true’ (the default), a space will be inserted after all words resulting from the expansion, or a slash in the case of directory names. If the value is ‘file’, the completer will only add a space to names of existing files. Either a boolean ‘true’ or the value ‘file’ may be combined with ‘subst’, in which case the completer will not add a space to words generated from the expansion of a substitution of the form ‘$(...)’ or ‘${...}’. The _prefix completer uses this style as a simple boolean value to decide if a space should be inserted before the suffix. ambiguous This applies when completing non-final components of filename paths, in other words those with a trailing slash. If it is set, the cursor is left after the first ambiguous component, even if menu completion is in use. The style is always tested with the paths tag. assign-list When completing after an equals sign that is being treated as an assignment, the completion system normally completes only one filename. In some cases the value may be a list of filenames separated by colons, as with PATH and similar parameters. This style can be set to a list of patterns matching the names of such parameters. The default is to complete lists when the word on the line already contains a colon. auto-description If set, this style’s value will be used as the description for options that are not described by the completion functions, but that have exactly one argument. The sequence ‘%d’ in the value will be replaced by the description for this argument. Depending on personal preferences, it may be useful to set this style to something like ‘specify: %d’. Note that this may not work for some commands. avoid-completer This is used by the _all_matches completer to decide if the string consisting of all matches should be added to the list currently being generated. Its value is a list of names of completers. If any of these is the name of the completer that generated the matches in this completion, the string will not be added. The default value for this style is ‘_expand _old_list _correct _approximate’, i.e. it contains the completers for which a string with all matches will almost never be wanted. cache-path This style defines the path where any cache files containing dumped completion data are stored. It defaults to ‘$ZDOTDIR/.zcompcache’, or ‘$HOME/.zcompcache’ if $ZDOTDIR is not defined. The completion cache will not be used unless the use-cache style is set. cache-policy This style defines the function that will be used to determine whether a cache needs rebuilding. See the section on the _cache_invalid function below. call-command This style is used in the function for commands such as make and ant where calling the command directly to generate matches suffers problems such as being slow or, as in the case of make can potentially cause actions in the makefile to be executed. If it is set to ‘true’ the command is called to generate matches. The default value of this style is ‘false’. command In many places, completion functions need to call external commands to generate the list of completions. This style can be used to override the command that is called in some such cases. The elements of the value are joined with spaces to form a command line to execute. The value can also start with a hyphen, in which case the usual command will be added to the end; this is most useful for putting ‘builtin’ or ‘command’ in front to make sure the appropriate version of a command is called, for example to avoid calling a shell function with the same name as an external command. As an example, the completion function for process IDs uses this style with the processes tag to generate the IDs to complete and the list of processes to display (if the verbose style is ‘true’). The list produced by the command should look like the output of the ps command. The first line is not displayed, but is searched for the string ‘PID’ (or ‘pid’) to find the position of the process IDs in the following lines. If the line does not contain ‘PID’, the first numbers in each of the other lines are taken as the process IDs to complete. Note that the completion function generally has to call the specified command for each attempt to generate the completion list. Hence care should be taken to specify only commands that take a short time to run, and in particular to avoid any that may never terminate. command-path This is a list of directories to search for commands to complete. The default for this style is the value of the special parameter path. commands This is used by the function completing sub-commands for the system initialisation scripts (residing in /etc/init.d or somewhere not too far away from that). Its values give the default commands to complete for those commands for which the completion function isn’t able to find them out automatically. The default for this style are the two strings ‘start’ and ‘stop’. complete This is used by the _expand_alias function when invoked as a bindable command. If set to ‘true’ and the word on the command line is not the name of an alias, matching alias names will be completed. complete-options This is used by the completer for cd, chdir and pushd. For these commands a - is used to introduce a directory stack entry and completion of these is far more common than completing options. Hence unless the value of this style is ‘true’ options will not be completed, even after an initial -. If it is ‘true’, options will be completed after an initial - unless there is a preceding -- on the command line. completer The strings given as the value of this style provide the names of the completer functions to use. The available completer functions are described in Control Functions . Each string may be either the name of a completer function or a string of the form ‘function:name’. In the first case the completer field of the context will contain the name of the completer without the leading underscore and with all other underscores replaced by hyphens. In the second case the function is the name of the completer to call, but the context will contain the user-defined name in the completer field of the context. If the name starts with a hyphen, the string for the context will be build from the name of the completer function as in the first case with the name appended to it. For example: zstyle ':completion:*' completer _complete _complete:-foo Here, completion will call the _complete completer twice, once using ‘complete’ and once using ‘complete-foo’ in the completer field of the context. Normally, using the same completer more than once only makes sense when used with the ‘functions:name’ form, because otherwise the context name will be the same in all calls to the completer; possible exceptions to this rule are the _ignored and _prefix completers. The default value for this style is ‘_complete _ignored’: only completion will be done, first using the ignored-patterns style and the $fignore array and then without ignoring matches. condition This style is used by the _list completer function to decide if insertion of matches should be delayed unconditionally. The default is ‘true’. delimiters This style is used when adding a delimiter for use with history modifiers or glob qualifiers that have delimited arguments. It is an array of preferred delimiters to add. Non-special characters are preferred as the completion system may otherwise become confused. The default list is :, +, /, -, %. The list may be empty to force a delimiter to be typed. disabled If this is set to ‘true’, the _expand_alias completer and bindable command will try to expand disabled aliases, too. The default is ‘false’. domains A list of names of network domains for completion. If this is not set, domain names will be taken from the file /etc/resolv.conf. environ The environ style is used when completing for ‘sudo’. It is set to an array of ‘VAR=value’ assignments to be exported into the local environment before the completion for the target command is invoked. zstyle ':completion:*:sudo::' environ \\ PATH=\"/sbin:/usr/sbin:$PATH\" HOME=\"/root\" expand This style is used when completing strings consisting of multiple parts, such as path names. If one of its values is the string ‘prefix’, the partially typed word from the line will be expanded as far as possible even if trailing parts cannot be completed. If one of its values is the string ‘suffix’, matching names for components after the first ambiguous one will also be added. This means that the resulting string is the longest unambiguous string possible. However, menu completion can be used to cycle through all matches. extra-verbose If set, the completion listing is more verbose at the cost of a probable decrease in completion speed. Completion performance will suffer if this style is set to ‘true’. fake This style may be set for any completion context. It specifies additional strings that will always be completed in that context. The form of each string is ‘value:description’; the colon and description may be omitted, but any literal colons in value must be quoted with a backslash. Any description provided is shown alongside the value in completion listings. It is important to use a sufficiently restrictive context when specifying fake strings. Note that the styles fake-files and fake-parameters provide additional features when completing files or parameters. fake-always This works identically to the fake style except that the ignored-patterns style is not applied to it. This makes it possible to override a set of matches completely by setting the ignored patterns to ‘*’. The following shows a way of supplementing any tag with arbitrary data, but having it behave for display purposes like a separate tag. In this example we use the features of the tag-order style to divide the named-directories tag into two when performing completion with the standard completer complete for arguments of cd. The tag named-directories-normal behaves as normal, but the tag named-directories-mine contains a fixed set of directories. This has the effect of adding the match group ‘extra directories’ with the given completions. zstyle ':completion::complete:cd:*' tag-order \\ 'named-directories:-mine:extra\\ directories named-directories:-normal:named\\ directories *'\nzstyle ':completion::complete:cd:*:named-directories-mine' \\ fake-always mydir1 mydir2\nzstyle ':completion::complete:cd:*:named-directories-mine' \\ ignored-patterns '*' fake-files This style is used when completing files and looked up without a tag. Its values are of the form ‘dir:names...’. This will add the names (strings separated by spaces) as possible matches when completing in the directory dir, even if no such files really exist. The dir may be a pattern; pattern characters or colons in dir should be quoted with a backslash to be treated literally. This can be useful on systems that support special file systems whose top-level pathnames can not be listed or generated with glob patterns (but see accept-exact-dirs for a more general way of dealing with this problem). It can also be used for directories for which one does not have read permission. The pattern form can be used to add a certain ‘magic’ entry to all directories on a particular file system. fake-parameters This is used by the completion function for parameter names. Its values are names of parameters that might not yet be set but should be completed nonetheless. Each name may also be followed by a colon and a string specifying the type of the parameter (like ‘scalar’, ‘array’ or ‘integer’). If the type is given, the name will only be completed if parameters of that type are required in the particular context. Names for which no type is specified will always be completed. file-list This style controls whether files completed using the standard builtin mechanism are to be listed with a long list similar to ls -l. Note that this feature uses the shell module zsh/stat for file information; this loads the builtin stat this the following code can be included in an initialization file: zmodload -i zsh/stat\ndisable stat The style may either be set to a ‘true’ value (or ‘all’), or one of the values ‘insert’ or ‘list’, indicating that files are to be listed in long format in all circumstances, or when attempting to insert a file name, or when listing file names without attempting to insert one. More generally, the value may be an array of any of the above values, optionally followed by =num. If num is present it gives the maximum number of matches for which long listing style will be used. For example, zstyle ':completion:*' file-list list=20 insert=10 specifies that long format will be used when listing up to 20 files or inserting a file with up to 10 matches (assuming a listing is to be shown at all, for example on an ambiguous completion), else short format will be used. zstyle -e ':completion:*' file-list \\ '(( ${+NUMERIC} )) && reply=(true)' specifies that long format will be used any time a numeric argument is supplied, else short format. file-patterns This is used by the standard function for completing filenames, _files. If the style is unset up to three tags are offered, ‘globbed-files’,‘directories’ and ‘all-files’, depending on the types of files expected by the caller of _files. The first two (‘globbed-files’ and ‘directories’) are normally offered together to make it easier to complete files in sub-directories. The file-patterns style provides alternatives to the default tags, which are not used. Its value consists of elements of the form ‘pattern:tag’; each string may contain any number of such specifications separated by spaces. The pattern is a pattern that is to be used to generate filenames. Any occurrence of the sequence ‘%p’ is replaced by any pattern(s) passed by the function calling _files. Colons in the pattern must be preceded by a backslash to make them distinguishable from the colon before the tag. If more than one pattern is needed, the patterns can be given inside braces, separated by commas. The tags of all strings in the value will be offered by _files and used when looking up other styles. Any tags in the same word will be offered at the same time and before later words. If no ‘:tag’ is given the ‘files’ tag will be used. The tag may also be followed by an optional second colon and a description, which will be used for the ‘%d’ in the value of the format style (if that is set) instead of the default description supplied by the completion function. The inclusion of a description also gives precedence to associated options such as for completion grouping so it can be used where files should be separated. For example, to make the rm command first complete only names of object files and then the names of all files if there is no matching object file: zstyle ':completion:*:*:rm:*:*' file-patterns \\ '*.o:object-files' '%p:all-files' To alter the default behaviour of file completion — offer files matching a pattern and directories on the first attempt, then all files — to offer only matching files on the first attempt, then directories, and finally all files: zstyle ':completion:*' file-patterns \\ '%p:globbed-files' '*(-/):directories' '*:all-files' This works even where there is no special pattern: _files matches all files using the pattern ‘*’ at the first step and stops when it sees this pattern. Note also it will never try a pattern more than once for a single completion attempt. To separate directories into a separate group from the files but still complete them at the first attempt, a description needs to be given. Note that directories need to be explicitly excluded from the globbed-files because ‘*’ will match directories. For grouping, it is also necessary to set the group-name style. zstyle ':completion:*' file-patterns \\ '%p(^-/):globbed-files *(-/):directories:location' During the execution of completion functions, the EXTENDED_GLOB option is in effect, so the characters ‘#’, ‘~’ and ‘^’ have special meanings in the patterns. file-sort The standard filename completion function uses this style without a tag to determine in which order the names should be listed; menu completion will cycle through them in the same order. The possible values are: ‘size’ to sort by the size of the file; ‘links’ to sort by the number of links to the file; ‘modification’ (or ‘time’ or ‘date’) to sort by the last modification time; ‘access’ to sort by the last access time; and ‘inode’ (or ‘change’) to sort by the last inode change time. If the style is set to any other value, or is unset, files will be sorted alphabetically by name. If the value contains the string ‘reverse’, sorting is done in the opposite order. If the value contains the string ‘follow’, timestamps are associated with the targets of symbolic links; the default is to use the timestamps of the links themselves. file-split-chars A set of characters that will cause all file completions for the given context to be split at the point where any of the characters occurs. A typical use is to set the style to :; then everything up to and including the last : in the string so far is ignored when completing files. As this is quite heavy-handed, it is usually preferable to update completion functions for contexts where this behaviour is useful. filter The ldap plugin of email address completion (see _email_addresses) uses this style to specify the attributes to match against when filtering entries. So for example, if the style is set to ‘sn’, matching is done against surnames. Standard LDAP filtering is used so normal completion matching is bypassed. If this style is not set, the LDAP plugin is skipped. You may also need to set the command style to specify how to connect to your LDAP server. force-list This forces a list of completions to be shown at any point where listing is done, even in cases where the list would usually be suppressed. For example, normally the list is only shown if there are at least two different matches. By setting this style to ‘always’, the list will always be shown, even if there is only a single match that will immediately be accepted. The style may also be set to a number. In this case the list will be shown if there are at least that many matches, even if they would all insert the same string. This style is tested for the default tag as well as for each tag valid for the current completion. Hence the listing can be forced only for certain types of match. format If this is set for the descriptions tag, its value is used as a string to display above matches in completion lists. The sequence ‘%d’ in this string will be replaced with a short description of what these matches are. This string may also contain the output attribute sequences understood by compadd -X (see Completion Widgets ). The style is tested with each tag valid for the current completion before it is tested for the descriptions tag. Hence different format strings can be defined for different types of match. Note also that some completer functions define additional ‘%’-sequences. These are described for the completer functions that make use of them. Some completion functions display messages that may be customised by setting this style for the messages tag. Here, the ‘%d’ is replaced with a message given by the completion function. Finally, the format string is looked up with the warnings tag, for use when no matches could be generated at all. In this case the ‘%d’ is replaced with the descriptions for the matches that were expected separated by spaces. The sequence ‘%D’ is replaced with the same descriptions separated by newlines. It is possible to use printf-style field width specifiers with ‘%d’ and similar escape sequences. This is handled by the zformat builtin command from the zsh/zutil module, see The zsh/zutil Module . gain-privileges If set to true, this style enables the use of commands like sudo or doas to gain extra privileges when retrieving information for completion. This is only done when a command such as sudo appears on the command-line. To force the use of, e.g. sudo or to override any prefix that might be added due to gain-privileges, the command style can be used with a value that begins with a hyphen. glob This is used by the _expand completer. If it is set to ‘true’ (the default), globbing will be attempted on the words resulting from a previous substitution (see the substitute style) or else the original string from the line. global If this is set to ‘true’ (the default), the _expand_alias completer and bindable command will try to expand global aliases. group-name The completion system can group different types of matches, which appear in separate lists. This style can be used to give the names of groups for particular tags. For example, in command position the completion system generates names of builtin and external commands, names of aliases, shell functions and parameters and reserved words as possible completions. To have the external commands and shell functions listed separately: zstyle ':completion:*:*:-command-:*:commands' \\ group-name commands\nzstyle ':completion:*:*:-command-:*:functions' \\ group-name functions As a consequence, any match with the same tag will be displayed in the same group. If the name given is the empty string the name of the tag for the matches will be used as the name of the group. So, to have all different types of matches displayed separately, one can just set: zstyle ':completion:*' group-name '' All matches for which no group name is defined will be put in a group named -default-. To display the group name in the output, see the format style (q.v.) under the descriptions tag. group-order This style is additional to the group-name style to specify the order for display of the groups defined by that style (compare tag-order, which determines which completions appear at all). The groups named are shown in the given order; any other groups are shown in the order defined by the completion function. For example, to have names of builtin commands, shell functions and external commands appear in that order when completing in command position: zstyle ':completion:*:*:-command-:*:*' group-order \\ builtins functions commands groups A list of names of UNIX groups. If this is not set, group names are taken from the YP database or the file ‘/etc/group’. hidden If this is set to ‘true’, matches for the given context will not be listed, although any description for the matches set with the format style will be shown. If it is set to ‘all’, not even the description will be displayed. Note that the matches will still be completed; they are just not shown in the list. To avoid having matches considered as possible completions at all, the tag-order style can be modified as described below. hosts A list of names of hosts that should be completed. If this is not set, hostnames are taken from the file ‘/etc/hosts’. hosts-ports This style is used by commands that need or accept hostnames and network ports. The strings in the value should be of the form ‘host:port’. Valid ports are determined by the presence of hostnames; multiple ports for the same host may appear. ignore-line This is tested for each tag valid for the current completion. If it is set to ‘true’, none of the words that are already on the line will be considered as possible completions. If it is set to ‘current’, the word the cursor is on will not be considered as a possible completion. The value ‘current-shown’ is similar but only applies if the list of completions is currently shown on the screen. Finally, if the style is set to ‘other’, all words on the line except for the current one will be excluded from the possible completions. The values ‘current’ and ‘current-shown’ are a bit like the opposite of the accept-exact style: only strings with missing characters will be completed. Note that you almost certainly don’t want to set this to ‘true’ or ‘other’ for a general context such as ‘:completion:*’. This is because it would disallow completion of, for example, options multiple times even if the command in question accepts the option more than once. ignore-parents The style is tested without a tag by the function completing pathnames in order to determine whether to ignore the names of directories already mentioned in the current word, or the name of the current working directory. The value must include one or both of the following strings: parent The name of any directory whose path is already contained in the word on the line is ignored. For example, when completing after foo/../, the directory foo will not be considered a valid completion. pwd The name of the current working directory will not be completed; hence, for example, completion after ../ will not use the name of the current directory. In addition, the value may include one or both of: .. Ignore the specified directories only when the word on the line contains the substring ‘../’. directory Ignore the specified directories only when names of directories are completed, not when completing names of files. Excluded values act in a similar fashion to values of the ignored-patterns style, so they can be restored to consideration by the _ignored completer. ignored-patterns A list of patterns; any trial completion matching one of the patterns will be excluded from consideration. The _ignored completer can appear in the list of completers to restore the ignored matches. This is a more configurable version of the shell parameter $fignore. Note that the EXTENDED_GLOB option is set during the execution of completion functions, so the characters ‘#’, ‘~’ and ‘^’ have special meanings in the patterns. insert This style is used by the _all_matches completer to decide whether to insert the list of all matches unconditionally instead of adding the list as another match. insert-ids When completing process IDs, for example as arguments to the kill and wait builtins the name of a command may be converted to the appropriate process ID. A problem arises when the process name typed is not unique. By default (or if this style is set explicitly to ‘menu’) the name will be converted immediately to a set of possible IDs, and menu completion will be started to cycle through them. If the value of the style is ‘single’, the shell will wait until the user has typed enough to make the command unique before converting the name to an ID; attempts at completion will be unsuccessful until that point. If the value is any other string, menu completion will be started when the string typed by the user is longer than the common prefix to the corresponding IDs. insert-sections This style is used with tags of the form ‘manuals.X’ when completing names of manual pages. If set and the X in the tag name matches the section number of the page being completed, the section number is inserted along with the page name. For example, given zstyle ':completion:*:manuals.*' insert-sections true man ssh_ may be completed to man 5 ssh_config. The value may also be set to one of ‘prepend’, or ‘suffix’. ‘prepend’ behaves the same as ‘true’ as in the above example, while ‘suffix’ would complete man ssh_ as man ssh_config.5. This is especially useful in conjunction with separate-sections, as it ensures that the page requested of man corresponds to the one displayed in the completion listing when there are multiple pages with the same name (e.g., printf(1) and printf(3)). The default for this style is ‘false’. insert-tab If this is set to ‘true’, the completion system will insert a TAB character (assuming that was used to start completion) instead of performing completion when there is no non-blank character to the left of the cursor. If it is set to ‘false’, completion will be done even there. The value may also contain the substrings ‘pending’ or ‘pending=val’. In this case, the typed character will be inserted instead of starting completion when there is unprocessed input pending. If a val is given, completion will not be done if there are at least that many characters of unprocessed input. This is often useful when pasting characters into a terminal. Note however, that it relies on the $PENDING special parameter from the zsh/zle module being set properly which is not guaranteed on all platforms. The default value of this style is ‘true’ except for completion within vared builtin command where it is ‘false’. insert-unambiguous This is used by the _match and _approximate completers. These completers are often used with menu completion since the word typed may bear little resemblance to the final completion. However, if this style is ‘true’, the completer will start menu completion only if it could find no unambiguous initial string at least as long as the original string typed by the user. In the case of the _approximate completer, the completer field in the context will already have been set to one of correct-num or approximate-num, where num is the number of errors that were accepted. In the case of the _match completer, the style may also be set to the string ‘pattern’. Then the pattern on the line is left unchanged if it does not match unambiguously. keep-prefix This style is used by the _expand completer. If it is ‘true’, the completer will try to keep a prefix containing a tilde or parameter expansion. Hence, for example, the string ‘~/f*’ would be expanded to ‘~/foo’ instead of ‘/home/user/foo’. If the style is set to ‘changed’ (the default), the prefix will only be left unchanged if there were other changes between the expanded words and the original word from the command line. Any other value forces the prefix to be expanded unconditionally. The behaviour of _expand when this style is ‘true’ is to cause _expand to give up when a single expansion with the restored prefix is the same as the original; hence any remaining completers may be called. known-hosts-files This style should contain a list of files to search for host names and (if the use-ip style is set) IP addresses in a format compatible with ssh known_hosts files. If it is not set, the files /etc/ssh/ssh_known_hosts and ~/.ssh/known_hosts are used. last-prompt This is a more flexible form of the ALWAYS_LAST_PROMPT option. If it is ‘true’, the completion system will try to return the cursor to the previous command line after displaying a completion list. It is tested for all tags valid for the current completion, then the default tag. The cursor will be moved back to the previous line if this style is ‘true’ for all types of match. Note that unlike the ALWAYS_LAST_PROMPT option this is independent of the numeric argument. list This style is used by the _history_complete_word bindable command. If it is set to ‘true’ it has no effect. If it is set to ‘false’ matches will not be listed. This overrides the setting of the options controlling listing behaviour, in particular AUTO_LIST. The context always starts with ‘:completion:history-words’. list-colors If the zsh/complist module is loaded, this style can be used to set color specifications. This mechanism replaces the use of the ZLS_COLORS and ZLS_COLOURS parameters described in The zsh/complist Module , but the syntax is the same. If this style is set for the default tag, the strings in the value are taken as specifications that are to be used everywhere. If it is set for other tags, the specifications are used only for matches of the type described by the tag. For this to work best, the group-name style must be set to an empty string. In addition to setting styles for specific tags, it is also possible to use group names specified explicitly by the group-name tag together with the ‘(group)’ syntax allowed by the ZLS_COLORS and ZLS_COLOURS parameters and simply using the default tag. It is possible to use any color specifications already set up for the GNU version of the ls command: zstyle ':completion:*:default' list-colors \\ ${(s.:.)LS_COLORS} The default colors are the same as for the GNU ls command and can be obtained by setting the style to an empty string (i.e. ’’). list-dirs-first This is used by file completion and corresponds to a particular setting of the file-patterns style. If set, the default directories to be completed are listed separately from and before completion for other files. list-grouped If this style is ‘true’ (the default), the completion system will try to make certain completion listings more compact by grouping matches. For example, options for commands that have the same description (shown when the verbose style is set to ‘true’) will appear as a single entry. However, menu selection can be used to cycle through all the matches. list-packed This is tested for each tag valid in the current context as well as the default tag. If it is set to ‘true’, the corresponding matches appear in listings as if the LIST_PACKED option were set. If it is set to ‘false’, they are listed normally. list-prompt If this style is set for the default tag, completion lists that don’t fit on the screen can be scrolled (see The zsh/complist Module ). The value, if not the empty string, will be displayed after every screenful and the shell will prompt for a key press; if the style is set to the empty string, a default prompt will be used. The value may contain the escape sequences: ‘%l’ or ‘%L’, which will be replaced by the number of the last line displayed and the total number of lines; ‘%m’ or ‘%M’, the number of the last match shown and the total number of matches; and ‘%p’ and ‘%P’, ‘Top’ when at the beginning of the list, ‘Bottom’ when at the end and the position shown as a percentage of the total length otherwise. In each case the form with the uppercase letter will be replaced by a string of fixed width, padded to the right with spaces, while the lowercase form will be replaced by a variable width string. As in other prompt strings, the escape sequences ‘%S’, ‘%s’, ‘%B’, ‘%b’, ‘%U’, ‘%u’ for entering and leaving the display modes standout, bold and underline, and ‘%F’, ‘%f’, ‘%K’, ‘%k’ for changing the foreground background colour, are also available, as is the form ‘%{...%}’ for enclosing escape sequences which display with zero (or, with a numeric argument, some other) width. After deleting this prompt the variable LISTPROMPT should be unset for the removal to take effect. list-rows-first This style is tested in the same way as the list-packed style and determines whether matches are to be listed in a rows-first fashion as if the LIST_ROWS_FIRST option were set. list-separator The value of this style is used in completion listing to separate the string to complete from a description when possible (e.g. when completing options). It defaults to ‘--’ (two hyphens). list-suffixes This style is used by the function that completes filenames. If it is ‘true’, and completion is attempted on a string containing multiple partially typed pathname components, all ambiguous components will be shown. Otherwise, completion stops at the first ambiguous component. local This is for use with functions that complete URLs for which the corresponding files are available directly from the file system. Its value should consist of three strings: a hostname, the path to the default web pages for the server, and the directory name used by a user placing web pages within their home area. For example: zstyle ':completion:*' local toast \\ /var/http/public/toast public_html Completion after ‘http://toast/stuff/’ will look for files in the directory /var/http/public/toast/stuff, while completion after ‘http://toast/~yousir/’ will look for files in the directory ~yousir/public_html. mail-directory If set, zsh will assume that mailbox files can be found in the directory specified. It defaults to ‘~/Mail’. match-original This is used by the _match completer. If it is set to only, _match will try to generate matches without inserting a ‘*’ at the cursor position. If set to any other non-empty value, it will first try to generate matches without inserting the ‘*’ and if that yields no matches, it will try again with the ‘*’ inserted. If it is unset or set to the empty string, matching will only be performed with the ‘*’ inserted. matcher This style is tested separately for each tag valid in the current context. Its value is placed before any match specifications given by the matcher-list style so can override them via the use of an x: specification. The value should be in the form described in Completion Matching Control . For examples of this, see the description of the tag-order style. For notes comparing the use of this and the matcher-list style, see under the description of the tag-order style. matcher-list This style can be set to a list of match specifications that are to be applied everywhere. Match specifications are described in Completion Matching Control . The completion system will try them one after another for each completer selected. For example, to try first simple completion and, if that generates no matches, case-insensitive completion: zstyle ':completion:*' matcher-list '' 'm:{a-zA-Z}={A-Za-z}' By default each specification replaces the previous one; however, if a specification is prefixed with +, it is added to the existing list. Hence it is possible to create increasingly general specifications without repetition: zstyle ':completion:*' matcher-list \\ '' '+m:{a-z}={A-Z}' '+m:{A-Z}={a-z}' It is possible to create match specifications valid for particular completers by using the third field of the context. This applies only to completers that override the global matcher-list, which as of this writing includes only _prefix and _ignored. For example, to use the completers _complete and _prefix but allow case-insensitive completion only with _complete: zstyle ':completion:*' completer _complete _prefix\nzstyle ':completion:*:complete:*:*:*' matcher-list \\ '' 'm:{a-zA-Z}={A-Za-z}' User-defined names, as explained for the completer style, are available. This makes it possible to try the same completer more than once with different match specifications each time. For example, to try normal completion without a match specification, then normal completion with case-insensitive matching, then correction, and finally partial-word completion: zstyle ':completion:*' completer \\ _complete _correct _complete:foo\nzstyle ':completion:*:complete:*:*:*' matcher-list \\ '' 'm:{a-zA-Z}={A-Za-z}'\nzstyle ':completion:*:foo:*:*:*' matcher-list \\ 'm:{a-zA-Z}={A-Za-z} r:|[-_./]=* r:|=*' If the style is unset in any context no match specification is applied. Note also that some completers such as _correct and _approximate do not use the match specifications at all, though these completers will only ever be called once even if the matcher-list contains more than one element. Where multiple specifications are useful, note that the entire completion is done for each element of matcher-list, which can quickly reduce the shell’s performance. As a rough rule of thumb, hand, putting multiple space-separated values into the same string does not have an appreciable impact on performance. If there is no current matcher or it is empty, and the option NO_CASE_GLOB is in effect, the matching for files is performed case-insensitively in any case. However, any matcher must explicitly specify case-insensitive matching if that is required. For notes comparing the use of this and the matcher style, see under the description of the tag-order style. max-errors This is used by the _approximate and _correct completer functions to determine the maximum number of errors to allow. The completer will try to generate completions by first allowing one error, then two errors, and so on, until either a match or matches were found or the maximum number of errors given by this style has been reached. If the value for this style contains the string ‘numeric’, the completer function will take any numeric argument as the maximum number of errors allowed. For example, with zstyle ':completion:*:approximate:::' max-errors 2 numeric two errors are allowed if no numeric argument is given, but with a numeric argument of six (as in ‘ESC-6 TAB’), up to six errors are accepted. Hence with a value of ‘0 numeric’, no correcting completion will be attempted unless a numeric argument is given. If the value contains the string ‘not-numeric’, the completer will not try to generate corrected completions when given a numeric argument, so in this case the number given should be greater than zero. For example, ‘2 not-numeric’ specifies that correcting completion with two errors will usually be performed, but if a numeric argument is given, correcting completion will not be performed. The default value for this style is ‘2 numeric’. max-matches-width This style is used to determine the trade off between the width of the display used for matches and the width used for their descriptions when the verbose style is in effect. The value gives the number of display columns to reserve for the matches. The default is half the width of the screen. This has the most impact when several matches have the same description and so will be grouped together. Increasing the style will allow more matches to be grouped together; decreasing it will allow more of the description to be visible. menu If this is ‘true’ in the context of any of the tags defined for the current completion menu completion will be used. The value for a specific tag will take precedence over that for the ‘default’ tag. If none of the values found in this way is ‘true’ but at least one is set to ‘auto’, the shell behaves as if the AUTO_MENU option is set. If one of the values is explicitly set to ‘false’, menu completion will be explicitly turned off, overriding the MENU_COMPLETE option and other settings. In the form ‘yes=num’, where ‘yes’ may be any of the ‘true’ values (‘yes’, ‘true’, ‘on’ and ‘1’), menu completion will be turned on if there are at least num matches. In the form ‘yes=long’, menu completion will be turned on if the list does not fit on the screen. This does not activate menu completion if the widget normally only lists completions, but menu completion can be activated in that case with the value ‘yes=long-list’ (Typically, the value ‘select=long-list’ described later is more useful as it provides control over scrolling.) Similarly, with any of the ‘false’ values (as in ‘no=10’), menu completion will not be used if there are num or more matches. The value of this widget also controls menu selection, as implemented by the zsh/complist module. The following values may appear either alongside or instead of the values above. If the value contains the string ‘select’, menu selection will be started unconditionally. In the form ‘select=num’, menu selection will only be started if there are at least num matches. If the values for more than one tag provide a number, the smallest number is taken. Menu selection can be turned off explicitly by defining a value containing the string‘no-select’. It is also possible to start menu selection only if the list of matches does not fit on the screen by using the value ‘select=long’. To start menu selection even if the current widget only performs listing, use the value ‘select=long-list’. To turn on menu completion or menu selection when there are a certain number of matches or the list of matches does not fit on the screen, both of ‘yes=’ and ‘select=’ may be given twice, once with a number and once with ‘long’ or ‘long-list’. Finally, it is possible to activate two special modes of menu selection. The word ‘interactive’ in the value causes interactive mode to be entered immediately when menu selection is started; see The zsh/complist Module for a description of interactive mode. Including the string ‘search’ does the same for incremental search mode. To select backward incremental search, include the string ‘search-backward’. muttrc If set, gives the location of the mutt configuration file. It defaults to ‘~/.muttrc’. numbers This is used with the jobs tag. If it is ‘true’, the shell will complete job numbers instead of the shortest unambiguous prefix of the job command text. If the value is a number, job numbers will only be used if that many words from the job descriptions are required to resolve ambiguities. For example, if the value is ‘1’, strings will only be used if all jobs differ in the first word on their command lines. old-list This is used by the _oldlist completer. If it is set to ‘always’, then standard widgets which perform listing will retain the current list of matches, however they were generated; this can be turned off explicitly with the value ‘never’, giving the behaviour without the _oldlist completer. If the style is unset, or any other value, then the existing list of completions is displayed if it is not already; otherwise, the standard completion list is generated; this is the default behaviour of _oldlist. However, if there is an old list and this style contains the name of the completer function that generated the list, then the old list will be used even if it was generated by a widget which does not do listing. For example, suppose you type ^Xc to use the _correct_word widget, which generates a list of corrections for the word under the cursor. Usually, typing ^D would generate a standard list of completions for the word on the command line, and show that. With _oldlist, it will instead show the list of corrections already generated. As another example consider the _match completer: with the insert-unambiguous style set to ‘true’ it inserts only a common prefix string, if there is any. However, this may remove parts of the original pattern, so that further completion could produce more matches than on the first attempt. By using the _oldlist completer and setting this style to _match, the list of matches generated on the first attempt will be used again. old-matches This is used by the _all_matches completer to decide if an old list of matches should be used if one exists. This is selected by one of the ‘true’ values or by the string ‘only’. If the value is ‘only’, _all_matches will only use an old list and won’t have any effect on the list of matches currently being generated. If this style is set it is generally unwise to call the _all_matches completer unconditionally. One possible use is for either this style or the completer style to be defined with the -e option to zstyle to make the style conditional. old-menu This is used by the _oldlist completer. It controls how menu completion behaves when a completion has already been inserted and the user types a standard completion key such as TAB. The default behaviour of _oldlist is that menu completion always continues with the existing list of completions. If this style is set to ‘false’, however, a new completion is started if the old list was generated by a different completion command; this is the behaviour without the _oldlist completer. For example, suppose you type ^Xc to generate a list of corrections, and menu completion is started in one of the usual ways. Usually, or with this style set to ‘false’, typing TAB at this point would start trying to complete the line as it now appears. With _oldlist, it instead continues to cycle through the list of corrections. original This is used by the _approximate and _correct completers to decide if the original string should be added as a possible completion. Normally, this is done only if there are at least two possible corrections, but if this style is set to ‘true’, it is always added. Note that the style will be examined with the completer field in the context name set to correct-num or approximate-num, where num is the number of errors that were accepted. packageset This style is used when completing arguments of the Debian ‘dpkg’ program. It contains an override for the default package set for a given context. For example, zstyle ':completion:*:complete:dpkg:option--status-1:*' \\ packageset avail causes available packages, rather than only installed packages, to be completed for ‘dpkg --status’. path The function that completes color names uses this style with the colors tag. The value should be the pathname of a file containing color names in the format of an X11 rgb.txt file. If the style is not set but this file is found in one of various standard locations it will be used as the default. path-completion This is used by filename completion. By default, filename completion examines all components of a path to see if there are completions of that component. For example, /u/b/z can be completed to /usr/bin/zsh. Explicitly setting this style to ‘false’ inhibits this behaviour for path components up to the / before the cursor; this overrides the setting of accept-exact-dirs. Even with the style set to ‘false’, it is still possible to complete multiple paths by setting the option COMPLETE_IN_WORD and moving the cursor back to the first component in the path to be completed. For example, /u/b/z can be completed to /usr/bin/zsh if the cursor is after the /u. pine-directory If set, specifies the directory containing PINE mailbox files. There is no default, since recursively searching this directory is inconvenient for anyone who doesn’t use PINE. ports A list of Internet service names (network ports) to complete. If this is not set, service names are taken from the file ‘/etc/services’. prefix-hidden This is used for certain completions which share a common prefix, for example command options beginning with dashes. If it is ‘true’, the prefix will not be shown in the list of matches. The default value for this style is ‘false’. prefix-needed This style is also relevant for matches with a common prefix. If it is set to ‘true’ this common prefix must be typed by the user to generate the matches. The style is applicable to the options, signals, jobs, functions, and parameters completion tags. For command options, this means that the initial ‘-’, ‘+’, or ‘--’ must be typed explicitly before option names will be completed. For signals, an initial ‘-’ is required before signal names will be completed. For jobs, an initial ‘%’ is required before job names will be completed. For function and parameter names, an initial ‘_’ or ‘.’ is required before function or parameter names starting with those characters will be completed. The default value for this style is ‘false’ for function and parameter completions, and ‘true’ otherwise. preserve-prefix This style is used when completing path names. Its value should be a pattern matching an initial prefix of the word to complete that should be left unchanged under all circumstances. For example, on some Unices an initial ‘//’ (double slash) has a special meaning; setting this style to the string ‘//’ will preserve it. As another example, setting this style to ‘?:/’ under Cygwin would allow completion after ‘a:/...’ and so on. range This is used by the _history completer and the _history_complete_word bindable command to decide which words should be completed. If it is a single number, only the last N words from the history will be completed. If it is a range of the form ‘max:slice’, the last slice words will be completed; then if that yields no matches, the slice words before those will be tried and so on. This process stops either when at least one match has been found, or max words have been tried. The default is to complete all words from the history at once. recursive-files If this style is set, its value is an array of patterns to be tested against ‘$PWD/’: note the trailing slash, which allows directories in the pattern to be delimited unambiguously by including slashes on both sides. If an ordinary file completion fails and the word on the command line does not yet have a directory part to its name, the style is retrieved using the same tag as for the completion just attempted, then the elements tested against $PWD/ in turn. If one matches, then the shell reattempts completion by prepending the word on the command line with each directory in the expansion of **/*(/) in turn. Typically the elements of the style will be set to restrict the number of directories beneath the current one to a manageable number, for example ‘*/.git/*’. For example, zstyle ':completion:*' recursive-files '*/zsh/*' If the current directory is /home/pws/zsh/Src, then zle_tr can be completed to Zle/zle_tricky.c. regular This style is used by the _expand_alias completer and bindable command. If set to ‘true’ (the default), regular aliases will be expanded but only in command position. If it is set to ‘false’, regular aliases will never be expanded. If it is set to ‘always’, regular aliases will be expanded even if not in command position. rehash If this is set when completing external commands, the internal list (hash) of commands will be updated for each search by issuing the rehash command. There is a speed penalty for this which is only likely to be noticeable when directories in the path have slow file access. remote-access If set to ‘false’, certain commands will be prevented from making Internet connections to retrieve remote information. This includes the completion for the CVS command. It is not always possible to know if connections are in fact to a remote site, so some may be prevented unnecessarily. remove-all-dups The _history_complete_word bindable command and the _history completer use this to decide if all duplicate matches should be removed, rather than just consecutive duplicates. select-prompt If this is set for the default tag, its value will be displayed during menu selection (see the menu style above) when the completion list does not fit on the screen as a whole. The same escapes as for the list-prompt style are understood, except that the numbers refer to the match or line the mark is on. A default prompt is used when the value is the empty string. select-scroll This style is tested for the default tag and determines how a completion list is scrolled during a menu selection (see the menu style above) when the completion list does not fit on the screen as a whole. If the value is ‘0’ (zero), the list is scrolled by half-screenfuls; if it is a positive integer, the list is scrolled by the given number of lines; if it is a negative number, the list is scrolled by a screenful minus the absolute value of the given number of lines. The default is to scroll by single lines. separate-sections This style is used with the manuals tag when completing names of manual pages. If it is ‘true’, entries for different sections are added separately using tag names of the form ‘manuals.X’, where X is the section number. When the group-name style is also in effect, pages from different sections will appear separately. This style is also used similarly with the words style when completing words for the dict command. It allows words from different dictionary databases to be added separately. See also insert-sections. The default for this style is ‘false’. show-ambiguity If the zsh/complist module is loaded, this style can be used to highlight the first ambiguous character in completion lists. The value is either a color indication such as those supported by the list-colors style or, with a value of ‘true’, a default of underlining is selected. The highlighting is only applied if the completion display strings correspond to the actual matches. show-completer Tested whenever a new completer is tried. If it is ‘true’, the completion system outputs a progress message in the listing area showing what completer is being tried. The message will be overwritten by any output when completions are found and is removed after completion is finished. single-ignored This is used by the _ignored completer when there is only one match. If its value is ‘show’, the single match will be displayed but not inserted. If the value is ‘menu’, then the single match and the original string are both added as matches and menu completion is started, making it easy to select either of them. sort This allows the standard ordering of matches to be overridden. If its value is ‘true’ or ‘false’, sorting is enabled or disabled. Additionally the values associated with the ‘-o’ option to compadd can also be listed: match, nosort, numeric, reverse. If it is not set for the context, the standard behaviour of the calling widget is used. The style is tested first against the full context including the tag, and if that fails to produce a value against the context without the tag. In many cases where a calling widget explicitly selects a particular ordering in lieu of the default, a value of ‘true’ is not honoured. An example of where this is not the case is for command history where the default of sorting matches chronologically may be overridden by setting the style to ‘true’. In the _expand completer, if it is set to ‘true’, the expansions generated will always be sorted. If it is set to ‘menu’, then the expansions are only sorted when they are offered as single strings but not in the string containing all possible expansions. special-dirs Normally, the completion code will not produce the directory names ‘.’ and ‘..’ as possible completions. If this style is set to ‘true’, it will add both ‘.’ and ‘..’ as possible completions; if it is set to ‘..’, only ‘..’ will be added. The following example sets special-dirs to ‘..’ when the current prefix is empty, is a single ‘.’, or consists only of a path beginning with ‘../’. Otherwise the value is ‘false’. zstyle -e ':completion:*' special-dirs \\ '[[ $PREFIX = (../)#(|.|..) ]] && reply=(..)' squeeze-slashes If set to ‘true’, sequences of slashes in filename paths (for example in ‘foo//bar’) will be treated as a single slash. This is the usual behaviour of UNIX paths. However, by default the file completion function behaves as if there were a ‘*’ between the slashes. stop If set to ‘true’, the _history_complete_word bindable command will stop once when reaching the beginning or end of the history. Invoking _history_complete_word will then wrap around to the opposite end of the history. If this style is set to ‘false’ (the default), _history_complete_word will loop immediately as in a menu completion. strip-comments If set to ‘true’, this style causes non-essential comment text to be removed from completion matches. Currently it is only used when completing e-mail addresses where it removes any display name from the addresses, cutting them down to plain user@host form. subst-globs-only This is used by the _expand completer. If it is set to ‘true’, the expansion will only be used if it resulted from globbing; hence, if expansions resulted from the use of the substitute style described below, but these were not further changed by globbing, the expansions will be rejected. The default for this style is ‘false’. substitute This boolean style controls whether the _expand completer will first try to expand all substitutions in the string (such as ‘$(...)’ and ‘${...}’). The default is ‘true’. suffix This is used by the _expand completer if the word starts with a tilde or contains a parameter expansion. If it is set to ‘true’, the word will only be expanded if it doesn’t have a suffix, i.e. if it is something like ‘~foo’ or ‘$foo’ rather than ‘~foo/’ or ‘$foo/bar’, unless that suffix itself contains characters eligible for expansion. The default for this style is ‘true’. tag-order This provides a mechanism for sorting how the tags available in a particular context will be used. The values for the style are sets of space-separated lists of tags. The tags in each value will be tried at the same time; if no match is found, the next value is used. (See the file-patterns style for an exception to this behavior.) For example: zstyle ':completion:*:complete:-command-:*:*' tag-order \\ 'commands functions' specifies that completion in command position first offers external commands and shell functions. Remaining tags will be tried if no completions are found. In addition to tag names, each string in the value may take one of the following forms: - If any value consists of only a hyphen, then only the tags specified in the other values are generated. Normally all tags not explicitly selected are tried last if the specified tags fail to generate any matches. This means that a single value consisting only of a single hyphen turns off completion. ! tags... A string starting with an exclamation mark specifies names of tags that are not to be used. The effect is the same as if all other possible tags for the context had been listed. tag:label ... Here, tag is one of the standard tags and label is an arbitrary name. Matches are generated as normal but the name label is used in contexts instead of tag. This is not useful in words starting with !. If the label starts with a hyphen, the tag is prepended to the label to form the name used for lookup. This can be used to make the completion system try a certain tag more than once, supplying different style settings for each attempt; see below for an example. tag:label:description As before, but description will replace the ‘%d’ in the value of the format style instead of the default description supplied by the completion function. Spaces in the description must be quoted with a backslash. A ‘%d’ appearing in description is replaced with the description given by the completion function. In any of the forms above the tag may be a pattern or several patterns in the form ‘{pat1,pat2...}’. In this case all matching tags will be used except for any given explicitly in the same string. One use of these features is to try one tag more than once, setting other styles differently on each attempt, but still to use all the other tags without having to repeat them all. For example, to make completion of function names in command position ignore all the completion functions starting with an underscore the first time completion is tried: zstyle ':completion:*:*:-command-:*:*' tag-order \\ 'functions:-non-comp *' functions\nzstyle ':completion:*:functions-non-comp' \\ ignored-patterns '_*' On the first attempt, all tags will be offered but the functions tag will be replaced by functions-non-comp. The ignored-patterns style is set for this tag to exclude functions starting with an underscore. If there are no matches, the second value of the tag-order style is used which completes functions using the default tag, this time presumably including all function names. The matches for one tag can be split into different groups. For example: zstyle ':completion:*' tag-order \\ 'options:-long:long\\ options options:-short:short\\ options options:-single-letter:single\\ letter\\ options'\nzstyle ':completion:*:options-long' \\ ignored-patterns '[-+](|-|[^-]*)'\nzstyle ':completion:*:options-short' \\ ignored-patterns '--*' '[-+]?'\nzstyle ':completion:*:options-single-letter' \\ ignored-patterns '???*' With the group-names style set, options beginning with ‘--’, options beginning with a single ‘-’ or ‘+’ but containing multiple characters, and single-letter options will be displayed in separate groups with different descriptions. Another use of patterns is to try multiple match specifications one after another. The matcher-list style offers something similar, but it is tested very early in the completion system and hence can’t be set for single commands nor for more specific contexts. Here is how to try normal completion without any match specification and, if that generates no matches, try again with case-insensitive matching, restricting the effect to arguments of the command foo: zstyle ':completion:*:*:foo:*:*' tag-order '*' '*:-case'\nzstyle ':completion:*-case' matcher 'm:{a-z}={A-Z}' First, all the tags offered when completing after foo are tried using the normal tag name. If that generates no matches, the second value of tag-order is used, which tries all tags again except that this time each has -case appended to its name for lookup of styles. Hence this time the value for the matcher style from the second call to zstyle in the example is used to make completion case-insensitive. It is possible to use the -e option of the zstyle builtin command to specify conditions for the use of particular tags. For example: zstyle -e '*:-command-:*' tag-order ' if [[ -n $PREFIX$SUFFIX ]]; then reply=( ) else reply=( - ) fi' Completion in command position will be attempted only if the string typed so far is not empty. This is tested using the PREFIX special parameter; see Completion Widgets for a description of parameters which are special inside completion widgets. Setting reply to an empty array provides the default behaviour of trying all tags at once; setting it to an array containing only a hyphen disables the use of all tags and hence of all completions. If no tag-order style has been defined for a context, the strings ‘(|*-)argument-* (|*-)option-* values’ and ‘options’ plus all tags offered by the completion function will be used to provide a sensible default behavior that causes arguments (whether normal command arguments or arguments of options) to be completed before option names for most commands. urls This is used together with the urls tag by functions completing URLs. If the value consists of more than one string, or if the only string does not name a file or directory, the strings are used as the URLs to complete. If the value contains only one string which is the name of a normal file the URLs are taken from that file (where the URLs may be separated by white space or newlines). Finally, if the only string in the value names a directory, the directory hierarchy rooted at this directory gives the completions. The top level directory should be the file access method, such as ‘http’, ‘ftp’, ‘bookmark’ and so on. In many cases the next level of directories will be a filename. The directory hierarchy can descend as deep as necessary. For example, zstyle ':completion:*' urls ~/.urls\nmkdir -p ~/.urls/ftp/ftp.zsh.org/pub allows completion of all the components of the URL ‘netscape’ or ‘lynx’. Note, however, that access methods and files are completed separately, so if the hosts style is set hosts can be completed without reference to the urls style. See the description in the function _urls itself for more information (e.g. ‘more $^fpath/_urls(N)’). use-cache If this is set, the completion caching layer is activated for any completions which use it (via the _store_cache, _retrieve_cache, and _cache_invalid functions). The directory containing the cache files can be changed with the cache-path style. use-compctl If this style is set to a string not equal to false, 0, no, and off, the completion system may use any completion specifications defined with the compctl builtin command. If the style is unset, this is done only if the zsh/compctl module is loaded. The string may also contain the substring ‘first’ to use completions defined with ‘compctl -T’, and the substring ‘default’ to use the completion defined with ‘compctl -D’. Note that this is only intended to smooth the transition from compctl to the new completion system and may disappear in the future. Note also that the definitions from compctl will only be used if there is no specific completion function for the command in question. For example, if there is a function _foo to complete arguments to the command foo, compctl will never be invoked for foo. However, the compctl version will be tried if foo only uses default completion. use-ip By default, the function _hosts that completes host names strips IP addresses from entries read from host databases such as NIS and ssh files. If this style is ‘true’, the corresponding IP addresses can be completed as well. This style is not use in any context where the hosts style is set; note also it must be set before the cache of host names is generated (typically the first completion attempt). users This may be set to a list of usernames to be completed. If it is not set all usernames will be completed. Note that if it is set only that list of users will be completed; this is because on some systems querying all users can take a prohibitive amount of time. users-hosts The values of this style should be of the form ‘user@host’ or ‘user:host’. It is used for commands that need pairs of user- and hostnames. These commands will complete usernames from this style (only), and will restrict subsequent hostname completion to hosts paired with that user in one of the values of the style. It is possible to group values for sets of commands which allow a remote login, such as rlogin and ssh, by using the my-accounts tag. Similarly, values for sets of commands which usually refer to the accounts of other people, such as talk and finger, can be grouped by using the other-accounts tag. More ambivalent commands may use the accounts tag. users-hosts-ports Like users-hosts but used for commands like telnet and containing strings of the form ‘user@host:port’. verbose If set, as it is by default, the completion listing is more verbose. In particular many commands show descriptions for options if this style is ‘true’. word This is used by the _list completer, which prevents the insertion of completions until a second completion attempt when the line has not changed. The normal way of finding out if the line has changed is to compare its entire contents between the two occasions. If this style is ‘true’, the comparison is instead performed only on the current word. Hence if completion is performed on another word with the same contents, completion will not be delayed.","breadcrumbs":"Completion System » 20.3.3 Standard Styles","id":"158","title":"20.3.3 Standard Styles"},"159":{"body":"The initialization script compinit redefines all the widgets which perform completion to call the supplied widget function _main_complete. This function acts as a wrapper calling the so-called ‘completer’ functions that generate matches. If _main_complete is called with arguments, these are taken as the names of completer functions to be called in the order given. If no arguments are given, the set of functions to try is taken from the completer style. For example, to use normal completion and correction if that doesn’t generate any matches: zstyle ':completion:*' completer _complete _correct after calling compinit. The default value for this style is ‘_complete _ignored’, i.e. normally only ordinary completion is tried, first with the effect of the ignored-patterns style and then without it. The _main_complete function uses the return status of the completer functions to decide if other completers should be called. If the return status is zero, no other completers are tried and the _main_complete function returns. If the first argument to _main_complete is a single hyphen, the arguments will not be taken as names of completers. Instead, the second argument gives a name to use in the completer field of the context and the other arguments give a command name and arguments to call to generate the matches. The following completer functions are contained in the distribution, although users may write their own. Note that in contexts the leading underscore is stripped, for example basic completion is performed in the context ‘:completion::complete:...’. _all_matches This completer can be used to add a string consisting of all other matches. As it influences later completers it must appear as the first completer in the list. The list of all matches is affected by the avoid-completer and old-matches styles described above. It may be useful to use the _generic function described below to bind _all_matches to its own keystroke, for example: zle -C all-matches complete-word _generic\nbindkey '^Xa' all-matches\nzstyle ':completion:all-matches:*' old-matches only\nzstyle ':completion:all-matches::::' completer _all_matches Note that this does not generate completions by itself: first use any of the standard ways of generating a list of completions, then use ^Xa to show all matches. It is possible instead to add a standard completer to the list and request that the list of all matches should be directly inserted: zstyle ':completion:all-matches::::' completer \\ _all_matches _complete\nzstyle ':completion:all-matches:*' insert true In this case the old-matches style should not be set. _approximate This is similar to the basic _complete completer but allows the completions to undergo corrections. The maximum number of errors can be specified by the max-errors style; see the description of approximate matching in Filename Generation for how errors are counted. Normally this completer will only be tried after the normal _complete completer: zstyle ':completion:*' completer _complete _approximate This will give correcting completion if and only if normal completion yields no possible completions. When corrected completions are found, the completer will normally start menu completion allowing you to cycle through these strings. This completer uses the tags corrections and original when generating the possible corrections and the original string. The format style for the former may contain the additional sequences ‘%e’ and ‘%o’ which will be replaced by the number of errors accepted to generate the corrections and the original string, respectively. The completer progressively increases the number of errors allowed up to the limit by the max-errors style, hence if a completion is found with one error, no completions with two errors will be shown, and so on. It modifies the completer name in the context to indicate the number of errors being tried: on the first try the completer field contains ‘approximate-1’, on the second try ‘approximate-2’, and so on. When _approximate is called from another function, the number of errors to accept may be passed with the -a option. The argument is in the same format as the max-errors style, all in one string. Note that this completer (and the _correct completer mentioned below) can be quite expensive to call, especially when a large number of errors are allowed. One way to avoid this is to set up the completer style using the -e option to zstyle so that some completers are only used when completion is attempted a second time on the same string, e.g.: zstyle -e ':completion:*' completer ' if [[ $_last_try != \"$HISTNO$BUFFER$CURSOR\" ]]; then _last_try=\"$HISTNO$BUFFER$CURSOR\" reply=(_complete _match _prefix) else reply=(_ignored _correct _approximate) fi' This uses the HISTNO parameter and the BUFFER and CURSOR special parameters that are available inside zle and completion widgets to find out if the command line hasn’t changed since the last time completion was tried. Only then are the _ignored, _correct and _approximate completers called. _canonical_paths [ -A var ] [ -N ] [ -MJV12nfX ] tag descr [ paths ... ] This completion function completes all paths given to it, and also tries to offer completions which point to the same file as one of the paths given (relative path when an absolute path is given, and vice versa; when ..’s are present in the word to be completed; and some paths got from symlinks). -A, if specified, takes the paths from the array variable specified. Paths can also be specified on the command line as shown above. -N, if specified, prevents canonicalizing the paths given before using them for completion, in case they are already so. The options -M, -J, -V, -1, -2, -n, -F, -X are passed to compadd. See _description for a description of tag and descr. _cmdambivalent Completes the remaining positional arguments as an external command. The external command and its arguments are completed as separate arguments (in a manner appropriate for completing /usr/bin/env) if there are two or more remaining positional arguments on the command line, and as a quoted command string (in the manner of system(...)) otherwise. See also _cmdstring and _precommand. This function takes no arguments. _cmdstring Completes an external command as a single argument, as for system(...). _complete This completer generates all possible completions in a context-sensitive manner, i.e. using the settings defined with the compdef function explained above and the current settings of all special parameters. This gives the normal completion behaviour. To complete arguments of commands, _complete uses the utility function _normal, which is in turn responsible for finding the particular function; it is described below. Various contexts of the form -context- are handled specifically. These are all mentioned above as possible arguments to the #compdef tag. Before trying to find a function for a specific context, _complete checks if the parameter ‘compcontext’ is set. Setting ‘compcontext’ allows the usual completion dispatching to be overridden which is useful in places such as a function that uses vared for input. If it is set to an array, the elements are taken to be the possible matches which will be completed using the tag ‘values’ and the description ‘value’. If it is set to an associative array, the keys are used as the possible completions and the values (if non-empty) are used as descriptions for the matches. If ‘compcontext’ is set to a string containing colons, it should be of the form ‘tag:descr:action’. In this case the tag and descr give the tag and description to use and the action indicates what should be completed in one of the forms accepted by the _arguments utility function described below. Finally, if ‘compcontext’ is set to a string without colons, the value is taken as the name of the context to use and the function defined for that context will be called. For this purpose, there is a special context named -command-line- that completes whole command lines (commands and their arguments). This is not used by the completion system itself but is nonetheless handled when explicitly called. _correct Generate corrections, but not completions, for the current word; this is similar to _approximate but will not allow any number of extra characters at the cursor as that completer does. The effect is similar to spell-checking. It is based on _approximate, but the completer field in the context name is correct. For example, with: zstyle ':completion:::::' completer \\ _complete _correct _approximate\nzstyle ':completion:*:correct:::' max-errors 2 not-numeric\nzstyle ':completion:*:approximate:::' max-errors 3 numeric correction will accept up to two errors. If a numeric argument is given, correction will not be performed, but correcting completion will be, and will accept as many errors as given by the numeric argument. Without a numeric argument, first correction and then correcting completion will be tried, with the first one accepting two errors and the second one accepting three errors. When _correct is called as a function, the number of errors to accept may be given following the -a option. The argument is in the same form a values to the accept style, all in one string. This completer function is intended to be used without the _approximate completer or, as in the example, just before it. Using it after the _approximate completer is useless since _approximate will at least generate the corrected strings generated by the _correct completer — and probably more. _expand This completer function does not really perform completion, but instead checks if the word on the command line is eligible for expansion and, if it is, gives detailed control over how this expansion is done. For this to happen, the completion system needs to be invoked with complete-word, not expand-or-complete (the default binding for TAB), as otherwise the string will be expanded by the shell’s internal mechanism before the completion system is started. Note also this completer should be called before the _complete completer function. The tags used when generating expansions are all-expansions for the string containing all possible expansions, expansions when adding the possible expansions as single matches and original when adding the original string from the line. The order in which these strings are generated, if at all, can be controlled by the group-order and tag-order styles, as usual. The format string for all-expansions and for expansions may contain the sequence ‘%o’ which will be replaced by the original string from the line. The kind of expansion to be tried is controlled by the substitute, glob and subst-globs-only styles. It is also possible to call _expand as a function, in which case the different modes may be selected with options: -s for substitute, -g for glob and -o for subst-globs-only. _expand_alias If the word the cursor is on is an alias, it is expanded and no other completers are called. The types of aliases which are to be expanded can be controlled with the styles regular, global and disabled. This function is also a bindable command, see Bindable Commands . _extensions If the cursor follows the string ‘*.’, filename extensions are completed. The extensions are taken from files in current directory or a directory specified at the beginning of the current word. For exact matches, completion continues to allow other completers such as _expand to expand the pattern. The standard add-space and prefix-hidden styles are observed. _external_pwds Completes current directories of other zsh processes belonging to the current user. This is intended to be used via _generic, bound to a custom key combination. Note that pattern matching is enabled so matching is performed similar to how it works with the _match completer. _history Complete words from the shell’s command history. This completer can be controlled by the remove-all-dups, and sort styles as for the _history_complete_word bindable command, see Bindable Commands and Completion System Configuration . _ignored The ignored-patterns style can be set to a list of patterns which are compared against possible completions; matching ones are removed. With this completer those matches can be reinstated, as if no ignored-patterns style were set. The completer actually generates its own list of matches; which completers are invoked is determined in the same way as for the _prefix completer. The single-ignored style is also available as described above. _list This completer allows the insertion of matches to be delayed until completion is attempted a second time without the word on the line being changed. On the first attempt, only the list of matches will be shown. It is affected by the styles condition and word, see Completion System Configuration . _match This completer is intended to be used after the _complete completer. It behaves similarly but the string on the command line may be a pattern to match against trial completions. This gives the effect of the GLOB_COMPLETE option. Normally completion will be performed by taking the pattern from the line, inserting a ‘*’ at the cursor position and comparing the resulting pattern with the possible completions generated. This can be modified with the match-original style described above. The generated matches will be offered in a menu completion unless the insert-unambiguous style is set to ‘true’; see the description above for other options for this style. Note that matcher specifications defined globally or used by the completion functions (the styles matcher-list and matcher) will not be used. _menu This completer was written as simple example function to show how menu effect of disabling menu selection which can be useful with _generic based widgets. It should be used as the first completer in the list. Note that this is independent of the setting of the MENU_COMPLETE option and does not work with the other menu completion widgets such as reverse-menu-complete, or accept-and-menu-complete. _oldlist This completer controls how the standard completion widgets behave when there is an existing list of completions which may have been generated by a special completion (i.e. a separately-bound completion command). It allows the ordinary completion keys to continue to use the list of completions thus generated, instead of producing a new list of ordinary contextual completions. It should appear in the list of completers before any of the widgets which generate matches. It uses two styles: old-list and old-menu, see Completion System Configuration . _precommand Complete an external command in word-separated arguments, as for exec and /usr/bin/env. _prefix This completer can be used to try completion with the suffix (everything after the cursor) ignored. In other words, the suffix will not be considered to be part of the word to complete. The effect is similar to the expand-or-complete-prefix command. The completer style is used to decide which other completers are to be called to generate matches. If this style is unset, the list of completers set for the current context is used — except, of course, the _prefix completer itself. Furthermore, if this completer appears more than once in the list of completers only those completers not already tried by the last invocation of _prefix will be called. For example, consider this global completer style: zstyle ':completion:*' completer \\ _complete _prefix _correct _prefix:foo Here, the _prefix completer tries normal completion but ignoring the suffix. If that doesn’t generate any matches, and neither does the call to the _correct completer after it, _prefix will be called a second time and, now only trying correction with the suffix ignored. On the second invocation the completer part of the context appears as ‘foo’. To use _prefix as the last resort and try only normal completion when it is invoked: zstyle ':completion:*' completer _complete ... _prefix\nzstyle ':completion::prefix:*' completer _complete The add-space style is also respected. If it is set to ‘true’ then _prefix will insert a space between the matches generated (if any) and the suffix. Note that this completer is only useful if the COMPLETE_IN_WORD option is set; otherwise, the cursor will be moved to the end of the current word before the completion code is called and hence there will be no suffix. _user_expand This completer behaves similarly to the _expand completer but instead performs expansions defined by users. The styles add-space and sort styles specific to the _expand completer are usable with _user_expand in addition to other styles handled more generally by the completion system. The tag all-expansions is also available. The expansion depends on the array style user-expand being defined for the current context; remember that the context for completers is less specific than that for contextual completion as the full context has not yet been determined. Elements of the array may have one of the following forms: $hash hash is the name of an associative array. Note this is not a full parameter expression, merely a $, suitably quoted to prevent immediate expansion, followed by the name of an associative array. If the trial expansion word matches a key in hash, the resulting expansion is the corresponding value. _func _func is the name of a shell function whose name must begin with _ but is not otherwise special to the completion system. The function is called with the trial word as an argument. If the word is to be expanded, the function should set the array reply to a list of expansions. Optionally, it can set REPLY to a word that will be used as a description for the set of expansions. The return status of the function is irrelevant.","breadcrumbs":"Completion System » 20.4 Control Functions","id":"159","title":"20.4 Control Functions"},"16":{"body":"The shell has a rich set of patterns which are available for file matching (described in the documentation as ‘filename generation’ and also known for historical reasons as ‘globbing’) and for use when programming. These are described in Filename Generation . Of particular interest are the following patterns that are not commonly supported by other systems of pattern matching: ** for matching over multiple directories | for matching either of two alternatives ~, ^ the ability to exclude patterns from matching when the EXTENDED_GLOB option is set (...) glob qualifiers, included in parentheses at the end of the pattern, which select files by type (such as directories) or attribute (such as size).","breadcrumbs":"Roadmap » 3.4 Pattern Matching","id":"16","title":"3.4 Pattern Matching"},"160":{"body":"In addition to the context-dependent completions provided, which are expected to work in an intuitively obvious way, there are a few widgets implementing special behaviour which can be bound separately to keys. The following is a list of these and their default bindings. _bash_completions This function is used by two widgets, _bash_complete-word and _bash_list-choices. It exists to provide compatibility with completion bindings in bash. The last character of the binding determines what is completed: ‘!’, command names; ‘$’, environment variables; ‘@’, host names; ‘/’, file names; ‘~’ user names. In bash, the binding preceded by ‘\\e’ gives completion, and preceded by ‘^X’ lists options. As some of these bindings clash with standard zsh bindings, only ‘\\e~’ and ‘^X~’ are bound by default. To add the rest, the following should be added to .zshrc after compinit has been run: for key in '!' '$' '@' '/' '~'; do bindkey \"\\e$key\" _bash_complete-word bindkey \"^X$key\" _bash_list-choices\ndone This includes the bindings for ‘~’ in case they were already bound to something else; the completion code does not override user bindings. _correct_filename (^XC) Correct the filename path at the cursor position. Allows up to six errors in the name. Can also be called with an argument to correct a filename path, independently of zle; the correction is printed on standard output. _correct_word (^Xc) Performs correction of the current argument using the usual contextual completions as possible choices. This stores the string ‘correct-word’ in the function field of the context name and then calls the _correct completer. _expand_alias (^Xa) This function can be used as a completer and as a bindable command. It expands the word the cursor is on if it is an alias. The types of alias expanded can be controlled with the styles regular, global and disabled. When used as a bindable command there is one additional feature that can be selected by setting the complete style to ‘true’. In this case, if the word is not the name of an alias, _expand_alias tries to complete the word to a full alias name without expanding it. It leaves the cursor directly after the completed word so that invoking _expand_alias once more will expand the now-complete alias name. _expand_word (^Xe) Performs expansion on the current word: equivalent to the standard expand-word command, but using the _expand completer. Before calling it, the function field of the context is set to ‘expand-word’. _generic This function is not defined as a widget and not bound by default. However, it can be used to define a widget and will then store the name of the widget in the function field of the context and call the completion system. This allows custom completion widgets with their own set of style settings to be defined easily. For example, to define a widget that performs normal completion and starts menu selection: zle -C foo complete-word _generic\nbindkey '...' foo\nzstyle ':completion:foo:*' menu yes select=1 Note in particular that the completer style may be set for the context in order to change the set of functions used to generate possible matches. If _generic is called with arguments, those are passed through to _main_complete as the list of completers in place of those defined by the completer style. _history_complete_word (\\e/) Complete words from the shell’s command history. This uses the list, remove-all-dups, sort, and stop styles. _most_recent_file (^Xm) Complete the name of the most recently modified file matching the pattern on the command line (which may be blank). If given a numeric argument N, complete the Nth most recently modified file. Note the completion, if any, is always unique. _next_tags (^Xn) This command alters the set of matches used to that for the next tag, or set of tags, either as given by the tag-order style or as set by default; these matches would otherwise not be available. Successive invocations of the command cycle through all possible sets of tags. _read_comp (^X^R) Prompt the user for a string, and use that to perform completion on the current word. There are two possibilities for the string. First, it can be a set of words beginning ‘_’, for example ‘_files -/’, in which case the function with any arguments will be called to generate the completions. Unambiguous parts of the function name will be completed automatically (normal completion is not available at this point) until a space is typed. Second, any other string will be passed as a set of arguments to compadd and should hence be an expression specifying what should be completed. A very restricted set of editing commands is available when reading the string: ‘DEL’ and ‘^H’ delete the last character; ‘^U’ deletes the line, and ‘^C’ and ‘^G’ abort the function, while ‘RET’ accepts the completion. Note the string is used verbatim as a command line, so arguments must be quoted in accordance with standard shell rules. Once a string has been read, the next call to _read_comp will use the existing string instead of reading a new one. To force a new string to be read, call _read_comp with a numeric argument. _complete_debug (^X?) This widget performs ordinary completion, but captures in a temporary file a trace of the shell commands executed by the completion system. Each completion attempt gets its own file. A command to view each of these files is pushed onto the editor buffer stack. _complete_help (^Xh) This widget displays information about the context names, the tags, and the completion functions used when completing at the current cursor position. If given a numeric argument other than 1 (as in ‘ESC-2 ^Xh’), then the styles used and the contexts for which they are used will be shown, too. Note that the information about styles may be incomplete; it depends on the information available from the completion functions called, which in turn is determined by the user’s own styles and other settings. _complete_help_generic Unlike other commands listed here, this must be created as a normal ZLE widget rather than a completion widget (i.e. with zle -N). It is used for generating help with a widget bound to the _generic widget that is described above. If this widget is created using the name of the function, as it is by default, then when executed it will read a key sequence. This is expected to be bound to a call to a completion function that uses the _generic widget. That widget will be executed, and information provided in the same format that the _complete_help widget displays for contextual completion. If the widget’s name contains debug, for example if it is created as ‘zle -N _complete_debug_generic _complete_help_generic’, it will read and execute the keystring for a generic widget as before, but then generate debugging information as done by _complete_debug for contextual completion. If the widget’s name contains noread, it will not read a keystring but instead arrange that the next use of a generic widget run in the same shell will have the effect as described above. The widget works by setting the shell parameter ZSH_TRACE_GENERIC_WIDGET which is read by _generic. Unsetting the parameter cancels any pending effect of the noread form. For example, after executing the following: zle -N _complete_debug_generic _complete_help_generic\nbindkey '^x:' _complete_debug_generic typing ‘C-x :’ followed by the key sequence for a generic widget will cause trace output for that widget to be saved to a file. _complete_tag (^Xt) This widget completes symbol tags created by the etags or ctags programmes (note there is no connection with the completion system’s tags) stored in a file TAGS, in the format used by etags, or tags, in the format created by ctags. It will look back up the path hierarchy for the first occurrence of either file; if both exist, the file TAGS is preferred. You can specify the full path to a TAGS or tags file by setting the parameter $TAGSFILE or $tagsfile respectively. The corresponding completion tags used are etags and vtags, after emacs and vi respectively.","breadcrumbs":"Completion System » 20.5 Bindable Commands","id":"160","title":"20.5 Bindable Commands"},"161":{"body":"Descriptions follow for utility functions that may be useful when writing completion functions. If functions are installed in subdirectories, most of these reside in the Base subdirectory. Like the example functions for commands in the distribution, the utility functions generating matches all follow the convention of returning status zero if they generated completions and non-zero if no matching completions could be added. _absolute_command_paths This function completes external commands as absolute paths (unlike _command_names -e which completes their basenames). It takes no arguments. _all_labels [ -x ] [ -12VJ ] tag name descr [ command arg ... ] This is a convenient interface to the _next_label function below, implementing the loop shown in the _next_label example. The command and its arguments are called to generate the matches. The options stored in the parameter name will automatically be inserted into the args passed to the command. Normally, they are put directly after the command, but if one of the args is a single hyphen, they are inserted directly before that. If the hyphen is the last argument, it will be removed from the argument list before the command is called. This allows _all_labels to be used in almost all cases where the matches can be generated by a single call to the compadd builtin command or by a call to one of the utility functions. For example: local expl\n...\nif _requested foo; then ... _all_labels foo expl '...' compadd ... - $matches\nfi Will complete the strings from the matches parameter, using compadd with additional options which will take precedence over those generated by _all_labels. _alternative [ -O name ] [ -C name ] spec ... This function is useful in simple cases where multiple tags are available. Essentially it implements a loop like the one described for the _tags function below. The tags to use and the action to perform if a tag is requested are described using the specs which are of the form: ‘tag:descr:action’. The tags are offered using _tags and if the tag is requested, the action is executed with the given description descr. The actions are those accepted by the _arguments function (described below), with the following exceptions: The ‘->state’ and ‘=...’ forms are not supported. The ‘((a\\:bar b\\:baz))’ form does not need the colon to be escaped, since the specs have no colon-separated fields after the action. For example, the action may be a simple function call: _alternative \\ 'users:user:_users' \\ 'hosts:host:_hosts' offers usernames and hostnames as possible matches, generated by the _users and _hosts functions respectively. Like _arguments, this function uses _all_labels to execute the actions, which will loop over all sets of tags. Special handling is only required if there is an additional valid tag, for example inside a function called from _alternative. The option ‘-O name’ is used in the same way as by the _arguments function. In other words, the elements of the name array will be passed to compadd when executing an action. Like _tags this function supports the -C option to give a different name for the argument context field. _arguments [ -nswWCRS ] [ -A pat ] [ -O name ] [ -M matchspec ] [ : ] spec ... _arguments [ opt ... ] -- [ -l ] [ -i pats ] [ -s pair ] [ helpspec ...] This function can be used to give a complete specification for completion for a command whose arguments follow standard UNIX option and argument conventions. Options Overview Options to _arguments itself must be in separate words, i.e. -s -w, not -sw. The options are followed by specs that describe options and arguments of the analyzed command. To avoid ambiguity, all options to _arguments itself may be separated from the spec forms by a single colon. The ‘--’ form is used to intuit spec forms from the help output of the command being analyzed, and is described in detail below. The opts for the ‘--’ form are otherwise the same options as the first form. Note that ‘-s’ following ‘--’ has a distinct meaning from ‘-s’ preceding ‘--’, and both may appear. The option switches -s, -S, -A, -w, and -W affect how _arguments parses the analyzed command line’s options. These switches are useful for commands with standard argument parsing. The options of _arguments have the following meanings: -n With this option, _arguments sets the parameter NORMARG to the position of the first normal argument in the $words array, i.e. the position after the end of the options. If that argument has not been reached, NORMARG is set to -1. The caller should declare ‘integer NORMARG’ if the -n option is passed; otherwise the parameter is not used. -s Enable option stacking for single-letter options, whereby multiple single-letter options may be combined into a single word. For example, the two options ‘-x’ and ‘-y’ may be combined into a single word ‘-xy’. By default, every word corresponds to a single option name (‘-xy’ is a single option named ‘xy’). Options beginning with a single hyphen or plus sign are eligible for stacking; words beginning with two hyphens are not. Note that -s after -- has a different meaning, which is documented in the segment entitled ‘Deriving spec forms from the help output’. -w In combination with -s, allow option stacking even if one or more of the options take arguments. For example, if -x takes an argument, with no -s, ‘-xy’ is considered as a single (unhandled) option; with -s, -xy is an option with the argument ‘y’; with both -s and -w, -xy is the option -x and the option -y with arguments to -x (and to -y, if it takes arguments) still to come in subsequent words. -W This option takes -w a stage further: it is possible to complete single-letter options even after an argument that occurs in the same word. However, it depends on the action performed whether options will really be completed at this point. For more control, use a utility function like _guard as part of the action. -C Modify the curcontext parameter for an action of the form ‘->state’. This is discussed in detail below. -R Return status 300 instead of zero when a $state is to be handled, in the ‘->string’ syntax. -S Do not complete options after a ‘--’ appearing on the line, and ignore the ‘--’. For example, with -S, in the line foobar -x -- -y the ‘-x’ is considered an option, the ‘-y’ is considered an argument, and the ‘--’ is considered to be neither. -A pat Do not complete options after the first non-option argument on the line. pat is a pattern matching all strings which are not to be taken as arguments. For example, to make _arguments stop completing options after the first normal argument, but ignoring all strings starting with a hyphen even if they are not described by one of the optspecs, the form is ‘-A \"-*\"’. -O name Pass the elements of the array name as arguments to functions called to execute actions. This is discussed in detail below. -M matchspec Use the match specification matchspec for completing option names and values. The default matchspec allows partial word completion after ‘_’ and ‘-’, such as completing ‘-f-b’ to ‘-foo-bar’. The default matchspec is: r:|[_-]=* r:|=* -0 When populating values of the ‘opt_args’ associative array, don’t backslash-escape colons and backslashes and use NUL rather than colon for joining multiple values. This option is described in more detail below, under the heading specs: actions . specs: overview Each of the following forms is a spec describing individual sets of options or arguments on the command line being analyzed. n:message:action n::message:action This describes the n’th normal argument. The message will be printed above the matches generated and the action indicates what can be completed in this position (see below). If there are two colons before the message the argument is optional. If the message contains only white space, nothing will be printed above the matches unless the action adds an explanation string itself. :message:action ::message:action Similar, but describes the next argument, whatever number that happens to be. If all arguments are specified in this form in the correct order the numbers are unnecessary. *:message:action *::message:action *:::message:action This describes how arguments (usually non-option arguments, those not beginning with - or +) are to be completed when neither of the first two forms was provided. Any number of arguments can be completed in this fashion. With two colons before the message, the words special array and the CURRENT special parameter are modified to refer only to the normal arguments when the action is executed or evaluated. With three colons before the message they are modified to refer only to the normal arguments covered by this description. optspec optspec:... This describes an option. The colon indicates handling for one or more arguments to the option; if it is not present, the option is assumed to take no arguments. The following forms are available for the initial optspec, whether or not the option has arguments. *optspec Here optspec is one of the remaining forms below. This indicates the following optspec may be repeated. Otherwise if the corresponding option is already present on the command line to the left of the cursor it will not be offered again. -optname +optname In the simplest form the optspec is just the option name beginning with a minus or a plus sign, such as ‘-foo’. The first argument for the option (if any) must follow as a separate word directly after the option. Either of ‘-+optname’ and ‘+-optname’ can be used to specify that -optname and +optname are both valid. In all the remaining forms, the leading ‘-’ may be replaced by or paired with ‘+’ in this way. -optname- The first argument of the option must come directly after the option name in the same word . For example, ‘-foo-:...’ specifies that the completed option and argument will look like ‘-fooarg’. -optname+ The first argument may appear immediately after optname in the same word, or may appear as a separate word after the option. For example, ‘-foo+:...’ specifies that the completed option and argument will look like either ‘-fooarg’ or ‘-foo arg’. -optname= The argument may appear as the next word, or in same word as the option name provided that it is separated from it by an equals sign, for example ‘-foo=arg’ or ‘-foo arg’. -optname=- The argument to the option must appear after an equals sign in the same word, and may not be given in the next argument. optspec[explanation] An explanation string may be appended to any of the preceding forms of optspec by enclosing it in brackets, as in ‘-q[query operation]’. The verbose style is used to decide whether the explanation strings are displayed with the option in a completion listing. If no bracketed explanation string is given but the auto-description style is set and only one argument is described for this optspec, the value of the style is displayed, with any appearance of the sequence ‘%d’ in it replaced by the message of the first optarg that follows the optspec; see below. It is possible for options with a literal ‘+’ or ‘=’ to appear, but that character must be quoted, for example ‘-\\+’. Each optarg following an optspec must take one of the following forms: :message:action ::message:action An argument to the option; message and action are treated as for ordinary arguments. In the first form, the argument is mandatory, and in the second form it is optional. This group may be repeated for options which take multiple arguments. In other words, :message1:action1:message2:action2 specifies that the option takes two arguments. :*pattern:message:action :*pattern::message:action :*pattern:::message:action This describes multiple arguments. Only the last optarg for an option taking multiple arguments may be given in this form. If the pattern is empty (i.e. :*:), all the remaining words on the line are to be completed as described by the action; otherwise, all the words up to and including a word matching the pattern are to be completed using the action. Multiple colons are treated as for the ‘*:...’ forms for ordinary arguments: when the message is preceded by two colons, the words special array and the CURRENT special parameter are modified during the execution or evaluation of the action to refer only to the words after the option. When preceded by three colons, they are modified to refer only to the words covered by this description. Any literal colon in an optname, message, or action must be preceded by a backslash, ‘\\:’. Each of the forms above may be preceded by a list in parentheses of option names and argument numbers. If the given option is on the command line, the options and arguments indicated in parentheses will not be offered. For example, ‘(-two -three 1)-one:...’ completes the option ‘-one’; if this appears on the command line, the options -two and -three and the first ordinary argument will not be completed after it. ‘(-foo):...’ specifies an ordinary argument completion; -foo will not be completed if that argument is already present. Other items may appear in the list of excluded options to indicate various other items that should not be applied when the current specification is matched: a single star (*) for the rest arguments (i.e. a specification of the form ‘*:...’); a colon (:) for all normal (non-option-) arguments; and a hyphen (-) for all options. For example, if ‘(*)’ appears before an option and the option appears on the command line, the list of remaining arguments completed. To aid in reuse of specifications, it is possible to precede any of the forms above with ‘!’; then the form will no longer be completed, although if the option or argument appears on the command line they will be skipped as normal. The main use for this is when the arguments are given by an array, and _arguments is called repeatedly for more specific contexts: on the first call ‘_arguments $global_options’ is used, and on subsequent calls ‘_arguments !$^global_options’. specs: actions In each of the forms above the action determines how completions should be generated. Except for the ‘->string’ form below, the action will be executed by calling the _all_labels function to process all tag labels. No special handling of tags is needed unless a function call introduces a new one. The functions called to execute actions will be called with the elements of the array named by the ‘-O name’ option as arguments. This can be used, for example, to pass the same set of options for the compadd builtin to all actions. The forms for action are as follows. (single unquoted space) This is useful where an argument is required but it is not possible or desirable to generate matches for it. The message will be displayed but no completions listed. Note that even in this case the colon at the end of the message is needed; it may only be omitted when neither a message nor an action is given. (item1 item2 ...) One of a list of possible matches, for example: :foo:(foo bar baz) ((item1\\:desc1 ...)) Similar to the above, but with descriptions for each possible match. Note the backslash before the colon. For example, :foo:((a\\:bar b\\:baz)) The matches will be listed together with their descriptions if the description style is set with the values tag in the context. ->string In this form, _arguments processes the arguments and options and then returns control to the calling function with parameters set to indicate the state of processing; the calling function then makes its own arrangements for generating completions. For example, functions that implement a state machine can use this type of action. Where _arguments encounters action in the ‘->string’ format, it will strip all leading and trailing whitespace from string and set the array state to the set of all strings for which an action is to be performed. The elements of the array state_descr are assigned the corresponding message field from each optarg containing such an action. By default and in common with all other well behaved completion functions, _arguments returns status zero if it was able to add matches and non-zero otherwise. However, if the -R option is given, _arguments will instead return a status of 300 to indicate that $state is to be handled. In addition to $state and $state_descr, _arguments also sets the global parameters ‘context’, ‘line’ and ‘opt_args’ as described below, and does not reset any changes made to the special parameters such as PREFIX and words. This gives the calling function the choice of resetting these parameters or propagating changes in them. A function calling _arguments with at least one action containing a ‘->string’ must therefore declare appropriate local parameters: local context state state_descr line\ntypeset -A opt_args to prevent _arguments from altering the global environment. {eval-string} A string in braces is evaluated as shell code to generate matches. If the eval-string itself does not begin with an opening parenthesis or brace it is split into separate words before execution. = action If the action starts with ‘= ’ (an equals sign followed by a space), _arguments will insert the contents of the argument field of the current context as the new first element in the words special array and increment the value of the CURRENT special parameter. This has the effect of inserting a dummy word onto the completion command line while not changing the point at which completion is taking place. This is most useful with one of the specifiers that restrict the words on the command line on which the action is to operate (the two- and three-colon forms above). One particular use is when an action itself causes _arguments on a restricted range; it is necessary to use this trick to insert an appropriate command name into the range for the second call to _arguments to be able to parse the line. word... word... This covers all forms other than those above. If the action starts with a space, the remaining list of words will be invoked unchanged. Otherwise it will be invoked with some extra strings placed after the first word; these are to be passed down as options to the compadd builtin. They ensure that the state specified by _arguments, in particular the descriptions of options and arguments, is correctly passed to the completion command. These additional arguments are taken from the array parameter ‘expl’; this will be set up before executing the action and hence may be referred to inside it, typically in an expansion of the form ‘$expl[@]’ which preserves empty elements of the array. During the performance of the action the array ‘line’ will be set to the normal arguments from the command line, i.e. the words from the command line after the command name excluding all options and their arguments. Options are stored in the associative array ‘opt_args’ with option names as keys and their arguments as the values. By default, all colons and backslashes in the value are escaped with backslashes, and if an option has multiple arguments (for example, when using an optspec of the form ‘*optspec’), they are joined with (unescaped) colons. However, if the -0 option was passed, no backslash escaping is performed, and multiple values are joined with NUL bytes. For example, after ‘zsh -o foo:foo -o bar:bar -o