Index of Section 1 Manual Pages
| Interix / SUA | zshall.1 | Interix / SUA |
ZSHALL(1) ZSHALL(1)
NAME
zshall - the Z shell meta-man page
OVERVIEW
Because zsh contains many features, the zsh manual has
been split into a number of sections. This manual page
includes all the separate manual pages in the following
order:
zshmisc Anything not fitting into the other sections
zshexpn Zsh command and parameter expansion
zshparam Zsh parameters
zshoptions Zsh options
zshbuiltins Zsh built-in functions
zshzle Zsh command line editing
zshcompwid Zsh completion widgets
zshcompsys Zsh completion system
zshcompctl Zsh completion control
zshmodules Zsh loadable modules
zshzftpsys Zsh built-in FTP client
DESCRIPTION
Zsh is a UNIX command interpreter (shell) usable as an
interactive login shell and as a shell script command pro-
cessor. Of the standard shells, zsh most closely resem-
bles ksh but includes many enhancements. Zsh has command
line editing, builtin spelling correction, programmable
command completion, shell functions (with autoloading), a
history mechanism, and a host of other features.
AUTHOR
Zsh was originally written by Paul Falstad .
Zsh is now maintained by the members of the zsh-workers
mailing list . The development is
currently coordinated by Peter Stephenson .
The coordinator can be contacted at ,
but matters relating to the code should generally go to
the mailing list.
AVAILABILITY
Zsh is available from the following anonymous FTP sites.
These mirror sites are kept frequently up to date. The
sites marked with (H) may be mirroring ftp.cs.elte.hu
instead of the primary site.
Primary site
ftp://ftp.zsh.org/pub/zsh/
http://www.zsh.org/pub/zsh/
Australia
ftp://ftp.zsh.org/pub/zsh/
http://www.zsh.org/pub/zsh/
Denmark
ftp://sunsite.dk/pub/unix/shells/zsh/
Finland
ftp://ftp.funet.fi/pub/unix/shells/zsh/
Germany
ftp://ftp.fu-berlin.de/pub/unix/shells/zsh/ (H)
ftp://ftp.gmd.de/packages/zsh/
ftp://ftp.uni-trier.de/pub/unix/shell/zsh/
Hungary
ftp://ftp.cs.elte.hu/pub/zsh/
http://www.cs.elte.hu/pub/zsh/
ftp://ftp.kfki.hu/pub/packages/zsh/
Israel
ftp://ftp.math.technion.ac.il/pub/zsh/
http://www.math.technion.ac.il/pub/zsh/
Japan
ftp://ftp.win.ne.jp/pub/shell/zsh/
ftp://ftp.ayamura.org/pub/zsh/
Korea
ftp://linux.sarang.net/mirror/system/shell/zsh/
Netherlands
ftp://ftp.demon.nl/pub/mirrors/zsh/
Norway
ftp://ftp.uit.no/pub/unix/shells/zsh/
Poland
ftp://sunsite.icm.edu.pl/pub/unix/shells/zsh/
Romania
ftp://ftp.roedu.net/pub/mirrors/ftp.zsh.org/pub/zsh/
ftp://ftp.kappa.ro/pub/mirrors/ftp.zsh.org/pub/zsh/
Slovenia
ftp://ftp.siol.net/mirrors/zsh/
Sweden
ftp://ftp.lysator.liu.se/pub/unix/zsh/
UK
ftp://ftp.net.lut.ac.uk/zsh/
ftp://sunsite.org.uk/packages/zsh/
USA
ftp://uiarchive.uiuc.edu/mirrors/ftp/ftp.zsh.org/pub/
ftp://ftp.rge.com/pub/shells/zsh/
http://zsh.disillusion.org/
http://foad.org/zsh/
The up-to-date source code is available via anonymous CVS
from Sourceforge. See http://sourceforge.net/pro-
jects/zsh/ for details.
MAILING LISTS
Zsh has 3 mailing lists:
Announcements about releases, major changes in the
shell and the monthly posting of the Zsh FAQ.
(moderated)
User discussions.
Hacking, development, bug reports and patches.
To subscribe or unsubscribe, send mail to the associated
administrative address for the mailing list.
YOU ONLY NEED TO JOIN ONE OF THE MAILING LISTS AS THEY ARE
NESTED. All submissions to zsh-announce are automatically
forwarded to zsh-users. All submissions to zsh-users are
automatically forwarded to zsh-workers.
If you have problems subscribing/unsubscribing to any of
the mailing lists, send mail to . The
mailing lists are maintained by Karsten Thygesen
.
The mailing lists are archived; the archives can be
accessed via the administrative addresses listed above.
There is also a hypertext archive, maintained by Geoff
Wing , available at http://www.zsh.org/mla/.
THE ZSH FAQ
Zsh has a list of Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ), main-
tained by Peter Stephenson . It is regularly
posted to the newsgroup comp.unix.shell and the
zsh-announce mailing list. The latest version can be
found at any of the Zsh FTP sites, or at
http://www.zsh.org/FAQ/. The contact address for
FAQ-related matters is .
THE ZSH WEB PAGE
Zsh has a web page which is located at
http://www.zsh.org/. This is maintained by Karsten Thyge-
sen , of SunSITE Denmark. The contact
address for web-related matters is .
THE ZSH USERGUIDE
A userguide is currently in preparation. It is intended
to complement the manual, with explanations and hints on
issues where the manual can be cabbalistic, hierographic,
or downright mystifying (for example, the word `hiero-
graphic' does not exist). It can be viewed in its current
state at http://zsh.sunsite.dk/Guide/. At the time of
writing, chapters dealing with startup files and their
contents and the new completion system were essentially
complete.
THE ZSH WIKI
A `wiki' website for zsh has been created at
http://www.zshwiki.org/. This is a site which can be
added to and modified directly by users without any spe-
cial permission. You can add your own zsh tips and con-
figurations.
INVOCATION OPTIONS
The following flags are interpreted by the shell when
invoked to determine where the shell will read commands
from:
-c Take the first argument as a command to execute,
rather than reading commands from a script or stan-
dard input. If any further arguments are given,
the first one is assigned to $0, rather than being
used as a positional parameter.
-i Force shell to be interactive.
-s Force shell to read commands from the standard
input. If the -s flag is not present and an argu-
ment is given, the first argument is taken to be
the pathname of a script to execute.
After the first one or two arguments have been appropri-
ated as described above, the remaining arguments are
assigned to the positional parameters.
For further options, which are common to invocation and
the set builtin, see zshoptions(1).
Options may be specified by name using the -o option. -o
acts like a single-letter option, but takes a following
string as the option name. For example,
zsh -x -o shwordsplit scr
runs the script scr, setting the XTRACE option by the cor-
responding letter `-x' and the SH_WORD_SPLIT option by
name. Options may be turned off by name by using +o
instead of -o. -o can be stacked up with preceding sin-
gle-letter options, so for example `-xo shwordsplit' or
`-xoshwordsplit' is equivalent to `-x -o shwordsplit'.
Options may also be specified by name in GNU long option
style, `--option-name'. When this is done, `-' characters
in the option name are permitted: they are translated into
`_', and thus ignored. So, for example, `zsh
--sh-word-split' invokes zsh with the SH_WORD_SPLIT option
turned on. Like other option syntaxes, options can be
turned off by replacing the initial `-' with a `+'; thus
`+-sh-word-split' is equivalent to `--no-sh-word-split'.
Unlike other option syntaxes, GNU-style long options can-
not be stacked with any other options, so for example
`-x-shwordsplit' is an error, rather than being treated
like `-x --shwordsplit'.
The special GNU-style option `--version' is handled; it
sends to standard output the shell's version information,
then exits successfully. `--help' is also handled; it
sends to standard output a list of options that can be
used when invoking the shell, then exits successfully.
Option processing may be finished, allowing following
arguments that start with `-' or `+' to be treated as nor-
mal arguments, in two ways. Firstly, a lone `-' (or `+')
as an argument by itself ends option processing. Sec-
ondly, a special option `--' (or `+-'), which may be spec-
ified on its own (which is the standard POSIX usage) or
may be stacked with preceding options (so `-x-' is equiva-
lent to `-x --'). Options are not permitted to be stacked
after `--' (so `-x-f' is an error), but note the GNU-style
option form discussed above, where `--shwordsplit' is per-
mitted and does not end option processing.
Except when the sh/ksh emulation single-letter options are
in effect, the option `-b' (or `+b') ends option process-
ing. `-b' is like `--', except that further single-letter
options can be stacked after the `-b' and will take effect
as normal.
COMPATIBILITY
Zsh tries to emulate sh or ksh when it is invoked as sh or
ksh respectively; more precisely, it looks at the first
letter of the name by which it was invoked, excluding any
initial `r' (assumed to stand for `restricted'), and if
that is `s' or `k' it will emulate sh or ksh. Further-
more, if invoked as su (which happens on certain systems
when the shell is executed by the su command), the shell
will try to find an alternative name from the SHELL envi-
ronment variable and perform emulation based on that.
In sh and ksh compatibility modes the following parameters
are not special and not initialized by the shell: ARGC,
argv, cdpath, fignore, fpath, HISTCHARS, mailpath, MAN-
PATH, manpath, path, prompt, PROMPT, PROMPT2, PROMPT3,
PROMPT4, psvar, status, watch.
The usual zsh startup/shutdown scripts are not executed.
Login shells source /etc/profile followed by $HOME/.pro-
file. If the ENV environment variable is set on invoca-
tion, $ENV is sourced after the profile scripts. The
value of ENV is subjected to parameter expansion, command
substitution, and arithmetic expansion before being inter-
preted as a pathname. Note that the PRIVILEGED option
also affects the execution of startup files.
The following options are set if the shell is invoked as
sh or ksh: NO_BAD_PATTERN, NO_BANG_HIST, NO_BG_NICE,
NO_EQUALS, NO_FUNCTION_ARGZERO, GLOB_SUBST,
NO_GLOBAL_EXPORT, NO_HUP, INTERACTIVE_COMMENTS,
KSH_ARRAYS, NO_MULTIOS, NO_NOMATCH, NO_NOTIFY,
POSIX_BUILTINS, NO_PROMPT_PERCENT, RM_STAR_SILENT,
SH_FILE_EXPANSION, SH_GLOB, SH_OPTION_LETTERS,
SH_WORD_SPLIT. Additionally the BSD_ECHO and
IGNORE_BRACES options are set if zsh is invoked as sh.
Also, the KSH_OPTION_PRINT, LOCAL_OPTIONS, PROMPT_BANG,
PROMPT_SUBST and SINGLE_LINE_ZLE options are set if zsh is
invoked as ksh.
RESTRICTED SHELL
When the basename of the command used to invoke zsh starts
with the letter `r' or the `-r' command line option is
supplied at invocation, the shell becomes restricted.
Emulation mode is determined after stripping the letter
`r' from the invocation name. The following are disabled
in restricted mode:
o changing directories with the cd builtin
o changing or unsetting the PATH, path, MODULE_PATH,
module_path, SHELL, HISTFILE, HISTSIZE, GID, EGID,
UID, EUID, USERNAME, LD_LIBRARY_PATH,
LD_AOUT_LIBRARY_PATH, LD_PRELOAD and
LD_AOUT_PRELOAD parameters
o specifying command names containing /
o specifying command pathnames using hash
o redirecting output to files
o using the exec builtin command to replace the shell
with another command
o using jobs -Z to overwrite the shell process' argu-
ment and environment space
o using the ARGV0 parameter to override argv[0] for
external commands
o turning off restricted mode with set +r or unsetopt
RESTRICTED
These restrictions are enforced after processing the
startup files. The startup files should set up PATH to
point to a directory of commands which can be safely
invoked in the restricted environment. They may also add
further restrictions by disabling selected builtins.
Restricted mode can also be activated any time by setting
the RESTRICTED option. This immediately enables all the
restrictions described above even if the shell still has
not processed all startup files.
STARTUP/SHUTDOWN FILES
Commands are first read from /etc/zshenv; this cannot be
overridden. Subsequent behaviour is modified by the RCS
and GLOBAL_RCS options; the former affects all startup
files, while the second only affects those in the /etc
directory. If one of the options is unset at any point,
any subsequent startup file(s) of the corresponding type
will not be read. It is also possible for a file in
$ZDOTDIR to re-enable GLOBAL_RCS. Both RCS and GLOBAL_RCS
are set by default.
Commands are then read from $ZDOTDIR/.zshenv. If the
shell is a login shell, commands are read from /etc/zpro-
file and then $ZDOTDIR/.zprofile. Then, if the shell is
interactive, commands are read from /etc/zshrc and then
$ZDOTDIR/.zshrc. Finally, if the shell is a login shell,
/etc/zlogin and $ZDOTDIR/.zlogin are read.
When a login shell exits, the files $ZDOTDIR/.zlogout and
then /etc/zlogout are read. This happens with either an
explicit exit via the exit or logout commands, or an
implicit exit by reading end-of-file from the terminal.
However, if the shell terminates due to exec'ing another
process, the logout files are not read. These are also
affected by the RCS and GLOBAL_RCS options. Note also
that the RCS option affects the saving of history files,
i.e. if RCS is unset when the shell exits, no history file
will be saved.
If ZDOTDIR is unset, HOME is used instead. Those files
listed above as being in /etc may be in another directory,
depending on the installation.
As /etc/zshenv is run for all instances of zsh, it is
important that it be kept as small as possible. In par-
ticular, it is a good idea to put code that does not need
to be run for every single shell behind a test of the form
`if [[ -o rcs ]]; then ...' so that it will not be exe-
cuted when zsh is invoked with the `-f' option.
Any of these files may be pre-compiled with the zcompile
builtin command (see zshbuiltins(1)). If a compiled file
exists (named for the original file plus the .zwc exten-
sion) and it is newer than the original file, the compiled
ZSHMISC(1) ZSHMISC(1)
file will be used instead.
NAME
zshmisc - everything and then some
SIMPLE COMMANDS & PIPELINES
A simple command is a sequence of optional parameter
assignments followed by blank-separated words, with
optional redirections interspersed. The first word is the
command to be executed, and the remaining words, if any,
are arguments to the command. If a command name is given,
the parameter assignments modify the environment of the
command when it is executed. The value of a simple com-
mand is its exit status, or 128 plus the signal number if
terminated by a signal. For example,
echo foo
is a simple command with arguments.
A pipeline is either a simple command, or a sequence of
two or more simple commands where each command is sepa-
rated from the next by `|' or `|&'. Where commands are
separated by `|', the standard output of the first command
is connected to the standard input of the next. `|&' is
shorthand for `2>&1 |', which connects both the standard
output and the standard error of the command to the stan-
dard input of the next. The value of a pipeline is the
value of the last command, unless the pipeline is preceded
by `!' in which case the value is the logical inverse of
the value of the last command. For example,
echo foo | sed 's/foo/bar/'
is a pipeline, where the output (`foo' plus a newline) of
the first command will be passed to the input of the sec-
ond.
If a pipeline is preceded by `coproc', it is executed as a
coprocess; a two-way pipe is established between it and
the parent shell. The shell can read from or write to the
coprocess by means of the `>&p' and `<&p' redirection
operators or with `print -p' and `read -p'. A pipeline
cannot be preceded by both `coproc' and `!'. If job con-
trol is active, the coprocess can be treated in other than
input and output as an ordinary background job.
A sublist is either a single pipeline, or a sequence of
two or more pipelines separated by `&&' or `||'. If two
pipelines are separated by `&&', the second pipeline is
executed only if the first succeeds (returns a zero
value). If two pipelines are separated by `||', the sec-
ond is executed only if the first fails (returns a nonzero
value). Both operators have equal precedence and are left
associative. The value of the sublist is the value of the
last pipeline executed. For example,
dmesg | grep panic && print yes
is a sublist consisting of two pipelines, the second just
a simple command which will be executed if and only if the
grep command returns a zero value. If it does not, the
value of the sublist is that return value, else it is the
value returned by the print (almost certainly zero).
A list is a sequence of zero or more sublists, in which
each sublist is terminated by `;', `&', `&|', `&!', or a
newline. This terminator may optionally be omitted from
the last sublist in the list when the list appears as a
complex command inside `(...)' or `{...}'. When a sub-
list is terminated by `;' or newline, the shell waits for
it to finish before executing the next sublist. If a sub-
list is terminated by a `&', `&|', or `&!', the shell exe-
cutes the last pipeline in it in the background, and does
not wait for it to finish (note the difference from other
shells which execute the whole sublist in the background).
A backgrounded pipeline returns a status of zero.
More generally, a list can be seen as a set of any shell
commands whatsoever, including the complex commands below;
this is implied wherever the word `list' appears in later
descriptions. For example, the commands in a shell func-
tion form a special sort of list.
PRECOMMAND MODIFIERS
A simple command may be preceded by a precommand modifier,
which will alter how the command is interpreted. These
modifiers are shell builtin commands with the exception of
nocorrect which is a reserved word.
- The command is executed with a `-' prepended to its
argv[0] string.
noglob Filename generation (globbing) is not performed on
any of the words.
nocorrect
Spelling correction is not done on any of the
words. This must appear before any other precom-
mand modifier, as it is interpreted immediately,
before any parsing is done. It has no effect in
non-interactive shells.
exec The command is executed in the parent shell without
forking.
command
The command word is taken to be the name of an
external command, rather than a shell function or
builtin.
builtin
The command word is taken to be the name of a
builtin command, rather than a shell function or
external command.
COMPLEX COMMANDS
A complex command in zsh is one of the following:
if list then list [ elif list then list ] ... [ else list
] fi
The if list is executed, and if it returns a zero
exit status, the then list is executed. Otherwise,
the elif list is executed and if its value is zero,
the then list is executed. If each elif list
returns nonzero, the else list is executed.
for name ... [ in word ... ] term do list done
where term is at least one newline or ;. Expand
the list of words, and set the parameter name to
each of them in turn, executing list each time. If
the in word is omitted, use the positional parame-
ters instead of the words.
More than one parameter name can appear before the
list of words. If N names are given, then on each
execution of the loop the next N words are assigned
to the corresponding parameters. If there are more
names than remaining words, the remaining parame-
ters are each set to the empty string. Execution
of the loop ends when there is no remaining word to
assign to the first name. It is only possible for
in to appear as the first name in the list, else it
will be treated as marking the end of the list.
for (( [expr1] ; [expr2] ; [expr3] )) do list done
The arithmetic expression expr1 is evaluated first
(see the section `Arithmetic Evaluation'). The
arithmetic expression expr2 is repeatedly evaluated
until it evaluates to zero and when non-zero, list
is executed and the arithmetic expression expr3
evaluated. If any expression is omitted, then it
behaves as if it evaluated to 1.
while list do list done
Execute the do list as long as the while list
returns a zero exit status.
until list do list done
Execute the do list as long as until list returns a
nonzero exit status.
repeat word do list done
word is expanded and treated as an arithmetic
expression, which must evaluate to a number n.
list is then executed n times.
case word in [ [(] pattern [ | pattern ] ... ) list
(;;|;&) ] ... esac
Execute the list associated with the first pattern
that matches word, if any. The form of the pat-
terns is the same as that used for filename genera-
tion. See the section `Filename Generation'. If
the list that is executed is terminated with ;&
rather than ;;, the following list is also exe-
cuted. This continues until either a list is ter-
minated with ;; or the esac is reached.
select name [ in word ... term ] do list done
where term is one or more newline or ; to terminate
the words. Print the set of words, each preceded
by a number. If the in word is omitted, use the
positional parameters. The PROMPT3 prompt is
printed and a line is read from the line editor if
the shell is interactive and that is active, or
else standard input. If this line consists of the
number of one of the listed words, then the parame-
ter name is set to the word corresponding to this
number. If this line is empty, the selection list
is printed again. Otherwise, the value of the
parameter name is set to null. The contents of the
line read from standard input is saved in the
parameter REPLY. list is executed for each selec-
tion until a break or end-of-file is encountered.
( list )
Execute list in a subshell. Traps set by the trap
builtin are reset to their default values while
executing list.
{ list }
Execute list.
{ try-list } always { always-list }
First execute try-list. Regardless of errors, or
break, continue, or return commands encountered
within try-list, execute always-list. Execution
then continues from the result of the execution of
try-list; in other words, any error, or break, con-
tinue, or return command is treated in the normal
way, as if always-list were not present. The two
chunks of code are referred to as the `try block'
and the `always block'.
Optional newlines or semicolons may appear after
the always; note, however, that they may not appear
between the preceeding closing brace and the
always.
An `error' in this context is a condition such as a
syntax error which causes the shell to abort execu-
tion of the current function, script, or list.
Syntax errors encountered while the shell is pars-
ing the code do not cause the always-list to be
executed. For example, an erroneously constructed
if block in try-list would cause the shell to abort
during parsing, so that always-list would not be
executed, while an erroneous substitution such as
${*foo*} would cause a run-time error, after which
always-list would be executed.
An error condition can be tested and reset with the
special integer variable TRY_BLOCK_ERROR. Outside
an always-list the value is irrelevant, but it is
initialised to -1. Inside always-list, the value
is 1 if an error occurred in the try-list, else 0.
If TRY_BLOCK_ERROR is set to 0 during the
always-list, the error condition caused by the
try-list is reset, and shell execution continues
normally after the end of always-list. Altering
the value during the try-list is not useful (unless
this forms part of an enclosing always block).
Regardless of TRY_BLOCK_ERROR, after the end of
always-list the normal shell status $? is the value
returned from always-list. This will be non-zero
if there was an error, even if TRY_BLOCK_ERROR was
set to zero.
The following executes the given code, ignoring any
errors it causes. This is an alternative to the
usual convention of protecting code by executing it
in a subshell.
{
# code which may cause an error
} always {
# This code is executed regardless of the error.
(( TRY_BLOCK_ERROR = 0 ))
}
# The error condition has been reset.
An exit command encountered in try-list does not
cause the execution of always-list. Instead, the
shell exits immediately after any EXIT trap has
been executed.
function word ... [ () ] [ term ] { list }
word ... () [ term ] { list }
word ... () [ term ] command
where term is one or more newline or ;. Define a
function which is referenced by any one of word.
Normally, only one word is provided; multiple words
are usually only useful for setting traps. The
body of the function is the list between the { and
}. See the section `Functions'.
If the option SH_GLOB is set for compatibility with
other shells, then whitespace may appear between
between the left and right parentheses when there
is a single word; otherwise, the parentheses will
be treated as forming a globbing pattern in that
case.
time [ pipeline ]
The pipeline is executed, and timing statistics are
reported on the standard error in the form speci-
fied by the TIMEFMT parameter. If pipeline is
omitted, print statistics about the shell process
and its children.
[[ exp ]]
Evaluates the conditional expression exp and return
a zero exit status if it is true. See the section
`Conditional Expressions' for a description of exp.
ALTERNATE FORMS FOR COMPLEX COMMANDS
Many of zsh's complex commands have alternate forms.
These particular versions of complex commands should be
considered deprecated and may be removed in the future.
The versions in the previous section should be preferred
instead.
The short versions below only work if sublist is of the
form `{ list }' or if the SHORT_LOOPS option is set. For
the if, while and until commands, in both these cases the
test part of the loop must also be suitably delimited,
such as by `[[ ... ]]' or `(( ... ))', else the end of the
test will not be recognized. For the for, repeat, case
and select commands no such special form for the arguments
is necessary, but the other condition (the special form of
sublist or use of the SHORT_LOOPS option) still applies.
if list { list } [ elif list { list } ] ... [ else { list
} ]
An alternate form of if. The rules mean that
if [[ -o ignorebraces ]] {
print yes
}
works, but
if true { # Does not work!
print yes
}
does not, since the test is not suitably delimited.
if list sublist
A short form of the alternate `if'. The same limi-
tations on the form of list apply as for the previ-
ous form.
for name ... ( word ... ) sublist
A short form of for.
for name ... [ in word ... ] term sublist
where term is at least one newline or ;. Another
short form of for.
for (( [expr1] ; [expr2] ; [expr3] )) sublist
A short form of the arithmetic for command.
foreach name ... ( word ... ) list end
Another form of for.
while list { list }
An alternative form of while. Note the limitations
on the form of list mentioned above.
until list { list }
An alternative form of until. Note the limitations
on the form of list mentioned above.
repeat word sublist
This is a short form of repeat.
case word { [ [(] pattern [ | pattern ] ... ) list (;;|;&)
] ... }
An alternative form of case.
select name [ in word term ] sublist
where term is at least one newline or ;. A short
form of select.
RESERVED WORDS
The following words are recognized as reserved words when
used as the first word of a command unless quoted or dis-
abled using disable -r:
do done esac then elif else fi for case if while function
repeat time until select coproc nocorrect foreach end ! [[
{ }
Additionally, `}' is recognized in any position if the
IGNORE_BRACES option is not set.
COMMENTS
In noninteractive shells, or in interactive shells with
the INTERACTIVE_COMMENTS option set, a word beginning with
the third character of the histchars parameter (`#' by
default) causes that word and all the following characters
up to a newline to be ignored.
ALIASING
Every token in the shell input is checked to see if there
is an alias defined for it. If so, it is replaced by the
text of the alias if it is in command position (if it
could be the first word of a simple command), or if the
alias is global. If the text ends with a space, the next
word in the shell input is treated as though it were in
command position for purposes of alias expansion. An
alias is defined using the alias builtin; global aliases
may be defined using the -g option to that builtin.
Alias expansion is done on the shell input before any
other expansion except history expansion. Therefore, if
an alias is defined for the word foo, alias expansion may
be avoided by quoting part of the word, e.g. \foo. But
there is nothing to prevent an alias being defined for
\foo as well.
QUOTING
A character may be quoted (that is, made to stand for
itself) by preceding it with a `\'. `\' followed by a
newline is ignored.
A string enclosed between `$'' and `'' is processed the
same way as the string arguments of the print builtin, and
the resulting string is considered to be entirely quoted.
A literal `'' character can be included in the string by
using the `\'' escape.
All characters enclosed between a pair of single quotes
('') that is not preceded by a `$' are quoted. A single
quote cannot appear within single quotes unless the option
RC_QUOTES is set, in which case a pair of single quotes
are turned into a single quote. For example,
print ''''
outputs nothing apart from a newline if RC_QUOTES is not
set, but one single quote if it is set.
Inside double quotes (""), parameter and command substitu-
tion occur, and `\' quotes the characters `\', ``', `"',
and `$'.
REDIRECTION
If a command is followed by & and job control is not
active, then the default standard input for the command is
the empty file /dev/null. Otherwise, the environment for
the execution of a command contains the file descriptors
of the invoking shell as modified by input/output specifi-
cations.
The following may appear anywhere in a simple command or
may precede or follow a complex command. Expansion occurs
before word or digit is used except as noted below. If
the result of substitution on word produces more than one
filename, redirection occurs for each separate filename in
turn.
< word Open file word for reading as standard input.
<> word
Open file word for reading and writing as standard
input. If the file does not exist then it is cre-
ated.
> word Open file word for writing as standard output. If
the file does not exist then it is created. If the
file exists, and the CLOBBER option is unset, this
causes an error; otherwise, it is truncated to zero
length.
>| word
>! word
Same as >, except that the file is truncated to
zero length if it exists, even if CLOBBER is unset.
>> word
Open file word for writing in append mode as stan-
dard output. If the file does not exist, and the
CLOBBER option is unset, this causes an error; oth-
erwise, the file is created.
>>| word
>>! word
Same as >>, except that the file is created if it
does not exist, even if CLOBBER is unset.
<<[-] word
The shell input is read up to a line that is the
same as word, or to an end-of-file. No parameter
expansion, command substitution or filename genera-
tion is performed on word. The resulting document,
called a here-document, becomes the standard input.
If any character of word is quoted with single or
double quotes or a `\', no interpretation is placed
upon the characters of the document. Otherwise,
parameter and command substitution occurs, `\' fol-
lowed by a newline is removed, and `\' must be used
to quote the characters `\', `$', ``' and the first
character of word.
Note that word itself does not undergo shell expan-
sion. Backquotes in word do not have their usual
effect; instead they behave similarly to double
quotes, except that the backquotes themselves are
passed through unchanged. (This information is
given for completeness and it is not recommended
that backquotes be used.) Quotes in the form
$'...' have their standard effect of expanding
backslashed references to special characters.
If <<- is used, then all leading tabs are stripped
from word and from the document.
<<< word
Perform shell expansion on word and pass the result
to standard input. This is known as a here-string.
Compare the use of word in here-documents above,
where word does not undergo shell expansion.
<& number
>& number
The standard input/output is duplicated from file
descriptor number (see dup2(2)).
<& -
>& - Close the standard input/output.
<& p
>& p The input/output from/to the coprocess is moved to
the standard input/output.
>& word
&> word
(Except where `>& word' matches one of the above
syntaxes; `&>' can always be used to avoid this
ambiguity.) Redirects both standard output and
standard error (file descriptor 2) in the manner of
`> word'. Note that this does not have the same
effect as `> word 2>&1' in the presence of multios
(see the section below).
>&| word
>&! word
&>| word
&>! word
Redirects both standard output and standard error
(file descriptor 2) in the manner of `>| word'.
>>& word
&>> word
Redirects both standard output and standard error
(file descriptor 2) in the manner of `>> word'.
>>&| word
>>&! word
&>>| word
&>>! word
Redirects both standard output and standard error
(file descriptor 2) in the manner of `>>| word'.
If one of the above is preceded by a digit, then the file
descriptor referred to is that specified by the digit
instead of the default 0 or 1. The order in which redi-
rections are specified is significant. The shell evalu-
ates each redirection in terms of the (file descriptor,
file) association at the time of evaluation. For example:
... 1>fname 2>&1
first associates file descriptor 1 with file fname. It
then associates file descriptor 2 with the file associated
with file descriptor 1 (that is, fname). If the order of
redirections were reversed, file descriptor 2 would be
associated with the terminal (assuming file descriptor 1
had been) and then file descriptor 1 would be associated
with file fname.
The `|&' command separator described in Simple Commands &
Pipelines in zshmisc(1) is a shorthand for `2>&1 |'.
For output redirections only, if word is of the form
`>(list)' then the output is piped to the command repre-
sented by list. See Process Substitution in zshexpn(1).
MULTIOS
If the user tries to open a file descriptor for writing
more than once, the shell opens the file descriptor as a
pipe to a process that copies its input to all the speci-
fied outputs, similar to tee, provided the MULTIOS option
is set, as it is by default. Thus:
date >foo >bar
writes the date to two files, named `foo' and `bar'. Note
that a pipe is an implicit redirection; thus
date >foo | cat
writes the date to the file `foo', and also pipes it to
cat.
If the MULTIOS option is set, the word after a redirection
operator is also subjected to filename generation (glob-
bing). Thus
: > *
will truncate all files in the current directory, assuming
there's at least one. (Without the MULTIOS option, it
would create an empty file called `*'.) Similarly, you
can do
echo exit 0 >> *.sh
If the user tries to open a file descriptor for reading
more than once, the shell opens the file descriptor as a
pipe to a process that copies all the specified inputs to
its output in the order specified, similar to cat, pro-
vided the MULTIOS option is set. Thus
sort bar > baz
when MULTIOS is unset will truncate bar, and write `foo'
into baz.
There is a problem when an output multio is attached to an
external program. A simple example shows this:
cat file >file1 >file2
cat file1 file2
Here, it is possible that the second `cat' will not dis-
play the full contents of file1 and file2 (i.e. the origi-
nal contents of file repeated twice).
The reason for this is that the multios are spawned after
the cat process is forked from the parent shell, so the
parent shell does not wait for the multios to finish writ-
ing data. This means the command as shown can exit before
file1 and file2 are completely written. As a workaround,
it is possible to run the cat process as part of a job in
the current shell:
{ cat file } >file >file2
Here, the {...} job will pause to wait for both files to
be written.
REDIRECTIONS WITH NO COMMAND
When a simple command consists of one or more redirection
operators and zero or more parameter assignments, but no
command name, zsh can behave in several ways.
If the parameter NULLCMD is not set or the option
CSH_NULLCMD is set, an error is caused. This is the csh
behavior and CSH_NULLCMD is set by default when emulating
csh.
If the option SH_NULLCMD is set, the builtin `:' is
inserted as a command with the given redirections. This
is the default when emulating sh or ksh.
Otherwise, if the parameter NULLCMD is set, its value will
be used as a command with the given redirections. If both
NULLCMD and READNULLCMD are set, then the value of the
latter will be used instead of that of the former when the
redirection is an input. The default for NULLCMD is `cat'
and for READNULLCMD is `more'. Thus
< file
shows the contents of file on standard output, with paging
if that is a terminal. NULLCMD and READNULLCMD may refer
to shell functions.
COMMAND EXECUTION
If a command name contains no slashes, the shell attempts
to locate it. If there exists a shell function by that
name, the function is invoked as described in the section
`Functions'. If there exists a shell builtin by that
name, the builtin is invoked.
Otherwise, the shell searches each element of $path for a
directory containing an executable file by that name. If
the search is unsuccessful, the shell prints an error mes-
sage and returns a nonzero exit status.
If execution fails because the file is not in executable
format, and the file is not a directory, it is assumed to
be a shell script. /bin/sh is spawned to execute it. If
the program is a file beginning with `#!', the remainder
of the first line specifies an interpreter for the pro-
gram. The shell will execute the specified interpreter on
operating systems that do not handle this executable for-
mat in the kernel.
FUNCTIONS
Shell functions are defined with the function reserved
word or the special syntax `funcname ()'. Shell functions
are read in and stored internally. Alias names are
resolved when the function is read. Functions are exe-
cuted like commands with the arguments passed as posi-
tional parameters. (See the section `Command Execution'.)
Functions execute in the same process as the caller and
share all files and present working directory with the
caller. A trap on EXIT set inside a function is executed
after the function completes in the environment of the
caller.
The return builtin is used to return from function calls.
Function identifiers can be listed with the functions
builtin. Functions can be undefined with the unfunction
builtin.
AUTOLOADING FUNCTIONS
A function can be marked as undefined using the autoload
builtin (or `functions -u' or `typeset -fu'). Such a
function has no body. When the function is first exe-
cuted, the shell searches for its definition using the
elements of the fpath variable. Thus to define functions
for autoloading, a typical sequence is:
fpath=(~/myfuncs $fpath)
autoload myfunc1 myfunc2 ...
The usual alias expansion during reading will be sup-
pressed if the autoload builtin or its equivalent is given
the option -U. This is recommended for the use of func-
tions supplied with the zsh distribution. Note that for
functions precompiled with the zcompile builtin command
the flag -U must be provided when the .zwc file is cre-
ated, as the corresponding information is compiled into
the latter.
For each element in fpath, the shell looks for three pos-
sible files, the newest of which is used to load the defi-
nition for the function:
element.zwc
A file created with the zcompile builtin command,
which is expected to contain the definitions for
all functions in the directory named element. The
file is treated in the same manner as a directory
containing files for functions and is searched for
the definition of the function. If the definition
is not found, the search for a definition proceeds
with the other two possibilities described below.
If element already includes a .zwc extension (i.e.
the extension was explicitly given by the user),
element is searched for the definition of the func-
tion without comparing its age to that of other
files; in fact, there does not need to be any
directory named element without the suffix. Thus
including an element such as `/usr/local/funcs.zwc'
in fpath will speed up the search for functions,
with the disadvantage that functions included must
be explicitly recompiled by hand before the shell
notices any changes.
element/function.zwc
A file created with zcompile, which is expected to
contain the definition for function. It may
include other function definitions as well, but
those are neither loaded nor executed; a file found
in this way is searched only for the definition of
function.
element/function
A file of zsh command text, taken to be the defini-
tion for function.
In summary, the order of searching is, first, in the par-
ents of directories in fpath for the newer of either a
compiled directory or a directory in fpath; second, if
more than one of these contains a definition for the func-
tion that is sought, the leftmost in the fpath is chosen;
and third, within a directory, the newer of either a com-
piled function or an ordinary function definition is used.
If the KSH_AUTOLOAD option is set, or the file contains
only a simple definition of the function, the file's con-
tents will be executed. This will normally define the
function in question, but may also perform initialization,
which is executed in the context of the function execu-
tion, and may therefore define local parameters. It is an
error if the function is not defined by loading the file.
Otherwise, the function body (with no surrounding `func-
name() {...}') is taken to be the complete contents of the
file. This form allows the file to be used directly as an
executable shell script. If processing of the file
results in the function being re-defined, the function
itself is not re-executed. To force the shell to perform
initialization and then call the function defined, the
file should contain initialization code (which will be
executed then discarded) in addition to a complete func-
tion definition (which will be retained for subsequent
calls to the function), and a call to the shell function,
including any arguments, at the end.
For example, suppose the autoload file func contains
func() { print This is func; }
print func is initialized
then `func; func' with KSH_AUTOLOAD set will produce both
messages on the first call, but only the message `This is
func' on the second and subsequent calls. Without
KSH_AUTOLOAD set, it will produce the initialization mes-
sage on the first call, and the other message on the sec-
ond and subsequent calls.
It is also possible to create a function that is not
marked as autoloaded, but which loads its own definition
by searching fpath, by using `autoload -X' within a shell
function. For example, the following are equivalent:
myfunc() {
autoload -X
}
myfunc args...
and
unfunction myfunc # if myfunc was defined
autoload myfunc
myfunc args...
In fact, the functions command outputs `builtin autoload
-X' as the body of an autoloaded function. This is done
so that
eval "$(functions)"
produces a reasonable result. A true autoloaded function
can be identified by the presence of the comment `# unde-
fined' in the body, because all comments are discarded
from defined functions.
To load the definition of an autoloaded function myfunc
without executing myfunc, use:
autoload +X myfunc
SPECIAL FUNCTIONS
The following functions, if defined, have special meaning
to the shell:
chpwd Executed whenever the current working directory is
changed.
periodic
If the parameter PERIOD is set, this function is
executed every $PERIOD seconds, just before a
prompt.
precmd Executed before each prompt.
preexec
Executed just after a command has been read and is
about to be executed. If the history mechanism is
active (and the line was not discarded from the
history buffer), the string that the user typed is
passed as the first argument, otherwise it is an
empty string. The actual command that will be exe-
cuted (including expanded aliases) is passed in two
different forms: the second argument is a sin-
gle-line, size-limited version of the command (with
things like function bodies elided); the third
argument contains the full text that is being exe-
cuted.
TRAPNAL
If defined and non-null, this function will be exe-
cuted whenever the shell catches a signal SIGNAL,
where NAL is a signal name as specified for the
kill builtin. The signal number will be passed as
the first parameter to the function.
If a function of this form is defined and null, the
shell and processes spawned by it will ignore SIG-
NAL.
The return value from the function is handled spe-
cially. If it is zero, the signal is assumed to
have been handled, and execution continues nor-
mally. Otherwise, the normal effect of the signal
is produced; if this causes execution to terminate,
the status returned to the shell is the status
returned from the function.
Programs terminated by uncaught signals typically
return the status 128 plus the signal number.
Hence the following causes the handler for SIGINT
to print a message, then mimic the usual effect of
the signal.
TRAPINT() {
print "Caught SIGINT, aborting."
return $(( 128 + $1 ))
}
The functions TRAPZERR, TRAPDEBUG and TRAPEXIT are
never executed inside other traps.
TRAPDEBUG
Executed after each command.
TRAPEXIT
Executed when the shell exits, or when the current
function exits if defined inside a function.
TRAPZERR
Executed whenever a command has a non-zero exit
status. However, the function is not executed if
the command occurred in a sublist followed by `&&'
or `||'; only the final command in a sublist of
this type causes the trap to be executed.
The functions beginning `TRAP' may alternatively be
defined with the trap builtin: this may be preferable for
some uses, as they are then run in the environment of the
calling process, rather than in their own function envi-
ronment. Apart from the difference in calling procedure
and the fact that the function form appears in lists of
functions, the forms
TRAPNAL() {
# code
}
and
trap '
# code
are equivalent.
JOBS
If the MONITOR option is set, an interactive shell associ-
ates a job with each pipeline. It keeps a table of cur-
rent jobs, printed by the jobs command, and assigns them
small integer numbers. When a job is started asyn-
chronously with `&', the shell prints a line to standard
error which looks like:
[1] 1234
indicating that the job which was started asynchronously
was job number 1 and had one (top-level) process, whose
process ID was 1234.
If a job is started with `&|' or `&!', then that job is
immediately disowned. After startup, it does not have a
place in the job table, and is not subject to the job con-
trol features described here.
If you are running a job and wish to do something else you
may hit the key ^Z (control-Z) which sends a TSTP signal
to the current job: this key may be redefined by the susp
option of the external stty command. The shell will then
normally indicate that the job has been `suspended', and
print another prompt. You can then manipulate the state
of this job, putting it in the background with the bg com-
mand, or run some other commands and then eventually bring
the job back into the foreground with the foreground com-
mand fg. A ^Z takes effect immediately and is like an
interrupt in that pending output and unread input are dis-
carded when it is typed.
A job being run in the background will suspend if it tries
to read from the terminal. Background jobs are normally
allowed to produce output, but this can be disabled by
giving the command `stty tostop'. If you set this tty
option, then background jobs will suspend when they try to
produce output like they do when they try to read input.
When a command is suspended and continued later with the
fg or wait builtins, zsh restores tty modes that were in
effect when it was suspended. This (intentionally) does
not apply if the command is continued via `kill -CONT',
nor when it is continued with bg.
There are several ways to refer to jobs in the shell. A
job can be referred to by the process ID of any process of
the job or by one of the following:
%number
The job with the given number.
%string
Any job whose command line begins with string.
%?string
Any job whose command line contains string.
%% Current job.
%+ Equivalent to `%%'.
%- Previous job.
The shell learns immediately whenever a process changes
state. It normally informs you whenever a job becomes
blocked so that no further progress is possible. If the
NOTIFY option is not set, it waits until just before it
prints a prompt before it informs you. All such notifica-
tions are sent directly to the terminal, not to the stan-
dard output or standard error.
When the monitor mode is on, each background job that com-
pletes triggers any trap set for CHLD.
When you try to leave the shell while jobs are running or
suspended, you will be warned that `You have suspended
(running) jobs'. You may use the jobs command to see what
they are. If you do this or immediately try to exit
again, the shell will not warn you a second time; the sus-
pended jobs will be terminated, and the running jobs will
be sent a SIGHUP signal, if the HUP option is set.
To avoid having the shell terminate the running jobs,
either use the nohup command (see nohup(1)) or the disown
builtin.
SIGNALS
The INT and QUIT signals for an invoked command are
ignored if the command is followed by `&' and the MONITOR
option is not active. Otherwise, signals have the values
inherited by the shell from its parent (but see the TRAP-
NAL special functions in the section `Functions').
ARITHMETIC EVALUATION
The shell can perform integer and floating point arith-
metic, either using the builtin let, or via a substitution
of the form $((...)). For integers, the shell is usually
compiled to use 8-byte precision where this is available,
otherwise precision is 4 bytes. This can be tested, for
example, by giving the command `print - $(( 12345678901
))'; if the number appears unchanged, the precision is at
least 8 bytes. Floating point arithmetic is always double
precision.
The let builtin command takes arithmetic expressions as
arguments; each is evaluated separately. Since many of
the arithmetic operators, as well as spaces, require quot-
ing, an alternative form is provided: for any command
which begins with a `((', all the characters until a
matching `))' are treated as a quoted expression and
arithmetic expansion performed as for an argument of let.
More precisely, `((...))' is equivalent to `let "..."'.
For example, the following statement
(( val = 2 + 1 ))
is equivalent to
let "val = 2 + 1"
both assigning the value 3 to the shell variable val and
returning a zero status.
Integers can be in bases other than 10. A leading `0x' or
`0X' denotes hexadecimal. Integers may also be of the
form `base#n', where base is a decimal number between two
and thirty-six representing the arithmetic base and n is a
number in that base (for example, `16#ff' is 255 in hex-
adecimal). The base# may also be omitted, in which case
base 10 is used. For backwards compatibility the form
`[base]n' is also accepted.
It is also possible to specify a base to be used for out-
put in the form `[#base]', for example `[#16]'. This is
used when outputting arithmetical substitutions or when
assigning to scalar parameters, but an explicitly defined
integer or floating point parameter will not be affected.
If an integer variable is implicitly defined by an arith-
metic expression, any base specified in this way will be
set as the variable's output arithmetic base as if the
option `-i base' to the typeset builtin had been used.
The expression has no precedence and if it occurs more
than once in a mathematical expression, the last encoun-
tered is used. For clarity it is recommended that it
appear at the beginning of an expression. As an example:
typeset -i 16 y
print $(( [#8] x = 32, y = 32 ))
print $x $y
outputs first `8#40', the rightmost value in the given
output base, and then `8#40 16#20', because y has been
explicitly declared to have output base 16, while x
(assuming it does not already exist) is implicitly typed
by the arithmetic evaluation, where it acquires the output
base 8.
If the C_BASES option is set, 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 output of bases other than hexadeci-
mal and octal, and these formats are always understood on
input.
When an output base is specified using the `[#base]' syn-
tax, an appropriate base prefix will be output if neces-
sary, so that the value output is valid syntax for input.
If the # is doubled, for example `[##16]', then no base
prefix is output.
Floating point constants are recognized by the presence of
a decimal point or an exponent. The decimal point may be
the first character of the constant, but the exponent
character e or E may not, as it will be taken for a param-
eter name.
An arithmetic expression uses nearly the same syntax,
precedence, and associativity of expressions in C. The
following operators are supported (listed in decreasing
order of precedence):
+ - ! ~ ++ --
unary plus/minus, logical NOT, complement,
{pre,post}{in,de}crement
<< >> bitwise shift left, right
& bitwise AND
^ bitwise XOR
| bitwise OR
** exponentiation
* / % multiplication, division, modulus (remainder)
+ - addition, subtraction
< > <= >=
comparison
== != equality and inequality
&& logical AND
|| ^^ logical OR, XOR
? : ternary operator
= += -= *= /= %= &= ^= |= <<= >>= &&= ||= ^^= **=
assignment
, comma operator
The operators `&&', `||', `&&=', and `||=' are short-cir-
cuiting, and only one of the latter two expressions in a
ternary operator is evaluated. Note the precedence of the
bitwise AND, OR, and XOR operators.
Mathematical functions can be called with the syntax
`func(args)', where the function decides if the args is
used as a string or a comma-separated list of arithmetic
expressions. The shell currently defines no mathematical
functions by default, but the module zsh/mathfunc may be
loaded with the zmodload builtin to provide standard
floating point mathematical functions.
An expression of the form `##x' where x is any character
sequence such as `a', `^A', or `\M-\C-x' gives the ASCII
value of this character and an expression of the form
`#foo' gives the ASCII value of the first character of the
value of the parameter foo. Note that this is different
from the expression `$#foo', a standard parameter substi-
tution which gives the length of the parameter foo. `#\'
is accepted instead of `##', but its use is deprecated.
Named parameters and subscripted arrays can be referenced
by name within an arithmetic expression without using the
parameter expansion syntax. For example,
((val2 = val1 * 2))
assigns twice the value of $val1 to the parameter named
val2.
An internal integer representation of a named parameter
can be specified with the integer builtin. Arithmetic
evaluation is performed on the value of each assignment to
a named parameter declared integer in this manner.
Assigning a floating point number to an integer results in
rounding down to the next integer.
Likewise, floating point numbers can be declared with the
float builtin; there are two types, differing only in
their output format, as described for the typeset builtin.
The output format can be bypassed by using arithmetic sub-
stitution instead of the parameter substitution, i.e.
`${float}' uses the defined format, but `$((float))' uses
a generic floating point format.
Promotion of integer to floating point values is performed
where necessary. In addition, if any operator which
requires an integer (`~', `&', `|', `^', `%', `<<', `>>'
and their equivalents with assignment) is given a floating
point argument, it will be silently rounded down to the
next integer.
Scalar variables can hold integer or floating point values
at different times; there is no memory of the numeric type
in this case.
If a variable is first assigned in a numeric context with-
out previously being declared, it will be implicitly typed
as integer or float and retain that type either until the
type is explicitly changed or until the end of the scope.
This can have unforeseen consequences. For example, in
the loop
for (( f = 0; f < 1; f += 0.1 )); do
# use $f
done
if f has not already been declared, the first assignment
will cause it to be created as an integer, and conse-
quently the operation `f += 0.1' will always cause the
result to be truncated to zero, so that the loop will
fail. A simple fix would be to turn the initialization
into `f = 0.0'. It is therefore best to declare numeric
variables with explicit types.
CONDITIONAL EXPRESSIONS
A conditional expression is used with the [[ compound com-
mand to test attributes of files and to compare strings.
Each expression can be constructed from one or more of the
following unary or binary expressions:
-a file
true if file exists.
-b file
true if file exists and is a block special file.
-c file
true if file exists and is a character special
file.
-d file
true if file exists and is a directory.
-e file
true if file exists.
-f file
true if file exists and is a regular file.
-g file
true if file exists and has its setgid bit set.
-h file
true if file exists and is a symbolic link.
-k file
true if file exists and has its sticky bit set.
-n string
true if length of string is non-zero.
-o option
true if option named option is on. option may be a
single character, in which case it is a single let-
ter option name. (See the section `Specifying
Options'.)
-p file
true if file exists and is a FIFO special file
(named pipe).
-r file
true if file exists and is readable by current pro-
cess.
-s file
true if file exists and has size greater than zero.
-t fd true if file descriptor number fd is open and asso-
ciated with a terminal device. (note: fd is not
optional)
-u file
true if file exists and has its setuid bit set.
-w file
true if file exists and is writable by current pro-
cess.
-x file
true if file exists and is executable by current
process. If file exists and is a directory, then
the current process has permission to search in the
directory.
-z string
true if length of string is zero.
-L file
true if file exists and is a symbolic link.
-O file
true if file exists and is owned by the effective
user ID of this process.
-G file
true if file exists and its group matches the
effective group ID of this process.
-S file
true if file exists and is a socket.
-N file
true if file exists and its access time is not
newer than its modification time.
file1 -nt file2
true if file1 exists and is newer than file2.
file1 -ot file2
true if file1 exists and is older than file2.
file1 -ef file2
true if file1 and file2 exist and refer to the same
file.
string = pattern
string == pattern
true if string matches pattern. The `==' form is
the preferred one. The `=' form is for backward
compatibility and should be considered obsolete.
string != pattern
true if string does not match pattern.
string1 < string2
true if string1 comes before string2 based on ASCII
value of their characters.
string1 > string2
true if string1 comes after string2 based on ASCII
value of their characters.
exp1 -eq exp2
true if exp1 is numerically equal to exp2.
exp1 -ne exp2
true if exp1 is numerically not equal to exp2.
exp1 -lt exp2
true if exp1 is numerically less than exp2.
exp1 -gt exp2
true if exp1 is numerically greater than exp2.
exp1 -le exp2
true if exp1 is numerically less than or equal to
exp2.
exp1 -ge exp2
true if exp1 is numerically greater than or equal
to exp2.
( exp )
true if exp is true.
! exp true if exp is false.
exp1 && exp2
true if exp1 and exp2 are both true.
exp1 || exp2
true if either exp1 or exp2 is true.
Normal shell expansion is performed on the file, string
and pattern arguments, but the result of each expansion is
constrained to be a single word, similar to the effect of
double quotes. However, pattern metacharacters are active
for the pattern arguments; the patterns are the same as
those used for filename generation, see zshexpn(1), but
there is no special behaviour of `/' nor initial dots, and
no glob qualifiers are allowed.
In each of the above expressions, if file is of the form
`/dev/fd/n', where n is an integer, then the test applied
to the open file whose descriptor number is n, even if the
underlying system does not support the /dev/fd directory.
In the forms which do numeric comparison, the expressions
exp undergo arithmetic expansion as if they were enclosed
in $((...)).
For example, the following:
[[ ( -f foo || -f bar ) && $report = y* ]] && print File exists.
tests if either file foo or file bar exists, and if so, if
the value of the parameter report begins with `y'; if the
complete condition is true, the message `File exists.' is
printed.
PROMPT EXPANSION
Prompt sequences undergo a special form of expansion.
This type of expansion is also available using the -P
option to the print builtin.
If the PROMPT_SUBST option is set, the prompt string is
first subjected to parameter expansion, command substitu-
tion and arithmetic expansion. See zshexpn(1).
Certain escape sequences may be recognised in the prompt
string.
If the PROMPT_BANG option is set, a `!' in the prompt is
replaced by the current history event number. A literal
`!' may then be represented as `!!'.
If the PROMPT_PERCENT option is set, certain escape
sequences that start with `%' are expanded. Some escapes
take an optional integer argument, which should appear
between the `%' and the next character of the sequence.
The following escape sequences are recognized:
Special characters
%% A `%'.
%) A `)'.
Login information
%l The line (tty) the user is logged in on, without
`/dev/' prefix. If the name starts with
`/dev/tty', that prefix is stripped.
%M The full machine hostname.
%m The hostname up to the first `.'. An integer may
follow the `%' to specify how many components of
the hostname are desired. With a negative integer,
trailing components of the hostname are shown.
%n $USERNAME.
%y The line (tty) the user is logged in on, without
`/dev/' prefix. This does not treat `/dev/tty'
names specially.
Shell state
%# A `#' if the shell is running with privileges, a
`%' if not. Equivalent to `%(!.#.%%)'. The defi-
nition of `privileged', for these purposes, is that
either the effective user ID is zero, or, if
POSIX.1e capabilities are supported, that at least
one capability is raised in either the Effective or
Inheritable capability vectors.
%? The return code of the last command executed just
before the prompt.
%_ The status of the parser, i.e. the shell constructs
(like `if' and `for') that have been started on the
command line. If given an integer number that many
strings will be printed; zero or negative or no
integer means print as many as there are. This is
most useful in prompts PS2 for continuation lines
and PS4 for debugging with the XTRACE option; in
the latter case it will also work non-interac-
tively.
%d
%/ Present working directory ($PWD). If an integer
follows the `%', it specifies a number of trailing
components of $PWD to show; zero means the whole
path. A negative integer specifies leading compo-
nents, i.e. %-1d specifies the first component.
%~ As %d and %/, but if $PWD has a named directory as
its prefix, that part is replaced by a `~' followed
by the name of the directory. If it starts with
$HOME, that part is replaced by a `~'.
%h
%! Current history event number.
%i The line number currently being executed in the
script, sourced file, or shell function given by
%N. This is most useful for debugging as part of
$PS4.
%j The number of jobs.
%L The current value of $SHLVL.
%N The name of the script, sourced file, or shell
function that zsh is currently executing, whichever
was started most recently. If there is none, this
is equivalent to the parameter $0. An integer may
follow the `%' to specify a number of trailing path
components to show; zero means the full path. A
negative integer specifies leading components.
%c
%.
%C Trailing component of $PWD. An integer may follow
the `%' to get more than one component. Unless
`%C' is used, tilde contraction is performed first.
These are deprecated as %c and %C are equivalent to
%1~ and %1/, respectively, while explicit positive
integers have the same effect as for the latter two
sequences.
Date and time
%D The date in yy-mm-dd format.
%T Current time of day, in 24-hour format.
%t
%@ Current time of day, in 12-hour, am/pm format.
%* Current time of day in 24-hour format, with sec-
onds.
%w The date in day-dd format.
%W The date in mm/dd/yy format.
%D{string}
string is formatted using the strftime function.
See strftime(3) for more details. Three additional
codes are available: %f prints the day of the
month, like %e but without any preceding space if
the day is a single digit, and %K/%L correspond to
%k/%l for the hour of the day (24/12 hour clock) in
the same way.
Visual effects
%B (%b)
Start (stop) boldface mode.
%E Clear to end of line.
%U (%u)
Start (stop) underline mode.
%S (%s)
Start (stop) standout mode.
%{...%}
Include a string as a literal escape sequence. The
string within the braces should not change the cur-
sor position. Brace pairs can nest.
Conditional substrings
%v The value of the first element of the psvar array
parameter. Following the `%' with an integer gives
that element of the array. Negative integers count
from the end of the array.
%(x.true-text.false-text)
Specifies a ternary expression. The character fol-
lowing the x is arbitrary; the same character is
used to separate the text for the `true' result
from that for the `false' result. This separator
may not appear in the true-text, except as part of
a %-escape sequence. A `)' may appear in the
false-text as `%)'. true-text and false-text may
both contain arbitrarily-nested escape sequences,
including further ternary expressions.
The left parenthesis may be preceded or followed by
a positive integer n, which defaults to zero. A
negative integer will be multiplied by -1. The
test character x may be any of the following:
! True if the shell is running with privi-
leges.
# True if the effective uid of the current
process is n.
? True if the exit status of the last command
was n.
_ True if at least n shell constructs were
started.
C
/ True if the current absolute path has at
least n elements relative to the root direc-
tory, hence / is counted as 0 elements.
c
.
~ True if the current path, with prefix
replacement, has at least n elements rela-
tive to the root directory, hence / is
counted as 0 elements.
D True if the month is equal to n (January =
0).
d True if the day of the month is equal to n.
g True if the effective gid of the current
process is n.
j True if the number of jobs is at least n.
L True if the SHLVL parameter is at least n.
l True if at least n characters have already
been printed on the current line.
S True if the SECONDS parameter is at least n.
T True if the time in hours is equal to n.
t True if the time in minutes is equal to n.
v True if the array psvar has at least n ele-
ments.
w True if the day of the week is equal to n
(Sunday = 0).
%string>
%[xstring]
Specifies truncation behaviour for the remainder of
the prompt string. The third, deprecated, form is
equivalent to `%xstringx', i.e. x may be `<' or
`>'. The numeric argument, which in the third form
may appear immediately after the `[', specifies the
maximum permitted length of the various strings
that can be displayed in the prompt. The string
will be displayed in place of the truncated portion
of any string; note this does not undergo prompt
expansion.
The forms with `<' truncate at the left of the
string, and the forms with `>' truncate at the
right of the string. For example, if the current
directory is `/home/pike', the prompt `%8<..<%/'
will expand to `..e/pike'. In this string, the
terminating character (`<', `>' or `]'), or in fact
any character, may be quoted by a preceding `\';
note when using print -P, however, that this must
be doubled as the string is also subject to stan-
dard print processing, in addition to any back-
slashes removed by a double quoted string: the
worst case is therefore `print -P "%<\\\\<<..."'.
If the string is longer than the specified trunca-
tion length, it will appear in full, completely
replacing the truncated string.
The part of the prompt string to be truncated runs
to the end of the string, or to the end of the next
enclosing group of the `%(' construct, or to the
next truncation encountered at the same grouping
level (i.e. truncations inside a `%(' are sepa-
rate), which ever comes first. In particular, a
truncation with argument zero (e.g. `%<<') marks
the end of the range of the string to be truncated
while turning off truncation from there on. For
example, the prompt '%10<...<%~%<<%# ' will print a
truncated representation of the current directory,
followed by a `%' or `#', followed by a space.
Without the `%<<', those two characters would be
included in the string to be truncated.
ZSHEXPN(1) ZSHEXPN(1)
NAME
zshexpn - zsh expansion and substitution
DESCRIPTION
The following types of expansions are performed in the
indicated order in five steps:
History Expansion
This is performed only in interactive shells.
Alias Expansion
Aliases are expanded immediately before the command
line is parsed as explained under Aliasing in zsh-
misc(1).
Process Substitution
Parameter Expansion
Command Substitution
Arithmetic Expansion
Brace Expansion
These five are performed in one step in
left-to-right fashion. After these expansions, all
unquoted occurrences of the characters `\', `'' and
`"' are removed.
Filename Expansion
If the SH_FILE_EXPANSION option is set, the order
of expansion is modified for compatibility with sh
and ksh. In that case filename expansion is per-
formed immediately after alias expansion, preceding
the set of five expansions mentioned above.
Filename Generation
This expansion, commonly referred to as globbing,
is always done last.
The following sections explain the types of expansion in
detail.
HISTORY EXPANSION
History expansion allows you to use words from previous
command lines in the command line you are typing. This
simplifies spelling corrections and the repetition of com-
plicated commands or arguments. Immediately before execu-
tion, each command is saved in the history list, the size
of which is controlled by the HISTSIZE parameter. The one
most recent command is always retained in any case. Each
saved command in the history list is called a history
event and is assigned a number, beginning with 1 (one)
when the shell starts up. The history number that you may
see in your prompt (see Prompt Expansion in zshmisc(1)) is
the number that is to be assigned to the next command.
Overview
A history expansion begins with the first character of the
histchars parameter, which is `!' by default, and may
occur anywhere on the command line; history expansions do
not nest. The `!' can be escaped with `\' or can be
enclosed between a pair of single quotes ('') to suppress
its special meaning. Double quotes will not work for
this. Following this history character is an optional
event designator (see the section `Event Designators') and
then an optional word designator (the section `Word Desig-
nators'); if neither of these designators is present, no
history expansion occurs.
Input lines containing history expansions are echoed after
being expanded, but before any other expansions take place
and before the command is executed. It is this expanded
form that is recorded as the history event for later ref-
erences.
By default, a history reference with no event designator
refers to the same event as any preceding history refer-
ence on that command line; if it is the only history ref-
erence in a command, it refers to the previous command.
However, if the option CSH_JUNKIE_HISTORY is set, then
every history reference with no event specification always
refers to the previous command.
For example, `!' is the event designator for the previous
command, so `!!:1' always refers to the first word of the
previous command, and `!!$' always refers to the last word
of the previous command. With CSH_JUNKIE_HISTORY set,
then `!:1' and `!$' function in the same manner as `!!:1'
and `!!$', respectively. Conversely, if CSH_JUNKIE_HIS-
TORY is unset, then `!:1' and `!$' refer to the first and
last words, respectively, of the same event referenced by
the nearest other history reference preceding them on the
current command line, or to the previous command if there
is no preceding reference.
The character sequence `^foo^bar' (where `^' is actually
the second character of the histchars parameter) repeats
the last command, replacing the string foo with bar. More
precisely, the sequence `^foo^bar^' is synonymous with
`!!:s^foo^bar^', hence other modifiers (see the section
`Modifiers') may follow the final `^'.
If the shell encounters the character sequence `!"' in
the input, the history mechanism is temporarily disabled
until the current list (see zshmisc(1)) is fully parsed.
The `!"' is removed from the input, and any subsequent `!'
characters have no special significance.
A less convenient but more comprehensible form of command
history support is provided by the fc builtin.
Event Designators
An event designator is a reference to a command-line entry
in the history list. In the list below, remember that the
initial `!' in each item may be changed to another charac-
ter by setting the histchars parameter.
! Start a history expansion, except when followed by
a blank, newline, `=' or `('. If followed immedi-
ately by a word designator (see the section `Word
Designators'), this forms a history reference with
no event designator (see the section `Overview').
!! Refer to the previous command. By itself, this
expansion repeats the previous command.
!n Refer to command-line n.
!-n Refer to the current command-line minus n.
!str Refer to the most recent command starting with str.
!?str[?]
Refer to the most recent command containing str.
The trailing `?' is necessary if this reference is
to be followed by a modifier or followed by any
text that is not to be considered part of str.
!# Refer to the current command line typed in so far.
The line is treated as if it were complete up to
and including the word before the one with the `!#'
reference.
!{...} Insulate a history reference from adjacent charac-
ters (if necessary).
Word Designators
A word designator indicates which word or words of a given
command line are to be included in a history reference. A
`:' usually separates the event specification from the
word designator. It may be omitted only if the word des-
ignator begins with a `^', `$', `*', `-' or `%'. Word
designators include:
0 The first input word (command).
n The nth argument.
^ The first argument. That is, 1.
$ The last argument.
% The word matched by (the most recent) ?str search.
x-y A range of words; x defaults to 0.
* All the arguments, or a null value if there are
none.
x* Abbreviates `x-$'.
x- Like `x*' but omitting word $.
Note that a `%' word designator works only when used in
one of `!%', `!:%' or `!?str?:%', and only when used after
a !? expansion (possibly in an earlier command). Anything
else results in an error, although the error may not be
the most obvious one.
Modifiers
After the optional word designator, you can add a sequence
of one or more of the following modifiers, each preceded
by a `:'. These modifiers also work on the result of
filename generation and parameter expansion, except where
noted.
h Remove a trailing pathname component, leaving the
head. This works like `dirname'.
r Remove a filename extension of the form `.xxx',
leaving the root name.
e Remove all but the extension.
t Remove all leading pathname components, leaving the
tail. This works like `basename'.
p Print the new command but do not execute it. Only
works with history expansion.
q Quote the substituted words, escaping further sub-
stitutions. Works with history expansion and
parameter expansion, though for parameters it is
only useful if the resulting text is to be re-eval-
uated such as by eval.
Q Remove one level of quotes from the substituted
words.
x Like q, but break into words at whitespace. Does
not work with parameter expansion.
l Convert the words to all lowercase.
u Convert the words to all uppercase.
s/l/r[/]
Substitute r for l as described below. Unless pre-
ceded immediately by a g, with no colon between,
the substitution is done only for the first string
that matches l. For arrays and for filename gener-
ation, this applies to each word of the expanded
text.
& Repeat the previous s substitution. Like s, may be
preceded immediately by a g. In parameter expan-
sion the & must appear inside braces, and in file-
name generation it must be quoted with a backslash.
The s/l/r/ substitution works as follows. The left-hand
side of substitutions are not regular expressions, but
character strings. Any character can be used as the
delimiter in place of `/'. A backslash quotes the delim-
iter character. The character `&', in the right-hand-side
r, is replaced by the text from the left-hand-side l. The
`&' can be quoted with a backslash. A null l uses the
previous string either from the previous l or from the
contextual scan string s from `!?s'. You can omit the
rightmost delimiter if a newline immediately follows r;
the rightmost `?' in a context scan can similarly be omit-
ted. Note the same record of the last l and r is main-
tained across all forms of expansion.
The following f, F, w and W modifiers work only with
parameter expansion and filename generation. They are
listed here to provide a single point of reference for all
modifiers.
f Repeats the immediately (without a colon) following
modifier until the resulting word doesn't change
any more.
F:expr:
Like f, but repeats only n times if the expression
expr evaluates to n. Any character can be used
instead of the `:'; if `(', `[', or `{' is used as
the opening delimiter, the closing delimiter should
be ')', `]', or `}', respectively.
w Makes the immediately following modifier work on
each word in the string.
W:sep: Like w but words are considered to be the parts of
the string that are separated by sep. Any character
can be used instead of the `:'; opening parentheses
are handled specially, see above.
PROCESS SUBSTITUTION
Each command argument of the form `<(list)', `>(list)' or
`=(list)' is subject to process substitution. In the case
of the < or > forms, the shell runs process list asyn-
chronously. If the system supports the /dev/fd mechanism,
the command argument is the name of the device file corre-
sponding to a file descriptor; otherwise, if the system
supports named pipes (FIFOs), the command argument will be
a named pipe. If the form with > is selected then writing
on this special file will provide input for list. If < is
used, then the file passed as an argument will be con-
nected to the output of the list process. For example,
paste <(cut -f1 file1) <(cut -f3 file2) |
tee >(process1) >(process2) >/dev/null
cuts fields 1 and 3 from the files file1 and file2 respec-
tively, pastes the results together, and sends it to the
processes process1 and process2.
If =(...) is used instead of <(...), then the file passed
as an argument will be the name of a temporary file con-
taining the output of the list process. This may be used
instead of the < form for a program that expects to lseek
(see lseek(2)) on the input file.
The = form is useful as both the /dev/fd and the named
pipe implementation of <(...) have drawbacks. In the for-
mer case, some programmes may automatically close the file
descriptor in question before examining the file on the
command line, particularly if this is necessary for secu-
rity reasons such as when the programme is running setuid.
In the second case, if the programme does not actually
open the file, the subshell attempting to read from or
write to the pipe will (in a typical implementation, dif-
ferent operating systems may have different behaviour)
block for ever and have to be killed explicitly. In both
cases, the shell actually supplies the information using a
pipe, so that programmes that expect to lseek (see
lseek(2)) on the file will not work.
Also note that the previous example can be more compactly
and efficiently written (provided the MULTIOS option is
set) as:
paste <(cut -f1 file1) <(cut -f3 file2) \
> >(process1) > >(process2)
The shell uses pipes instead of FIFOs to implement the
latter two process substitutions in the above example.
There is an additional problem with >(process); when this
is attached to an external command, the parent shell does
not wait for process to finish and hence an immediately
following command cannot rely on the results being com-
plete. The problem and solution are the same as described
in the section MULTIOS in zshmisc(1). Hence in a simpli-
fied version of the example above:
paste <(cut -f1 file1) <(cut -f3 file2) > >(process)
(note that no MULTIOS are involved), process will be run
asynchronously. The workaround is:
{ paste <(cut -f1 file1) <(cut -f3 file2) } > >(process)
The extra processes here are spawned from the parent shell
which will wait for their completion.
PARAMETER EXPANSION
The character `$' is used to introduce parameter expan-
sions. See zshparam(1) for a description of parameters,
including arrays, associative arrays, and subscript nota-
tion to access individual array elements.
Note in particular the fact that words of unquoted parame-
ters are not automatically split on whitespace unless the
option SH_WORD_SPLIT is set; see references to this option
below for more details. This is an important difference
from other shells.
In the expansions discussed below that require a pattern,
the form of the pattern is the same as that used for file-
name generation; see the section `Filename Generation'.
Note that these patterns, along with the replacement text
of any substitutions, are themselves subject to parameter
expansion, command substitution, and arithmetic expansion.
In addition to the following operations, the colon modi-
fiers described in the section `Modifiers' in the section
`History Expansion' can be applied: for example,
${i:s/foo/bar/} performs string substitution on the expan-
sion of parameter $i.
${name}
The value, if any, of the parameter name is substi-
tuted. The braces are required if the expansion is
to be followed by a letter, digit, or underscore
that is not to be interpreted as part of name. In
addition, more complicated forms of substitution
usually require the braces to be present; excep-
tions, which only apply if the option KSH_ARRAYS is
not set, are a single subscript or any colon modi-
fiers appearing after the name, or any of the char-
acters `^', `=', `~', `#' or `+' appearing before
the name, all of which work with or without braces.
If name is an array parameter, and the KSH_ARRAYS
option is not set, then the value of each element
of name is substituted, one element per word. Oth-
erwise, the expansion results in one word only;
with KSH_ARRAYS, this is the first element of an
array. No field splitting is done on the result
unless the SH_WORD_SPLIT option is set.
${+name}
If name is the name of a set parameter `1' is sub-
stituted, otherwise `0' is substituted.
${name:-word}
If name is set and is non-null then substitute its
value; otherwise substitute word. If name is miss-
ing, substitute word.
${name:=word}
${name::=word}
In the first form, if name is unset or is null then
set it to word; in the second form, unconditionally
set name to word. In both forms, the value of the
parameter is then substituted.
${name:?word}
If name is set and is non-null then substitute its
value; otherwise, print word and exit from the
shell. Interactive shells instead return to the
prompt. If word is omitted, then a standard mes-
sage is printed.
${name:+word}
If name is set and is non-null then substitute
word; otherwise substitute nothing.
If the colon is omitted from one of the above expressions
containing a colon, then the shell only checks whether
name is set, not whether its value is null.
In the following expressions, when name is an array and
the substitution is not quoted, or if the `(@)' flag or
the name[@] syntax is used, matching and replacement is
performed on each array element separately.
${name#pattern}
${name##pattern}
If the pattern matches the beginning of the value
of name, then substitute the value of name with the
matched portion deleted; otherwise, just substitute
the value of name. In the first form, the smallest
matching pattern is preferred; in the second form,
the largest matching pattern is preferred.
${name%pattern}
${name%%pattern}
If the pattern matches the end of the value of
name, then substitute the value of name with the
matched portion deleted; otherwise, just substitute
the value of name. In the first form, the smallest
matching pattern is preferred; in the second form,
the largest matching pattern is preferred.
${name:#pattern}
If the pattern matches the value of name, then sub-
stitute the empty string; otherwise, just substi-
tute the value of name. If name is an array the
matching array elements are removed (use the `(M)'
flag to remove the non-matched elements).
${name/pattern/repl}
${name//pattern/repl}
Replace the longest possible match of pattern in
the expansion of parameter name by string repl.
The first form replaces just the first occurrence,
the second form all occurrences. Both pattern and
repl are subject to double-quoted substitution, so
that expressions like ${name/$opat/$npat} will
work, but note the usual rule that pattern charac-
ters in $opat are not treated specially unless
either the option GLOB_SUBST is set, or $opat is
instead substituted as ${~opat}.
The pattern may begin with a `#', in which case the
pattern must match at the start of the string, or
`%', in which case it must match at the end of the
string. The repl may be an empty string, in which
case the final `/' may also be omitted. To quote
the final `/' in other cases it should be preceded
by a single backslash; this is not necessary if the
`/' occurs inside a substituted parameter. Note
also that the `#' and `%' are not active if they
occur inside a substituted parameter, even at the
start.
The first `/' may be preceded by a `:', in which
case the match will only succeed if it matches the
entire word. Note also the effect of the I and S
parameter expansion flags below; however, the flags
M, R, B, E and N are not useful.
For example,
foo="twinkle twinkle little star" sub="t*e" rep="spy"
print ${foo//${~sub}/$rep}
print ${(S)foo//${~sub}/$rep}
Here, the `~' ensures that the text of $sub is
treated as a pattern rather than a plain string.
In the first case, the longest match for t*e is
substituted and the result is `spy star', while in
the second case, the shortest matches are taken and
the result is `spy spy lispy star'.
${#spec}
If spec is one of the above substitutions, substi-
tute the length in characters of the result instead
of the result itself. If spec is an array expres-
sion, substitute the number of elements of the
result. Note that `^', `=', and `~', below, must
appear to the left of `#' when these forms are com-
bined.
${^spec}
Turn on the RC_EXPAND_PARAM option for the evalua-
tion of spec; if the `^' is doubled, turn it off.
When this option is set, array expansions of the
form foo${xx}bar, where the parameter xx is set to
(a b c), are substituted with `fooabar foobbar
foocbar' instead of the default `fooa b cbar'.
Internally, each such expansion is converted into
the equivalent list for brace expansion. E.g.,
${^var} becomes {$var[1],$var[2],...}, and is pro-
cessed as described in the section `Brace Expan-
sion' below. If word splitting is also in effect
the $var[N] may themselves be split into different
list elements.
${=spec}
Perform word splitting using the rules for
SH_WORD_SPLIT during the evaluation of spec, but
regardless of whether the parameter appears in dou-
ble quotes; if the `=' is doubled, turn it off.
This forces parameter expansions to be split into
separate words before substitution, using IFS as a
delimiter. This is done by default in most other
shells.
Note that splitting is applied to word in the
assignment forms of spec before the assignment to
name is performed. This affects the result of
array assignments with the A flag.
${~spec}
Turn on the GLOB_SUBST option for the evaluation of
spec; if the `~' is doubled, turn it off. When
this option is set, the string resulting from the
expansion will be interpreted as a pattern anywhere
that is possible, such as in filename expansion and
filename generation and pattern-matching contexts
like the right hand side of the `=' and `!=' opera-
tors in conditions.
If a ${...} type parameter expression or a $(...) type
command substitution is used in place of name above, it is
expanded first and the result is used as if it were the
value of name. Thus it is possible to perform nested
operations: ${${foo#head}%tail} substitutes the value of
$foo with both `head' and `tail' deleted. The form with
$(...) is often useful in combination with the flags
described next; see the examples below. Each name or
nested ${...} in a parameter expansion may also be fol-
lowed by a subscript expression as described in Array
Parameters in zshparam(1).
Note that double quotes may appear around nested expres-
sions, in which case only the part inside is treated as
quoted; for example, ${(f)"$(foo)"} quotes the result of
$(foo), but the flag `(f)' (see below) is applied using
the rules for unquoted expansions. Note further that
quotes are themselves nested in this context; for example,
in "${(@f)"$(foo)"}", there are two sets of quotes, one
surrounding the whole expression, the other (redundant)
surrounding the $(foo) as before.
Parameter Expansion Flags
If the opening brace is directly followed by an opening
parenthesis, the string up to the matching closing paren-
thesis will be taken as a list of flags. In cases where
repeating a flag is meaningful, the repetitions need not
be consecutive; for example, `(q%q%q)' means the same
thing as the more readable `(%%qqq)'. The following flags
are supported:
% Expand all % escapes in the resulting words in the
same way as in in prompts (see the section `Prompt
Expansion'). If this flag is given twice, full
prompt expansion is done on the resulting words,
depending on the setting of the PROMPT_PERCENT,
PROMPT_SUBST and PROMPT_BANG options.
@ In double quotes, array elements are put into sepa-
rate words. E.g., `"${(@)foo}"' is equivalent to
`"${foo[@]}"' and `"${(@)foo[1,2]}"' is the same as
`"$foo[1]" "$foo[2]"'. This is distinct from field
splitting by the the f, s or z flags, which still
applies within each array element.
A Create an array parameter with `${...=...}',
`${...:=...}' or `${...::=...}'. If this flag is
repeated (as in `AA'), create an associative array
parameter. Assignment is made before sorting or
padding. The name part may be a subscripted range
for ordinary arrays; the word part must be con-
verted to an array, for example by using
`${(AA)=name=...}' to activate field splitting,
when creating an associative array.
a With o or O, sort in array index order. Note that
`oa' is therefore equivalent to the default but
`Oa' is useful for obtaining an array's elements in
reverse order.
c With ${#name}, count the total number of characters
in an array, as if the elements were concatenated
with spaces between them.
C Capitalize the resulting words. `Words' in this
case refers to sequences of alphanumeric characters
separated by non-alphanumerics, not to words that
result from field splitting.
e Perform parameter expansion, command substitution
and arithmetic expansion on the result. Such expan-
sions can be nested but too deep recursion may have
unpredictable effects.
f Split the result of the expansion to lines. This is
a shorthand for `ps:\n:'.
F Join the words of arrays together using newline as
a separator. This is a shorthand for `pj:\n:'.
i With o or O, sort case-independently.
k If name refers to an associative array, substitute
the keys (element names) rather than the values of
the elements. Used with subscripts (including
ordinary arrays), force indices or keys to be sub-
stituted even if the subscript form refers to val-
ues. However, this flag may not be combined with
subscript ranges.
L Convert all letters in the result to lower case.
n With o or O, sort numerically.
o Sort the resulting words in ascending order.
O Sort the resulting words in descending order.
P This forces the value of the parameter name to be
interpreted as a further parameter name, whose
value will be used where appropriate. If used with
a nested parameter or command substitution, the
result of that will be taken as a parameter name in
the same way. For example, if you have `foo=bar'
and `bar=baz', the strings ${(P)foo}, ${(P)${foo}},
and ${(P)$(echo bar)} will be expanded to `baz'.
q Quote the resulting words with backslashes. If this
flag is given twice, the resulting words are quoted
in single quotes and if it is given three times,
the words are quoted in double quotes. If it is
given four times, the words are quoted in single
quotes preceded by a $.
Q Remove one level of quotes from the resulting
words.
t Use a string describing the type of the parameter
where the value of the parameter would usually
appear. This string consists of keywords separated
by hyphens (`-'). The first keyword in the string
describes the main type, it can be one of `scalar',
`array', `integer', `float' or `association'. The
other keywords describe the type in more detail:
local for local parameters
left for left justified parameters
right_blanks
for right justified parameters with leading
blanks
right_zeros
for right justified parameters with leading
zeros
lower for parameters whose value is converted to
all lower case when it is expanded
upper for parameters whose value is converted to
all upper case when it is expanded
readonly
for readonly parameters
tag for tagged parameters
export for exported parameters
unique for arrays which keep only the first occur-
rence of duplicated values
hide for parameters with the `hide' flag
special
for special parameters defined by the shell
u Expand only the first occurrence of each unique
word.
U Convert all letters in the result to upper case.
v Used with k, substitute (as two consecutive words)
both the key and the value of each associative
array element. Used with subscripts, force values
to be substituted even if the subscript form refers
to indices or keys.
V Make any special characters in the resulting words
visible.
w With ${#name}, count words in arrays or strings;
the s flag may be used to set a word delimiter.
W Similar to w with the difference that empty words
between repeated delimiters are also counted.
X With this flag parsing errors occurring with the Q
and e flags or the pattern matching forms such as
`${name#pattern}' are reported. Without the flag
they are silently ignored.
z Split the result of the expansion into words using
shell parsing to find the words, i.e. taking into
account any quoting in the value.
Note that this is done very late, as for the `(s)'
flag. So to access single words in the result, one
has to use nested expansions as in
`${${(z)foo}[2]}'. Likewise, to remove the quotes
in the resulting words one would do:
`${(Q)${(z)foo}}'.
The following flags (except p) are followed by one or more
arguments as shown. Any character, or the matching pairs
`(...)', `{...}', `[...]', or `<...>', may be used in
place of a colon as delimiters, but note that when a flag
takes more than one argument, a matched pair of delimiters
must surround each argument.
p Recognize the same escape sequences as the print
builtin in string arguments to any of the flags
described below.
j:string:
Join the words of arrays together using string as a
separator. Note that this occurs before field
splitting by the SH_WORD_SPLIT option.
l:expr::string1::string2:
Pad the resulting words on the left. Each word
will be truncated if required and placed in a field
expr characters wide. The space to the left will
be filled with string1 (concatenated as often as
needed) or spaces if string1 is not given. If both
string1 and string2 are given, this string is
inserted once directly to the left of each word,
before padding.
r:expr::string1::string2:
As l, but pad the words on the right and insert
string2 on the right.
s:string:
Force field splitting (see the option
SH_WORD_SPLIT) at the separator string. Note that
a string of two or more characters means all must
all match in sequence; this differs from the treat-
ment of two or more characters in the IFS parame-
ter.
The following flags are meaningful with the ${...#...} or
${...%...} forms. The S and I flags may also be used with
the ${.../...} forms.
S Search substrings as well as beginnings or ends;
with # start from the beginning and with % start
from the end of the string. With substitution via
${.../...} or ${...//...}, specifies non-greedy
matching, i.e. that the shortest instead of the
longest match should be replaced.
I:expr:
Search the exprth match (where expr evaluates to a
number). This only applies when searching for sub-
strings, either with the S flag, or with ${.../...}
(only the exprth match is substituted) or
${...//...} (all matches from the exprth on are
substituted). The default is to take the first
match.
The exprth match is counted such that there is
either one or zero matches from each starting posi-
tion in the string, although for global substitu-
tion matches overlapping previous replacements are
ignored. With the ${...%...} and ${...%%...}
forms, the starting position for the match moves
backwards from the end as the index increases,
while with the other forms it moves forward from
the start.
Hence with the string
which switch is the right switch for Ipswich?
substitutions of the form ${(SI:N:)string#w*ch} as
N increases from 1 will match and remove `which',
`witch', `witch' and `wich'; the form using `##'
will match and remove `which switch is the right
switch for Ipswich', `witch is the right switch for
Ipswich', `witch for Ipswich' and `wich'. The form
using `%' will remove the same matches as for `#',
but in reverse order, and the form using `%%' will
remove the same matches as for `##' in reverse
order.
B Include the index of the beginning of the match in
the result.
E Include the index of the end of the match in the
result.
M Include the matched portion in the result.
N Include the length of the match in the result.
R Include the unmatched portion in the result (the
Rest).
Rules
Here is a summary of the rules for substitution; this
assumes that braces are present around the substitution,
i.e. ${...}. Some particular examples are given below.
Note that the Zsh Development Group accepts no responsi-
bility for any brain damage which may occur during the
reading of the following rules.
1. Nested Substitution
If multiple nested ${...} forms are present, sub-
stitution is performed from the inside outwards.
At each level, the substitution takes account of
whether the current value is a scalar or an array,
whether the whole substitution is in double quotes,
and what flags are supplied to the current level of
substitution, just as if the nested substitution
were the outermost. The flags are not propagated
up to enclosing substitutions; the nested substitu-
tion will return either a scalar or an array as
determined by the flags, possibly adjusted for
quoting. All the following steps take place where
applicable at all levels of substitution. Note
that, unless the `(P)' flag is present, the flags
and any subscripts apply directly to the value of
the nested substitution; for example, the expansion
${${foo}} behaves exactly the same as ${foo}.
2. Parameter Subscripting
If the value is a raw parameter reference with a
subscript, such as ${var[3]}, the effect of sub-
scripting is applied directly to the parameter.
Subscripts are evaluated left to right; subsequent
subscripts apply to the scalar or array value
yielded by the previous subscript. Thus if var is
an array, ${var[1][2]} is the second character of
the first word, but ${var[2,4][2]} is the entire
third word (the second word of the range of words
two through four of the original array). Any num-
ber of subscripts may appear.
3. Parameter Name Replacement
The effect of any (P) flag, which treats the value
so far as a parameter name and replaces it with the
corresponding value, is applied.
4. Double-Quoted Joining
If the value after this process is an array, and
the substitution appears in double quotes, and no
(@) flag is present at the current level, the words
of the value are joined with the first character of
the parameter $IFS, by default a space, between
each word (single word arrays are not modified).
If the (j) flag is present, that is used for join-
ing instead of $IFS.
5. Nested Subscripting
Any remaining subscripts (i.e. of a nested substi-
tution) are evaluated at this point, based on
whether the value is an array or a scalar. As with
2., multiple subscripts can appear. Note that
${foo[2,4][2]} is thus equivalent to
${${foo[2,4]}[2]} and also to
"${${(@)foo[2,4]}[2]}" (the nested substitution
returns an array in both cases), but not to
"${${foo[2,4]}[2]}" (the nested substitution
returns a scalar because of the quotes).
6. Modifiers
Any modifiers, as specified by a trailing `#', `%',
`/' (possibly doubled) or by a set of modifiers of
the form :... (see the section `Modifiers' in the
section `History Expansion'), are applied to the
words of the value at this level.
7. Forced Joining
If the `(j)' flag is present, or no `(j)' flag is
present but the string is to be split as given by
rules 8. or 9., and joining did not take place at
step 4., any words in the value are joined together
using the given string or the first character of
$IFS if none. Note that the `(F)' flag implicitly
supplies a string for joining in this manner.
8. Forced Splitting
If one of the `(s)', `(f)' or `(z)' flags are pre-
sent, or the `=' specifier was present (e.g.
${=var}), the word is split on occurrences of the
specified string, or (for = with neither of the two
flags present) any of the characters in $IFS.
9. Shell Word Splitting
If no `(s)', `(f)' or `=' was given, but the word
is not quoted and the option SH_WORD_SPLIT is set,
the word is split on occurrences of any of the
characters in $IFS. Note this step, too, takes
place at all levels of a nested substitution.
10. Uniqueness
If the result is an array and the `(u)' flag was
present, duplicate elements are removed from the
array.
11. Ordering
If the result is still an array and one of the
`(o)' or `(O)' flags was present, the array is
reordered.
12. Re-Evaluation
Any `(e)' flag is applied to the value, forcing it
to be re-examined for new parameter substitutions,
but also for command and arithmetic substitutions.
13. Padding
Any padding of the value by the `(l.fill.)' or
`(r.fill.)' flags is applied.
14. Semantic Joining
In contexts where expansion semantics requires a
single word to result, all words are rejoined with
the first character of IFS between. So in
`${(P)${(f)lines}}' the value of ${lines} is split
at newlines, but then must be joined again before
the P flag can be applied.
If a single word is not required, this rule is
skipped.
Examples
The flag f is useful to split a double-quoted substitution
line by line. For example, ${(f)"$(ctype(3). Note that the square
brackets are additional to those enclosing the
whole set of characters, so to test for a single
alphanumeric character you need `[[:alnum:]]'.
Named character sets can be used alongside other
types, e.g. `[[:alpha:]0-9]'.
[^...]
[!...] Like [...], except that it matches any character
which is not in the given set.
<[x]-[y]>
Matches any number in the range x to y, inclusive.
Either of the numbers may be omitted to make the
range open-ended; hence `<->' matches any number.
To match individual digits, the [...] form is more
efficient.
Be careful when using other wildcards adjacent to
patterns of this form; for example, <0-9>* will
actually match any number whatsoever at the start
of the string, since the `<0-9>' will match the
first digit, and the `*' will match any others.
This is a trap for the unwary, but is in fact an
inevitable consequence of the rule that the longest
possible match always succeeds. Expressions such
as `<0-9>[^[:digit:]]*' can be used instead.
(...) Matches the enclosed pattern. This is used for
grouping. If the KSH_GLOB option is set, then a
`@', `*', `+', `?' or `!' immediately preceding the
`(' is treated specially, as detailed below. The
option SH_GLOB prevents bare parentheses from being
used in this way, though the KSH_GLOB option is
still available.
Note that grouping cannot extend over multiple
directories: it is an error to have a `/' within a
group (this only applies for patterns used in file-
name generation). There is one exception: a group
of the form (pat/)# appearing as a complete path
segment can match a sequence of directories. For
example, foo/(a*/)#bar matches foo/bar,
foo/any/bar, foo/any/anyother/bar, and so on.
x|y Matches either x or y. This operator has lower
precedence than any other. The `|' character must
be within parentheses, to avoid interpretation as a
pipeline.
^x (Requires EXTENDED_GLOB to be set.) Matches any-
thing except the pattern x. This has a higher
precedence than `/', so `^foo/bar' will search
directories in `.' except `./foo' for a file named
`bar'.
x~y (Requires EXTENDED_GLOB to be set.) Match anything
that matches the pattern x but does not match y.
This has lower precedence than any operator except
`|', so `*/*~foo/bar' will search for all files in
all directories in `.' and then exclude `foo/bar'
if there was such a match. Multiple patterns can
be excluded by `foo~bar~baz'. In the exclusion
pattern (y), `/' and `.' are not treated specially
the way they usually are in globbing.
x# (Requires EXTENDED_GLOB to be set.) Matches zero
or more occurrences of the pattern x. This opera-
tor has high precedence; `12#' is equivalent to
`1(2#)', rather than `(12)#'. It is an error for
an unquoted `#' to follow something which cannot be
repeated; this includes an empty string, a pattern
already followed by `##', or parentheses when part
of a KSH_GLOB pattern (for example, `!(foo)#' is
invalid and must be replaced by `*(!(foo))').
x## (Requires EXTENDED_GLOB to be set.) Matches one or
more occurrences of the pattern x. This operator
has high precedence; `12##' is equivalent to
`1(2##)', rather than `(12)##'. No more than two
active `#' characters may appear together.
ksh-like Glob Operators
If the KSH_GLOB option is set, the effects of parentheses
can be modified by a preceding `@', `*', `+', `?' or `!'.
This character need not be unquoted to have special
effects, but the `(' must be.
@(...) Match the pattern in the parentheses. (Like
`(...)'.)
*(...) Match any number of occurrences. (Like `(...)#'.)
+(...) Match at least one occurrence. (Like `(...)##'.)
?(...) Match zero or one occurrence. (Like `(|...)'.)
!(...) Match anything but the expression in parentheses.
(Like `(^(...))'.)
Precedence
The precedence of the operators given above is (highest)
`^', `/', `~', `|' (lowest); the remaining operators are
simply treated from left to right as part of a string,
with `#' and `##' applying to the shortest possible pre-
ceding unit (i.e. a character, `?', `[...]', `<...>', or a
parenthesised expression). As mentioned above, a `/' used
as a directory separator may not appear inside parenthe-
ses, while a `|' must do so; in patterns used in other
contexts than filename generation (for example, in case
statements and tests within `[[...]]'), a `/' is not spe-
cial; and `/' is also not special after a `~' appearing
outside parentheses in a filename pattern.
Globbing Flags
There are various flags which affect any text to their
right up to the end of the enclosing group or to the end
of the pattern; they require the EXTENDED_GLOB option. All
take the form (#X) where X may have one of the following
forms:
i Case insensitive: upper or lower case characters
in the pattern match upper or lower case charac-
ters.
l Lower case characters in the pattern match upper or
lower case characters; upper case characters in the
pattern still only match upper case characters.
I Case sensitive: locally negates the effect of i or
l from that point on.
b Activate backreferences for parenthesised groups in
the pattern; this does not work in filename genera-
tion. When a pattern with a set of active paren-
theses is matched, the strings matched by the
groups are stored in the array $match, the indices
of the beginning of the matched parentheses in the
array $mbegin, and the indices of the end in the
array $mend, with the first element of each array
corresponding to the first parenthesised group, and
so on. These arrays are not otherwise special to
the shell. The indices use the same convention as
does parameter substitution, so that elements of
$mend and $mbegin may be used in subscripts; the
KSH_ARRAYS option is respected. Sets of globbing
flags are not considered parenthesised groups; only
the first nine active parentheses can be refer-
enced.
For example,
foo="a string with a message"
if [[ $foo = (a|an)' '(#b)(*)' '* ]]; then
print ${foo[$mbegin[1],$mend[1]]}
fi
prints `string with a'. Note that the first paren-
thesis is before the (#b) and does not create a
backreference.
Backreferences work with all forms of pattern
matching other than filename generation, but note
that when performing matches on an entire array,
such as ${array#pattern}, or a global substitution,
such as ${param//pat/repl}, only the data for the
last match remains available. In the case of
global replacements this may still be useful. See
the example for the m flag below.
The numbering of backreferences strictly follows
the order of the opening parentheses from left to
right in the pattern string, although sets of
parentheses may be nested. There are special rules
for parentheses followed by `#' or `##'. Only the
last match of the parenthesis is remembered: for
example, in `[[ abab = (#b)([ab])# ]]', only the
final `b' is stored in match[1]. Thus extra paren-
theses may be necessary to match the complete seg-
ment: for example, use `X((ab|cd)#)Y' to match a
whole string of either `ab' or `cd' between `X' and
`Y', using the value of $match[1] rather than
$match[2].
If the match fails none of the parameters is
altered, so in some cases it may be necessary to
initialise them beforehand. If some of the back-
references fail to match --- which happens if they
are in an alternate branch which fails to match, or
if they are followed by # and matched zero times
--- then the matched string is set to the empty
string, and the start and end indices are set to
-1.
Pattern matching with backreferences is slightly
slower than without.
B Deactivate backreferences, negating the effect of
the b flag from that point on.
m Set references to the match data for the entire
string matched; this is similar to backreferencing
and does not work in filename generation. The flag
must be in effect at the end of the pattern, i.e.
not local to a group. The parameters $MATCH, $MBE-
GIN and $MEND will be set to the string matched and
to the indices of the beginning and end of the
string, respectively. This is most useful in
parameter substitutions, as otherwise the string
matched is obvious.
For example,
arr=(veldt jynx grimps waqf zho buck)
print ${arr//(#m)[aeiou]/${(U)MATCH}}
forces all the matches (i.e. all vowels) into
uppercase, printing `vEldt jynx grImps wAqf zhO
bUck'.
Unlike backreferences, there is no speed penalty
for using match references, other than the extra
substitutions required for the replacement strings
in cases such as the example shown.
M Deactivate the m flag, hence no references to match
data will be created.
anum Approximate matching: num errors are allowed in the
string matched by the pattern. The rules for this
are described in the next subsection.
s, e Unlike the other flags, these have only a local
effect, and each must appear on its own: `(#s)'
and `(#e)' are the only valid forms. The `(#s)'
flag succeeds only at the start of the test string,
and the `(#e)' flag succeeds only at the end of the
test string; they correspond to `^' and `$' in
standard regular expressions. They are useful for
matching path segments in patterns other than those
in filename generation (where path segments are in
any case treated separately). For example,
`*((#s)|/)test((#e)|/)*' matches a path segment
`test' in any of the following strings: test,
test/at/start, at/end/test, in/test/middle.
Another use is in parameter substitution; for exam-
ple `${array/(#s)A*Z(#e)}' will remove only ele-
ments of an array which match the complete pattern
`A*Z'. There are other ways of performing many
operations of this type, however the combination of
the substitution operations `/' and `//' with the
`(#s)' and `(#e)' flags provides a single simple
and memorable method.
Note that assertions of the form `(^(#s))' also
work, i.e. match anywhere except at the start of
the string, although this actually means `anything
except a zero-length portion at the start of the
string'; you need to use `(""~(#s))' to match a
zero-length portion of the string not at the start.
q A `q' and everything up to the closing parenthesis
of the globbing flags are ignored by the pattern
matching code. This is intended to support the use
of glob qualifiers, see below. The result is that
the pattern `(#b)(*).c(#q.)' can be used both for
globbing and for matching against a string. In the
former case, the `(#q.)' will be treated as a glob
qualifier and the `(#b)' will not be useful, while
in the latter case the `(#b)' is useful for back-
references and the `(#q.)' will be ignored. Note
that colon modifiers in the glob qualifiers are
also not applied in ordinary pattern matching.
For example, the test string fooxx can be matched by the
pattern (#i)FOOXX, but not by (#l)FOOXX, (#i)FOO(#I)XX or
((#i)FOOX)X. The string (#ia2)readme specifies
case-insensitive matching of readme with up to two errors.
When using the ksh syntax for grouping both KSH_GLOB and
EXTENDED_GLOB must be set and the left parenthesis should
be preceded by @. Note also that the flags do not affect
letters inside [...] groups, in other words (#i)[a-z]
still matches only lowercase letters. Finally, note that
when examining whole paths case-insensitively every direc-
tory must be searched for all files which match, so that a
pattern of the form (#i)/foo/bar/... is potentially slow.
Approximate Matching
When matching approximately, the shell keeps a count of
the errors found, which cannot exceed the number specified
in the (#anum) flags. Four types of error are recognised:
1. Different characters, as in fooxbar and fooybar.
2. Transposition of characters, as in banana and
abnana.
3. A character missing in the target string, as with
the pattern road and target string rod.
4. An extra character appearing in the target string,
as with stove and strove.
Thus, the pattern (#a3)abcd matches dcba, with the errors
occurring by using the first rule twice and the second
once, grouping the string as [d][cb][a] and [a][bc][d].
Non-literal parts of the pattern must match exactly,
including characters in character ranges: hence (#a1)???
matches strings of length four, by applying rule 4 to an
empty part of the pattern, but not strings of length two,
since all the ? must match. Other characters which must
match exactly are initial dots in filenames (unless the
GLOB_DOTS option is set), and all slashes in filenames, so
that a/bc is two errors from ab/c (the slash cannot be
transposed with another character). Similarly, errors are
counted separately for non-contiguous strings in the pat-
tern, so that (ab|cd)ef is two errors from aebf.
When using exclusion via the ~ operator, approximate
matching is treated entirely separately for the excluded
part and must be activated separately. Thus,
(#a1)README~READ_ME matches READ.ME but not READ_ME, as
the trailing READ_ME is matched without approximation.
However, (#a1)README~(#a1)READ_ME does not match any pat-
tern of the form READ?ME as all such forms are now
excluded.
Apart from exclusions, there is only one overall error
count; however, the maximum errors allowed may be altered
locally, and this can be delimited by grouping. For exam-
ple, (#a1)cat((#a0)dog)fox allows one error in total,
which may not occur in the dog section, and the pattern
(#a1)cat(#a0)dog(#a1)fox is equivalent. Note that the
point at which an error is first found is the crucial one
for establishing whether to use approximation; for exam-
ple, (#a1)abc(#a0)xyz will not match abcdxyz, because the
error occurs at the `x', where approximation is turned
off.
Entire path segments may be matched approximately, so that
`(#a1)/foo/d/is/available/at/the/bar' allows one error in
any path segment. This is much less efficient than with-
out the (#a1), however, since every directory in the path
must be scanned for a possible approximate match. It is
best to place the (#a1) after any path segments which are
known to be correct.
Recursive Globbing
A pathname component of the form `(foo/)#' matches a path
consisting of zero or more directories matching the pat-
tern foo.
As a shorthand, `**/' is equivalent to `(*/)#'; note that
this therefore matches files in the current directory as
well as subdirectories. Thus:
ls (*/)#bar
or
ls **/bar
does a recursive directory search for files named `bar'
(potentially including the file `bar' in the current
directory). This form does not follow symbolic links; the
alternative form `***/' does, but is otherwise identical.
Neither of these can be combined with other forms of glob-
bing within the same path segment; in that case, the `*'
operators revert to their usual effect.
Glob Qualifiers
Patterns used for filename generation may end in a list of
qualifiers enclosed in parentheses. The qualifiers spec-
ify which filenames that otherwise match the given pattern
will be inserted in the argument list.
If the option BARE_GLOB_QUAL is set, then a trailing set
of parentheses containing no `|' or `(' characters (or `~'
if it is special) is taken as a set of glob qualifiers. A
glob subexpression that would normally be taken as glob
qualifiers, for example `(^x)', can be forced to be
treated as part of the glob pattern by doubling the paren-
theses, in this case producing `((^x))'.
If the option EXTENDED_GLOB is set, a different syntax for
glob qualifiers is available, namely `(#qx)' where x is
any of the same glob qualifiers used in the other format.
The qualifiers must still appear at the end of the pat-
tern. However, with this syntax multiple glob qualifiers
may be chained together. They are treated as a logical
AND of the individual sets of flags. Also, as the syntax
is unambiguous, the expression will be treated as glob
qualifiers just as long any parentheses contained within
it are balanced; appearance of `|', `(' or `~' does not
negate the effect. Note that qualifiers will be recog-
nised in this form even if a bare glob qualifier exists at
the end of the pattern, for example `*(#q*)(.)' will
recognise executable regular files if both options are
set; however, mixed syntax should probably be avoided for
the sake of clarity.
A qualifier may be any one of the following:
/ directories
F `full' (i.e. non-empty) directories. Note that the
opposite sense (^F) expands to empty directories
and all non-directories. Use (/^F) for empty
directories
. plain files
@ symbolic links
= sockets
p named pipes (FIFOs)
* executable plain files (0100)
% device files (character or block special)
%b block special files
%c character special files
r owner-readable files (0400)
w owner-writable files (0200)
x owner-executable files (0100)
A group-readable files (0040)
I group-writable files (0020)
E group-executable files (0010)
R world-readable files (0004)
W world-writable files (0002)
X world-executable files (0001)
s setuid files (04000)
S setgid files (02000)
t files with the sticky bit (01000)
fspec files with access rights matching spec. This spec
may be a octal number optionally preceded by a `=',
a `+', or a `-'. If none of these characters is
given, the behavior is the same as for `='. The
octal number describes the mode bits to be
expected, if combined with a `=', the value given
must match the file-modes exactly, with a `+', at
least the bits in the given number must be set in
the file-modes, and with a `-', the bits in the
number must not be set. Giving a `?' instead of a
octal digit anywhere in the number ensures that the
corresponding bits in the file-modes are not
checked, this is only useful in combination with
`='.
If the qualifier `f' is followed by any other char-
acter anything up to the next matching character
(`[', `{', and `<' match `]', `}', and `>' respec-
tively, any other character matches itself) is
taken as a list of comma-separated sub-specs. Each
sub-spec may be either an octal number as described
above or a list of any of the characters `u', `g',
`o', and `a', followed by a `=', a `+', or a `-',
followed by a list of any of the characters `r',
`w', `x', `s', and `t', or an octal digit. The
first list of characters specify which access
rights are to be checked. If a `u' is given, those
for the owner of the file are used, if a `g' is
given, those of the group are checked, a `o' means
to test those of other users, and the `a' says to
test all three groups. The `=', `+', and `-' again
says how the modes are to be checked and have the
same meaning as described for the first form above.
The second list of characters finally says which
access rights are to be expected: `r' for read
access, `w' for write access, `x' for the right to
execute the file (or to search a directory), `s'
for the setuid and setgid bits, and `t' for the
sticky bit.
Thus, `*(f70?)' gives the files for which the owner
has read, write, and execute permission, and for
which other group members have no rights, indepen-
dent of the permissions for other users. The pat-
tern `*(f-100)' gives all files for which the owner
does not have execute permission, and
`*(f:gu+w,o-rx:)' gives the files for which the
owner and the other members of the group have at
least write permission, and for which other users
don't have read or execute permission.
estring
+cmd The string will be executed as shell code. The
filename will be included in the list if and only
if the code returns a zero status (usually the sta-
tus of the last command). The first character
after the `e' will be used as a separator and any-
thing up to the next matching separator will be
taken as the string; `[', `{', and `<' match `]',
`}', and `>', respectively, while any other charac-
ter matches itself. Note that expansions must be
quoted in the string to prevent them from being
expanded before globbing is done.
During the execution of string the filename cur-
rently being tested is available in the parameter
REPLY; the parameter may be altered to a string to
be inserted into the list instead of the original
filename. In addition, the parameter reply may be
set to an array or a string, which overrides the
value of REPLY. If set to an array, the latter is
inserted into the command line word by word.
For example, suppose a directory contains a single
file `lonely'. Then the expression
`*(e:'reply=(${REPLY}{1,2})':)' will cause the
words `lonely1 lonely2' to be inserted into the
command line. Note the quotation marks.
The form +cmd has the same effect, but no delim-
iters appear around cmd. Instead, cmd is taken as
the longest sequence of characters following the +
that are alphanumeric or underscore. Typically cmd
will be the name of a shell function that contains
the appropriate test. For example,
nt() { [[ $REPLY -nt $NTREF ]] }
NTREF=reffile
ls -l *(+nt)
lists all files in the directory that have been
modified more recently than reffile.
ddev files on the device dev
l[-|+]ct
files having a link count less than ct (-), greater
than ct (+), or equal to ct
U files owned by the effective user ID
G files owned by the effective group ID
uid files owned by user ID id if it is a number, if
not, than the character after the `u' will be used
as a separator and the string between it and the
next matching separator (`[', `{', and `<' match
`]', `}', and `>' respectively, any other character
matches itself) will be taken as a user name, and
the user ID of this user will be taken (e.g.
`u:foo:' or `u[foo]' for user `foo')
gid like uid but with group IDs or names
a[Mwhms][-|+]n
files accessed exactly n days ago. Files accessed
within the last n days are selected using a nega-
tive value for n (-n). Files accessed more than n
days ago are selected by a positive n value (+n).
Optional unit specifiers `M', `w', `h', `m' or `s'
(e.g. `ah5') cause the check to be performed with
months (of 30 days), weeks, hours, minutes or sec-
onds instead of days, respectively. For instance,
`echo *(ah-5)' would echo files accessed within the
last five hours.
m[Mwhms][-|+]n
like the file access qualifier, except that it uses
the file modification time.
c[Mwhms][-|+]n
like the file access qualifier, except that it uses
the file inode change time.
L[+|-]n
files less than n bytes (-), more than n bytes (+),
or exactly n bytes in length. If this flag is
directly followed by a `k' (`K'), `m' (`M'), or `p'
(`P') (e.g. `Lk-50') the check is performed with
kilobytes, megabytes, or blocks (of 512 bytes)
instead.
^ negates all qualifiers following it
- toggles between making the qualifiers work on sym-
bolic links (the default) and the files they point
to
M sets the MARK_DIRS option for the current pattern
T appends a trailing qualifier mark to the filenames,
analogous to the LIST_TYPES option, for the current
pattern (overrides M)
N sets the NULL_GLOB option for the current pattern
D sets the GLOB_DOTS option for the current pattern
n sets the NUMERIC_GLOB_SORT option for the current
pattern
oc specifies how the names of the files should be
sorted. If c is n they are sorted by name (the
default); if it is L they are sorted depending on
the size (length) of the files; if l they are
sorted by the number of links; if a, m, or c they
are sorted by the time of the last access, modifi-
cation, or inode change respectively; if d, files
in subdirectories appear before those in the cur-
rent directory at each level of the search --- this
is best combined with other criteria, for example
`odon' to sort on names for files within the same
directory. Note that a, m, and c compare the age
against the current time, hence the first name in
the list is the youngest file. Also note that the
modifiers ^ and - are used, so `*(^-oL)' gives a
list of all files sorted by file size in descending
order, following any symbolic links.
Oc like `o', but sorts in descending order; i.e.
`*(^oc)' is the same as `*(Oc)' and `*(^Oc)' is the
same as `*(oc)'; `Od' puts files in the current
directory before those in subdirectories at each
level of the search.
[beg[,end]]
specifies which of the matched filenames should be
included in the returned list. The syntax is the
same as for array subscripts. beg and the optional
end may be mathematical expressions. As in parame-
ter subscripting they may be negative to make them
count from the last match backward. E.g.:
`*(-OL[1,3])' gives a list of the names of the
three largest files.
More than one of these lists can be combined, separated by
commas. The whole list matches if at least one of the sub-
lists matches (they are `or'ed, the qualifiers in the sub-
lists are `and'ed). Some qualifiers, however, affect all
matches generated, independent of the sublist in which
they are given. These are the qualifiers `M', `T', `N',
`D', `n', `o', `O' and the subscripts given in brackets
(`[...]').
If a `:' appears in a qualifier list, the remainder of the
expression in parenthesis is interpreted as a modifier
(see the section `Modifiers' in the section `History
Expansion'). Note that each modifier must be introduced
by a separate `:'. Note also that the result after modi-
fication does not have to be an existing file. The name
of any existing file can be followed by a modifier of the
form `(:..)' even if no actual filename generation is per-
formed. Thus:
ls *(-/)
lists all directories and symbolic links that point to
directories, and
ls *(%W)
lists all world-writable device files in the current
directory, and
ls *(W,X)
lists all files in the current directory that are
world-writable or world-executable, and
echo /tmp/foo*(u0^@:t)
outputs the basename of all root-owned files beginning
with the string `foo' in /tmp, ignoring symlinks, and
ls *.*~(lex|parse).[ch](^D^l1)
lists all files having a link count of one whose names
contain a dot (but not those starting with a dot, since
GLOB_DOTS is explicitly switched off) except for lex.c,
lex.h, parse.c and parse.h.
print b*.pro(#q:s/pro/shmo/)(#q.:s/builtin/shmiltin/)
demonstrates how colon modifiers and other qualifiers may
be chained together. The ordinary qualifier `.' is
applied first, then the colon modifiers in order from left
to right. So if EXTENDED_GLOB is set and the base pattern
matches the regular file builtin.pro, the shell will print
ZSHPARAM(1) ZSHPARAM(1)
`shmiltin.shmo'.
NAME
zshparam - zsh parameters
DESCRIPTION
A parameter has a name, a value, and a number of
attributes. A name may be any sequence of alphanumeric
characters and underscores, or the single characters `*',
`@', `#', `?', `-', `$', or `!'. The value may be a
scalar (a string), an integer, an array (indexed numeri-
cally), or an associative array (an unordered set of
name-value pairs, indexed by name). To declare the type
of a parameter, or to assign a scalar or integer value to
a parameter, use the typeset builtin.
The value of a scalar or integer parameter may also be
assigned by writing:
name=value
If the integer attribute, -i, is set for name, the value
is subject to arithmetic evaluation. Furthermore, by
replacing `=' with `+=', a parameter can be added or
appended to. See the section `Array Parameters' for addi-
tional forms of assignment.
To refer to the value of a parameter, write `$name' or
`${name}'. See Parameter Expansion in zshexpn(1) for com-
plete details.
In the parameter lists that follow, the mark `' indi-
cates that the parameter is special. Special parameters
cannot have their type changed or their readonly attribute
turned off, and if a special parameter is unset, then
later recreated, the special properties will be retained.
`' indicates that the parameter does not exist when the
shell initializes in sh or ksh emulation mode.
ARRAY PARAMETERS
To assign an array value, write one of:
set -A name value ...
name=(value ...)
If no parameter name exists, an ordinary array parameter
is created. If the parameter name exists and is a scalar,
it is replaced by a new array. Ordinary array parameters
may also be explicitly declared with:
typeset -a name
Associative arrays must be declared before assignment, by
using:
typeset -A name
When name refers to an associative array, the list in an
assignment is interpreted as alternating keys and values:
set -A name key value ...
name=(key value ...)
Every key must have a value in this case. Note that this
assigns to the entire array, deleting any elements that do
not appear in the list.
To create an empty array (including associative arrays),
use one of:
set -A name
name=()
Array Subscripts
Individual elements of an array may be selected using a
subscript. A subscript of the form `[exp]' selects the
single element exp, where exp is an arithmetic expression
which will be subject to arithmetic expansion as if it
were surrounded by `$((...))'. The elements are numbered
beginning with 1, unless the KSH_ARRAYS option is set in
which case they are numbered from zero.
Subscripts may be used inside braces used to delimit a
parameter name, thus `${foo[2]}' is equivalent to
`$foo[2]'. If the KSH_ARRAYS option is set, the braced
form is the only one that works, as bracketed expressions
otherwise are not treated as subscripts.
The same subscripting syntax is used for associative
arrays, except that no arithmetic expansion is applied to
exp. However, the parsing rules for arithmetic expres-
sions still apply, which affects the way that certain spe-
cial characters must be protected from interpretation.
See Subscript Parsing below for details.
A subscript of the form `[*]' or `[@]' evaluates to all
elements of an array; there is no difference between the
two except when they appear within double quotes.
`"$foo[*]"' evaluates to `"$foo[1] $foo[2] ..."', whereas
`"$foo[@]"' evaluates to `"$foo[1]" "$foo[2]" ...'. For
associative arrays, `[*]' or `[@]' evaluate to all the
values, in no particular order. Note that this does not
substitute the keys; see the documentation for the `k'
flag under Parameter Expansion Flags in zshexpn(1) for
complete details. When an array parameter is referenced
as `$name' (with no subscript) it evaluates to `$name[*]',
unless the KSH_ARRAYS option is set in which case it eval-
uates to `${name[0]}' (for an associative array, this
means the value of the key `0', which may not exist even
if there are values for other keys).
A subscript of the form `[exp1,exp2]' selects all elements
in the range exp1 to exp2, inclusive. (Associative arrays
are unordered, and so do not support ranges.) If one of
the subscripts evaluates to a negative number, say -n,
then the nth element from the end of the array is used.
Thus `$foo[-3]' is the third element from the end of the
array foo, and `$foo[1,-1]' is the same as `$foo[*]'.
Subscripting may also be performed on non-array values, in
which case the subscripts specify a substring to be
extracted. For example, if FOO is set to `foobar', then
`echo $FOO[2,5]' prints `ooba'.
Array Element Assignment
A subscript may be used on the left side of an assignment
like so:
name[exp]=value
In this form of assignment the element or range specified
by exp is replaced by the expression on the right side.
An array (but not an associative array) may be created by
assignment to a range or element. Arrays do not nest, so
assigning a parenthesized list of values to an element or
range changes the number of elements in the array, shift-
ing the other elements to accommodate the new values.
(This is not supported for associative arrays.)
This syntax also works as an argument to the typeset com-
mand:
typeset "name[exp]"=value
The value may not be a parenthesized list in this case;
only single-element assignments may be made with typeset.
Note that quotes are necessary in this case to prevent the
brackets from being interpreted as filename generation
operators. The noglob precommand modifier could be used
instead.
To delete an element of an ordinary array, assign `()' to
that element. To delete an element of an associative
array, use the unset command:
unset "name[exp]"
Subscript Flags
If the opening bracket, or the comma in a range, in any
subscript expression is directly followed by an opening
parenthesis, the string up to the matching closing one is
considered to be a list of flags, as in
`name[(flags)exp]'. The flags currently understood are:
w If the parameter subscripted is a scalar than this
flag makes subscripting work on words instead of
characters. The default word separator is whites-
pace.
s:string:
This gives the string that separates words (for use
with the w flag).
p Recognize the same escape sequences as the print
builtin in the string argument of a subsequent `s'
flag.
f If the parameter subscripted is a scalar than this
flag makes subscripting work on lines instead of
characters, i.e. with elements separated by new-
lines. This is a shorthand for `pws:\n:'.
r Reverse subscripting: if this flag is given, the
exp is taken as a pattern and the result is the
first matching array element, substring or word (if
the parameter is an array, if it is a scalar, or if
it is a scalar and the `w' flag is given, respec-
tively). The subscript used is the number of the
matching element, so that pairs of subscripts such
as `$foo[(r)??,3]' and `$foo[(r)??,(r)f*]' are pos-
sible if the parameter is not an associative array.
If the parameter is an associative array, only the
value part of each pair is compared to the pattern,
and the result is that value.
R Like `r', but gives the last match. For associa-
tive arrays, gives all possible matches. May be
used for assigning to ordinary array elements, but
not for assigning to associative arrays.
i Like `r', but gives the index of the match instead;
this may not be combined with a second argument.
On the left side of an assignment, behaves like
`r'. For associative arrays, the key part of each
pair is compared to the pattern, and the first
matching key found is the result.
I Like `i', but gives the index of the last match, or
all possible matching keys in an associative array.
k If used in a subscript on an associative array,
this flag causes the keys to be interpreted as pat-
terns, and returns the value for the first key
found where exp is matched by the key. This flag
does not work on the left side of an assignment to
an associative array element. If used on another
type of parameter, this behaves like `r'.
K On an associative array this is like `k' but
returns all values where exp is matched by the
keys. On other types of parameters this has the
same effect as `R'.
n:expr:
If combined with `r', `R', `i' or `I', makes them
give the nth or nth last match (if expr evaluates
to n). This flag is ignored when the array is
associative.
b:expr:
If combined with `r', `R', `i' or `I', makes them
begin at the nth or nth last element, word, or
character (if expr evaluates to n). This flag is
ignored when the array is associative.
e This flag has no effect and for ordinary arrays is
retained for backward compatibility only. For
associative arrays, this flag can be used to force
* or @ to be interpreted as a single key rather
than as a reference to all values. This flag may
be used on the left side of an assignment.
See Parameter Expansion Flags (zshexpn(1)) for additional
ways to manipulate the results of array subscripting.
Subscript Parsing
This discussion applies mainly to associative array key
strings and to patterns used for reverse subscripting (the
`r', `R', `i', etc. flags), but it may also affect parame-
ter substitutions that appear as part of an arithmetic
expression in an ordinary subscript.
It is possible to avoid the use of subscripts in assign-
ments to associative array elements by using the syntax:
aa+=('key with "*strange*" characters' 'value string')
This adds a new key/value pair if the key is not already
present, and replaces the value for the existing key if it
is.
The basic rule to remember when writing a subscript
expression is that all text between the opening `[' and
the closing `]' is interpreted as if it were in double
quotes (see zshmisc(1)). However, unlike double quotes
which normally cannot nest, subscript expressions may
appear inside double-quoted strings or inside other sub-
script expressions (or both!), so the rules have two
important differences.
The first difference is that brackets (`[' and `]') must
appear as balanced pairs in a subscript expression unless
they are preceded by a backslash (`\'). Therefore, within
a subscript expression (and unlike true double-quoting)
the sequence `\[' becomes `[', and similarly `\]' becomes
`]'. This applies even in cases where a backslash is not
normally required; for example, the pattern `[^[]' (to
match any character other than an open bracket) should be
written `[^\[]' in a reverse-subscript pattern. However,
note that `\[^\[\]' and even `\[^[]' mean the same thing,
because backslashes are always stripped when they appear
before brackets!
The same rule applies to parentheses (`(' and `)') and
braces (`{' and `}'): they must appear either in balanced
pairs or preceded by a backslash, and backslashes that
protect parentheses or braces are removed during parsing.
This is because parameter expansions may be surrounded
balanced braces, and subscript flags are introduced by
balanced parenthesis.
The second difference is that a double-quote (`"') may
appear as part of a subscript expression without being
preceded by a backslash, and therefore that the two char-
acters `\"' remain as two characters in the subscript (in
true double-quoting, `\"' becomes `"'). However, because
of the standard shell quoting rules, any double-quotes
that appear must occur in balanced pairs unless preceded
by a backslash. This makes it more difficult to write a
subscript expression that contains an odd number of dou-
ble-quote characters, but the reason for this difference
is so that when a subscript expression appears inside true
double-quotes, one can still write `\"' (rather than
`\\\"') for `"'.
To use an odd number of double quotes as a key in an
assignment, use the typeset builtin and an enclosing pair
of double quotes; to refer to the value of that key, again
use double quotes:
typeset -A aa
typeset "aa[one\"two\"three\"quotes]"=QQQ
print "$aa[one\"two\"three\"quotes]"
It is important to note that the quoting rules do not
change when a parameter expansion with a subscript is
nested inside another subscript expression. That is, it
is not necessary to use additional backslashes within the
inner subscript expression; they are removed only once,
from the innermost subscript outwards. Parameters are
also expanded from the innermost subscript first, as each
expansion is encountered left to right in the outer
expression.
A further complication arises from a way in which sub-
script parsing is not different from double quote parsing.
As in true double-quoting, the sequences `\*', and `\@'
remain as two characters when they appear in a subscript
expression. To use a literal `*' or `@' as an associative
array key, the `e' flag must be used:
typeset -A aa
aa[(e)*]=star
print $aa[(e)*]
A last detail must be considered when reverse subscripting
is performed. Parameters appearing in the subscript
expression are first expanded and then the complete
expression is interpreted as a pattern. This has two
effects: first, parameters behave as if GLOB_SUBST were on
(and it cannot be turned off); second, backslashes are
interpreted twice, once when parsing the array subscript
and again when parsing the pattern. In a reverse sub-
script, it's necessary to use four backslashes to cause a
single backslash to match literally in the pattern. For
complex patterns, it is often easiest to assign the
desired pattern to a parameter and then refer to that
parameter in the subscript, because then the backslashes,
brackets, parentheses, etc., are seen only when the com-
plete expression is converted to a pattern. To match the
value of a parameter literally in a reverse subscript,
rather than as a pattern, use `${(q)name}' (see zsh-
expn(1)) to quote the expanded value.
Note that the `k' and `K' flags are reverse subscripting
for an ordinary array, but are not reverse subscripting
for an associative array! (For an associative array, the
keys in the array itself are interpreted as patterns by
those flags; the subscript is a plain string in that
case.)
One final note, not directly related to subscripting: the
numeric names of positional parameters (described below)
are parsed specially, so for example `$2foo' is equivalent
to `${2}foo'. Therefore, to use subscript syntax to
extract a substring from a positional parameter, the
expansion must be surrounded by braces; for example,
`${2[3,5]}' evaluates to the third through fifth charac-
ters of the second positional parameter, but `$2[3,5]' is
the entire second parameter concatenated with the filename
generation pattern `[3,5]'.
POSITIONAL PARAMETERS
The positional parameters provide access to the com-
mand-line arguments of a shell function, shell script, or
the shell itself; see the section `Invocation', and also
the section `Functions'. The parameter n, where n is a
number, is the nth positional parameter. The parameters
*, @ and argv are arrays containing all the positional
parameters; thus `$argv[n]', etc., is equivalent to simply
`$n'.
Positional parameters may be changed after the shell or
function starts by using the set builtin, by assigning to
the argv array, or by direct assignment of the form
`n=value' where n is the number of the positional parame-
ter to be changed. This also creates (with empty values)
any of the positions from 1 to n that do not already have
values. Note that, because the positional parameters form
an array, an array assignment of the form `n=(value ...)'
is allowed, and has the effect of shifting all the values
at positions greater than n by as many positions as neces-
sary to accommodate the new values.
LOCAL PARAMETERS
Shell function executions delimit scopes for shell parame-
ters. (Parameters are dynamically scoped.) The typeset
builtin, and its alternative forms declare, integer, local
and readonly (but not export), can be used to declare a
parameter as being local to the innermost scope.
When a parameter is read or assigned to, the innermost
existing parameter of that name is used. (That is, the
local parameter hides any less-local parameter.) However,
assigning to a non-existent parameter, or declaring a new
parameter with export, causes it to be created in the out-
ermost scope.
Local parameters disappear when their scope ends. unset
can be used to delete a parameter while it is still in
scope; any outer parameter of the same name remains hid-
den.
Special parameters may also be made local; they retain
their special attributes unless either the existing or the
newly-created parameter has the -h (hide) attribute. This
may have unexpected effects: there is no default value, so
if there is no assignment at the point the variable is
made local, it will be set to an empty value (or zero in
the case of integers). The following:
typeset PATH=/new/directory:$PATH
is valid for temporarily allowing the shell or programmes
called from it to find the programs in /new/directory
inside a function.
Note that the restriction in older versions of zsh that
local parameters were never exported has been removed.
PARAMETERS SET BY THE SHELL
The following parameters are automatically set by the
shell:
! The process ID of the last background command
invoked.
# The number of positional parameters in decimal.
Note that some confusion may occur with the syntax
$#param which substitutes the length of param. Use
${#} to resolve ambiguities. In particular, the
sequence `$#-...' in an arithmetic expression is
interpreted as the length of the parameter -, q.v.
ARGC
Same as #.
$ The process ID of this 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 value returned by the last command.
0 The name used to invoke the current shell. If the
FUNCTION_ARGZERO option is set, this is set tem-
porarily within a shell function to the name of the
function, and within a sourced script to the name
of the script.
status
Same as ?.
pipestatus
An array containing the exit values 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 com-
mand.
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 assign-
ing to this parameter. Also (assuming sufficient
privileges), you may start a single command with a
different effective group ID by `(EGID=gid; com-
mand)'
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 priv-
ileges), you may start a single command with a dif-
ferent effective user ID by `(EUID=uid; command)'
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 pur-
poses. It is also useful with the zsh/system mod-
ule which allows the number to be turned into a
name or message.
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)'
HISTCMD
The current history line number in an interactive
shell, in other words the line number for the com-
mand that caused $HISTCMD to be read.
HOST The current hostname.
LINENO
The line number of the current line within the cur-
rent 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 ses-
sion. This parameter is exported by default but
this can be disabled using the typeset builtin.
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.
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 gen-
erated each time this parameter is referenced. The
random number generator can be seeded by assigning
a numeric value to RANDOM.
The values of RANDOM form an intentionally-repeat-
able pseudo-random sequence; subshells that refer-
ence 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. Only integer and one of the floating
point types are allowed. For example, `typeset -F
SECONDS' causes the value to be reported as a
floating point number. The precision is six deci-
mal places, although not all places may be useful.
SHLVL
Incremented by one each time a new shell is
started.
signals
An array containing the names of the signals.
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
in zshmisc(1)
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)'
USERNAME
The username corresponding to the real user ID of
the shell process. If you have sufficient privi-
leges, you may change the username (and also the
user ID and group ID) of the shell by assigning to
this parameter. Also (assuming sufficient privi-
leges), you may start a single command under a dif-
ferent username (and user ID and group ID) by
`(USERNAME=username; command)'
VENDOR The vendor, as determined at compile time.
ZSH_NAME
Expands to the basename of the command used to
invoke this instance of zsh.
ZSH_VERSION
The version number of this zsh.
PARAMETERS USED BY THE SHELL
The following parameters are used by the shell.
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 recre-
ating 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 baud rate of the current connection. Used by
the line editor update mechanism to compensate for
a slow terminal by delaying updates until neces-
sary. This may be profitably set to a lower value
in some circumstances, e.g. for slow modems dial-
ing into a communications server which is connected
to a host via a fast link; in this case, this vari-
able would be set by default to the speed of the
fast link, and not the modem. This parameter
should be set to the baud rate of the slowest part
of the link for best performance. The compensation
mechanism can be turned off by setting the variable
to zero.
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.
DIRSTACKSIZE
The maximum size of the directory stack. 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 zsh is
emulating sh or ksh.
FCEDIT The default editor for the fc builtin.
fignore (FIGNORE )
An array (colon separated list) containing the suf-
fixes of files to be ignored during filename com-
pletion. 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 defini-
tions. This path is searched when a function with
the -u attribute is referenced. If an executable
file is found, then it is read and executed in the
current environment.
histchars
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
`#').
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.
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 his-
tory events.
HOME
The default argument for the cd command.
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.
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 vari-
able starting with `LC_'.
LC_ALL
This variable overrides the value of the `LANG'
variable and the value of any of the other vari-
ables 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.
LC_MESSAGES
This variable determines the language in which mes-
sages 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 func-
tions. 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.
LOGCHECK
The interval in seconds between checks for
login/logout activity using the watch parameter.
MAIL If this parameter is set and mailpath is not set,
the shell looks for mail in the specified file.
MAILCHECK
The interval in seconds between checks for new
mail.
mailpath (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 $_ defined as the name of the file that
has changed. The default message is `You have new
mail'. If an element is a directory instead of a
file the shell will recursively check every file in
every subdirectory of the element.
manpath (MANPATH )
An array (colon-separated list) whose value is not
used by the shell. The manpath array can be use-
ful, however, since setting it also sets MANPATH,
and vice versa.
module_path (MODULE_PATH )
An array (colon-separated list) of directories that
zmodload searches for dynamically loadable modules.
This is initialized to a standard pathname, usually
`/usr/local/lib/zsh/$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 and all files found are
put in a hash table.
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.
PS1
The primary prompt string, printed before a command
is read. the default is `%m%# '. It undergoes a
special form of expansion before being displayed;
see the section `Prompt Expansion'.
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 quo-
tation 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 struc-
ture and the line number within it. In sh or ksh
emulation, the default is `+ '.
psvar (PSVAR )
An array (colon-separated list) whose first nine
values can be used in PROMPT strings. Setting
psvar also sets PSVAR, and vice versa.
READNULLCMD
The command name to assume if a single input redi-
rection is specified with no command. Defaults to
more.
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.
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 exam-
ines its value when evaluating certain expressions.
Some modules also employ REPLY for similar pur-
poses.
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 dis-
played on the left. This does not work if the SIN-
GLELINEZLE 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 dis-
played on the left. This does not work if the SIN-
GLELINEZLE 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.
SPROMPT
The prompt used for spelling correction. The
sequence `%R' expands to the string which presum-
ably needs spelling correction, and `%r' expands to
the proposed correction. All other prompt escapes
are also allowed.
STTY If this parameter is set in a command's environ-
ment, 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 environ-
ment 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 com-
mand.
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 ter-
minal type in order for the new settings to take
effect.
TIMEFMT
The format of process time reports with the time
keyword. The default is `%E real %U user %S sys-
tem %P %J'. 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 Kbytes.
%D The average amount in (unshared) data/stack
space used in Kbytes.
%K The total space used (%X+%D) in Kbytes.
%M The maximum memory the process had in use
at any time in Kbytes.
%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. This cause the time to be
printed in `hh:mm:ss.ttt' format (hours and minutes
are only printed if they are not zero).
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 issu-
ing 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'.
watch (WATCH )
An array (colon-separated list) of login/logout
events to report. If it contains the single word
`all', then all login/logout events are reported.
If it contains the single word `notme', then all
events are reported as with `all' except $USERNAME.
An entry in this list may consist of a username, an
`@' followed by a remote hostname, and a `%' fol-
lowed by a line (tty). Any or all of these compo-
nents may be present in an entry; if a login/logout
event matches all of them, it is reported.
WATCHFMT
The format of login/logout reports if the watch
parameter is set. Default is `%n has %a %l from
%m'. Recognizes the following escape sequences:
%n The name of the user that logged in/out.
%a The observed action, i.e. "logged on" or
"logged off".
%l The line (tty) the user is logged in on.
%M The full hostname of the remote host.
%m The hostname up to the first `.'. If only
the IP address is available or the utmp
field contains the name of an X-windows dis-
play, the whole name is printed.
NOTE: The `%m' and `%M' escapes will work
only if there is a host name field in the
utmp on your machine. Otherwise they are
treated as ordinary strings.
%S (%s)
Start (stop) standout mode.
%U (%u)
Start (stop) underline mode.
%B (%b)
Start (stop) boldface mode.
%t
%@ The time, in 12-hour, am/pm format.
%T The time, in 24-hour format.
%w The date in `day-dd' format.
%W The date in `mm/dd/yy' format.
%D The date in `yy-mm-dd' format.
%(x:true-text:false-text)
Specifies a ternary expression. The charac-
ter following the x is arbitrary; the same
character is used to separate the text for
the "true" result from that for the "false"
result. Both the separator and the right
parenthesis may be escaped with a backslash.
Ternary expressions may be nested.
The test character x may be any one of `l',
`n', `m' or `M', which indicate a `true'
result if the corresponding escape sequence
would return a non-empty value; or it may be
`a', which indicates a `true' result if the
watched user has logged in, or `false' if he
has logged out. Other characters evaluate
to neither true nor false; the entire
expression is omitted in this case.
If the result is `true', then the true-text
is formatted according to the rules above
and printed, and the false-text is skipped.
If `false', the true-text is skipped and the
false-text is formatted and printed. Either
or both of the branches may be empty, but
both separators must be present in any case.
WORDCHARS
A list of non-alphanumeric characters considered
part of a word by the line editor.
ZBEEP If set, this gives a string of characters, which
can use all the same codes as the bindkey command
as described in the zsh/zle module entry in zshmod-
ules(1), that will be output to the terminal
instead of beeping. This may have a visible
instead of an audible effect; for example, the
string `\e[?5h\e[?5l' on a vt100 or xterm will have
the effect of flashing reverse video on and off (if
you usually use reverse video, you should use the
string `\e[?5l\e[?5h' instead). This takes prece-
dence over the NOBEEP option.
ZDOTDIR
The directory to search for shell startup files
ZSHOPTIONS(1) ZSHOPTIONS(1)
(.zshrc, etc), if not $HOME.
NAME
zshoptions - zsh options
SPECIFYING OPTIONS
Options are primarily referred to by name. These names
are case insensitive and underscores are ignored. For
example, `allexport' is equivalent to `A__lleXP_ort'.
The sense of an option name may be inverted by preceding
it with `no', so `setopt No_Beep' is equivalent to `unse-
topt 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 exam-
ple the string `-f ' will be treated just as `-f', but
the string `-f i' is an error. This is because many sys-
tems which implement the `#!' mechanism for calling
scripts do not strip trailing whitespace.
DESCRIPTION OF OPTIONS
In the following list, options set by default in all emu-
lations are marked ; those set by default only in csh,
ksh, sh, or zsh emulations are marked , , ,
as appropriate. When listing options (by `setopt', `unse-
topt', `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.
Changing Directories
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 direc-
tory.
AUTO_PUSHD (-N)
Make cd push the old directory onto the directory
stack.
CDABLE_VARS (-T)
If the argument to a cd command (or an implied cd
with the AUTO_CD option set) is not a directory,
and does not begin with a slash, try to expand the
expression as if it were preceded by a `~' (see the
section `Filename Expansion').
CHASE_DOTS
When changing to a directory containing a path seg-
ment `..' which would otherwise be treated as can-
celing 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 $PWD would be deleted), 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.
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'.
Completion
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 cur-
sor 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 per-
formed.
AUTO_LIST (-9)
Automatically list choices on an ambiguous comple-
tion.
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. Com-
pletion 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 com-
mand (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 dis-
tinct 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 COM-
PLETE_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, match-
ing control (for example, case-insensitive or
anchored matching) cannot be used. This limitation
only applies when the current word contains a pat-
tern; simply turning on the GLOB_COMPLETE option
does not have this effect.
HASH_LIST_ALL
Whenever a command completion is attempted, make
sure the entire command path is hashed first. This
makes the first completion slower.
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 noth-
ing 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 hor-
izontally, 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 identi-
fying mark.
MENU_COMPLETE (-Y)
On an ambiguous completion, instead of listing pos-
sibilities or beeping, insert the first match imme-
diately. 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 direc-
tion. This option overrides AUTO_MENU.
REC_EXACT (-S)
In completion, recognize exact matches even if they
are ambiguous.
Expansion and Globbing
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 paren-
theses as a qualifier list, if it contains no `|',
`(' or (if special) `~' characters. See the sec-
tion `Filename Generation'.
BRACE_CCL
Expand expressions in braces which would not other-
wise undergo brace expansion to a lexically ordered
list of all the characters. See the section `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 file-
name generation will cause case-insensitive match-
ing. For example, cvs(/) can match the directory
CVS owing to the presence of the globbing flag
(unless the option BARE_GLOB_QUAL is unset).
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 the section
`Filename Expansion'.)
EXTENDED_GLOB
Treat the `#', `~' and `^' characters as part of
patterns for filename generation, etc. (An initial
unquoted `~' always produces named directory expan-
sion.)
GLOB (+F, ksh: +f)
Perform filename generation (globbing). (See the
section `Filename Generation'.)
GLOB_ASSIGN
If this option is set, filename generation (glob-
bing) 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 assign-
ments 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_SUBST
Treat any characters resulting from parameter
expansion as being eligible for file 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.
IGNORE_BRACES (-I)
Do not perform brace expansion.
KSH_GLOB
In pattern matching, the interpretation of paren-
theses is affected by a preceding `@', `*', `+',
`?' or `!'. See the section `Filename Generation'.
MAGIC_EQUAL_SUBST
All unquoted arguments of the form `any-
thing=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 wordsplitting.
MARK_DIRS (-8, ksh: -X)
Append a trailing `/' to all directory names
resulting from filename generation (globbing).
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 gen-
eration 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'.
SH_GLOB
Disables the special meaning of `(', `|', `)' and
'<' for globbing the result of parameter and com-
mand substitutions, and in some other places where
the shell accepts patterns. 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. Otherwise they are treated as an
error.
History
APPEND_HISTORY
If this is set, zsh sessions will append their his-
tory list to the history file, rather than over-
write it. Thus, multiple parallel zsh sessions will
all have their history lists added to the history
file, in the order they are killed.
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 when an attempt is made 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 HIST-
SIZE to a larger number than SAVEHIST in order to
give you some room for the duplicated events, oth-
erwise this option will behave just like
HIST_IGNORE_ALL_DUPS once the history fills up with
unique events.
HIST_FIND_NO_DUPS
When searching for history entries in the line edi-
tor, 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 previ-
ous 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.
Note that the command lingers in the internal his-
tory 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_NO_FUNCTIONS
Remove function definitions from the history list.
Note that the function lingers in the internal his-
tory 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_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 expan-
sion, don't execute the line directly; instead,
perform history expansion and reload the line into
the editing buffer.
INC_APPEND_HISTORY
This options works like APPEND_HISTORY except that
new history lines are added to the $HISTFILE incre-
mentally (as soon as they are entered), rather than
waiting until the shell is killed. The file is
periodically trimmed to the number of lines speci-
fied by $SAVEHIST, but can exceed this value
between trimmings.
SHARE_HISTORY
This option both imports new commands from the his-
tory file, and also causes your typed commands to
be appended to the history file (the latter is like
specifying INC_APPEND_HISTORY). The history lines
are also output with timestamps ala EXTENDED_HIS-
TORY (which makes it easier to find the spot where
we left off reading the file after it gets re-writ-
ten).
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-his-
tory 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 on, and then
manually import commands whenever you need them
using `fc -RI'.
Initialisation
ALL_EXPORT (-a, ksh: -a)
All parameters subsequently defined are automati-
cally 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 explic-
itly. 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 compati-
bility; it is not recommended that its behaviour be
relied upon. Note that the builtin export always
sets both the -x and -g flags, and hence its effect
extends beyond the scope of the enclosing function;
this is the most portable way to achieve this
behaviour.
GLOBAL_RCS (-d)
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 the section `Files'. If this
option is unset, the /etc/zshenv file is still
sourced, but any of the others will not be; it can
be set at any time to prevent the remaining startup
files after the currently executing one from being
sourced.
Input/Output
ALIASES
Expand aliases.
CLOBBER (+C, ksh: +C)
Allows `>' redirection to truncate existing files,
and `>>' to create files. Otherwise `>!' or `>|'
must be used to truncate a file, and `>>!' or `>>|'
to create a file.
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.
CORRECT_ALL (-O)
Try to correct the spelling of all arguments in a
line.
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 print-
ing 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 the
functions or aliases hash tables are hashed in
order to avoid reporting them as spelling errors.
HASH_DIRS
Whenever a command name is hashed, hash the direc-
tory containing it, as well as all directories that
occur earlier in the path. Has no effect if nei-
ther HASH_CMDS nor CORRECT is set.
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 exe-
cuted (assuming it exists). Commands explicitly
beginning with `/', `./' or `../' are not subject
to the path search. This also applies to the .
builtin.
Note that subdirectories of the current directory
are always searched for executables specified in
this form. This takes place before any search
indicated by this option, and regardless of whether
`.' or the current directory appear in the command
search path.
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.
RC_QUOTES
Allow the character sequence `''' to signify a sin-
gle 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.
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 key-
boards where the return key is too small, and the
backquote key lies annoyingly close to it.
Job Control
AUTO_CONTINUE
With this option set, stopped jobs that are removed
from the job table with the disown builtin command
are automatically sent a CONT signal to make them
running.
AUTO_RESUME (-W)
Treat single word simple commands without redirec-
tion 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 the precmd function is not counted for
this purpose.
HUP
Send the HUP signal to running jobs when the shell
exits.
LONG_LIST_JOBS (-R)
List jobs 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.
Prompting
PROMPT_BANG
If set, `!' is treated specially in prompt expan-
sion. See the section `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 edi-
tor knows where the start of the line appears.
PROMPT_PERCENT
If set, `%' is treated specially in prompt expan-
sion. See the section `Prompt Expansion'.
PROMPT_SUBST
If set, parameter expansion, command substitution
and arithmetic expansion are performed in prompts.
Substitutions within prompts do not affect the com-
mand 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.
Scripts and Functions
C_BASES
Output hexadecimal numbers in the standard C for-
mat, 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.
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.
ERR_RETURN
If a command has a non-zero exit status, return
immediately from the enclosing function. The logic
is identical 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.
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 func-
tion/script.
LOCAL_OPTIONS
If this option is set at the point of return from a
shell function, all the options (including this
one) which were in force upon entry to the function
are restored. Otherwise, only this option and the
XTRACE and PRINT_EXIT_VALUE options are restored.
Hence if this is explicitly unset by a shell func-
tion 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_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
trap - INT
fn() { setopt localtraps; trap '' INT; sleep 3; }
will restore normally handling of SIGINT after the
function exits.
MULTIOS
Perform implicit tees or cats when multiple redi-
rections are attempted (see the section `Redirec-
tion').
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.
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 parame-
ter. If the option is set, they will only be shown
when parameters are selected with the `-m' option.
The option `-p' is available whether or not the
option is set.
VERBOSE (-v, ksh: -v)
Print shell input lines as they are read.
XTRACE (-x, ksh: -x)
Print commands and their arguments as they are exe-
cuted.
Shell Emulation
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.
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, 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 the section
`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 sub-
script (`${path[2]}' rather than just `$path[2]').
KSH_AUTOLOAD
Emulate ksh function autoloading. This means that
when a function is autoloaded, the corresponding
file is merely executed, and must define the func-
tion 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
Alters the way arguments to the typeset family of
commands, including declare, export, float, inte-
ger, 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.
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 com-
pletes unless the special builtin is prefixed with
the command builtin. Special builtins are ., :,
break, continue, declare, eval, exit, export, inte-
ger, local, readonly, return, set, shift, source,
times, trap and unset.
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 expan-
sion, so things like `~$USERNAME' and `~{pfal-
stad,rc}' will work.
SH_NULLCMD
Do not use the values of NULLCMD and READNULLCMD
when doing redirections, use `:' instead (see the
section `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 the sec-
tion `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.
Shell State
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 cannot be changed anywhere other than the
command line.
LOGIN (-l, ksh: -l)
This is a login shell. If this option is not
explicitly set, the shell is 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. This is enabled automati-
cally on startup if the effective user (group) ID
is not equal to the real user (group) ID. Turning
this option off causes the effective user and group
IDs to be set to the real user and group IDs. This
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/pro-
file on interactive shells). Sourcing ~/.profile is
disabled and the contents of the ENV variable is
ignored. This option cannot be changed using the -m
option of setopt and unsetopt, and changing it
inside a function always changes it globally
regardless of the LOCAL_OPTIONS option.
RESTRICTED (-r)
Enables restricted mode. This option cannot be
changed using unsetopt, and setting it inside a
function always changes it globally regardless of
the LOCAL_OPTIONS option. See the section
`Restricted Shell'.
SHIN_STDIN (-s, ksh: -s)
Commands are being read from the standard input.
Commands are read from standard input if no command
is specified with -c and no file of commands is
specified. If SHIN_STDIN is set explicitly on the
command line, any argument that would otherwise
have been taken as a file to run will instead be
treated as a normal positional parameter. Note
that setting or unsetting this option on the com-
mand line does not necessarily affect the state the
option will have while the shell is running - that
is purely an indicator of whether on not commands
are actually being read from standard input. The
value of this option cannot be changed anywhere
other than the command line.
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 cannot be
changed anywhere other than the command line.
Zle
BEEP (+B)
Beep on error in ZLE.
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 pro-
vided 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.
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 pro-
vided for compatibility; bindkey is the recommended
interface.
ZLE (-Z)
Use the zsh line editor. Set by default in inter-
active shells connected to a terminal.
OPTION ALIASES
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)
SINGLE LETTER OPTIONS
Default set
-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
sh/ksh emulation set
-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
Also note
-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 com-
mand
-m Used by setopt for pattern-matching option setting
-o Used in all places to allow use of long option
names
ZSHBUILTINS(1) ZSHBUILTINS(1)
-s Used by set to sort positional parameters
NAME
zshbuiltins - zsh built-in commands
SHELL BUILTIN COMMANDS
- simple command
See the section `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 parame-
ters are restored when the file is done executing.
The exit status is the exit status of the last com-
mand executed.
: [ arg ... ]
This command does nothing, although normal argument
expansions is performed which may have effects on
shell parameters. A zero exit code 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 expan-
sion. If the -g flag is present, define a global
alias; global aliases are expanded even if they do
not occur in command position.
If the -s flags 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 cur-
rently 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, regu-
lar or suffix aliases, respectively; a regular
alias is one which is neither a global nor a suffix
alias. Using `+' instead of `-', or ending the
option list with a single `+', prevents the values
of the aliases from being printed.
If the -L flag is present, then print each alias in
a manner suitable for putting in a startup script.
The exit status is nonzero if a name (with no
value) is given for which no alias has been
defined.
autoload [ {+|-}UXktz ] [ -w ] [ name ... ]
Equivalent to functions -u, with the exception of
-X/+X and -w.
The flag -X may be used only inside a shell func-
tion, and may not be followed by a name. 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.
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 defini-
tion 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.
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 autoload-
ing.
bg [ job ... ]
job ... &
Put each specified job in the background, or the
current job if none is specified.
bindkey
See the section `Zle Builtins' in zshzle(1).
break [ n ]
Exit from an enclosing for, while, until, select or
repeat loop. If n is specified, then break n lev-
els instead of just one.
builtin name [ args ... ]
Executes the builtin name, with the given args.
bye Same as exit.
cap See the section `The zsh/cap Module' in zshmod-
ules(1).
cd [ -sLP ] [ arg ]
cd [ -sLP ] old new
cd [ -sLP ] {+|-}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 value of $OLDPWD, the previous
directory. Otherwise, if a directory named arg is
not found in the current directory and arg does not
begin with a slash, search each component of the
shell parameter cdpath. If no directory is found
and the option CDABLE_VARS is set, and a parameter
named arg exists whose value begins with a slash,
treat its value as the directory. In that case,
the parameter is added to the named directory hash
table.
The second form of cd substitutes the string new
for the string old in the name of the current
directory, and tries to change to this new
directory.
The third form of cd extracts an entry from the
directory stack, and changes to that directory. An
argument of the form `+n' identifies a stack entry
by counting from the left of the list shown by the
dirs command, starting with zero. An argument of
the form `-n' counts from the right. If the
PUSHD_MINUS option is set, the meanings of `+' and
`-' in this context are swapped.
If the -s option is specified, cd refuses to change
the current directory if the given pathname con-
tains 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 followed regardless of the
state of the CHASE_LINKS option.
chdir Same as cd.
clone See the section `The zsh/clone Module' in zshmod-
ules(1).
command [ -pvV ] simple command
The simple command argument is taken as an external
command instead of a function or builtin and is
executed. If the POSIX_BUILTINS option is set,
builtins will also be executed but certain special
properties of them are suppressed. The -p flag
causes a default path to be searched instead of
that in $path. With the -v flag, command is similar
to whence and with -V, it is equivalent to whence
-v.
See also the section `Precommand Modifiers'.
comparguments
See the section `The zsh/computil Module' in zsh-
modules(1).
compcall
See the section `The zsh/compctl Module' in zshmod-
ules(1).
compctl
See the section `The zsh/compctl Module' in zshmod-
ules(1).
compdescribe
See the section `The zsh/computil Module' in zsh-
modules(1).
compfiles
See the section `The zsh/computil Module' in zsh-
modules(1).
compgroups
See the section `The zsh/computil Module' in zsh-
modules(1).
compquote
See the section `The zsh/computil Module' in zsh-
modules(1).
comptags
See the section `The zsh/computil Module' in zsh-
modules(1).
comptry
See the section `The zsh/computil Module' in zsh-
modules(1).
compvalues
See the section `The zsh/computil Module' in zsh-
modules(1).
continue [ n ]
Resume the next iteration of the enclosing for,
while, until, select or repeat loop. If n is spec-
ified, 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 direc-
tory 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.
-p print directory entries one per line.
-v number the directories in the stack when
printing.
disable [ -afmrs ] name ...
Temporarily disable the named hash table elements.
The default is to disable builtin commands. This
allows you to use an external command with the same
name as a builtin command. The -a option causes
disable to act on regular or global aliases. The
-s option causes disable to act on suffix aliases.
The -f option causes disable to act on shell func-
tions. The -r options causes disable to act on
reserved words. Without arguments all disabled
hash table elements from the corresponding hash
table are printed. With the -m flag the arguments
are taken as patterns (which should be quoted to
prevent them from undergoing filename expansion),
and all hash table elements from the corresponding
hash table matching these patterns are disabled.
Disabled objects can be enabled with the enable
command.
disown [ job ... ]
job ... &|
job ... &!
Remove the specified jobs from the job table; the
shell will no longer report their status, and will
not complain if you try to exit an interactive
shell with them running or stopped. If no job is
specified, disown the current job.
If the jobs are currently stopped and the AUTO_CON-
TINUE option is not set, a warning is printed con-
taining information about how to make them running
after they have been disowned. If one of the lat-
ter 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 pre-
sent, print a newline at the end. echo recognizes
the following escape sequences:
\a bell character
\b backspace
\c suppress 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.
echotc See the section `The zsh/termcap Module' in zshmod-
ules(1).
echoti See the section `The zsh/terminfo Module' in zsh-
modules(1).
emulate [ -LR ] {zsh|sh|ksh|csh}
Set up zsh options to emulate the specified shell
as much as possible. csh will never be fully emu-
lated. If the argument is not one of the shells
listed above, zsh will be used as a default; more
precisely, the tests performed on the argument are
the same as those used to determine the emulation
at startup based on the shell name, see the section
`Compatibility' in zshmisc(1) . If the -R option
is given, all options are reset to their default
value corresponding to the specified emulation
mode, except for certain options describing the
interactive environment; otherwise, only those
options likely to cause portability problems in
scripts and functions are altered. If the -L
option is given, the options LOCAL_OPTIONS and
LOCAL_TRAPS will be set as well, causing the
effects of the emulate command and any setopt and
trap commands to be local to the immediately sur-
rounding shell function, if any; normally these
options are turned off in all emulation modes
except ksh.
enable [ -afmrs ] name ...
Enable the named hash table elements, presumably
disabled earlier with disable. The default is to
enable builtin commands. The -a option causes
enable to act on regular or global aliases. The -s
option causes enable to act on suffix aliases. The
-f option causes enable to act on shell functions.
The -r option causes enable to act on reserved
words. Without arguments all enabled hash table
elements from the corresponding hash table are
printed. With the -m flag the arguments are taken
as patterns (should be quoted) and all hash table
elements from the corresponding hash table matching
these patterns are enabled. Enabled objects can be
disabled with the disable builtin command.
eval [ arg ... ]
Read the arguments as input to the shell and exe-
cute the resulting command in the current shell
process.
exec simple command
See the section `Precommand Modifiers'.
exit [ n ]
Exit the shell with the exit code specified by n;
if none is specified, use the exit code from the
last command executed. An EOF condition will also
cause the shell to exit, unless the IGNORE_EOF
option is set.
export [ name[=value] ... ]
The specified names are marked for automatic export
to the environment of subsequently executed com-
mands. 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 code of 1.
fc [ -e ename ] [ -nlrdDfEim ] [ old=new ... ] [ first [
last ] ]
fc -p [ -a ] [ filename [ histsize [ savehistsize ] ] ]
fc -P
fc -ARWI [ filename ]
Select a range of commands from first to last from
the history list. The arguments first and last may
be specified as a number or as a string. A nega-
tive 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 commands.
If the -l flag is given, the resulting commands are
listed on standard output. If the -m flag is also
given the first argument is taken as a pattern
(should be quoted) and only the history events
matching this pattern will be shown. Otherwise the
editor program ename is invoked on a file contain-
ing these history events. If ename is not given,
the value of the parameter FCEDIT is used. If
ename is `-', no editor is invoked. When editing
is complete, the edited command is executed.
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.
The flag -r reverses the order of the commands and
the flag -n suppresses command numbers when list-
ing. Also when listing, -d prints timestamps for
each command, and -f prints full time-date stamps.
Adding the -E flag causes the dates to be printed
as `dd.mm.yyyy', instead of the default
`mm/dd/yyyy'. Adding the -i flag causes the dates
to be printed in ISO8601 `yyyy-mm-dd' format. With
the -D flag, fc prints elapsed times.
`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' manu-
ally. If no arguments are specified, the history
list is left empty, $HISTFILE is unset, and $HIST-
SIZE & $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 manu-
ally 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 [ {+|-}EFHghlprtux ] [ -LRZ [ n ]] [ name[=value]
... ]
Equivalent to typeset -E, except that options
irrelevant to floating point numbers are not per-
mitted.
functions [ {+|-}UXkmtuz ] [ name ... ]
Equivalent to typeset -f.
getcap See the section `The zsh/cap Module' in zshmod-
ules(1).
getln [ -AclneE ] name ...
Read the top value from the buffer stack and put it
in the shell parameter name. Equivalent to read
-zr.
getopts optstring name [ arg ... ]
Checks the args for legal options. If the args are
omitted, use the positional parameters. A valid
option argument begins with a `+' or a `-'. An
argument not beginning with a `+' or a `-', or the
argument `--', ends the options. Note that a sin-
gle `-' is not considered a valid option argument.
optstring contains the letters that getopts recog-
nizes. If a letter is followed by a `:', that
option is expected to have 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 ini-
tial value of 1, and is normally reset to 1 upon
exit from a shell function. OPTARG is not reset
and retains its value from the most recent call to
getopts. If either of OPTIND or OPTARG is explic-
itly 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 option is missing. Otherwise,
getopts sets name to `?' and prints an error mes-
sage when an option is invalid. The exit status is
nonzero when there are no more options.
hash [ -Ldfmrv ] [ name[=value] ] ...
hash can be used to directly modify the contents of
the command hash table, and the named directory
hash table. Normally one would modify these tables
by modifying one's PATH (for the command hash
table) or by creating appropriate shell parameters
(for the named directory hash table). The choice
of hash table to work on is determined by the -d
option; without the option the command hash table
is used, and with the option the named directory
hash table is used.
Given no arguments, and neither the -r or -f
options, the selected hash table will be listed in
full.
The -r option causes the selected hash table to be
emptied. It will be subsequently rebuilt in the
normal fashion. The -f option causes the selected
hash table to be fully rebuilt immediately. For
the command hash table this hashes all the absolute
directories in the PATH, and for the named direc-
tory hash table this adds all users' home directo-
ries. These two options cannot be used with any
arguments.
The -m option causes the arguments to be taken as
patterns (which should be quoted) and the elements
of the hash table matching those patterns are
printed. This is the only way to display a limited
selection of hash table elements.
For each name with a corresponding value, put
`name' in the selected hash table, associating it
with the pathname `value'. In the command hash
table, this means that whenever `name' is used as a
command argument, the shell will try to execute the
file given by `value'. In the named directory hash
table, this means that `value' may be referred to
as `~name'.
For each name with no corresponding value, attempt
to add name to the hash table, checking what the
appropriate value is in the normal manner for that
hash table. If an appropriate value can't be
found, then the hash table will be unchanged.
The -v option causes hash table entries to be
listed as they are added by explicit specification.
If has no effect if used with -f.
If the -L flag is present, then each hash table
entry is printed in the form of a call to hash.
history
Same as fc -l.
integer [ {+|-}Hghilprtux ] [ -LRZ [ n ]] [ name[=value]
... ]
Equivalent to typeset -i, except that options
irrelevant to integers are not permitted.
jobs [ -dlprs ] [ job ... ]
jobs -Z string
Lists information about each given job, or all jobs
if job is omitted. The -l flag lists process IDs,
and the -p flag lists process groups. If the -r
flag is specified only running jobs will be listed
and if the -s flag is given only stopped jobs are
shown. If the -d flag is given, the directory from
which the job was started (which may not be the
current directory of the job) will also be shown.
The -Z option replaces the shell's argument and
environment space with the given string, truncated
if necessary to fit. This will normally be visible
in ps (ps(1)) listings. This feature is typically
used by daemons, to indicate their state.
kill [ -s signal_name | -n signal_number | -sig ] job ...
kill -l [ sig ... ]
Sends either SIGTERM or the specified signal to the
given jobs or processes. Signals are given by num-
ber 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.
let arg ...
Evaluate each arg as an arithmetic expression. See
the section `Arithmetic Evaluation' for a descrip-
tion of arithmetic expressions. The exit status is
0 if the value of the last expression is nonzero,
and 1 otherwise.
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.
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.
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.
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 inte-
ger, 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
[mm:]ss
minutes and seconds
local [ {+|-}AEFHUahlprtux ] [ -LRZi [ n ]] [ name[=value]
] ...
Same as typeset, except that the options -g, and -f
are not permitted. In this case the -x option does
not force the use of -g, i.e. exported variables
will be local to functions.
log List all users currently logged in who are affected
by the current setting of the watch parameter.
logout [ n ]
Same as exit, except that it only works in a login
shell.
noglob simple command
See the section `Precommand Modifiers'.
popd [ {+|-}n ]
Remove an entry from the directory stack, and per-
form a cd to the new top directory. With no argu-
ment, the current top entry is removed. An argu-
ment 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.
print [ -abcDilmnNoOpPrsz ] [ -u n ] [ -f format ] [ -C
cols ]
[ -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' metafies
the character x (sets the highest bit), `\C-x' pro-
duces a control character (`\C-@' and `\C-?' give
the characters NUL and delete), and `\E' is a syn-
onym 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 zshzle(1).
-c Print the arguments in columns. Unless -a
is also given, arguments are printed with
the row incrementing first.
-C cols
Print the arguments in cols columns. Unless
-a is also given, arguments are printed with
the row incrementing first.
-D Treat the arguments as directory names,
replacing prefixes with ~ expressions, as
appropriate.
-i If given together with -o or -O, sorting is
performed case-independently.
-l Print the arguments separated by newlines
instead of spaces.
-m Take the first argument as a pattern (should
be quoted), and remove it from the argument
list together with subsequent arguments that
do not match this pattern.
-n Do not add a newline to the output.
-N Print the arguments separated and terminated
by nulls.
-o Print the arguments sorted in ascending
order.
-O Print the arguments sorted in descending
order.
-p Print the arguments to the input of the
coprocess.
-P Perform prompt expansion (see zshmisc(1)).
-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 trail-
ing 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.
-u n Print the arguments to file descriptor n.
-z Push the arguments onto the editing buffer
stack, separated by spaces.
If any of `-m', `-o' or `-O' are used in combina-
tion with `-f' and there are no arguments (after
the removal process in the case of `-m') then noth-
ing is printed.
printf format [ arg ... ]
Print the arguments according to the format speci-
fication. Formatting rules are the same as used in
C. The same escape sequences as for echo are recog-
nised in the format. All C conversion specifica-
tions 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 char-
acter is used as the number to print otherwise the
argument is evaluated as an arithmetic expression.
See the section `Arithmetic Evaluation' for a
description of arithmetic expressions. With `%n',
the corresponding argument is taken as an identi-
fier 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 argu-
ments 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.
pushd [ -sLP ] [ arg ]
pushd [ -sLP ] old new
pushd [ -sLP ] {+|-}n
Change the current directory, and push the old cur-
rent 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 rotat-
ing 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, start-
ing 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 option PUSHD_SILENT is not set, the direc-
tory stack will be printed after a pushd is per-
formed.
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 sym-
bolic 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 fol-
lowing character and are not removed.
-s Don't echo back characters if reading from
the terminal. Currently does not work with
the -q option.
-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 value is zero only if
the character was `y' or `Y'. Note that
this always reads from the terminal, even if
used with the -p or -u or -z flags or with
redirected input. 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.
-z Read one entry from the editor buffer stack
and assign it to the first name, without
word splitting. Text is pushed onto the
stack with `print -z' or with push-line from
the line editor (see zshzle(1)). This flag
is ignored when the -k or -q flags are pre-
sent.
-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 (spec-
ified 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 read-
ing, 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 interac-
tive.
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 com-
pctl 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.
rehash Same as hash -r.
return [ n ]
Causes a shell function or . script to return to
the invoking script with the return status speci-
fied by n. If n is omitted, the return status is
that of the last command executed.
If return was executed from a trap in a TRAPNAL
function, the effect is different for zero and
non-zero return status. With zero status (or after
an implicit return at the end of the trap), the
shell will return to whatever it was previously
processing; with a non-zero status, the shell will
behave as interrupted except that the return status
of the trap is retained. Note that the numeric
value of the signal which caused the trap is passed
as the first argument, so the statement `return
$((128+$1))' will return the same status as if the
signal had not been trapped.
sched See the section `The zsh/sched Module' in zshmod-
ules(1).
set [ {+|-}options | {+|-}o [ option_name ] ] ... [ {+|-}A
[ name ] ] [ arg ... ]
Set the options for the shell and/or set the posi-
tional parameters, or declare and set an array. If
the -s option is given, it causes the specified
arguments to be sorted before assigning them to the
positional parameters (or to the array name if -A
is used). With +s sort arguments in descending
order. For the meaning of the other flags, see
zshoptions(1). Flags may be specified by name
using the -o option. If no option name is supplied
with -o, the current option states are printed.
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 argu-
ments 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 argu-
ments 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.
setcap See the section `The zsh/cap Module' in zshmod-
ules(1).
setopt [ {+|-}options | {+|-}o option_name ] [ name ... ]
Set the options for the shell. All options speci-
fied either with flags or by name are set. If no
arguments are supplied, the names of all options
currently set are printed. 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.
shift [ 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.
source file [ arg ... ]
Same as ., except that the current directory is
always searched and is always searched first,
before directories in $path.
stat See the section `The zsh/stat Module' in zshmod-
ules(1).
suspend [ -f ]
Suspend the execution of the shell (send it a SIGT-
STP) 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 compat-
ibility; use conditional expressions instead (see
the section `Conditional Expressions'). The main
differences between the conditional expression syn-
tax and the test and [ builtins are: these com-
mands 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
arithemetic expressions.
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 pro-
tect it from immediate evaluation by the shell) to
be read and executed when the shell receives sig.
Each sig can be given as a number or as the name of
a signal. If arg is `-', then all traps sig are
reset to their default values. If arg is the empty
string, then this signal is ignored by the shell
and by the commands it invokes.
If sig is ZERR then arg will be executed after each
command with a nonzero exit status. If sig is
DEBUG then arg will be executed after each command.
If sig is 0 or EXIT and the trap statement is exe-
cuted inside the body of a function, then the com-
mand arg is executed after the function completes.
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.
ZERR, DEBUG and EXIT traps are not executed inside
other traps.
The trap command with no arguments prints a list of
commands associated with each signal.
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 code of 0.
ttyctl -fu
The -f option freezes the tty, 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. Without
options it reports whether the terminal is frozen
or not.
type [ -wfpams ] name ...
Equivalent to whence -v.
typeset [ {+|-}AEFHUafghklprtuxmz ] [ -LRZi [ n ]] [
name[=value] ... ]
typeset -T [ {+|-}Urux ] [ -LRZ [ n ]] SCALAR[=value]
array [ sep ]
Set or display attributes and values for shell
parameters.
A parameter is created for each name that does not
already refer to one. When inside a function, a
new parameter is created for every name (even those
that already exist), and is unset again when the
function completes. See `Local Parameters' in zsh-
param(1). The same rules apply to special shell
parameters, which retain their special attributes
when made local.
For each name=value assignment, the parameter name
is set to value. Note that arrays currently cannot
be assigned in typeset expressions, only scalars
and integers.
If the shell option TYPESET_SILENT is not set, for
each remaining name that refers to a parameter that
is 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 the -p option is given, parameters and values
are printed in the form of a typeset comand and an
assignment (which will be printed separately for
arrays and associative arrays), regardless of other
flags and options. Note that the -h flag on param-
eters is respected; no value will be shown for
these parameters.
If the -T option is given, two or three arguments
must be present (an exception is that zero argu-
ments are allowed to show the list of parameters
created in this fashion). The first two are the
name of a scalar and 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 signifi-
cant; any remaining characters are ignored. Only
the scalar parameter may be assigned an initial
value. Both the scalar and the array may otherwise
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, or converting the type of one of them with
another typeset command; +T does not work, assign-
ing 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).
The -g (global) flag is treated specially: it means
that any resulting parameter will not be restricted
to local scope. Note that this does not necessar-
ily 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 combina-
tion with -m (see below).
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. Also, if the last option is the
word `+', then names are printed but values are
not.
If the -m flag is given the name arguments are
taken as patterns (which should be quoted). 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). Note that -m is ignored if no patterns
are given. 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 to be printed, even inside a function.
If no attribute flags are given and either no -m
flag is present or the +m form was used, each
parameter name printed is preceded by a list of the
attributes of that parameter (array, association,
exported, integer, readonly). 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 attribute flags may be specified:
-A The names refer to associative array parame-
ters; see `Array Parameters' in zshparam(1).
-L Left justify and remove leading blanks from
value. 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 com-
plete value assigned to the parameter is
used to determine the width, not the value
that would be output. 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 unex-
pected results with numeric parameters.
Leading zeros are removed if the -Z flag is
also set.
-R Similar to -L, except that right justifica-
tion is used; when the parameter is
expanded, the field is left filled with
blanks or truncated from the end. May not
be combined with the -Z flag.
-U For arrays (but not for associative arrays),
keep only the first occurrence of each
duplicated value. This may also be set for
colon-separated special parameters like PATH
or FIGNORE, etc. This flag has a different
meaning when used with -f; see below.
-Z 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 spe-
cially handled: they are always eligible for
padding with zeroes, and the zeroes are
inserted at an appropriate place in the out-
put.
-a The names refer to array parameters. An
array parameter may be created this way, but
it may not be assigned to in the typeset
statement. 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, -k, -u,
-U and -z. The flag -t turns on execution
tracing for this function. 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. The fpath parameter will be
searched to find the function definition
when the function is first referenced; see
the section `Functions'. The -k and -z flags
make the function be loaded using ksh-style
or zsh-style autoloading respectively. If
neither is given, the setting of the
KSH_AUTOLOAD option determines how the func-
tion is loaded.
-h Hide: only useful for special parameters
(those marked `' in the table in zsh-
params(1)), and for local parameters with
the same name as a special parameter, though
harmless for others. A special parameter
with this attribute will not retain its spe-
cial effect when made local. Thus after
`typeset -h PATH', a function containing
`typeset PATH' will create an ordinary local
parameter without the usual behaviour of
PATH. Alternatively, the local parameter
may itself be given this attribute; hence
inside a function `typeset -h PATH' creates
an ordinary local parameter and the special
PATH parameter is not altered in any way.
It is also possible to create a local param-
eter using `typeset +h special', where the
local copy of special will retain its spe-
cial properties regardless of having the -h
attribute. Global special parameters loaded
from shell modules (currently those in
zsh/mapfile and zsh/parameter) are automati-
cally given the -h attribute to avoid name
clashes.
-H Hide value: specifies that typeset will not
display the value of the parameter when
listing parameters; the display for such
parameters is always as if the `+' flag had
been given. Use of the parameter is in
other respects normal, and the option does
not apply if the parameter is specified by
name, or by pattern with the -m option.
This is on by default for the parameters in
the zsh/parameter and zsh/mapfile modules.
Note, however, that unlike the -h flag this
is also useful for non-special parameters.
-i Use an internal integer representation. If
n is nonzero it defines the output arith-
metic base, otherwise it is determined by
the first assignment.
-E Use an internal double-precision floating
point representation. On output the vari-
able will be converted to scientific nota-
tion. If n is nonzero it defines the number
of significant figures to display; the
default is ten.
-F Use an internal double-precision floating
point representation. On output the vari-
able will be converted to fixed-point deci-
mal 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.
-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 [ [ -SHacdfilmnpqstvx | -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 the
value `unlimited'. 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 values are
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 reson it will continue trying to set the
remaining limits.
-a Lists all of the current resource limits.
-c 512-byte blocks on the size of core dumps.
-d K-bytes on the size of the data segment.
-f 512-byte blocks on the size of files writ-
ten.
-i The number of pending signals.
-l K-bytes on the size of locked-in memory.
-m K-bytes on the size of physical memory.
-n open file descriptors.
-q Bytes in POSIX message queues.
-s K-bytes on the size of the stack.
-t CPU seconds to be used.
-u processes available to the user.
-v K-bytes on the size of virtual memory. On
some systems this refers to the limit called
`address space'.
-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 operat-
ing system. This may be used to set the limits for
resources known to the shell which do not corre-
spond to option letters. Such limits will be shown
by number in the output of `ulimit -a'.
The number may alternatively be out of the range of
limits compiled into the shell. The shell will try
to read or write the limit anyway, and will report
an error if this fails.
umask [ -S ] [ mask ]
The umask is set to mask. mask can be either an
octal number or a symbolic value as described in
chmod(1). If mask is omitted, the current value is
printed. The -S option causes the mask to be
printed as a symbolic value. Otherwise, the mask
is printed as an octal number. Note that in the
symbolic form the permissions you specify are those
which are to be allowed (not denied) to the users
specified.
unalias
Same as unhash -a.
unfunction
Same as unhash -f.
unhash [ -adfms ] name ...
Remove the element named name from an internal hash
table. The default is remove elements from the
command hash table. The -a option causes unhash to
remove regular or global aliases. 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 direc-
tories. If the -m flag is given the arguments are
taken as patterns (should be quoted) and all ele-
ments of the corresponding hash table with matching
names will be removed.
unlimit [ -hs ] resource ...
The resource limit for each resource is set to the
hard limit. If the -h flag is given and the shell
has appropriate privileges, the hard resource limit
for each resource is removed. The resources of the
shell process are only changed if the -s flag is
given.
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 pre-
fixed 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 can-
not be used when unsetting associative array ele-
ments, as the subscript will be treated as part of
the pattern.
The -v flag specifies that name refers to parame-
ters. 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 spec-
ified 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 inter-
preted as glob patterns), and all options with
names matching these patterns are unset.
vared See the section `Zle Builtins' in zshzle(1).
wait [ job ... ]
Wait for the specified jobs or processes. If job
is not given then all currently active child pro-
cesses are waited for. Each job can be either a
job specification or the process ID of a job in the
job table. The exit status from this command is
that of the job waited for.
whence [ -vcwfpams ] name ...
For each name, indicate how it would be interpreted
if used as a command name.
-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 hap-
pen 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 (should
be quoted), and the information is displayed
for each command matching one of these pat-
terns.
-s If a pathname contains symlinks, print the
symlink-free pathname as well.
where [ -wpms ] name ...
Equivalent to whence -ca.
which [ -wpams ] 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 func-
tions or scripts, storing the compiled form in a
file, and to examine files containing the compiled
form. This allows faster autoloading of functions
and execution 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 func-
tion is autoloaded; see the section `Autoloading
Functions' in zshfunc(1) for a description of how
autoloaded functions are searched. The extension
.zwc stands for `zsh word code'.
If there is at least one name argument, all the
named files are compiled into the output file given
as the first argument. If file does not end in
.zwc, this extension is automatically appended.
Files containing multiple compiled functions are
called `digest' files, and are intended to be used
as elements of the FPATH/fpath special array.
The second form, with the -c or -a options, writes
the compiled definitions for all the named func-
tions into file. For -c, the names must be func-
tions 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 defi-
nition files for autoloading define multiple func-
tions, 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 func-
tions currently defined or marked as autoloaded
will be written.
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 argu-
ments, nothing is output and the return value is
set to zero if definitions for all names were found
in the compiled file, and non-zero if the defini-
tion 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 autoload-
able 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 nei-
ther 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 ver-
sions of the compiled format, one for
big-endian machines and one for small-endian
machines. The upshot of this is that the
compiled file is machine independent and if
it is read or mapped, only one half of the
file is actually used (and mapped).
zformat
See the section `The zsh/zutil Module' in zshmod-
ules(1).
zftp See the section `The zsh/zftp Module' in zshmod-
ules(1).
zle See the section `Zle Builtins' in zshzle(1).
zmodload [ -dL ] [ ... ]
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 mod-
ules. Loading of modules while the shell is run-
ning (`dynamical loading') is not available on all
operating systems, or on all installations on a
particular operating system, although the zmodload
command itself is always available and can be used
to manipulate modules built into versions of the
shell executable without dynamical loading.
Without arguments the names of all currently loaded
binary modules are printed. The -L option causes
this list to be in the form of a series of zmodload
commands. Forms with arguments are:
zmodload [ -i ] 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 and the -i option is
given, the duplicate module is ignored.
Otherwise zmodload prints an error message.
The named module is searched for in the same
way a command is, using $module_path instead
of $path. However, the path search is per-
formed even when the module name contains a
`/', which it usually does. There is no way
to prevent the path search.
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 filesystem.
The -i option suppresses the error if the
module is already unloaded (or was never
loaded).
Each module has a boot and a cleanup func-
tion. 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 -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 sec-
ond and subsequent arguments will be loaded
before the module named in the first argu-
ment.
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 com-
mands.
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.
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, regardless of
which module it came from.
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 com-
mands.
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).
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 mod-
ule. 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 param-
eters 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. With argu-
ments only 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 availabil-
ity 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 mod-
ule 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 com-
pletely independent of whether the name
resolved is actually loaded as a module:
while the alias exists, loading and unload-
ing 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 redefin-
ing 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 for-
mat 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 mod-
ule 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 previ-
ously defined as a module alias via zmodload
-A, delete the alias. If any was not
defined, an error is caused and the remain-
der 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 defini-
tions). This is true even for systems that don't
support dynamic loading of modules.
zparseopts
See the section `The zsh/zutil Module' in zshmod-
ules(1).
zprof See the section `The zsh/zprof Module' in zshmod-
ules(1).
zpty See the section `The zsh/zpty Module' in zshmod-
ules(1).
zregexparse
See the section `The zsh/zutil Module' in
zshmodules(1).
zsocket
See the section `The zsh/net/socket Module' in zsh-
modules(1).
zstyle See the section `The zsh/zutil Module' in zshmod-
ules(1).
ztcp See the section `The zsh/net/tcp Module' in zshmod-
ZSHZLE(1) ZSHZLE(1)
ules(1).
NAME
zshzle - zsh command line editor
DESCRIPTION
If the ZLE option is set (which it is by default in inter-
active shells) and the shell input is attached to the ter-
minal, 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 SIN-
GLE_LINE_ZLE option is set. This mode is similar to ksh,
and uses no termcap sequences. If TERM is "emacs", the
ZLE option will be unset by default.
The parameters BAUD, COLUMNS, and LINES are also used by
the line editor. See Parameters Used By The Shell in zsh-
param(1).
KEYMAPS
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 manip-
ulate keymap names.
Initially, there are four keymaps:
emacs EMACS emulation
viins vi emulation - insert mode
vicmd vi emulation - command mode
.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 four 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', other-
wise it will be `emacs'. bindkey's -e and -v options pro-
vide 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.
Reading Commands
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 KEY-
TIMEOUT parameter; its default is 0.4 sec. There is no
timeout if the prefix string is not itself bound to a com-
mand.
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 fur-
ther replacement strings, but in order to detect loops the
process will be stopped if there are twenty such replace-
ments without a real command being read.
ZLE BUILTINS
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
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 cate-
gories: keymap selection, operation selection, and
others. The keymap selection options are:
-e Selects keymap `emacs', and also links it to
`main'.
-v Selects keymap `viins', and also links it to
`main'.
-a Selects keymap `vicmd'.
-M keymap
The keymap specifies a keymap name.
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 the -L
option is also used, list in the form of
bindkey commands to create the keymaps.
-d Delete all existing keymaps and reset to the
default state.
-D keymap ...
Delete the named keymaps.
-A old-keymap new-keymap
Make the new-keymap name an alias for
old-keymap, so that both names refer to the
same keymap. The names have equal standing;
if either is deleted, the other remains. If
there is already a keymap with the
new-keymap name, it is deleted.
-N new-keymap [ old-keymap ]
Create a new keymap, named new-keymap. If a
keymap already has that name, it is deleted.
If an old-keymap name is given, the new
keymap is initialized to be a duplicate of
it, otherwise the new keymap will be empty.
To use a newly created keymap, it should be linked
to main. Hence the sequence of commands to create
and use a new keymap `mymap' initialized from the
emacs keymap (which remains unchanged) is:
bindkey -N mymap emacs
bindkey -A mymap main
Note that while `bindkey -A newmap main' will work
when newmap is emacs or viins, it will not work for
vicmd, as switching from vi insert to command mode
becomes impossible.
The following operations act on the `main' keymap
if no keymap selection option was given:
-m Add the built-in set of meta-key bindings to
the selected keymap. Only keys that are
unbound or bound to self-insert are
affected.
-r in-string ...
Unbind the specified in-strings in the
selected keymap. This is exactly equivalent
to binding the strings to undefined-key.
When -R is also used, interpret the
in-strings as ranges.
When -p is also used, the in-strings specify
prefixes. Any binding that has the given
in-string as a prefix, not including the
binding for the in-string itself, if any,
will be removed. For example,
bindkey -rpM viins '^['
will remove all bindings in the vi-insert
keymap beginning with an escape character
(probably cursor keys), but leave the bind-
ing for the escape character itself (proba-
bly 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.
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 spec-
ified, 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, inclu-
sive, 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
\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 [ -Aache ] [ -p prompt ] [ -r rprompt ]
[ -M main-keymap ] [ -m vicmd-keymap ] 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.
If an array or array slice is being edited, separa-
tor characters as defined in $IFS will be shown
quoted with a backslash, as will backslashes them-
selves. 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 han-
dling of quotes, is performed.
Individual elements of existing array or associa-
tive array parameters may be edited by using sub-
script 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 edit-
ing, only -M is normally needed but the -m option
may still be used. On exit, the previous keymaps
will be restored.
zle
zle -l [ -L | -a ] [ string ... ]
zle -D widget ...
zle -A old-widget new-widget
zle -N widget [ function ]
zle -C widget completion-widget function
zle -R [ -c ] [ display-string ] [ string ... ]
zle -M string
zle -U string
zle -K keymap
zle -F [ -L ] [ fd [ handler ] ]
zle -I
zle widget [ -n num ] [ -N ] 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 ]
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, nothing
will be printed but the return status will
be zero if all strings are names of existing
widgets (or of user-defined widgets if the
-a flag is not given) and non-zero if at
least one string is not a name of an defined
widget.
-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-wid-
get 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 speci-
fied shell function is called. If no func-
tion name is specified, it defaults to the
same name as the widget. For further infor-
mation, see the section Widgets in zsh-
zle(1).
-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 infor-
mation, see zshcompwid(1).
-R [ -c ] [ display-string ] [ string ... ]
Redisplay the command line; this is to be
called from within a user-defined widget to
allow changes to become visible. If a dis-
play-string is given and not empty, this is
shown in the status line (immediately below
the line being edited).
If the optional strings are given they are
listed below the prompt in the same way as
completion lists are printed. If no strings
are given but the -c option is used such a
list is cleared.
Note that this option is only useful for
widgets that do not exit immediately after
using it because the strings displayed will
be erased immediately after return from the
widget.
This command can safely be called outside
user defined widgets; if zle is active, the
display will be refreshed, while if zle is
not active, the command has no effect. In
this case there will usually be no other
arguments.
The status is zero if zle was active, else
one.
-M string
As with the -R option, the string will be
displayed below the command line; unlike the
-R option, the string will not be put into
the status line but will instead be printed
normally below the prompt. This means that
the string will still be displayed after the
widget returns (until it is overwritten by
subsequent commands).
-U string
This pushes the characters in the string
onto the input stack of ZLE. After the wid-
get 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 interpre-
tation 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 ] [ 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 func-
tion) to handle input from file descriptor
fd. 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 will call handler with
the fd which is ready for reading as the
only argument. If the handler produces out-
put to the terminal, it should call `zle -I'
before doing so (see below). The handler
should not attempt to read from the termi-
nal. 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.
Any number of handlers for any number of
readable file descriptors may be installed.
Installing a handler for an fd which is
already handled causes the existing handler
to be replaced.
If no handler is given, but an fd is pre-
sent, 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 exe-
cution.
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.
Here is a simple example of using this fea-
ture. A connection to a remote TCP port is
created using the ztcp command; see the
description of the zsh/net/tcp module in
zshmodules(1). Then a handler is installed
which simply prints out any data which
arrives on this connection. Note that
`select' will indicate that the file
descriptor needs handling if the remote side
has closed the connection; we handle that by
testing for a failed read.
if ztcp pwspc 2811; then
tcpfd=$REPLY
handler() {
zle -I
local line
if ! read -r line <&$1; then
# select marks this fd if we reach EOF,
# so handle this specially.
print "[Read on fd $1 failed, removing.]" >&2
zle -F $1
return 1
fi
print -r - $line
}
zle -F $tcpfd handler
fi
-I Unusually, this option is most useful out-
side 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 out-
put; typically this will be from a trap
function. It has no effect if zle is not
active. When a trap exits, the shell checks
to see if the display needs restoring, hence
the following will print output in such a
way as not to disturb the line being edited:
TRAPUSR1() {
# Invalidate zle display
[[ -o zle ]] && zle -I
# Show output
print Hello
}
In general, the trap function may need to
test whether zle is active before using this
method (as shown in the example), since the
zsh/zle module may not even be loaded; if it
is not, the command can be skipped.
It is possible to call `zle -I' several
times before control is returned to the edi-
tor; 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 sys-
tem notification. To test if a zle widget
may be called at this point, execute zle
with no arguments and examine the return
status.
widget [ -n num ] [ -N ] 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
numerical argument will be saved and then
restored after the call to widget; `-n num'
sets the numerical argument temporarily to
num, while `-N' sets it to the default, i.e.
as if there were none.
Any further arguments will be passed to the
widget. 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. Cur-
rently arguments are only handled by the
incremental-search commands, the his-
tory-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.
WIDGETS
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 in to ZLE are listed in Stan-
dard Widgets below. Other built-in widgets can be defined
by other modules (see zshmodules(1)). Each built-in wid-
get 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 exe-
cuted, the corresponding shell function is executed, and
can perform editing (or other) actions. It is recommended
that user-defined widgets should not have names starting
with `.'.
USER-DEFINED WIDGETS
User-defined widgets, being implemented as shell func-
tions, 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 closed to prevent external commands from unin-
tentionally 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.
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.
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 defi-
nition 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 to be cut using one of the `kill-'
commands; the string which the next yank would
insert in the line.
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 his-
tory. Note this is not the same as the parameter
HISTCMD, which always gives the number of the his-
tory line being added to the main shell's history.
HISTNO refers to the line being retrieved within
zle.
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.
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.
The default size for the kill ring is eight, how-
ever 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.
LASTSEARCH (scalar)
The last search string used by an interactive
search ; read-only.
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.
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.
PREBUFFER (scalar)
In a multi-line input at the secondary prompt, this
read-only parameter contains the contents of the
lines before the one the cursor is currently in.
PREDISPLAY (scalar)
Text to be displayed before the start of the
editable text buffer. This does not have to be a
complete line; to display a complete line, a new-
line must be appended explicitly. The text is
reset on each new invocation (but not recursive
invocation) of zle.
POSTDISPLAY (scalar)
Text to be displayed after the end of the editable
text buffer. This does not have to be a complete
line; to display a complete line, a newline must be
prepended explicitly. The text is reset on each
new invocation (but not recursive invocation) of
zle.
RBUFFER (scalar)
The part of the buffer that lies to the right of
the cursor position. If it is assigned to, only
that part of the buffer is replaced, and the cursor
remains between the old $LBUFFER and the new
$RBUFFER.
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 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 argu-
ment 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.
Special Widget
There is one user-defined widget which is special to the
shell. If it does not exist, no special action is taken.
The environment provided is identical to that for any
other editing widget.
zle-line-init
Executed every time the line editor is started to
read a new line of input. The following example
puts the line editor into vi command mode when it
starts up.
zle-line-init() { zle -K vicmd; }
zle -N zle-line-init
(The command inside the function sets the keymap
directly; it is equivalent to zle vi-cmd-mode.)
STANDARD WIDGETS
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 mod-
ern terminals, but in fact these are not necessarily
bound. In the case of the viins keymap, the initial
escape character of the sequences serves also to return to
the vicmd keymap: whether this happens is determined by
the KEYTIMEOUT parameter, see zshparam(1).
Movement
vi-backward-blank-word (unbound) (B) (unbound)
Move backward one 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.
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.
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 edi-
tor's idea of a word is specified with the WORD-
CHARS 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 argu-
ment.
vi-goto-mark (unbound) (`) (unbound)
Move to the specified mark.
vi-goto-mark-line (unbound) (') (unbound)
Move to beginning of the line containing the speci-
fied 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.
History Control
beginning-of-buffer-or-history (ESC-<) (unbound) (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 his-
tory 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 his-
tory list. Then move to the first non-blank char-
acter 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 begin-
ning 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
and go back to the original line. An undefined key
will have the same effect. The supported functions
are: backward-delete-char, vi-backward-delete-char,
clear-screen, redisplay, quoted-insert,
vi-quoted-insert, accept-and-hold,
accept-and-infer-next-history, accept-line and
accept-line-and-down-history.
magic-space just inserts a space. vi-cmd-mode tog-
gles between the `main' and `vicmd' keymaps; the
`main' keymap (insert mode) will be selected ini-
tially. history-incremental-search-backward will
get the next occurrence of the contents of the
mini-buffer. history-incremental-search-forward
inverts the sense of the search. vi-repeat-search
and vi-rev-repeat-search are similarly supported.
The direction of the search is indicated in the
mini-buffer.
Any multi-character string that is not bound to one
of the above functions will beep and interrupt the
search, leaving the last found line in the buffer.
Any single character that is not bound to one of
the above functions, or self-insert or
self-insert-unmeta, will have the same effect but
the function will be executed.
When called from a widget function by the zle com-
mand, 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 begin-
ning of the line. The functions available in the
mini-buffer are the same as for history-incremen-
tal-search-backward.
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-back-
ward-delete-char, backward-kill-word, vi-back-
ward-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 char-
acter 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 bind-
ings 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 func-
tions 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 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 reex-
amined. Note that negative numbers should be pre-
ceded with 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 pre-
fix 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 invoca-
tions 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.
Modifying Text
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 posi-
tion, 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.
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.
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.
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 cur-
sor 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
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.
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 `'' charac-
ter 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 remem-
bered. 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 char-
acter read from the keyboard.
self-insert (printable characters) (unbound) (printable
characters and some control characters)
Insert a character into the buffer at the cursor
position.
self-insert-unmeta (ESC-^I ESC-^J ESC-^M) (unbound)
(unbound)
Insert a character into the buffer after stripping
the meta bit and converting ^M to ^J.
vi-substitute (unbound) (s) (unbound)
Substitute the next character(s).
vi-swap-case (unbound) (~) (unbound)
Swap the case of the character under the cursor and
move past it.
transpose-chars (^T) (unbound) (unbound)
Exchange the two characters to the left of the cur-
sor 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.
vi-unindent (unbound) (<) (unbound)
Unindent a number of lines.
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 cur-
sor position.
yank-pop (ESC-y) (unbound) (unbound)
Remove the text just yanked, rotate the kill-ring,
and yank the new top. Only works following yank 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 com-
mand 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.
Arguments
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 numerical
argument will be set to num; this is equivalent to
`NUMERIC=num'.
Completion
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 cur-
sor is at the end of the line, list possible com-
pletions 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 comple-
tion 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.
Miscellaneous
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 the buffer stack.
beep Beep, unless the BEEP option is unset.
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.
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 with the position of
the mark.
execute-named-cmd (ESC-x) (unbound) (unbound)
Read the name of an editor command and execute it.
A restricted set of editing functions is available
in the mini-buffer. An interrupt signal, as
defined by the stty setting, will abort the func-
tion. The allowed functions are: back-
ward-delete-char, vi-backward-delete-char,
clear-screen, redisplay, quoted-insert,
vi-quoted-insert, backward-kill-word, vi-back-
ward-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 possibili-
ties 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 exe-
cute-named-cmd.
Currently this command may not be redefined or
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.
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 nor-
mally cause zle to exit (typically an accept-line
caused by hitting the return key) is executed.
Instead, control returns to the user-defined wid-
get. The status returned is non-zero if the return
was caused by an error, but the function still con-
tinues 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 exam-
ple.
self-insert-ucase() {
LBUFFER+=${(U)KEYS[-1]}
}
integer stat
zle -N self-insert self-insert-ucase
zle -A caps-lock save-caps-lock
zle -A accept-line caps-lock
zle recursive-edit
stat=$?
zle -A .self-insert self-insert
zle -A save-caps-lock caps-lock
zle -D save-caps-lock
(( stat )) && zle send-break
return $stat
This causes typed letters to be inserted capi-
talised until either accept-line (i.e. typically
the return key) is typed or the caps-lock widget is
invoked again; the later is handled by saving the
old definition of caps-lock as save-caps-lock and
then rebinding it to invoke accept-line. Note that
an error from the recursive edit is detected as a
non-zero return status and propagated by using the
send-break widget.
redisplay (unbound) (^R) (^R)
Redisplays the edit buffer.
reset-prompt (unbound) (unbound) (unbound)
Force the prompts on both the left and right of the
screen to be re-expanded, then redisplay the edit
buffer. This reflects changes both to the prompt
variables themselves and changes in the expansion
of the values (for example, changes in time or
directory, or changes to the value of variables
referred to by the prompt).
Otherwise, the prompt is only expanded each time
zle starts, and when the display as been inter-
rupted by output from another part of the shell
(such as a job notification) which causes the com-
mand line to be reprinted.
send-break (^G ESC-^G) (unbound) (unbound)
Abort the current editor function, e.g. exe-
cute-named-command, or the editor itself, e.g. if
you are in vared. Otherwise abort the parsing of
the current line.
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 cur-
rent command. run-help is normally aliased to man.
vi-set-buffer (unbound) (") (unbound)
Specify a buffer to be used in the following com-
mand. There are 35 buffers that can be specified:
the 26 `named' buffers "a to "z and the nine
`queued' buffers "1 to "9. The named buffers can
also be specified as "A to "Z.
When a buffer is specified for a cut command, the
text being cut replaces the previous contents of
the specified buffer. If a named buffer is speci-
fied using a capital, the newly cut text is
appended to the buffer instead of overwriting it.
If no buffer is specified for a cut command, "1 is
used, and the contents of "1 to "8 are each shifted
along one buffer; the contents of "9 is lost.
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.
spell-word (ESC-$ ESC-S ESC-s) (unbound) (unbound)
Attempt spelling correction on the current word.
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) (unbound) (unbound)
Incrementally undo the last text modification.
redo Incrementally redo undone text modifications.
vi-undo-change (unbound) (u) (unbound)
Undo the last text modification. If repeated, redo
the modification.
what-cursor-position (^X=) (unbound) (unbound)
Print the character under the cursor, its code as
an octal, decimal and hexadecimal number, the cur-
rent cursor position within the buffer and the col-
umn of the cursor in the current line.
where-is
Read the name of an editor command and and print
the listing of key sequences that invoke the speci-
fied command.
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,
ZSHCOMPWID(1) ZSHCOMPWID(1)
execute vi-beginning-of-line.
NAME
zshcompwid - zsh completion widgets
DESCRIPTION
The shell's programmable completion mechanism can be
manipulated in two ways; here the low-level features sup-
porting the newer, function-based mechanism are defined.
A complete set of shell functions based on these features
is described in zshcompsys(1), and users with no interest
in adding to that system (or, potentially, writing their
own --- see dictionary entry for `hubris') should skip
this section. The older system based on the compctl
builtin command is described in zshcompctl(1).
Completion widgets are defined by the -C option to the zle
builtin command provided by the zsh/zle module (see zsh-
zle(1)). For example,
zle -C complete expand-or-complete completer
defines a widget named `complete'. The second argument is
the name of any of the builtin widgets that handle comple-
tions: complete-word, expand-or-complete, expand-or-com-
plete-prefix, menu-complete, menu-expand-or-complete,
reverse-menu-complete, list-choices, or
delete-char-or-list. Note that this will still work even
if the widget in question has been re-bound.
When this newly defined widget is bound to a key using the
bindkey builtin command defined in the zsh/zle module (see
zshzle(1)), typing that key will call the shell function
`completer'. This function is responsible for generating
the possible matches using the builtins described below.
As with other ZLE widgets, the function is called with its
standard input closed.
Once the function returns, the completion code takes over
control again and treats the matches in the same manner as
the specified builtin widget, in this case expand-or-com-
plete.
SPECIAL PARAMETERS
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 kshar-
rays 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 PRE-
FIX to the end of IPREFIX, for example:
IPREFIX=${PREFIX%%\=*}=
PREFIX=${PREFIX#*=}
causes the part of the prefix up to and including
the first equal sign not to be treated as part of a
matched string. This can be done automatically by
the compset builtin, see below.
ISUFFIX
As IPREFIX, but for a suffix that should not be
considered part of the matches; note that the ISUF-
FIX string follows the SUFFIX string.
PREFIX Initially this will be set to the part of the cur-
rent 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 dou-
ble 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 cur-
rent 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 COM-
PLETE_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 and a backslash
for strings not starting with a quote char-
acter. 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 param-
eter in a parameter expansion begin-
ning with ${.
assign_parameter
when completing the name of a param-
eter 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 expres-
sion.
math when completing in a mathematical
environment such as a `((...))' con-
struct.
parameter
when completing the name of a param-
eter in a parameter expansion begin-
ning with $ but not ${.
redirect
when completing after a redirection
operator.
subscript
when completing inside a parameter
subscript.
value when completing the value of a
parameter assignment.
exact Controls the behaviour when the REC_EXACT
option is set. It will be set to accept if
an exact match would be accepted, and will
be unset otherwise.
If it was set when at least one match equal
to the string on the line was generated, the
match is accepted.
exact_string
The string of an exact match if one was
found, otherwise unset.
ignored
The number of words that were ignored
because they matched one of the patterns
given with the -F option to the compadd
builtin command.
insert This controls the manner in which a match is
inserted into the command line. On entry to
the widget function, if it is unset the com-
mand 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 comple-
tion (due to the AUTO_MENU option being
set); if set to menu or automenu menu com-
pletion will be started for the matches cur-
rently 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 num-
ber, 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. with-
out automatically appending a space.
Both menu and automenu may also specify the
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 unam-
biguous 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 dis-
played. 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 respec-
tively 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 sub-
string 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 com-
mand line to this value, this is available
as the value of the BUFFERLINES special
parameter.
list_max
Initially this is set to the value of the
LISTMAX parameter. It may be set to any
other value; when the widget exits this
value will be used in the same way as the
value of LISTMAX.
nmatches
The number of matches generated and accepted
by the completion code so far.
old_insert
On entry to the widget this will be set to
the number of the match of an old list of
completions that is currently inserted into
the command line. If no match has been
inserted, this is unset.
As with old_list, the value of this key will
only be used if it is the string keep. If it
was set to this value by the widget and
there was an old match inserted into the
command line, this match will be kept and if
the value of the insert key specifies that
another match should be inserted, this will
be inserted after the old one.
old_list
This is set to yes if there is still a valid
list of completions from a previous comple-
tion at the time the widget is invoked.
This will usually be the case if and only if
the previous editing operation was a comple-
tion 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 con-
tinue 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 speci-
fies that menu completion will be used when-
ever a set of matches was generated using
pattern matching. If it is set to any other
non-empty string by the user and menu com-
pletion is not selected by other option set-
tings, the code will instead insert any com-
mon 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 liter-
ally.
Note that the matcher specifications given
to the compadd builtin command are not used
if this is set to a non-empty string.
quote When completing inside quotes, this contains
the quotation character (i.e. either a sin-
gle 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 com-
pletion 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 unam-
biguous 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 com-
mand line currently being edited.
BUILTIN COMMANDS
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 name ] [ -V name ] [ -X explanation ] [ -x message ]
[ -r remove-chars ] [ -R remove-func ]
[ -D array ] [ -O array ] [ -A array ]
[ -E number ]
[ -M match-spec ] [ -- ] [ words ... ]
This builtin command can be used to add matches
directly and control all the information the com-
pletion code stores with each possible match. The
return value is zero if at least one match was
added and non-zero if no matches were added.
The completion code breaks the string to complete
into seven fields in the order:
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 comple-
tions, i.e. one of the words given at the end of
the compadd command line. 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
the given words. The string given is not
considered as part of the match and any
shell metacharacters in it will not be
quoted when the string is inserted.
-S suffix
Like -P, but gives a string to be inserted
after the match.
-p hidden-prefix
This gives a string that should be inserted
into the command line before the match but
that should not appear in the list of
matches. Unless the -U option is given, this
string must be matched as part of the string
on the command line.
-s hidden-suffix
Like `-p', but gives a string to insert
after the match.
-i ignored-prefix
This gives a string to insert into the com-
mand line just before any string given with
the `-P' option. Without `-P' the string is
inserted before the string given with `-p'
or directly before the match.
-I ignored-suffix
Like -i, but gives an ignored suffix.
-a With this flag the words are taken as names
of arrays and the possible matches are their
values. If only some elements of the arrays
are needed, the words may also contain sub-
scripts, as in `foo[2,-1]'.
-k With this flag the words are taken as names
of associative arrays and the possible
matches are their keys. As for -a, the
words may also contain subscripts, as in
`foo[(R)*bar*]'.
-d array
This adds per-match display strings. The
array should contain one element per word
given. The completion code will then display
the first element instead of the first word,
and so on. The array may be given as the
name of an array parameter or directly as a
space-separated list of words in parenthe-
ses.
If there are fewer display strings than
words, the leftover words will be displayed
unchanged and if there are more display
strings than words, the leftover display
strings will be silently ignored.
-l This option only has an effect if used
together with the -d option. If it is given,
the display strings are listed one per line,
not arrayed in columns.
-J name
Gives the name of the group of matches the
words should be stored in.
-V name
Like -J but naming a unsorted group. These
are in a different name space than groups
created with the -J flag.
-1 If given together with the -V option, makes
only consecutive duplicates in the group be
removed. If combined with the -J option,
this has no visible effect. Note that groups
with and without this flag are in different
name spaces.
-2 If given together with the -J or -V option,
makes all duplicates be kept. Again, groups
with and without this flag are in different
name spaces.
-X explanation
The explanation string will be printed with
the list of matches, above the group cur-
rently selected.
-x message
Like -X, but the message will be printed
even if there are no matches in the group.
-q The suffix given with -S will be automati-
cally 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 lowercase charac-
ter 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 noth-
ing. Thus `-S "=" -q' is the same as `-S "="
-r "= \t\n\-"'.
This option may also be used without the -S
option; then any automatically added space
will be removed when one of the characters
in the list is typed.
-R remove-func
This is another form of the -r option. When
a suffix has been inserted and the comple-
tion accepted, the function remove-func will
be called after the next character typed.
It is passed the length of the suffix as an
argument and can use the special parameters
available in ordinary (non-completion) zle
widgets (see zshzle(1)) to analyse and mod-
ify the command line.
-f If this flag is given, all of the matches
built from words are marked as being the
names of files. They are not required to be
actual filenames, but if they are, and the
option LIST_TYPES is set, the characters
describing the types of the files in the
completion lists will be shown. This also
forces a slash to be added when the name of
a directory is completed.
-e This flag can be used to tell the completion
code that the matches added are parameter
names for a parameter expansion. This will
make the AUTO_PARAM_SLASH and
AUTO_PARAM_KEYS options be used for the
matches.
-W file-prefix
This string is a pathname that will be
prepended to each of the matches formed by
the given words together with any prefix
specified by the -p option to form a com-
plete filename for testing. Hence it is
only useful if combined with the -f flag, as
the tests will not otherwise be performed.
-F array
Specifies an array containing patterns.
Words matching one of these patterns are
ignored, i.e. not considered to be possible
matches.
The array may be the name of an array param-
eter or a list of literal patterns enclosed
in parentheses and quoted, as in `-F "(*?.o
*?.h)"'. If the name of an array is given,
the elements of the array are taken as the
patterns.
-Q This flag instructs the completion code not
to quote any metacharacters in the words
when inserting them into the command line.
-M match-spec
This gives local match specifications as
described below in the section `Matching
Control'. This option may be given more than
once. In this case all match-specs given are
concatenated with spaces between them to
form the specification string to use. Note
that they will only be used if the -U option
is not given.
-n Specifies that the words added are to be
used as possible matches, but are not to
appear in the completion listing.
-U If this flag is given, all words given will
be accepted and no matching will be done by
the completion code. Normally this is used
in functions that do the matching them-
selves.
-O array
If this option is given, the words are not
added to the set of possible completions.
Instead, matching is done as usual and all
of the words given as arguments that match
the string on the command line will be
stored in the array parameter whose name is
given as array.
-A array
As the -O option, except that instead of
those of the words which match being stored
in array, the strings generated internally
by the completion code are stored. For exam-
ple, with a matching specification of `-M
"L:|no="', the string `nof' on the command
line and the string `foo' as one of the
words, this option stores the string `nofoo'
in the array, whereas the -O option stores
the `foo' originally given.
-D array
As with -O, the words are not added to the
set of possible completions. Instead, the
completion code tests whether each word in
turn matches what is on the line. If the
n'th word does not match, the n'th element
of the array is removed. Elements for which
the corresponding word is matched are
retained.
-C This option adds a special match which
expands to all other matches when inserted
into the line, even those that are added
after this option is used. Together with
the -d option it is possible to specify a
string that should be displayed in the list
for this special match. If no string is
given, it will be shown as a string contain-
ing the strings that would be inserted for
the other matches, truncated to the width of
the screen.
-E This option adds number empty matches after
the words have been added. An empty match
takes up space in completion listings but
will never be inserted in the line and can't
be selected with menu completion or menu
selection. This makes empty matches only
useful to format completion lists and to
make explanatory string be shown in comple-
tion lists (since empty matches can be given
display strings with the -d option). And
because all but one empty string would oth-
erwise be removed, this option implies the
-V and -2 options (even if an explicit -J
option is given).
-
-- This flag ends the list of flags and
options. All arguments after it will be
taken as the words to use as matches even if
they begin with hyphens.
Except for the -M flag, if any of these flags is
given more than once, the first one (and its argu-
ment) 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 value allows tests on
them to be carried out.
The options are:
-p number
If the contents of the PREFIX parameter is
longer than number characters, the first
number characters are removed from it and
appended to the contents of the IPREFIX
parameter.
-P [ number ] pattern
If the value of the PREFIX parameter begins
with anything that matches the pattern, the
matched portion is removed from PREFIX and
appended to IPREFIX.
Without the optional number, the longest
match is taken, but if number is given, any-
thing up to the number'th match is moved.
If the number is negative, the number'th
longest match is moved. For example, if PRE-
FIX 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 charac-
ters 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 begin'th
word is removed from the words array and the
value of the parameter CURRENT is decre-
mented by begin.
If the optional end is given, the modifica-
tion is done only if the current word posi-
tion 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 value 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 function (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 value 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/com-
pctl module.
CONDITION CODES
The following additional condition codes for use within
the [[ ... ]] construct are available in completion wid-
gets. 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 spe-
cial 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 pat-
terns would succeed.
MATCHING CONTROL
It is possible by use of the -M option of the compadd
builtin command to specify how the characters in the
string to be completed (referred to here as the command
line) map onto the characters in the list of matches pro-
duced by the completion code (referred to here as the
trial completions). Note that this is not used if the com-
mand line contains a glob pattern and the GLOB_COMPLETE
option is set or the pattern_match of the compstate spe-
cial association is set to a non-empty string.
The match-spec given as the argument to the -M option (see
`Builtin Commands' above) consists of one or more matching
descriptions separated by whitespace. Each description
consists of a letter followed by a colon and then the pat-
terns describing which character sequences on the line
match which character sequences in the trial completion.
Any sequence of characters not handled in this fashion
must match exactly, as usual.
The forms of match-spec understood are as follows. In each
case, the form with an uppercase initial character retains
the string already typed on the command line as the final
result of completion, while with a lowercase initial char-
acter the string on the command line is changed into the
corresponding part of the trial completion.
m:lpat=tpat
M:lpat=tpat
Here, lpat is a pattern that matches on the command
line, corresponding to tpat which matches in the
trial completion.
l:lanchor|lpat=tpat
L:lanchor|lpat=tpat
l:lanchor||ranchor=tpat
L:lanchor||ranchor=tpat
b:lpat=tpat
B:lpat=tpat
These letters are for patterns that are anchored by
another pattern on the left side. Matching for lpat
and tpat is as for m and M, but the pattern lpat
matched on the command line must be preceded by the
pattern lanchor. The lanchor can be blank to
anchor the match to the start of the command line
string; otherwise the anchor can occur anywhere,
but must match in both the command line and trial
completion strings.
If no lpat is given but a ranchor is, this matches
the gap between substrings matched by lanchor and
ranchor. Unlike lanchor, the ranchor only needs to
match the trial completion string.
The b and B forms are similar to l and L with an
empty anchor, but need to match only the beginning
of the trial completion or the word on the command
line, respectively.
r:lpat|ranchor=tpat
R:lpat|ranchor=tpat
r:lanchor||ranchor=tpat
R:lanchor||ranchor=tpat
e:lpat=tpat
E:lpat=tpat
As l, L, b and B, with the difference that the com-
mand line and trial completion patterns are
anchored on the right side. Here an empty ranchor
and the e and E forms force the match to the end of
the trial completion or command line string.
Each lpat, tpat or anchor is either an empty string or
consists of a sequence of literal characters (which may be
quoted with a backslash), question marks, character
classes, and correspondence classes; ordinary shell pat-
terns are not used. Literal characters match only them-
selves, question marks match any character, and character
classes are formed as for globbing and match any character
in the given set.
Correspondence classes are defined like character classes,
but with two differences: they are delimited by a pair of
braces, and negated classes are not allowed, so the char-
acters ! and ^ have no special meaning directly after the
opening brace. They indicate that a range of characters
on the line match a range of characters in the trial com-
pletion, but (unlike ordinary character classes) paired
according to the corresponding position in the sequence.
For example, to make any lowercase letter on the line
match the corresponding uppercase letter in the trial com-
pletion, you can use `m:{a-z}={A-Z}'. More than one pair
of classes can occur, in which case the first class before
the = corresponds to the first after it, and so on. If
one side has more such classes than the other side, the
superfluous classes behave like normal character classes.
In anchor patterns correspondence classes also behave like
normal character classes.
The pattern tpat may also be one or two stars, `*' or
`**'. This means that the pattern on the command line can
match any number of characters in the trial completion. In
this case the pattern must be anchored (on either side);
in the case of a single star, the anchor then determines
how much of the trial completion is to be included ---
only the characters up to the next appearance of the
anchor will be matched. With two stars, substrings matched
by the anchor can be matched, too.
Examples:
The keys of the options association defined by the parame-
ter module are the option names in all-lowercase form,
without underscores, and without the optional no at the
beginning even though the builtins setopt and unsetopt
understand option names with uppercase letters, under-
scores, and the optional no. The following alters the
matching rules so that the prefix no and any underscore
are ignored when trying to match the trial completions
generated and uppercase letters on the line match the cor-
responding lowercase letters in the words:
compadd -M 'L:|[nN][oO]= M:_= M:{A-Z}={a-z}' - \
${(k)options}
The first part says that the pattern `[nN][oO]' at the
beginning (the empty anchor before the pipe symbol) of the
string on the line matches the empty string in the list of
words generated by completion, so it will be ignored if
present. The second part does the same for an underscore
anywhere in the command line string, and the third part
uses correspondence classes so that any uppercase letter
on the line matches the corresponding lowercase letter in
the word. The use of the uppercase forms of the specifica-
tion characters (L and M) guarantees that what has already
been typed on the command line (in particular the prefix
no) will not be deleted.
Note that the use of L in the first part means that it
matches only when at the beginning of both the command
line string and the trial completion. I.e., the string
`_NO_f' would not be completed to `_NO_foo', nor would
`NONO_f' be completed to `NONO_foo' because of the leading
underscore or the second `NO' on the line which makes the
pattern fail even though they are otherwise ignored. To
fix this, one would use `B:[nN][oO]=' instead of the first
part. As described above, this matches at the beginning of
the trial completion, independent of other characters or
substrings at the beginning of the command line word which
are ignored by the same or other match-specs.
The second example makes completion case insensitive.
This is just the same as in the option example, except
here we wish to retain the characters in the list of com-
pletions:
compadd -M 'm:{a-z}={A-Z}' ...
This makes lowercase letters match their uppercase coun-
terparts. To make uppercase letters match the lowercase
forms as well:
compadd -M 'm:{a-zA-Z}={A-Za-z}' ...
A nice example for the use of * patterns is partial word
completion. Sometimes you would like to make strings like
`c.s.u' complete to strings like `comp.source.unix', i.e.
the word on the command line consists of multiple parts,
separated by a dot in this example, where each part should
be completed separately --- note, however, that the case
where each part of the word, i.e. `comp', `source' and
`unix' in this example, is to be completed from separate
sets of matches is a different problem to be solved by the
implementation of the completion widget. The example can
be handled by:
compadd -M 'r:|.=* r:|=*' \
- comp.sources.unix comp.sources.misc ...
The first specification says that lpat is the empty
string, while anchor is a dot; tpat is *, so this can
match anything except for the `.' from the anchor in the
trial completion word. So in `c.s.u', the matcher sees
`c', followed by the empty string, followed by the anchor
`.', and likewise for the second dot, and replaces the
empty strings before the anchors, giving
`c[omp].s[ources].u[nix]', where the last part of the com-
pletion is just as normal.
With the pattern shown above, the string `c.u' could not
be completed to `comp.sources.unix' because the single
star means that no dot (matched by the anchor) can be
skipped. By using two stars as in `r:|.=**', however,
`c.u' could be completed to `comp.sources.unix'. This also
shows that in some cases, especially if the anchor is a
real pattern, like a character class, the form with two
stars may result in more matches than one would like.
The second specification is needed to make this work when
the cursor is in the middle of the string on the command
line and the option COMPLETE_IN_WORD is set. In this case
the completion code would normally try to match trial com-
pletions that end with the string as typed so far, i.e. it
will only insert new characters at the cursor position
rather then at the end. However in our example we would
like the code to recognise matches which contain extra
characters after the string on the line (the `nix' in the
example). Hence we say that the empty string at the end
of the string on the line matches any characters at the
end of the trial completion.
More generally, the specification
compadd -M 'r:|[.,_-]=* r:|=*' ...
allows one to complete words with abbreviations before any
of the characters in the square brackets. For example, to
complete veryverylongfile.c rather than veryverylong-
header.h with the above in effect, you can just type
very.c before attempting completion.
The specifications with both a left and a right anchor are
useful to complete partial words whose parts are not sepa-
rated by some special character. For example, in some
places strings have to be completed that are formed
`LikeThis' (i.e. the separate parts are determined by a
leading uppercase letter) or maybe one has to complete
strings with trailing numbers. Here one could use the sim-
ple form with only one anchor as in:
compadd -M 'r:|[A-Z0-9]=* r:|=*' LikeTHIS FooHoo 5foo123 5bar234
But with this, the string `H' would neither complete to
`FooHoo' nor to `LikeTHIS' because in each case there is
an uppercase letter before the `H' and that is matched by
the anchor. Likewise, a `2' would not be completed. In
both cases this could be changed by using
`r:|[A-Z0-9]=**', but then `H' completes to both
`LikeTHIS' and `FooHoo' and a `2' matches the other
strings because characters can be inserted before every
uppercase letter and digit. To avoid this one would use:
compadd -M 'r:[^A-Z0-9]||[A-Z0-9]=** r:|=*' \
LikeTHIS FooHoo foo123 bar234
By using these two anchors, a `H' matches only uppercase
`H's that are immediately preceded by something matching
the left anchor `[^A-Z0-9]'. The effect is, of course,
that `H' matches only the string `FooHoo', a `2' matches
only `bar234' and so on.
When using the completion system (see zshcompsys(1)),
users can define match specifications that are to be used
for specific contexts by using the matcher and
matcher-list styles. The values for the latter will be
used everywhere.
COMPLETION WIDGET EXAMPLE
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
ZSHCOMPSYS(1) ZSHCOMPSYS(1)
matching the current word.
NAME
zshcompsys - zsh completion system
DESCRIPTION
This describes the shell code for the new completion sys-
tem. It consists of various shell functions; those begin-
ning `comp' are to be called directly, while those begin-
ning `_' are called by the completion code. The shell
functions of the second set, which implement completion
behaviour and may be bound to keystrokes, are referred to
as `widgets'.
INITIALIZATION
If the system was installed completely, it should be
enough to call the shell function compinit from your
initialization file; see the next section. However, the
function compinstall can be run by a user to configure
various aspects of the completion system.
Usually, compinstall will insert code into .zshrc,
although if that is not writable it will save it in
another file and tell you that file's location. Note that
it is up to you to make sure that the lines added to
.zshrc are actually run; you may, for example, need to
move them to an earlier place in the file if .zshrc usu-
ally 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 compin-
stall 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 direc-
tories from fpath. Then it must be autoloaded (`autoload
-U compinstall' is recommended). You can abort the
installation any time you are being prompted for informa-
tion, and your .zshrc will not be altered at all; changes
only take place right at the end, where you are specifi-
cally asked for confirmation.
Use of compinit
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 automati-
cally 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 recom-
mended), and then run simply as `compinit'. This will
define a few utility functions, arrange for all the neces-
sary 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 comple-
tion by default, and the TAB key is bound to
expand-or-complete, compinit will rebind it to com-
plete-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-com-
plete'.
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 per-
formed 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, comp-
dump, 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 comple-
tion system would use files not owned by root or by the
current user, or files in directories that are world- or
group-writable or that are not owned by root or by the
current user. If such files or directories are found,
compinit will ask if the completion system should really
be used. To avoid these tests and make all files found be
used without asking, use the option -u, and to make
compinit silently ignore all insecure files and directo-
ries use the option -i. This security check is skipped
entirely when the -C option is given.
The security check can be retried at any time by running
the function compaudit. This is the same check used by
compinit, but when it is executed directly any changes to
fpath are made local to the function so they do not per-
sist. 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.
Autoloaded files
The convention for autoloaded functions used in completion
is that they start with an underscore; as already men-
tioned, the fpath/FPATH parameter must contain the direc-
tory in which they are stored. If zsh was properly
installed on your system, then fpath/FPATH automatically
contains the required directories for the standard func-
tions.
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 subdirecto-
ries will be added to the path. Furthermore, if the sub-
directory Base has a subdirectory named Core, compinit
will add all subdirectories of the subdirectories is to
the path: this allows the functions to be in the same for-
mat as in the zsh source distribution.
When compinit is run, it searches all such files accessi-
ble 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 names... [ -[pP] patterns... [ -N names... ] ]
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 typi-
cally behaves as if the command (or special con-
text) service was being completed instead. This
provides a way of altering the behaviour of func-
tions 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 func-
tions will probably ignore it.
If the #compdef line contains one of the options -p
or -P, the words following are taken to be pat-
terns. 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-sequences...
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-com-
plete, expand-or-complete-prefix, list-choices,
menu-complete, menu-expand-or-complete, or
reverse-menu-complete. If the zsh/complist module
is loaded (see zshmodules(1)) the widget
menu-select is also available.
When one of the key-sequences is typed, the func-
tion in the file will be invoked to generate the
matches. Note that a key will not be re-bound if
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-sequences ...
This is similar to -k except that only one
key-sequences argument may be given for each wid-
get-name style pair. However, the entire set of
three arguments may be repeated with a different
set of arguments. Note in particular that the wid-
get-name must be distinct in each set. If it does
not begin with `_' this will be added. The wid-
get-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 spe-
cially. 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 func-
tion 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
(`foo=(...)')
-brace-parameter-
The name of a parameter expansion within braces
(`${...}')
-assign-parameter-
The name of a parameter in an assignment, i.e. on
the left hand side of an `='
-command-
A word in command position
-condition-
A word inside a condition (`[[...]]')
-default-
Any word for which no other completion is defined
-equal-
A word beginning with an equals sign
-first-
This is tried before any other completion function.
The function called may set the _compskip parameter
to one of various values: all: no further comple-
tion is attempted; a string containing the sub-
string 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
-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 imple-
mented by a corresponding function _context, for example
the context `-tilde-' and the function `_tilde').
The contexts -redirect- and -value- allow extra con-
text-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 redirec-
tion 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,com-
mand', where name is the name of the parameter. 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> ' com-
plete files matching `*.log'.
Functions
The following function is defined by compinit and may be
called directly.
compdef [ -an ] function names... [ -[pP] patterns... [ -N
names... ] ]
compdef -d names...
compdef -k [ -an ] function style key-sequences...
compdef -K [ -an ] function name style key-sequences ...
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 any shell code. The string will be exe-
cuted using the eval builtin command to generate
completions. This provides a way of avoiding hav-
ing to define a new completion function. For exam-
ple, 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 over-
written.
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 defi-
nitions of patterns tried initially, patterns tried
finally, and normal commands and contexts.
The parameter $_compskip may be set by any function
defined for a pattern context. If it is set to a
value containing the substring `patterns' none of
the pattern-functions will be called; if it is set
to a value containing the substring `all', no other
function will be called.
The form with -k defines a widget with the same
name as the function that will be called for each
of the key-sequences; this is like the #compdef -k
tag. The function should generate the completions
needed and will otherwise behave like the builtin
widget whose name is given as the style argument.
The widgets usable for this are: complete-word,
delete-char-or-list, expand-or-complete,
expand-or-complete-prefix, list-choices, menu-com-
plete, 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-sequences, where the latter two are as for -k
and the first must be a unique widget name begin-
ning with an underscore.
Wherever applicable, the -a option makes the func-
tion autoloadable, equivalent to autoload -U func-
tion.
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 under-
stand the `--help' option.
COMPLETION SYSTEM CONFIGURATION
This section gives a short overview of how the completion
system works, and then more detail on how users can con-
figure how and when matches are generated.
Overview
When completion is attempted somewhere on the command line
the completion system first works out the context. 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).
This context information is condensed into a string con-
sisting of multiple fields separated by colons, referred
to simply as `the context' in the remainder of the docu-
mentation. This is used to look up styles, context-sensi-
tive options that can be used to configure the completion
system. The context used for lookup may vary during the
same call to the completion system.
The context string always consists of the following
fields, separated by colons and with a leading colon
before the first:
o The literal string completion, saying that this
style is used by the completion system. This dis-
tinguishes the context from those used by, for
example, zle widgets and ZFTP functions.
o 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 distribu-
tion to the name of that function, often in an
abbreviated form.
o The completer currently active, the name of the
function without the leading underscore. A `com-
pleter' is in overall control of how completion is
to be performed; `complete' is the simplest, but
other completers exist to perform related tasks
such as correction, or to modify the behaviour of a
later completer. See the section `Control Func-
tions' below for more information.
o 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 con-
tain the name of the command followed by a minus
sign and the sub-command. For example, the comple-
tion function for the cvs command sets this field
to cvs-add when completing arguments to the add
subcommand.
o 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. How-
ever, this is only the case if the command line is
parsed with standard UNIX-style options and argu-
ments, so many completions do not set this.
o The tag. Tags are used to discriminate between the
types of matches a completion function can generate
in a certain context and are described further
below.
As an 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.
Each type of completion the system can perform in a given
context is described by a `tag', a short descriptive
string such as files in the example above. Any completion
function may use any tag name it likes, but a list of the
more common ones is given below.
Usually completion will be tried by all possible tags in
an order given by the completion function. However, this
can be altered by using the tag-order style. Completion
is then restricted to the list of given tags in the given
order.
The _complete_help bindable command shows all the contexts
and tags available for completion at a particular point.
This provides an easy way of finding information for
tag-order and other styles. It is described in the sec-
tion `Bindable Commands' below.
Styles determine such things as how the matches are gener-
ated, similarly to shell options but with much more con-
trol. They can have any number of strings as their value.
They are defined with the zstyle builtin command (see zsh-
modules(1)).
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 may be matched as a pattern, and the name of the
style itself, which must be given exactly.
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 ver-
bose style the value yes in every context inside the com-
pletion system, unless that context has a more specific
definition. It is best to avoid giving the context as `*'
in case the style has some meaning outside the completion
system.
Many such general purpose styles can be configured simply
by using the compinstall function.
A more specific example of the use of the verbose style is
by the completion for the kill builtin. If the style is
set, the builtin lists full job texts and process command
lines; otherwise it shows the bare job numbers and PIDs.
To turn the style off for this use only:
zstyle ':completion:*:*:kill:*' verbose no
For even more control, the style can use one of the tags
`jobs' or `processes'. To turn off verbose display only
for jobs:
zstyle ':completion:*:*:kill:*:jobs' verbose no
The -e option to zstyle even allows completion function
code to appear as the argument to a style; this requires
some understanding of the internals of completion func-
tions (see see zshcompwid(1))). For example:
zstyle -e ':completion:*' completer '
if [[ $words[1] = cvs ]]; then
reply=(_complete)
else
reply=(_complete _approximate)
fi'
uses the value `_complete' for the completer style in most
contexts, but the value `_complete _approximate' when the
first word on the command line is `cvs'. This is probably
more conveniently done by specifying the style for two
different contexts. 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 possi-
ble match for a particular style to determine the set of
values. More precisely, strings are preferred over pat-
terns (for example, `:completion::complete:foo' is more
specific than `:completion::complete:*'), and longer pat-
terns are preferred over shorter patterns.
Style names like those of tags are arbitrary and depend on
the completion function. However, the following two sec-
tions list some of the most common tags and styles.
Standard Tags
Some of the following are only used when looking up par-
ticular 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 sin-
gle string containing all possible expansions
all-files
for the names of all files (as distinct from a par-
ticular 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 complet-
ing 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 com-
plex 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
directory-stack
for entries in the directory stack
displays
for X display names
domains
for network domains
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 com-
mand line
extensions
for X server extensions
file-descriptors
for numbers of open file descriptors
files the generic file-matching tag used by functions
completing filenames
fonts for X font names
fstypes
for file system types (e.g. for the mount command)
functions
names of functions --- normally shell functions,
although certain commands may understand other
kinds of function
globbed-files
for filenames when the name has been generated by
pattern matching
groups for names of user groups
history-words
for words from the history
hosts for hostnames
indexes
for array indexes
jobs for jobs (as listed by the `jobs' builtin)
interfaces
for network interfaces
keymaps
for names of zsh keymaps
keysyms
for names of X keysyms
libraries
for names of system libraries
limits for system limits
local-directories
for names of directories that are subdirectories of
the current working directory when completing argu-
ments of cd and related builtin commands (compare
path-directories)
manuals
for names of manual pages
mailboxes
for e-mail folders
maps for map names (e.g. NIS maps)
messages
used to look up the format style for messages
modifiers
for names of X modifiers
modules
for modules (e.g. zsh modules)
my-accounts
used to look up the users-hosts style
named-directories
for named directories (you wouldn't have guessed
that, would you?)
names for all kinds of names
newsgroups
for USENET groups
nicknames
for nicknames of NIS maps
options
for command options
original
used by the _approximate, _correct and _expand com-
pleters 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 pack-
ages)
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-directo-
ries)
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 com-
pleting 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
Standard Styles
Note that the values of several of these styles represent
boolean values. Any of the strings `true', `on', `yes',
and `1' can be used for the value `true' and any of the
strings `false', `off', `no', and `0' for the value
`false'. The behavior for any other value is undefined
except where explicitly mentioned. The default value may
be either true or false if the style is not set.
Some of these styles are tested first for every possible
tag corresponding to a type of match, and if no style was
found, for the default tag. The most notable styles of
this type are menu, list-colors and styles controlling
completion listing such as list-packed and last-prompt).
When tested for the default tag, only the function field
of the context will be set so that a style using the
default tag will normally be defined along the lines of:
zstyle ':completion:*:default' menu ...
accept-exact
This is tested for the default tag in addition to
the tags valid for the current context. If it is
set to `true' and any of the trial matches is the
same as the string on the command line, this match
will immediately be accepted (even if it would oth-
erwise 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 con-
tains 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 $foobar. If the style
is set to `continue', _expand will add the expan-
sion as a match and the completion system will also
be allowed to continue.
add-space
This style is used by the _expand completer. If it
is true (the default), a space will be inserted
after all words resulting from the expansion, or a
slash in the case of directory names. If the value
is `file', the completer will only add a space to
names of existing files. Either a boolean true or
the value `file' may be combined with `subst', in
which case the completer will not add a space to
words generated from the expansion of a substitu-
tion of the form `$(...)' or `${...}'.
The _prefix completer uses this style as a simple
boolean value to decide if a space should be
inserted before the suffix.
ambiguous
This applies when completing non-final components
of filename paths, in other words those with a
trailing slash. If it is set, the cursor is left
after the first ambiguous component, even if menu
completion is in use. The style is always tested
with the paths tag.
assign-list
When completing after an equals sign that is being
treated as an assignment, the completion system
normally completes only one filename. In some
cases the value may be a list of filenames sepa-
rated by colons, as with PATH and similar parame-
ters. This style can be set to a list of patterns
matching the names of such parameters.
The default is to complete lists when the word on
the line already contains a colon.
auto-description
If set, this style's value will be used as the
description for options that are not described by
the completion functions, but that have exactly one
argument. The sequence `%d' in the value will be
replaced by the description for this argument.
Depending on personal preferences, it may be useful
to set this style to something like `specify: %d'.
Note that this may not work for some commands.
avoid-completer
This is used by the _all_matches completer to
decide if the string consisting of all matches
should be added to the list currently being gener-
ated. Its value is a list of names of completers.
If any of these is the name of the completer that
generated the matches in this completion, the
string will not be added.
The default value for this style is `_expand
_old_list _correct _approximate', i.e. it contains
the completers for which a string with all matches
will almost never be wanted.
cache-path
This style defines the path where any cache files
containing dumped completion data are stored. It
defaults to `$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 poten-
tially causes actions in the makefile to be exe-
cuted. 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 comple-
tions. This style can be used to override the com-
mand that is called in some such cases. The ele-
ments 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 func-
tion 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 gen-
erate 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 com-
mands to complete. The default for this style is
the value of the special parameter path.
commands
This is used by the function completing sub-com-
mands for the system initialisation scripts (resid-
ing 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 com-
pletion function isn't able to find them out auto-
matically. 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 it set to `true'
and the word on the command line is not the name of
an alias, matching alias names will be completed.
completer
The strings given as the value of this style pro-
vide the names of the completer functions to use.
The available completer functions are described in
the section `Control Functions' below.
Each string may be either the name of a completer
function or a string of the form `function:name'.
In the first case the completer field of the con-
text will contain the name of the completer without
the leading underscore and with all other under-
scores 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 func-
tion 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 `com-
plete-foo' in the completer field of the context.
Normally, using the same completer more than once
only makes sense when used with the `func-
tions:name' form, because otherwise the context
name will be the same in all calls to the com-
pleter; 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'.
disabled
If this is set to `true', the _expand_alias com-
pleter and bindable command will try to expand dis-
abled aliases, too. The default is `false'.
disable-stat
This is used with an empty tag by the _cvs function
to decide whether the zsh/stat module should be
used to generate names of modified files in the
appropriate places (this is its only use). If the
style is set, completion will use the ls command.
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.
expand This style is used when completing strings consist-
ing 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', match-
ing names for components after the first ambiguous
one will also be added. This means that the
resulting string is the longest unambiguous string
possible. However, menu completion can be used to
cycle through all matches.
fake This style may be set for any completion context.
It specifies additional strings that will always be
completed in that context. The form of each string
is `value:description'; the colon and description
may be omitted, but any literal colons in value
must be quoted with a backslash. Any description
provided is shown alongside the value in completion
listings.
It is important to use a sufficiently restrictive
context when specifying fake strings. Note that
the styles fake-files and fake-parameters provide
additional features when completing files or param-
eters.
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 com-
pleting in the directory dir, even if no such files
really exist.
This can be useful on systems that support special
filesystems whose top-level pathnames can not be
listed or generated with glob patterns. It can
also be used for directories for which one does not
have read permission.
fake-parameters
This is used by the completion function for parame-
ter 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 com-
pleted if parameters of that type are required in
the particular context. Names for which no type is
specified will always be completed.
file-patterns
This is used by the standard function for complet-
ing filenames, _files. If the style is unset up to
three tags are offered, `globbed-files',`directo-
ries' and `all-files', depending on the types of
files expected by the caller of _files. The first
two (`globbed-files' and `directories') are nor-
mally offered together to make it easier to com-
plete 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 specifi-
cations separated by spaces.
The pattern is a pattern that is to be used to gen-
erate 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 dis-
tinguishable from the colon before the tag. If
more than one pattern is needed, the patterns can
be given inside braces, separated by commas.
The tags of all strings in the value will be
offered by _files and used when looking up other
styles. Any tags in the same word will be offered
at the same time and before later words. If no
`:tag' is given the `files' tag will be used.
The tag may also be followed by an optional second
colon and a description, which will be used for the
`%d' in the value of the format style (if that is
set) instead of the default description supplied by
the completion function. If the description given
here contains itself a `%d', that is replaced with
the description supplied by the completion func-
tion.
For example, to make the rm command first complete
only names of object files and then the names of
all files if there is no matching object file:
zstyle ':completion:*:*:rm:*' file-patterns \
'*.o:object-files' '%p:all-files'
To alter the default behaviour of file completion
--- offer files matching a pattern and directories
on the first attempt, then all files --- to offer
only matching files on the first attempt, then
directories, and finally all files:
zstyle ':completion:*' file-patterns \
'%p:globbed-files' '*(-/):directories' '*:all-files'
This works even where there is no special pattern:
_files matches all files using the pattern `*' at
the first step and stops when it sees this pattern.
Note also it will never try a pattern more than
once for a single completion attempt.
During the execution of completion functions, the
EXTENDED_GLOB option is in effect, so the charac-
ters `#', `~' 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 val-
ues 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 con-
tains the string `reverse', sorting is done in the
opposite order.
filter This is used by the LDAP plugin for e-mail address
completion 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 nor-
mal 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 sequences to specify output attributes, such as
`%B', `%S' and `%{...%}'.
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 mes-
sages tag. Here, the `%d' is replaced with a mes-
sage given by the completion function.
Finally, the format string is looked up with the
warnings tag, for use when no matches could be gen-
erated at all. In this case the `%d' is replaced
with the descriptions for the matches that were
expected separated by spaces. The sequence `%D' is
replaced with the same descriptions separated by
newlines.
It is possible to use printf-style field width
specifiers with `%d' and similar escape sequences.
This is handled by the zformat builtin command from
the zsh/zutil module, see zshmodules(1).
glob This is used by the _expand completer. If it is
set to `true' (the default), globbing will be
attempted on the words resulting from a previous
substitution (see the substitute style) or else the
original string from the line.
global If this is set to `true' (the default), the
_expand_alias completer and bindable command will
try to expand global aliases.
group-name
The completion system can group different types of
matches, which appear in separate lists. This
style can be used to give the names of groups for
particular tags. For example, in command position
the completion system generates names of builtin
and external commands, names of aliases, shell
functions and parameters and reserved words as pos-
sible completions. To have the external commands
and shell functions listed separately:
zstyle ':completion:*:*:-command-:*:commands' group-name commands
zstyle ':completion:*:*:-command-:*:functions' group-name functions
As a consequence, any match with the same tag will
be displayed in the same group.
If the name given is the empty string the name of
the tag for the matches will be used as the name of
the group. So, to have all different types of
matches displayed separately, one can just set:
zstyle ':completion:*' group-name ''
All matches for which no group name is defined will
be put in a group named -default-.
group-order
This style is additional to the group-name style to
specify the order for display of the groups defined
by that style (compare tag-order, which determines
which completions appear at all). The groups named
are shown in the given order; any other groups are
shown in the order defined by the completion func-
tion.
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 con-
text 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 consid-
ered 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',
no word apart from the current one will be consid-
ered as a possible completion.
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 multi-
ple 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 men-
tioned 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 con-
sidered 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 com-
pleter.
ignored-patterns
A list of patterns; any trial completion matching
one of the patterns will be excluded from consider-
ation. 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 char-
acters `#', `~' 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 argu-
ments 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 com-
pletion will be started to cycle through them.
If the value of the style is `single', the shell
will wait until the user has typed enough to make
the command unique before converting the name to an
ID; attempts at completion will be unsuccessful
until that point. If the value is any other
string, menu completion will be started when the
string typed by the user is longer than the common
prefix to the corresponding IDs.
insert-tab
If this is set to `true', the completion system
will insert a TAB character (assuming that was used
to start completion) instead of performing comple-
tion when there is no non-blank character to the
left of the cursor. If it is set to `false', com-
pletion will be done even there.
The value may also contain the substrings `pending'
or `pending=val'. In this case, the typed charac-
ter will be inserted instead of staring 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 com-
pleters. 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 com-
pleter 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 pat-
tern 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 origi-
nal; hence any remaining completers may be called.
last-prompt
This is a more flexible form of the
ALWAYS_LAST_PROMPT option. If it is true, the com-
pletion 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 cur-
rent 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 inde-
pendent of the numeric prefix 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 particu-
lar AUTO_LIST. The context always starts with
`:completion:history-words'.
list-colors
If the zsh/complist module is loaded, this style
can be used to set color specifications. This
mechanism replaces the use of the ZLS_COLORS and
ZLS_COLOURS parameters described in the section
`The zsh/complist Module' in zshmodules(1), but the
syntax is the same.
If this style is set for the default tag, the
strings in the value are taken as specifications
that are to be used everywhere. If it is set for
other tags, the specifications are used only for
matches of the type described by the tag. For this
to work best, the group-name style must be set to
an empty string.
In addition to setting styles for specific tags, it
is also possible to use group names specified
explicitly by the group-name tag together with the
`(group)' syntax allowed by the ZLS_COLORS and
ZLS_COLOURS parameters and simply using the default
tag.
It is possible to use any color specifications
already set up for the GNU version of the ls com-
mand:
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-grouped
If this style is `true' (the default), the comple-
tion 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, comple-
tion lists that don't fit on the screen can be
scrolled (see the description of the zsh/complist
module in zshmodules(1)). The value, if not the
empty string, will be displayed after every screen-
ful 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 per-
centage 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 are also
available, as is the form `%{...%}' for enclosing
escape sequences which display with zero width.
list-rows-first
This style is tested in the same way as the
list-packed style and determines whether matches
are to be listed in a rows-first fashion as if the
LIST_ROWS_FIRST option were set.
list-suffixes
This style is used by the function that completes
filenames. If it is true, and completion is
attempted on a string containing multiple partially
typed pathname components, all ambiguous components
will be shown. Otherwise, completion stops at the
first ambiguous component.
list-separator
The value of this style is used in completion list-
ing to separate the string to complete from a
description when possible (e.g. when completing
options). It defaults to `--' (two hyphens).
local This is for use with functions that complete URLs
for which the corresponding files are available
directly from the filing 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/pub-
lic/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 with-
out 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 added to any
match specifications given by the matcher-list
style. It should be in the form described in the
section `Matching Control' in zshcompwid(1).
matcher-list
This style can be set to a list of match specifica-
tions that are to be applied everywhere. Match
specifications are described in the section `Match-
ing Control' in zshcompwid(1). The completion sys-
tem will try them one after another for each com-
pleter 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 specifica-
tions 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. For example, to use the completers
_complete and _prefix but only allow case-insensi-
tive completion with _complete:
zstyle ':completion:*' completer _complete _prefix
zstyle ':completion:*:complete:*' matcher-list \
'' 'm:{a-zA-Z}={A-Za-z}'
User-defined names, as explained for the completer
style, are available. This makes it possible to
try the same completer more than once with differ-
ent match specifications each time. For example,
to try normal completion without a match specifica-
tion, then normal completion with case-insensitive
matching, then correction, and finally partial-word
completion:
zstyle ':completion:*' completer _complete _correct _complete:foo
zstyle ':completion:*:complete:*' matcher-list \
'' 'm:{a-zA-Z}={A-Za-z}'
zstyle ':completion:*:foo:*' matcher-list \
'm:{a-zA-Z}={A-Za-z} r:|[-_./]=* r:|=*'
If the style is unset in any context no match spec-
ification is applied. Note also that some com-
pleters such as _correct and _approximate do not
use the match specifications at all, though these
completers will only ever called once even if the
matcher-list contains more than one element.
Where multiple specifications are useful, note that
the entire completion is done for each element of
matcher-list, which can quickly reduce the shell's
performance. As a rough rule of thumb, one to
three strings will give acceptable performance. On
the other hand, putting multiple space-separated
values into the same string does not have an appre-
ciable impact on performance.
max-errors
This is used by the _approximate and _correct com-
pleter functions to determine the maximum number of
errors to allow. The completer will try to gener-
ate 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 comple-
tion 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 com-
pletions when given a numeric argument, so in this
case the number given should be greater than zero.
For example, `2 not-numeric' specifies that cor-
recting completion with two errors will usually be
performed, but if a numeric argument is given, cor-
recting 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 set-
tings.
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 comple-
tion 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 selec-
tion, 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 a
there are a certain number of matches or the list
of matches does not fit on the screen, both of
`yes=' and `select=' may be given twice, once with
a number and once with `long' or `long-list'.
Finally, it is possible to activate two special
modes of menu selection. The word `interactive' in
the value causes interactive mode to be entered
immediately when menu selection is started; see the
description of the zsh/complist module in zshmod-
ules(1).RE for a description of interactive mode.
Including the string `search' does the same for
incremental search mode. To select backward incre-
mental search, include the string `search-back-
ward'. )
muttrc If set, gives the location of the mutt con-
figuration file. It defaults to `~/.mut-
trc'.
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 cur-
rent list of matches, however they were gen-
erated; 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 gen-
erated 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 cur-
sor. 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 com-
pleter: with the insert-unambiguous style
set to `true' it inserts only a common pre-
fix 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 gener-
ated 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 uncondi-
tionally. 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 com-
pletion is started if the old list was gen-
erated by a different completion command;
this is the behaviour without the _oldlist
completer.
For example, suppose you type ^Xc to gener-
ate a list of corrections, and menu comple-
tion 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 _cor-
rect completers to decide if the original
string should be added as a possible comple-
tion. 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 loca-
tions it will be used as the default.
pine-directory
If set, specifies the directory containing
PINE mailbox files. It defaults to
`~/mail'.
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, too, is used 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. In the case of command
options, this means that the initial `-',
`+', or `--' must be typed explicitly before
option names will be completed.
The default value for this style is `true'.
preserve-prefix
This style is used when completing path
names. Its value should be a pattern match-
ing an initial prefix of the word to com-
plete 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 singe 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
was been found, or max words have been
tried.
The default is to complete all words from
the history at once.
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.
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 connec-
tions 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 dupli-
cates.
select-prompt
If this is set for the default tag, its
value will be displayed during menu selec-
tion (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 inte-
ger, the list is scrolled by the given num-
ber of lines; if it is a negative number,
the list is scrolled by a screenful minus
the absolute value of the given number of
lines. The default is to scroll by single
lines.
separate-sections
This style is used with the manuals tag when
completing names of manual pages. If it is
`true', entries for different sections are
added separately using tag names of the form
`manual.X', where X is the section number.
When the group-name style is also in effect,
pages from different sections will appear
separately. This style is also used simi-
larly with the words style when completing
words for the dict command. It allows words
from different dictionary databases to be
added separately. The default for this
style is `false'.
show-completer
Tested whenever a new completer is tried.
If it is true, the completion system outputs
a progress message in the listing area show-
ing what completer is being tried. The mes-
sage will be overwritten by any output when
completions are found and is removed after
completion is finished.
single-ignored
This is used by the _ignored completer when
there is only one match. If its value is
`show', the single match will be displayed
but not inserted. If the value is `menu',
then the single match and the original
string are both added as matches and menu
completion is started, making it easy to
select either of them.
sort Many completion widgets call _description at
some point which decides whether the matches
are added sorted or unsorted (often indi-
rectly via _wanted or _requested). This
style can be set explicitly to one of the
usual true or false values as an override.
If it is not set for the context, the stan-
dard 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 with-
out the tag.
If the calling widget explicitly requests
unsorted matches, this is usually honoured.
However, the default (unsorted) behaviour of
completion for the command history may be
overridden by setting the style to true.
In the _expand completer, if it is set to
`true', the expansions generated will always
be sorted. If it is set to `menu', then the
expansions are only sorted when they are
offered as single strings but not in the
string containing all possible expansions.
special-dirs
Normally, the completion code will not pro-
duce 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 \
'[[ $PREFIX = (../)#(|.|..) ]] && reply=(..)'
squeeze-slashes
If set to `true', sequences of slashes in
filename paths (for example in `foo//bar')
will be treated as a single slash. This is
the usual behaviour of UNIX paths. However,
by default the file completion function
behaves as if there were a `*' between the
slashes.
stop If set to `true', the _history_complete_word
bindable command will stop once when reach-
ing the beginning or end of the history.
Invoking _history_complete_word will then
wrap around to the opposite end of the his-
tory. If this style is set to `false' (the
default), _history_complete_word will loop
immediately as in a menu completion.
strip-comments
If set to `true', this style causes
non-essential comment text to be removed
from completion matches. Currently it is
only used when completing e-mail addresses
where it removes any display name from the
addresses, cutting them down to plain
user@host form.
subst-globs-only
This is used by the _expand completer. If
it is set to `true', the expansion will only
be used if it resulted from globbing; hence,
if expansions resulted from the use of the
substitute style described below, but these
were not further changed by globbing, the
expansions will be rejected.
The default for this style is `false'.
substitute
This boolean style controls whether the
_expand completer will first try to expand
all substitutions in the string (such as
`$(...)' and `${...}').
The default is `true'.
suffix This is used by the _expand completer if the
word starts with a tilde or contains a
parameter expansion. If it is set to
`true', the word will only be expanded if it
doesn't have a suffix, i.e. if it is some-
thing like `~foo' or `$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 posi-
tion 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 spec-
ified 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 exclama-
tion 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 set-
tings 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 comple-
tion 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 differ-
ently on each attempt, but still to use all
the other tags without having to repeat them
all. For example, to make completion of
function names in command position ignore
all the completion functions starting with
an underscore the first time completion is
tried:
zstyle ':completion:*:*:-command-:*' tag-order \
'functions:-non-comp *' functions
zstyle ':completion:*:functions-non-comp' ignored-patterns '_*'
On the first attempt, all tags will be
offered but the functions tag will be
replaced by functions-non-comp. The
ignored-patterns style is set for this tag
to exclude functions starting with an under-
score. If there are no matches, the second
value of the tag-order style is used which
completes functions using the default tag,
this time presumably including all function
names.
The matches for one tag can be split into
different groups. For example:
zstyle ':completion:*' tag-order \
'options:-long:long\ options
options:-short:short\ options
options:-single-letter:single\ letter\ options'
zstyle ':completion:*:options-long' ignored-patterns '[-+](|-|[^-]*)'
zstyle ':completion:*:options-short' ignored-patterns '--*' '[-+]?'
zstyle ':completion:*:options-single-letter' ignored-patterns '???*'
With the group-names style set, options
beginning with `--', options beginning with
a single `-' or `+' but containing multiple
characters, and single-letter options will
be displayed in separate groups with differ-
ent 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 comple-
tion system and hence can't be set for sin-
gle commands nor for more specific contexts.
Here is how to try normal completion without
any match specification and, if that gener-
ates no matches, try again with case-insen-
sitive matching, restricting the effect to
arguments of the command foo:
zstyle ':completion:*:*:foo:*' tag-order '*' '*:-case'
zstyle ':completion:*-case' matcher 'm:{a-z}={A-Z}'
First, all the tags offered when completing
after foo are tried using the normal tag
name. If that generates no matches, the
second value of tag-order is used, which
tries all tags again except that this time
each has -case appended to its name for
lookup of styles. Hence this time the value
for the matcher style from the second call
to zstyle in the example is used to make
completion case-insensitive.
It is possible to use the -e option of the
zstyle builtin command to specify conditions
for the use of particular tags. For exam-
ple:
zstyle -e '*:-command-:*' tag-order '
if [[ -n $PREFIX$SUFFIX ]]; then
reply=( )
else
reply=( - )
fi'
Completion in command position will be
attempted only if the string typed so far is
not empty. This is tested using the PREFIX
special parameter; see zshcompwid for a
description of parameters which are special
inside completion widgets. Setting reply to
an empty array provides the default
behaviour of trying all tags at once; set-
ting 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 behav-
ior 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 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 comple-
tions. The top level directory should be
the file access method, such as `http',
`ftp', `bookmark' and so on. In many cases
the next level of directories will be a
filename. The directory hierarchy can
descend as deep as necessary.
For example,
zstyle ':completion:*' urls ~/.urls
mkdir -p ~/.urls/ftp/ftp.zsh.org/pub/development
allows completion of all the components of
the URL ftp://ftp.zsh.org/pub/development
after suitable commands such as `netscape'
or `lynx'. Note, however, that access meth-
ods and files are completed separately, so
if the hosts style is set hosts can be com-
pleted 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 direc-
tory 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 com-
pletion 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 ques-
tion. 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-perl
Various parts of the function system use awk
to extract words from files or command out-
put as this universally available. However,
many versions of awk have arbitrary limits
on the size of input. If this style is set,
perl will be used instead. This is almost
always preferable if perl is available on
your system.
Currently this is only used in completions
for `make', but it may be extended depending
on authorial frustration.
users This may be set to a list of usernames to be
completed. If it is not set or the string
on the line doesn't match any of the strings
in this list, all usernames will be com-
pleted.
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 occa-
sions. If this style is true, the compari-
son is instead performed only on the current
word. Hence if completion is performed on
another word with the same contents, comple-
tion will not be delayed.
CONTROL FUNCTIONS
The initialization script compinit redefines all the wid-
gets 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 com-
pletion is tried, first with the effect of the
ignored-patterns style and then without it. The
_main_complete function uses the return value of the
completer functions to decide if other completers should
be called. If the return value is zero, no other com-
pleters 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 com-
pleters. Instead, the second argument gives a name to use
in the completer field of the context and the other argu-
ments give a command name and arguments to call to gener-
ate 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 consist-
ing of all other matches. As it influences later
completers it must appear as the first completer in
the list. The list of all matches is affected by
the avoid-completer and old-matches styles
described above.
It may be useful to use the _generic function
described below to bind _all_matches to its own
keystroke, for example:
zle -C all-matches complete-word _generic
bindkey '^Xa' all-matches
zstyle ':completion:all-matches:*' old-matches only
zstyle ':completion:all-matches::::' completer _all_matches
_approximate
This is similar to the basic _complete completer
but allows the completions to undergo corrections.
The maximum number of errors can be specified by
the max-errors style; see the description of
approximate matching in zshexpn(1) for how errors
are counted. Normally this completer will only be
tried after the normal _complete completer:
zstyle ':completion:*' completer _complete _approximate
This will give correcting completion if and only if
normal completion yields no possible completions.
When corrected completions are found, the completer
will normally start menu completion allowing you to
cycle through these strings.
This completer uses the tags corrections and origi-
nal when generating the possible corrections and
the original string. The format style for the for-
mer may contain the additional sequences `%e' and
`%o' which will be replaced by the number of errors
accepted to generate the corrections and the origi-
nal 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 com-
pleter 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 com-
mand line hasn't changed since the last time com-
pletion was tried. Only then are the _ignored,
_correct and _approximate completers called.
_complete
This completer generates all possible completions
in a context-sensitive manner, i.e. using the set-
tings 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 #com-
pdef tag.
Before trying to find a function for a specific
context, _complete checks if the parameter `comp-
context' 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 ele-
ments 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 comple-
tions 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 with-
out 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 com-
pletes 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 _approx-
imate, but the completer field in the context name
is correct.
For example, with:
zstyle ':completion:::::' completer _complete _correct _approximate
zstyle ':completion:*:correct:::' max-errors 2 not-numeric
zstyle ':completion:*:approximate:::' max-errors 3 numeric
correction will accept up to two errors. If a
numeric argument is given, correction will not be
performed, but correcting completion will be, and
will accept as many errors as given by the numeric
argument. Without a numeric argument, first cor-
rection 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 _approxi-
mate 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 possi-
ble 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 expan-
sions 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 dis-
abled.
This function is also a bindable command, see the
section `Bindable Commands' below.
_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 _his-
tory_complete_word bindable command, see the sec-
tion `Bindable Commands' below and the section
`Completion System Configuration' above.
_ignored
The ignored-patterns style can be set to a list of
patterns which are compared against possible com-
pletions; 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 sin-
gle-ignored style is also available as described
above.
_list This completer allows the insertion of matches to
be delayed until completion is attempted a second
time without the word on the line being changed.
On the first attempt, only the list of matches will
be shown. It is affected by the styles condition
and word, see the section `Completion System Con-
figuration' above.
_match This completer is intended to be used after the
_complete completer. It behaves similarly but the
string on the command line may be a pattern to
match against trial completions. This gives the
effect of the GLOB_COMPLETE option.
Normally completion will be performed by taking the
pattern from the line, inserting a `*' at the cur-
sor 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 func-
tion to show how menu completion can be enabled in
shell code. However, it has the notable effect of
disabling menu selection which can be useful with
_generic based widgets. It should be used as the
first completer in the list. Note that this is
independent of the setting of the MENU_COMPLETE
option and does not work with the other menu com-
pletion 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 spe-
cial 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 ordi-
nary contextual completions. It should appear in
the list of completers before any of the widgets
which generate matches. It uses two styles:
old-list and old-menu, see the section `Completion
System Configuration' above.
_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 _cor-
rect completer after it, _prefix will be called a
second time and, now only trying correction with
the suffix ignored. On the second invocation the
completer part of the context appears as `foo'.
To use _prefix as the last resort and try only
normal completion when it is invoked:
zstyle ':completion:*' completer _complete ... _prefix
zstyle ':completion::prefix:*' completer _complete
The add-space style is also respected. If it is
set to `true' then _prefix will insert a space
between the matches generated (if any) and the suf-
fix.
Note that this completer is only useful if the COM-
PLETE_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.
bashcompinit
This function 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.
BINDABLE COMMANDS
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_com-
plete-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; `$', envi-
ronment variables; `@', host names; `/', file
names; `~' user names. In bash, the binding pre-
ceded by `\e' gives completion, and preceded by
`^X' lists options. As some of these bindings
clash with standard zsh bindings, only `\e~' and
`^X~' are bound by default. To add the rest, the
following should be added to .zshrc after compinit
has been run:
for key in '!' '$' '@' '/' '~'; do
bindkey "\e$key" _bash_complete-word
bindkey "^X$key" _bash_list-choices
done
This includes the bindings for `~' in case they
were already bound to something else; the comple-
tion 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 addi-
tional 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-com-
plete 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 set-
tings to be defined easily. For example, to define
a widget that performs normal completion and starts
menu selection:
zle -C foo complete-word _generic
bindkey '...' foo
zstyle ':completion:foo:*' menu yes select=1
_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. Succes-
sive 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 per-
form 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. Unam-
biguous parts of the function name will be com-
pleted 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 expres-
sion specifying what should be completed.
A very restricted set of editing commands is avail-
able 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 cap-
tures in a temporary file a trace of the shell com-
mands executed by the completion system. Each com-
pletion 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_tag (^Xt)
This widget completes symbol tags created by the
etags or ctags programmes (note there is no connec-
tion 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 pre-
ferred. You can specify the full path to a TAGS or
tags file by setting the parameter $TAGSFILE or
$tagsfile respectively. The corresponding comple-
tion tags used are etags and vtags, after emacs and
vi respectively.
UTILITY FUNCTIONS
Descriptions follow for utility functions that may be use-
ful 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 gener-
ating matches all follow the convention of returning zero
if they generated completions and non-zero if no matching
completions could be added.
Two more features are offered by the _main_complete func-
tion. The arrays compprefuncs and comppostfuncs may con-
tain names of functions that are to be called immediately
before or after completion has been tried. A function
will only be called once unless it explicitly reinserts
itself into the array.
_all_labels [ -x ] [ -12VJ ] tag name descr [ command args
... ]
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. Nor-
mally, they are put directly after the command, but
if one of the args is a single hyphen, they are
inserted directly before that. If the hyphen is
the last argument, it will be removed from the
argument list before the command is called. This
allows _all_labels to be used in almost all cases
where the matches can be generated by a single call
to the compadd builtin command or by a call to one
of the utility functions.
For example:
local expl
...
if _requested foo; then
...
_all_labels foo expl '...' compadd ... - $matches
fi
Will complete the strings from the matches parame-
ter, using compadd with additional options which
will take precedence over those generated by
_all_labels.
_alternative [ -C name ] spec ...
This function is useful in simple cases where mul-
tiple tags are available. Essentially it imple-
ments a loop like the one described for the _tags
function below.
The tags to use and the action to perform if a tag
is requested are described using the specs which
are of the form: `tag:descr:action'. The tags are
offered using _tags and if the tag is requested,
the action is executed with the given description
descr. The actions are those accepted by the
_arguments function (described below), excluding
the `->state' and `=...' forms.
For example, the action may be a simple function
call:
_alternative \
'users:user:_users' \
'hosts:host:_hosts'
offers usernames and hostnames as possible matches,
generated by the _users and _hosts functions
respectively.
Like _arguments, this functions 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.
Like _tags this function supports the -C option to
give a different name for the argument context
field.
_arguments [ -swWACRS ] [ -O name ] [ -M matchspec ] [ : ]
spec ...
This function can be used to give a complete speci-
fication for completion for a command whose argu-
ments follow standard UNIX option and argument con-
ventions. The following forms specify individual
sets of options and arguments; to avoid ambiguity,
these may be separated from the options to _argu-
ments itself by a single colon.
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 nei-
ther 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 indi-
cates handling for one or more arguments to
the option; if it is not present, the option
is assumed to take no arguments.
By default, options are multi-character
name, one `-word' per option. With -s,
options may be single characters, with more
than one option per word, although words
starting with two hyphens, such as `--pre-
fix', are still considered complete option
names. This is suitable for standard GNU
options.
The combination of -s with -w allows sin-
gle-letter options to be combined in a sin-
gle word even if one or more of the options
take arguments. For example, if -a takes an
argument, with no -s `-ab' is considered as
a single (unhandled) option; with -s -ab is
an option with the argument `b'; with both
-s and -w, -ab may be the option -a and the
option(-b) with arguments still to come.
The option -W takes this 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.
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 cur-
sor 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 `+-opt-
name' 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 com-
pleted option and argument will look
like `-fooarg'.
-optname+
The first argument may appear imme-
diately after optname in the same
word, or may appear as a separate
word after the option. For example,
`-foo+:...' specifies that the com-
pleted 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 exam-
ple `-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 opera-
tion]'.
The verbose style is used to decide
whether the explanation strings are
displayed with the option in a com-
pletion 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 argu-
ments. 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 com-
pleted as described by the action; other-
wise, all the words up to 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 descrip-
tion.
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 argu-
ments 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
(those shown in the above table beginning with `*:') will
not be completed.
To aid in reuse of specifications, it is possible to pre-
cede 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 nor-
mal. 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
$global_options' is used, and on subsequent calls `_argu-
ments !$^global_options'.
In each of the forms above the action determines how com-
pletions 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 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 com-
pletions 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 a `->string', it will
strip all leading and trailing whitespace from
string and set the array state to the set of all
stringss for which an action is to be performed.
By default and in common with all other well
behaved completion functions, _arguments returns
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, _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' therefore must
declare appropriate local parameters:
local context state line
typeset -A opt_args
to avoid _arguments from altering the global envi-
ronment.
{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 fol-
lowed by a space), _arguments will insert the con-
tents 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 tak-
ing 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 appro-
priate 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 argu-
ments, is correctly passed to the completion com-
mand. 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 command name and normal arguments from the
command line, i.e. the words from the command line exclud-
ing 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. For options that
have more than one argument these are given as one string,
separated by colons. All colons in the original arguments
are preceded with backslashes.
The parameter `context' is set when returning to the call-
ing function to perform an action of the form `->string'.
It is set to an array of elements corresponding to the
elements of $state. Each element is a suitable name for
the argument field of the context: either a string of the
form `option-opt-n' for the n'th argument of the option
-opt, or a string of the form `argument-n' for the n'th
argument. For `rest' arguments, that is those in the list
at the end not handled by position, n is the string
`rest'. For example, when completing the argument of the
-o option, the name is `option-o-1', while for the second
normal (non-option-) argument it is `argument-2'.
Furthermore, during the evaluation of the action the con-
text name in the curcontext parameter is altered to append
the same string that is stored in the context parameter.
It is possible to specify multiple sets of options and
arguments with the sets separated by single hyphens. The
specifications before the first hyphen (if any) are shared
by all the remaining sets. The first word in every other
set provides a name for the set which may appear in exclu-
sion lists in specifications, either alone or before one
of the possible values described above. In the second
case a `-' should appear between this name and the remain-
der.
For example:
_arguments \
-a \
- set1 \
-c \
- set2 \
-d \
':arg:(x2 y2)'
This defines two sets. When the command line contains the
option `-c', the `-d' option and the argument will not be
considered possible completions. When it contains `-d' or
an argument, the option `-c' will not be considered. How-
ever, after `-a' both sets will still be considered valid.
If the name given for one of the mutually exclusive sets
is of the form `(name)' then only one value from each set
will ever be completed; more formally, all specifications
are mutually exclusive to all other specifications in the
same set. This is useful for defining multiple sets of
options which are mutually exclusive and in which the
options are aliases for each other. For example:
_arguments \
-a -b \
- '(compress)' \
{-c,--compress}'[compress]' \
- '(uncompress)' \
{-d,--decompress}'[decompress]'
As the completion code has to parse the command line sepa-
rately for each set this form of argument is slow and
should only be used when necessary. A useful alternative
is often an option specification with rest-arguments (as
in `-foo:*:...'); here the option -foo swallows up all
remaining arguments as described by the optarg defini-
tions.
The options -S and -A are available to simplify the speci-
fications for commands with standard option parsing. With
-S, no option will be completed after a `--' appearing on
its own on the line; this argument will otherwise be
ignored; hence in the line
foobar -a -- -b
the `-a' is considered an option but the `-b' is consid-
ered an argument, while the `--' is considered to be nei-
ther.
With -A, no options will be completed after the first
non-option argument on the line. The -A must be followed
by 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
"-*"'.
The option `-O name' specifies the name of an array whose
elements will be passed as arguments to functions called
to execute actions. For example, this can be used to pass
the same set of options for the compadd builtin to all
actions.
The option `-M spec' sets a match specification to use to
completion option names and values. It must appear before
the first argument specification. The default is
`r:|[_-]=* r:|=*': this allows partial word completion
after `_' and `-', for example `-f-b' can be completed to
`-foo-bar'.
The option -C tells _arguments to modify the curcontext
parameter for an action of the form `->state'. This is
the standard parameter used to keep track of the current
context. Here it (and not the context array) should be
made local to the calling function to avoid passing back
the modified value and should be initialised to the cur-
rent value at the start of the function:
local curcontext="$curcontext"
This is useful where it is not possible for multiple
states to be valid together.
The option `--' allows _arguments to work out the names of
long options that support the `--help' option which is
standard in many GNU commands. The command word is called
with the argument `--help' and the output examined for
option names. Clearly, it can be dangerous to pass this
to commands which may not support this option as the
behaviour of the command is unspecified.
In addition to options, `_arguments --' will try to deduce
the types of arguments available for options when the form
`--opt=val' is valid. It is also possible to provide
hints by examining the help text of the command and adding
specifiers of the form `pattern:message:action'; note that
normal _arguments specifiers are not used. The pattern is
matched against the help text for an option, and if it
matches the message and action are used as for other argu-
ment specifiers. For example:
_arguments -- '*\*:toggle:(yes no)' \
'*=FILE*:file:_files' \
'*=DIR*:directory:_files -/' \
'*=PATH*:directory:_files -/'
Here, `yes' and `no' will be completed as the argument of
options whose description ends in a star; file names will
be completed for options that contain the substring
`=FILE' in the description; and directories will be
completed for options whose description contains `=DIR' or
`=PATH'. The last three are in fact the default and so
need not be given explicitly, although it is possible to
override the use of these patterns. A typical help text
which uses this feature is:
-C, --directory=DIR change to directory DIR
so that the above specifications will cause directories to
be completed after `--directory', though not after `-C'.
Note also that _arguments tries to find out automatically
if the argument for an option is optional. This can be
specified explicitly by doubling the colon before the mes-
sage.
If the pattern ends in `(-)', this will removed from the
pattern and the action will be used only directly after
the `=', not in the next word. This is the behaviour of a
normal specification defined with the form `=-'.
The `_arguments --' can be followed by the option `-i pat-
terns' to give patterns for options which are not to be
completed. The patterns can be given as the name of an
array parameter or as a literal list in parentheses. For
example,
_arguments -- -i \
"(--(en|dis)able-FEATURE*)"
will cause completion to ignore the options `--enable-FEA-
TURE' and `--disable-FEATURE' (this example is useful with
GNU configure).
The `_arguments --' form can also be followed by the
option `-s pair' to describe option aliases. Each pair
consists of a pattern and a replacement. For example,
some configure-scripts describe options only as
`--enable-foo', but also accept `--disable-foo'. To allow
completion of the second form:
_arguments -- -s "(#--enable- --disable-)"
Here is a more general example of the use of _arguments:
_arguments '-l+:left border:' \
'-format:paper size:(letter A4)' \
'*-copy:output file:_files::resolution:(300 600)' \
':postscript file:_files -g \*.\(ps\|eps\)' \
'*:page number:'
This describes three options: `-l', `-format', and
`-copy'. The first takes one argument described as `left
border' for which no completion will be offered because of
the empty action. Its argument may come directly after
the `-l' or it may be given as the next word on the line.
The `-format' option takes one argument in the next word,
described as `paper size' for which only the strings `let-
ter' and `A4' will be completed.
The `-copy' option may appear more than once on the com-
mand line and takes two arguments. The first is mandatory
and will be completed as a filename. The second is
optional (because of the second colon before the descrip-
tion `resolution') and will be completed from the strings
`300' and `600'.
The last two descriptions say what should be completed as
arguments. The first describes the first argument as a
`postscript file' and makes files ending in `ps' or `eps'
be completed. The last description gives all other argu-
ments the description `page numbers' but does not offer
completions.
_cache_invalid cache_identifier
This function returns status zero if the comple-
tions cache corresponding to the given cache iden-
tifier needs rebuilding. It determines this by
looking up the cache-policy style for the current
context. This should provide a function name which
is run with the full path to the relevant cache
file as the only argument.
Example:
_example_caching_policy () {
# rebuild if cache is more than a week old
oldp=( "$1"(Nmw+1) )
(( $#oldp ))
}
_call_function return name [ args ... ]
If a function name exists, it is called with the
arguments args. The return argument gives the name
of a parameter in which the return status from the
function name; if return is empty or a single
hyphen it is ignored.
The return value of _call_function itself is zero
if the function name exists and was called and
non-zero otherwise.
_call_program tag string ...
This function provides a mechanism for the user to
override the use of an external command. It looks
up the command style with the supplied tag. If the
style is set, its value is used as the command to
execute. The strings from the call to _call_pro-
gram, or from the style if set, are concatenated
with spaces between them and the resulting string
is evaluated. The return value is the return value
of the command called.
_combination [ -s pattern ] tag style spec ... field opts
...
This function is used to complete combinations of
values, for example pairs of hostnames and user-
names. The style argument gives the style which
defines the pairs; it is looked up in a context
with the tag specified.
The style name consists of field names separated by
hyphens, for example `users-hosts-ports'. For each
field for a value is already known, a spec of the
form `field=pattern' is given. For example, if the
command line so far specifies a user `pws', the
argument `users=pws' should appear.
The next argument with no equals sign is taken as
the name of the field for which completions should
be generated (presumably not one of the fields for
which the value is known).
The matches generated will be taken from the value
of the style. These should contain the possible
values for the combinations in the appropriate
order (users, hosts, ports in the example above).
The different fields the values for the different
fields are separated by colons. This can be
altered with the option -s to _combination which
specifies a pattern. Typically this is a character
class, as for example `-s "[:@]"' in the case of
the users-hosts style. Each `field=pattern'
specification restricts the completions which apply
to elements of the style with appropriately match-
ing fields.
If no style with the given name is defined for the
given tag, or if none of the strings in style's
value match, but a function name of the required
field preceded by an underscore is defined, that
function will be called to generate the matches.
For example, if there is no `users-hosts-ports' or
no matching hostname when a host is required, the
function `_hosts' will automatically be called.
If the same name is used for more than one field,
in both the `field=pattern' and the argument that
gives the name of the field to be completed, the
number of the field (starting with one) may be
given after the fieldname, separated from it by a
colon.
All arguments after the required field name are
passed to compadd when generating matches from the
style value, or to the functions for the fields if
they are called.
_describe [ -oO | -t tag ] descr name1 [ name2 ] opts ...
-- ...
This function associates completions with descrip-
tions. Multiple groups separated by -- can be sup-
plied, potentially with different completion
options opts.
The descr is taken as a string to display above the
matches if the format style for the descriptions
tag is set. This is followed by one or two names
of arrays followed by options to pass to compadd.
The first array contains the possible completions
with their descriptions in the form `comple-
tion:description'. If a second array is given, it
should have the same number of elements as the
first; in this case the corresponding elements are
added as possible completions instead of the com-
pletion strings from the first array. The comple-
tion list will retain the descriptions from the
first array. Finally, a set of completion options
can appear.
If the option `-o' appears before the first argu-
ment, the matches added will be treated as names of
command options (N.B. not shell options), typically
following a `-', `--' or `+' on the command line.
In this case _describe uses the prefix-hidden, pre-
fix-needed and verbose styles to find out if the
strings should be added as completions and if the
descriptions should be shown. Without the `-o'
option, only the verbose style is used to decide
how descriptions are shown. If `-O' is used
instead of `-O', command options are completed as
above but _describe will not handle the pre-
fix-needed style.
With the -t option a tag can be specified. The
default is `values' or, if the -o option is given,
`options'.
If selected by the list-grouped style, strings with
the same description will appear together in the
list.
_describe uses the _all_labels function to generate
the matches, so it does not need to appear inside a
loop over tag labels.
_description [ -x ] [ -12VJ ] tag name descr [ spec ... ]
This function is not to be confused with the previ-
ous one; it is used as a helper function for creat-
ing options to compadd. It is buried inside many
of the higher level completion functions and so
often does not need to be called directly.
The styles listed below are tested in the current
context using the given tag. The resulting options
for compadd are put into the array named name (this
is traditionally `expl', but this convention is not
enforced). The description for the corresponding
set of matches is passed to the function in descr.
The styles tested are: format, hidden, matcher,
ignored-patterns and group-name. The format style
is first tested for the given tag and then for the
descriptions tag if no value was found, while the
remainder are only tested for the tag given as the
first argument. The function also calls _setup
which tests some more styles.
The string returned by the format style (if any)
will be modified so that the sequence `%d' is
replaced by the descr given as the third argument
without any leading or trailing white space. If,
after removing the white space, the descr is the
empty string, the format style will not be used and
the options put into the name array will not con-
tain an explanation string to be displayed above
the matches.
If _description is called with more than three
arguments, the additional specs should be of the
form `char:str'. These supply escape sequence
replacements for the format style: every appearance
of `%char' will be replaced by string.
If the -x option is given, the description will be
passed to compadd using the -x option instead of
the default -X. This means that the description
will be displayed even if there are no correspond-
ing matches.
The options placed in the array name take account
of the group-name style, so matches are placed in a
separate group where necessary. The group normally
has its elements sorted (by passing the option -J
to compadd), but if an option starting with `-V',
`-J', `-1', or `-2' is passed to _description, that
option will be included in the array. Hence it is
possible for the completion group to be unsorted by
giving the option `-V', `-1V', or `-2V'.
In most cases, the function will be used like this:
local expl
_description files expl file
compadd "$expl[@]" - "$files[@]"
Note the use of the parameter expl, the hyphen, and
the list of matches. Almost all calls to compadd
within the completion system use a similar format;
this ensures that user-specified styles are cor-
rectly passed down to the builtins which implement
the internals of completion.
_dispatch context string ...
This sets the current context to context and looks
for completion functions to handle this context by
hunting through the list of command names or spe-
cial contexts (as described above for compdef)
given as string .... The first completion function
to be defined for one of the contexts in the list
is used to generate matches. Typically, the last
string is -default- to cause the function for
default completion to be used as a fallback.
The function sets the parameter $service to the
string being tried, and sets the context/command
field (the fourth) of the $curcontext parameter to
the context given as the first argument.
_files The function _files calls _path_files with all the
arguments it was passed except for -g and -/. The
use of these two options depends on the setting of
the file-patterns style.
This function accepts the full set of options
allowed by _path_files, described below.
_gnu_generic
This function is a simple wrapper around the _argu-
ments function described above. It can be used to
determine automatically the long options understood
by commands that produce a list when passed the
option `--help'. It is intended to be used as a
top-level completion function in its own right.
For example, to enable option completion for the
commands foo and bar, use
compdef _gnu_generic foo bar
after the call to compinit.
The completion system as supplied is conservative
in its use of this function, since it is important
to be sure the command understands the option
`-'-help'.
_guard [ options ] pattern descr
This function is intended to be used in the action
for the specifications passed to _arguments and
similar functions. It returns immediately with a
non-zero return value if the string to be completed
does not match the pattern. If the pattern
matches, the descr is displayed; the function then
returns zero if the word to complete is not empty,
non-zero otherwise.
The pattern may be preceded by any of the options
understood by compadd that are passed down from
_description, namely -M, -J, -V, -1, -2, -n, -F and
-X. All of these options will be ignored. This
fits in conveniently with the argument-passing con-
ventions of actions for _arguments.
As an example, consider a command taking the
options -n and -none, where -n must be followed by
a numeric value in the same word. By using:
_arguments '-n-: :_guard "[0-9]#" "numeric value"' '-none'
_arguments can be made to both display the message
`numeric value' and complete options after
`-n'. If the `-n' is already followed by one
or more digits (the pattern passed to _guard) only
the message will be displayed; if the `-n' is fol-
lowed by another character, only options are com-
pleted.
_message [ -r12 ] [ -VJ group ] descr
_message -e [ tag ] descr
The descr is used in the same way as the third
argument to the _description function, except that
the resulting string will always be shown whether
or not matches were generated. This is useful for
displaying a help message in places where no com-
pletions can be generated.
The format style is examined with the messages tag
to find a message; the usual tag, descriptions, is
used only if the style is not set with the former.
If the -r option is given, no style is used; the
descr is taken literally as the string to display.
This is most useful when the descr comes from a
pre-processed argument list which already contains
an expanded description.
The -12VJ options and the group are passed to com-
padd and hence determine the group the message
string is added to.
The second form gives a description for completions
with the tag tag to be shown even if there are no
matches for that tag. The tag can be omitted and
if so the tag is taken from the parameter $curtag;
this is maintained by the completion system and so
is usually correct.
_multi_parts sep array
The argument sep is a separator character. The
array may be either the name of an array parameter
or a literal array in the form `(foo bar)', a
parenthesised list of words separated by whites-
pace. The possible completions are the strings
from the array. However, each chunk delimited by
sep will be completed separately. For example, the
_tar function uses `_multi_parts / patharray' to
complete partial file paths from the given array of
complete file paths.
The -i option causes _multi_parts to insert a
unique match even if that requires multiple separa-
tors to be inserted. This is not usually the
expected behaviour with filenames, but certain
other types of completion, for example those with a
fixed set of possibilities, may be more suited to
this form.
Like other utility functions, this function accepts
the `-V', `-J', `-1', `-2', `-n', `-f', `-X', `-M',
`-P', `-S', `-r', `-R', and `-q' options and passes
them to the compadd builtin.
_next_label [ -x ] [ -12VJ ] tag name descr [ options ...
]
This function is used to implement the loop over
different tag labels for a particular tag as
described above for the tag-order style. On each
call it checks to see if there are any more tag
labels; if there is it returns status zero, other-
wise non-zero. As this function requires a current
tag to be set, it must always follow a call to
_tags or _requested.
The -x12VJ options and the first three arguments
are passed to the _description function. Where
appropriate the tag will be replaced by a tag label
in this call. Any description given in the
tag-order style is preferred to the descr passed to
_next_label.
The options given after the descr are set in the
parameter given by name, and hence are to be passed
to compadd or whatever function is called to add
the matches.
Here is a typical use of this function for the tag
foo. The call to _requested determines if tag foo
is required at all; the loop over _next_label han-
dles any labels defined for the tag in the
tag-order style.
local expl ret=1
...
if _requested foo; then
...
while _next_label foo expl '...'; do
compadd "$expl[@]" ... && ret=0
done
...
fi
return ret
_normal
This is the standard function called to handle com-
pletion outside any special -context-. It is
called both to complete the command word and also
the arguments for a command. In the second case,
_normal looks for a special completion for that
command, and if there is none it uses the comple-
tion for the -default- context.
A second use is to reexamine the command line spec-
ified by the $words array and the $CURRENT parame-
ter after those have been modified. For example,
the function _precommand, which completes after
pre-command specifiers such as nohup, removes the
first word from the words array, decrements the
CURRENT parameter, then calls _normal again. The
effect is that `nohup cmd ...' is treated in the
same way as `cmd ...'.
If the command name matches one of the patterns
given by one of the options -p or -P to compdef,
the corresponding completion function is called and
then the parameter _compskip is checked. If it is
set completion is terminated at that point even if
no matches have been found. This is the same
effect as in the -first- context.
_options
This can be used to complete the names of shell
options. It provides a matcher specification that
ignores a leading `no', ignores underscores and
allows upper-case letters to match their lower-case
counterparts (for example, `glob', `noglob',
`NO_GLOB' are all completed). Any arguments are
propagated to the compadd builtin.
_options_set and _options_unset
These functions complete only set or unset options,
with the same matching specification used in the
_options function.
Note that you need to uncomment a few lines in the
_main_complete function for these functions to work
properly. The lines in question are used to store
the option settings in effect before the completion
widget locally sets the options it needs. Hence
these functions are not generally used by the com-
pletion system.
_parameters
This is used to complete the names of shell parame-
ters.
The option `-g pattern' limits the completion to
parameters whose type matches the pattern. The
type of a parameter is that shown by `print
${(t)param}', hence judicious use of `*' in pattern
is probably necessary.
All other arguments are passed to the compadd
builtin.
_path_files
This function is used throughout the completion
system to complete filenames. It allows completion
of partial paths. For example, the string
`/u/i/s/sig' may be completed to
`/usr/include/sys/signal.h'.
The options accepted by both _path_files and _files
are:
-f Complete all filenames. This is the
default.
-/ Specifies that only directories should be
completed.
-g pattern
Specifies that only files matching the pat-
tern should be completed.
-W paths
Specifies path prefixes that are to be
prepended to the string from the command
line to generate the filenames but that
should not be inserted as completions nor
shown in completion listings. Here, paths
may be the name of an array parameter, a
literal list of paths enclosed in parenthe-
ses or an absolute pathname.
-F ignored-files
This behaves as for the corresponding option
to the compadd builtin. It gives direct
control over which filenames should be
ignored. If the option is not present, the
ignored-patterns style is used.
Both _path_files and _files also accept the follow-
ing options which are passed to compadd: `-J',
`-V', `-1', `-2', `-n', `-X', `-M', `-P', `-S',
`-q', `-r', and `-R'.
Finally, the _path_files function uses the styles
expand, ambiguous, special-dirs, list-suffixes and
file-sort described above.
_pick_variant [ -c command ] [ -r name ] label=pattern ...
label [ args ... ]
This function is used to resolve situations where a
single command name requires more than one type of
handling, either because it has more than one vari-
ant or because there is a name clash between two
different commands.
The command to run is taken from the first element
of the array words unless this is overridden by the
option -c. This command is run and its output is
compared with a series of patterns. Arguments to
be passed to the command can be specified at the
end after all the other arguments. The patterns to
try in order are given by the arguments label=pat-
tern; if the output of `command args ...' contains
pattern, then label is selected as the label for
the command variant. If none of the patterns
match, the final command label is selected and sta-
tus 1 is returned.
If the `-r name' is given, the label picked is
stored in the parameter named name.
The results are also cached in the _cmd_variant
associative array indexed by the name of the com-
mand run.
_regex_arguments name spec ...
This function generates a completion function name
which matches the specifications spec ..., a set of
regular expressions as described below. After run-
ning _regex_arguments, the function name should be
called at the appropriate point. The pattern to be
matched is given by the contents of the words array
up to the current cursor position joined together
with null characters; no quotation is applied.
The arguments are grouped as sets of alternatives
separated by `|', which are tried one after the
other until one matches. Each alternative consists
of a one or more specifications which are tried
left to right, with each pattern matched being
stripped in turn from the command line being
tested, until all of the group succeeds or until
one fails; in the latter case, the next alternative
is tried. This structure can be repeated to arbi-
trary depth by using parentheses; matching proceeds
from inside to outside.
A special procedure is applied if no test succeeds
but the remaining command line string contains no
null character (implying the remaining word is the
one for which completions are to be generated).
The completion target is restricted to the remain-
ing word and any actions for the corresponding pat-
terns are executed. In this case, nothing is
stripped from the command line string. The order
of evaluation of the actions can be determined by
the tag-order style; the various formats supported
by _alternative can be used in action. The descr
is used for setting up the array parameter expl.
Specification arguments take one of following
forms, in which metacharacters such as `(', `)',
`#' and `|' should be quoted.
/pattern/ [%lookahead%] [-guard]
[:tag:descr:action]
This is a single primitive component. The
function tests whether the combined pattern
`(#b)((#B)pattern)lookahead*' matches the
command line string. If so, `guard' is
evaluated and its return status is examined
to determine if the test has succeeded. The
pattern string `[]' is guaranteed never to
match. The lookahead is not stripped from
the command line before the next pattern is
examined.
/pattern/+ [%lookahead%] [-guard]
[:tag:descr:action]
This is similar to `/pattern/ ...' but the
left part of the command line string (i.e.
the part already matched by previous pat-
terns) is also considered part of the com-
pletion target.
/pattern/- [%lookahead%] [-guard]
[:tag:descr:action]
This is similar to `/pattern/ ...' but the
actions of the current and previously
matched patterns are ignored even if the
following `pattern' matches the empty
string.
( spec )
Parentheses may be used to groups specs;
note each parenthesis is a single argument
to _regex_arguments.
spec # This allows any number of repetitions of
spec.
spec spec
The two specs are to be matched one after
the other as described above.
spec | spec
Either of the two specs can be matched.
_requested [ -x ] [ -12VJ ] tag [ name descr [ command
args ... ] ]
This function is called to decide whether a tag
already registered by a call to _tags (see below)
has been requested by the user and hence completion
should be performed for it. It returns status zero
if the tag is requested and non-zero otherwise.
The function is typically used as part of a loop
over different tags as follows:
_tags foo bar baz
while _tags; do
if _requested foo; then
... # perform completion for foo
fi
... # test the tags bar and baz in the same way
... # exit loop if matches were generated
done
Note that the test for whether matches were gener-
ated is not performed until the end of the _tags
loop. This is so that the user can set the
tag-order style to specify a set of tags to be com-
pleted at the same time.
If name and descr are given, _requested calls the
_description function with these arguments together
with the options passed to _requested.
If command is given, the _all_labels function will
be called immediately with the same arguments. In
simple cases this makes it possible to perform the
test for the tag and the matching in one go. For
example:
local expl ret=1
_tags foo bar baz
while _tags; do
_requested foo expl 'description' \
compadd foobar foobaz && ret=0
...
(( ret )) || break
done
If the command is not compadd, it must nevertheless
be prepared to handle the same options.
_retrieve_cache cache_identifier
This function retrieves completion information from
the file given by cache_identifier, stored in a
directory specified by the cache-path style which
defaults to ~/.zcompcache. The return value is
zero if retrieval was successful. It will only
attempt retrieval if the use-cache style is set, so
you can call this function without worrying about
whether the user wanted to use the caching layer.
See _store_cache below for more details.
_sep_parts
This function is passed alternating arrays and sep-
arators as arguments. The arrays specify comple-
tions for parts of strings to be separated by the
separators. The arrays may be the names of array
parameters or a quoted list of words in parenthe-
ses. For example, with the array `hosts=(ftp
news)' the call `_sep_parts '(foo bar)' @ hosts'
will complete the string `f' to `foo' and the
string `b@n' to `bar@news'.
This function accepts the compadd options `-V',
`-J', `-1', `-2', `-n', `-X', `-M', `-P', `-S',
`-r', `-R', and `-q' and passes them on to the com-
padd builtin used to add the matches.
_setup tag [ group ]
This function sets up the special parameters used
by the completion system appropriately for the tag
given as the first argument. It uses the styles
list-colors, list-packed, list-rows-first,
last-prompt, accept-exact, menu and force-list.
The optional group supplies the name of the group
in which the matches will be placed. If it is not
given, the tag is used as the group name.
This function is called automatically from
_description and hence is not normally called
explicitly.
_store_cache cache_identifier params ...
This function, together with _retrieve_cache and
_cache_invalid, implements a caching layer which
can be used in any completion function. Data
obtained by costly operations are stored in parame-
ters; this function then dumps the values of those
parameters to a file. The data can then be
retrieved quickly from that file via
_retrieve_cache, even in different instances of the
shell.
The cache_identifier specifies the file which the
data should be dumped to. The file is stored in a
directory specified by the cache-path style which
defaults to ~/.zcompcache. The remaining params
arguments are the parameters to dump to the file.
The return value is zero if storage was successful.
The function will only attempt storage if the
use-cache style is set, so you can call this func-
tion without worrying about whether the user wanted
to use the caching layer.
The completion function may avoid calling
_retrieve_cache when it already has the completion
data available as parameters. However, in that
case it should call _cache_invalid to check whether
the data in the parameters and in the cache are
still valid.
See the _perl_modules completion function for a
simple example of the usage of the caching layer.
_tags [ [ -C name ] tags ... ]
If called with arguments, these are taken to be the
names of tags valid for completions in the current
context. These tags are stored internally and
sorted by using the tag-order style.
Next, _tags is called repeatedly without arguments
from the same completion function. This succes-
sively selects the first, second, etc. set of tags
requested by the user. The return value is zero if
at least one of the tags is requested and non-zero
otherwise. To test if a particular tag is to be
tried, the _requested function should be called
(see above).
If `-C name' is given, name is temporarily stored
in the argument field (the fifth) of the context in
the curcontext parameter during the call to _tags;
the field is restored on exit. This allows _tags
to use a more specific context without having to
change and reset the curcontext parameter (which
has the same effect).
_values [ -O name ] [ -s sep ] [ -S sep ] [ -wC ] desc
spec ...
This is used to complete arbitrary keywords (val-
ues) and their arguments, or lists of such combina-
tions.
If the first argument is the option `-O name', it
will be 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.
If the first argument (or the first argument after
`-O name') is `-s', the next argument is used as
the character that separates multiple values. This
character is automatically added after each value
in an auto-removable fashion (see below); all val-
ues completed by `_values -s' appear in the same
word on the command line, unlike completion using
_arguments. If this option is not present, only a
single value will be completed per word.
Normally, _values will only use the current word to
determine which values are already present on the
command line and hence are not to be completed
again. If the -w option is given, other arguments
are examined as well.
The first non-option argument is used as a string
to print as a description before listing the val-
ues.
All other arguments describe the possible values
and their arguments in the same format used for the
description of options by the _arguments function
(see above). The only differences are that no
minus or plus sign is required at the beginning,
values can have only one argument, and the forms of
action beginning with an equal sign are not sup-
ported.
The character separating a value from its argument
can be set using the option -S (like -s, followed
by the character to use as the separator in the
next argument). By default the equals sign will be
used as the separator between values and arguments.
Example:
_values -s , 'description' \
'*foo[bar]' \
'(two)*one[number]:first count:' \
'two[another number]::second count:(1 2 3)'
This describes three possible values: `foo', `one',
and `two'. The first is described as `bar', takes
no argument and may appear more than once. The
second is described as `number', may appear more
than once, and takes one mandatory argument
described as `first count'; no action is specified,
so it will not be completed. The `(two)' at the
beginning says that if the value `one' is on the
line, the value `two' will no longer be considered
a possible completion. Finally, the last value
(`two') is described as `another number' and takes
an optional argument described as `second count'
for which the completions (to appear after an `=')
are `1', `2', and `3'. The _values function will
complete lists of these values separated by commas.
Like _arguments, this function temporarily adds
another context name component to the arguments
element (the fifth) of the current context while
executing the action. Here this name is just the
name of the value for which the argument is com-
pleted.
The style verbose is used to decide if the descrip-
tions for the values (but not those for the argu-
ments) should be printed.
The associative array val_args is used to report
values and their arguments; this works similarly to
the opt_args associative array used by _arguments.
Hence the function calling _values should declare
the local parameters state, line, context and
val_args:
local context state line
typeset -A val_args
when using an action of the form `->string'. With
this function the context parameter will be set to
the name of the value whose argument is to be com-
pleted.
Note also that _values normally adds the character
used as the separator between values as an
auto-removable suffix (similar to a `/' after a
directory). However, this is not possible for a
`->string' action as the matches for the argument
are generated by the calling function. To get the
usual behaviour, the the calling function can add
the separator x as a suffix by passing the options
`-qS x' either directly or indirectly to compadd.
The option -C is treated in the same way as it is
by _arguments. In that case the parameter curcon-
text should be made local instead of context (as
described above).
_wanted [ -x ] [ -C name ] [ -12VJ ] tag name descr com-
mand args ...
In many contexts, completion can only generate one
particular set of matches, usually corresponding to
a single tag. However, it is still necessary to
decide whether the user requires matches of this
type. This function is useful in such a case.
The arguments to _wanted are the same as those to
_requested, i.e. arguments to be passed to
_description. However, in this case the command is
not optional; all the processing of tags, includ-
ing the loop over both tags and tag labels and the
generation of matches, is carried out automatically
by _wanted.
Hence to offer only one tag and immediately add the
corresponding matches with the given description:
_wanted tag expl 'description' \
compadd matches...
Note that, as for _requested, the command must be
able to accept options to be passed down to com-
padd.
Like _tags this function supports the -C option to
give a different name for the argument context
field. The -x option has the same meaning as for
_description.
COMPLETION DIRECTORIES
In the source distribution, the files are contained in
various subdirectories of the Completion directory. They
may have been installed in the same structure, or into one
single function directory. The following is a description
of the files found in the original directory structure.
If you wish to alter an installed file, you will need to
copy it to some directory which appears earlier in your
fpath than the standard directory where it appears.
Base The core functions and special completion widgets
automatically bound to keys. You will certainly
need most of these, though will probably not need
to alter them. Many of these are documented above.
Zsh Functions for completing arguments of shell builtin
commands and utility functions for this. Some of
these are also used by functions from the Unix
directory.
Unix Functions for completing arguments of external com-
mands and suites of commands. They may need modi-
fying for your system, although in many cases some
attempt is made to decide which version of a com-
mand is present. For example, completion for the
mount command tries to determine the system it is
running on, while completion for many other utili-
ties try to decide whether the GNU version of the
command is in use, and hence whether the --help
option is supported.
X, AIX, BSD, ...
Completion and utility function for commands avail-
able only on some systems. These are not arranged
hierarchically, so, for example, both the Linux and
Debian directories, as well as the X directory, may
ZSHCOMPCTL(1) ZSHCOMPCTL(1)
be useful on your system.
NAME
zshcompctl - zsh programmable completion
DESCRIPTION
This version of zsh has two ways of performing completion
of words on the command line. New users of the shell may
prefer to use the newer and more powerful system based on
shell functions; this is described in zshcompsys(1), and
the basic shell mechanisms which support it are described
in zshcompwid(1). This manual entry describes the older
compctl command.
compctl [ -CDT ] options [ command ... ]
compctl [ -CDT ] options [ -x pattern options - ... -- ] [
+ options [ -x ... -- ] ... [+] ] [ command ... ]
compctl -M match-specs ...
compctl -L [ -CDTM ] [ command ... ]
compctl + command ...
Control the editor's completion behavior according to the
supplied set of options. Various editing commands,
notably expand-or-complete-word, usually bound to tab,
will attempt to complete a word typed by the user, while
others, notably delete-char-or-list, usually bound to ^D
in EMACS editing mode, list the possibilities; compctl
controls what those possibilities are. They may for exam-
ple be filenames (the most common case, and hence the
default), shell variables, or words from a user-specified
list.
COMMAND FLAGS
Completion of the arguments of a command may be different
for each command or may use the default. The behavior
when completing the command word itself may also be sepa-
rately specified. These correspond to the following flags
and arguments, all of which (except for -L) may be com-
bined with any combination of the options described subse-
quently in the section `Option Flags':
command ...
controls completion for the named commands, which
must be listed last on the command line. If com-
pletion is attempted for a command with a pathname
containing slashes and no completion definition is
found, the search is retried with the last pathname
component. If the command starts with a =, comple-
tion is tried with the pathname of the command.
Any of the command strings may be patterns of the
form normally used for filename generation. These
should be be quoted to protect them from immediate
expansion; for example the command string 'foo*'
arranges for completion of the words of any command
beginning with foo. When completion is attempted,
all pattern completions are tried in the reverse
order of their definition until one matches. By
default, completion then proceeds as normal, i.e.
the shell will try to generate more matches for the
specific command on the command line; this can be
overridden by including -tn in the flags for the
pattern completion.
Note that aliases are expanded before the command
name is determined unless the COMPLETE_ALIASES
option is set. Commands may not be combined with
the -C, -D or -T flags.
-C controls completion when the command word itself is
being completed. If no compctl -C command has been
issued, the names of any executable command
(whether in the path or specific to the shell, such
as aliases or functions) are completed.
-D controls default completion behavior for the argu-
ments of commands not assigned any special behav-
ior. If no compctl -D command has been issued,
filenames are completed.
-T supplies completion flags to be used before any
other processing is done, even before processing
for compctls defined for specific commands. This
is especially useful when combined with extended
completion (the -x flag, see the section `Extended
Completion' below). Using this flag you can define
default behavior which will apply to all commands
without exception, or you can alter the standard
behavior for all commands. For example, if your
access to the user database is too slow and/or it
contains too many users (so that completion after
`~' is too slow to be usable), you can use
compctl -T -x 's[~] C[0,[^/]#]' -k friends -S/ -tn
to complete the strings in the array friends after
a `~'. The C[...] argument is necessary so that
this form of ~-completion is not tried after the
directory name is finished.
-L lists the existing completion behavior in a manner
suitable for putting into a start-up script; the
existing behavior is not changed. Any combination
of the above forms, or the -M flag (which must fol-
low the -L flag), may be specified, otherwise all
defined completions are listed. Any other flags
supplied are ignored.
no argument
If no argument is given, compctl lists all defined
completions in an abbreviated form; with a list of
options, all completions with those flags set (not
counting extended completion) are listed.
If the + flag is alone and followed immediately by the
command list, the completion behavior for all the commands
in the list is reset to the default. In other words, com-
pletion will subsequently use the options specified by the
-D flag.
The form with -M as the first and only option defines
global matching specifications (see zshcompwid). The match
specifications given will be used for every completion
attempt (only when using compctl, not with the new comple-
tion system) and are tried in the order in which they are
defined until one generates at least one match. E.g.:
compctl -M '' 'm:{a-zA-Z}={A-Za-z}'
This will first try completion without any global match
specifications (the empty string) and, if that generates
no matches, will try case insensitive completion.
OPTION FLAGS
[ -fcFBdeaRGovNAIOPZEnbjrzu/12 ]
[ -k array ] [ -g globstring ] [ -s subststring ]
[ -K function ]
[ -Q ] [ -P prefix ] [ -S suffix ]
[ -W file-prefix ] [ -H num pattern ]
[ -q ] [ -X explanation ] [ -Y explanation ]
[ -y func-or-var ] [ -l cmd ] [ -h cmd ] [ -U ]
[ -t continue ] [ -J name ] [ -V name ]
[ -M match-spec ]
The remaining options specify the type of command argu-
ments to look for during completion. Any combination of
these flags may be specified; the result is a sorted list
of all the possibilities. The options are as follows.
Simple Flags
These produce completion lists made up by the shell
itself:
-f Filenames and filesystem paths.
-/ Just filesystem paths.
-c Command names, including aliases, shell functions,
builtins and reserved words.
-F Function names.
-B Names of builtin commands.
-m Names of external commands.
-w Reserved words.
-a Alias names.
-R Names of regular (non-global) aliases.
-G Names of global aliases.
-d This can be combined with -F, -B, -w, -a, -R and -G
to get names of disabled functions, builtins,
reserved words or aliases.
-e This option (to show enabled commands) is in effect
by default, but may be combined with -d; -de in
combination with -F, -B, -w, -a, -R and -G will
complete names of functions, builtins, reserved
words or aliases whether or not they are disabled.
-o Names of shell options (see zshoptions(1)).
-v Names of any variable defined in the shell.
-N Names of scalar (non-array) parameters.
-A Array names.
-I Names of integer variables.
-O Names of read-only variables.
-p Names of parameters used by the shell (including
special parameters).
-Z Names of shell special parameters.
-E Names of environment variables.
-n Named directories.
-b Key binding names.
-j Job names: the first word of the job leader's com-
mand line. This is useful with the kill builtin.
-r Names of running jobs.
-z Names of suspended jobs.
-u User names.
Flags with Arguments
These have user supplied arguments to determine how the
list of completions is to be made up:
-k array
Names taken from the elements of $array (note that
the `$' does not appear on the command line).
Alternatively, the argument array itself may be a
set of space- or comma-separated values in paren-
theses, in which any delimiter may be escaped with
a backslash; in this case the argument should be
quoted. For example,
compctl -k "(cputime filesize datasize stacksize
coredumpsize resident descriptors)" limit
-g globstring
The globstring is expanded using filename globbing;
it should be quoted to protect it from immediate
expansion. The resulting filenames are taken as the
possible completions. Use `*(/)' instead of `*/'
for directories. The fignore special parameter is
not applied to the resulting files. More than one
pattern may be given separated by blanks. (Note
that brace expansion is not part of globbing. Use
the syntax `(either|or)' to match alternatives.)
-s subststring
The subststring is split into words and these words
are than expanded using all shell expansion mecha-
nisms (see zshexpn(1)). The resulting words are
taken as possible completions. The fignore special
parameter is not applied to the resulting files.
Note that -g is faster for filenames.
-K function
Call the given function to get the completions.
Unless the name starts with an underscore, the
function is passed two arguments: the prefix and
the suffix of the word on which completion is to be
attempted, in other words those characters before
the cursor position, and those from the cursor
position onwards. The whole command line can be
accessed with the -c and -l flags of the read
builtin. The function should set the variable reply
to an array containing the completions (one comple-
tion per element); note that reply should not be
made local to the function. From such a function
the command line can be accessed with the -c and -l
flags to the read builtin. For example,
function whoson { reply=(`users`); }
compctl -K whoson talk
completes only logged-on users after `talk'. Note
that `whoson' must return an array, so
`reply=`users`' would be incorrect.
-H num pattern
The possible completions are taken from the last
num history lines. Only words matching pattern are
taken. If num is zero or negative the whole his-
tory is searched and if pattern is the empty string
all words are taken (as with `*'). A typical use
is
compctl -D -f + -H 0 ''
which forces completion to look back in the history
list for a word if no filename matches.
Control Flags
These do not directly specify types of name to be com-
pleted, but manipulate the options that do:
-Q This instructs the shell not to quote any metachar-
acters in the possible completions. Normally the
results of a completion are inserted into the com-
mand line with any metacharacters quoted so that
they are interpreted as normal characters. This is
appropriate for filenames and ordinary strings.
However, for special effects, such as inserting a
backquoted expression from a completion array (-k)
so that the expression will not be evaluated until
the complete line is executed, this option must be
used.
-P prefix
The prefix is inserted just before the completed
string; any initial part already typed will be com-
pleted and the whole prefix ignored for completion
purposes. For example,
compctl -j -P "%" kill
inserts a `%' after the kill command and then com-
pletes job names.
-S suffix
When a completion is found the suffix is inserted
after the completed string. In the case of menu
completion the suffix is inserted immediately, but
it is still possible to cycle through the list of
completions by repeatedly hitting the same key.
-W file-prefix
With directory file-prefix: for command, file,
directory and globbing completion (options -c, -f,
-/, -g), the file prefix is implicitly added in
front of the completion. For example,
compctl -/ -W ~/Mail maildirs
completes any subdirectories to any depth beneath
the directory ~/Mail, although that prefix does not
appear on the command line. The file-prefix may
also be of the form accepted by the -k flag, i.e.
the name of an array or a literal list in parenthe-
sis. In this case all the directories in the list
will be searched for possible completions.
-q If used with a suffix as specified by the -S
option, this causes the suffix to be 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; this the same rule used for the
AUTO_REMOVE_SLASH option. The option is most use-
ful for list separators (comma, colon, etc.).
-l cmd This option restricts the range of command line
words that are considered to be arguments. If com-
bined with one of the extended completion patterns
`p[...]', `r[...]', or `R[...]' (see the section
`Extended Completion' below) the range is
restricted to the range of arguments specified in
the brackets. Completion is then performed as if
these had been given as arguments to the cmd sup-
plied with the option. If the cmd string is empty
the first word in the range is instead taken as the
command name, and command name completion performed
on the first word in the range. For example,
compctl -x 'r[-exec,;]' -l '' -- find
completes arguments between `-exec' and the follow-
ing `;' (or the end of the command line if there is
no such string) as if they were a separate command
line.
-h cmd Normally zsh completes quoted strings as a whole.
With this option, completion can be done separately
on different parts of such strings. It works like
the -l option but makes the completion code work on
the parts of the current word that are separated by
spaces. These parts are completed as if they were
arguments to the given cmd. If cmd is the empty
string, the first part is completed as a command
name, as with -l.
-U Use the whole list of possible completions, whether
or not they actually match the word on the command
line. The word typed so far will be deleted. This
is most useful with a function (given by the -K
option) which can examine the word components
passed to it (or via the read builtin's -c and -l
flags) and use its own criteria to decide what
matches. If there is no completion, the original
word is retained. Since the produced possible com-
pletions seldom have interesting common prefixes
and suffixes, menu completion is started immedi-
ately if AUTO_MENU is set and this flag is used.
-y func-or-var
The list provided by func-or-var is displayed
instead of the list of completions whenever a list-
ing is required; the actual completions to be
inserted are not affected. It can be provided in
two ways. Firstly, if func-or-var begins with a $
it defines a variable, or if it begins with a left
parenthesis a literal array, which contains the
list. A variable may have been set by a call to a
function using the -K option. Otherwise it con-
tains the name of a function which will be executed
to create the list. The function will be passed as
an argument list all matching completions, includ-
ing prefixes and suffixes expanded in full, and
should set the array reply to the result. In both
cases, the display list will only be retrieved
after a complete list of matches has been created.
Note that the returned list does not have to corre-
spond, even in length, to the original set of
matches, and may be passed as a scalar instead of
an array. No special formatting of characters is
performed on the output in this case; in particu-
lar, newlines are printed literally and if they
appear output in columns is suppressed.
-X explanation
Print explanation when trying completion on the
current set of options. A `%n' in this string is
replaced by the number of matches that were added
for this explanation string. The explanation only
appears if completion was tried and there was no
unique match, or when listing completions. Explana-
tion strings will be listed together with the
matches of the group specified together with the -X
option (using the -J or -V option). If the same
explanation string is given to multiple -X options,
the string appears only once (for each group) and
the number of matches shown for the `%n' is the
total number of all matches for each of these uses.
In any case, the explanation string will only be
shown if there was at least one match added for the
explanation string.
The sequences %B, %b, %S, %s, %U, and %u specify
output attributes (bold, standout, and underline)
and %{...%} can be used to include literal escape
sequences as in prompts.
-Y explanation
Identical to -X, except that the explanation first
undergoes expansion following the usual rules for
strings in double quotes. The expansion will be
carried out after any functions are called for the
-K or -y options, allowing them to set variables.
-t continue
The continue-string contains a character that
specifies which set of completion flags should be
used next. It is useful:
(i) With -T, or when trying a list of pattern com-
pletions, when compctl would usually continue with
ordinary processing after finding matches; this can
be suppressed with `-tn'.
(ii) With a list of alternatives separated by +,
when compctl would normally stop when one of the
alternatives generates matches. It can be forced
to consider the next set of completions by adding
`-t+' to the flags of the alternative before the
`+'.
(iii) In an extended completion list (see below),
when compctl would normally continue until a set of
conditions succeeded, then use only the immediately
following flags. With `-t-', compctl will continue
trying extended completions after the next `-';
with `-tx' it will attempt completion with the
default flags, in other words those before the
`-x'.
-J name
This gives the name of the group the matches should
be placed in. Groups are listed and sorted sepa-
rately; likewise, menu completion will offer the
matches in the groups in the order in which the
groups were defined. If no group name is explicitly
given, the matches are stored in a group named
default. The first time a group name is encoun-
tered, a group with that name is created. After
that all matches with the same group name are
stored in that group.
This can be useful with non-exclusive alternative
completions. For example, in
compctl -f -J files -t+ + -v -J variables foo
both files and variables are possible completions,
as the -t+ forces both sets of alternatives before
and after the + to be considered at once. Because
of the -J options, however, all files are listed
before all variables.
-V name
Like -J, but matches within the group will not be
sorted in listings nor in menu completion. These
unsorted groups are in a different name space from
the sorted ones, so groups defined as -J files and
-V files are distinct.
-1 If given together with the -V option, makes only
consecutive duplicates in the group be removed.
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.
-M match-spec
This defines additional matching control specifica-
tions that should be used only when testing words
for the list of flags this flag appears in. The
format of the match-spec string is described in
zshcompwid.
ALTERNATIVE COMPLETION
compctl [ -CDT ] options + options [ + ... ] [ + ] command
...
The form with `+' specifies alternative options. Comple-
tion is tried with the options before the first `+'. If
this produces no matches completion is tried with the
flags after the `+' and so on. If there are no flags after
the last `+' and a match has not been found up to that
point, default completion is tried. If the list of flags
contains a -t with a + character, the next list of flags
is used even if the current list produced matches.
EXTENDED COMPLETION
compctl [ -CDT ] options -x pattern options - ... --
[ command ... ]
compctl [ -CDT ] options [ -x pattern options - ... -- ]
[ + options [ -x ... -- ] ... [+] ] [ command ... ]
The form with `-x' specifies extended completion for the
commands given; as shown, it may be combined with alterna-
tive completion using `+'. Each pattern is examined in
turn; when a match is found, the corresponding options, as
described in the section `Option Flags' above, are used to
generate possible completions. If no pattern matches, the
options given before the -x are used.
Note that each pattern should be supplied as a single
argument and should be quoted to prevent expansion of
metacharacters by the shell.
A pattern is built of sub-patterns separated by commas; it
matches if at least one of these sub-patterns matches
(they are `or'ed). These sub-patterns are in turn composed
of other sub-patterns separated by white spaces which
match if all of the sub-patterns match (they are `and'ed).
An element of the sub-patterns is of the form
`c[...][...]', where the pairs of brackets may be repeated
as often as necessary, and matches if any of the sets of
brackets match (an `or'). The example below makes this
clearer.
The elements may be any of the following:
s[string]...
Matches if the current word on the command line
starts with one of the strings given in brackets.
The string is not removed and is not part of the
completion.
S[string]...
Like s[string] except that the string is part of
the completion.
p[from,to]...
Matches if the number of the current word is
between one of the from and to pairs inclusive. The
comma and to are optional; to defaults to the same
value as from. The numbers may be negative: -n
refers to the n'th last word on the line.
c[offset,string]...
Matches if the string matches the word offset by
offset from the current word position. Usually
offset will be negative.
C[offset,pattern]...
Like c but using pattern matching instead.
w[index,string]...
Matches if the word in position index is equal to
the corresponding string. Note that the word count
is made after any alias expansion.
W[index,pattern]...
Like w but using pattern matching instead.
n[index,string]...
Matches if the current word contains string. Any-
thing up to and including the indexth occurrence of
this string will not be considered part of the com-
pletion, but the rest will. index may be negative
to count from the end: in most cases, index will be
1 or -1. For example,
compctl -s '`users`' -x 'n[1,@]' -k hosts -- talk
will usually complete usernames, but if you insert
an @ after the name, names from the array hosts
(assumed to contain hostnames, though you must make
the array yourself) will be completed. Other com-
mands such as rcp can be handled similarly.
N[index,string]...
Like n except that the string will be taken as a
character class. Anything up to and including the
indexth occurrence of any of the characters in
string will not be considered part of the comple-
tion.
m[min,max]...
Matches if the total number of words lies between
min and max inclusive.
r[str1,str2]...
Matches if the cursor is after a word with prefix
str1. If there is also a word with prefix str2 on
the command line after the one matched by str1 it
matches only if the cursor is before this word. If
the comma and str2 are omitted, it matches if the
cursor is after a word with prefix str1.
R[str1,str2]...
Like r but using pattern matching instead.
q[str]...
Matches the word currently being completed is in
single quotes and the str begins with the letter
`s', or if completion is done in double quotes and
str starts with the letter `d', or if completion is
done in backticks and str starts with a `b'.
EXAMPLE
compctl -u -x 's[+] c[-1,-f],s[-f+]' \
-g '~/Mail/*(:t)' - 's[-f],c[-1,-f]' -f -- mail
This is to be interpreted as follows:
If the current command is mail, then
if ((the current word begins with + and the previous word is -f)
or (the current word begins with -f+)), then complete the
non-directory part (the `:t' glob modifier) of files in the directory
~/Mail; else
if the current word begins with -f or the previous word was -f, then
complete any file; else
complete user names.
ZSHMODULES(1) ZSHMODULES(1)
NAME
zshmodules - zsh loadable modules
DESCRIPTION
Some optional parts of zsh are in modules, separate from
the core of the shell. Each of these modules may be
linked in to the shell at build time, or can be dynami-
cally linked while the shell is running if the installa-
tion supports this feature. The modules that are bundled
with the zsh distribution are:
zsh/cap
Builtins for manipulating POSIX.1e (POSIX.6) capa-
bility (privilege) sets.
zsh/clone
A builtin that can clone a running shell onto
another terminal.
zsh/compctl
The compctl builtin for controlling completion.
zsh/complete
The basic completion code.
zsh/complist
Completion listing extensions.
zsh/computil
A module with utility builtins needed for the shell
function based completion system.
zsh/datetime
Some date/time commands and parameters.
zsh/deltochar
A ZLE function duplicating EMACS' zap-to-char.
zsh/example
An example of how to write a module.
zsh/files
Some basic file manipulation commands as builtins.
zsh/mapfile
Access to external files via a special associative
array.
zsh/mathfunc
Standard scientific functions for use in mathemati-
cal evaluations.
zsh/parameter
Access to internal hash tables via special associa-
tive arrays.
zsh/pcre
Interface to the PCRE library.
zsh/sched
A builtin that provides a timed execution facility
within the shell.
zsh/net/socket
Manipulation of Unix domain sockets
zsh/stat
A builtin command interface to the stat system
call.
zsh/system
A builtin interface to various low-level system
features.
zsh/net/tcp
Manipulation of TCP sockets
zsh/termcap
Interface to the termcap database.
zsh/terminfo
Interface to the terminfo database.
zsh/zftp
A builtin FTP client.
zsh/zle
The Zsh Line Editor, including the bindkey and
vared builtins.
zsh/zleparameter
Access to internals of the Zsh Line Editor via
parameters.
zsh/zprof
A module allowing profiling for shell functions.
zsh/zpty
A builtin for starting a command in a pseudo-termi-
nal.
zsh/zselect
Block and return when file descriptors are ready.
zsh/zutil
Some utility builtins, e.g. the one for supporting
configuration via styles.
THE ZSH/CAP MODULE
The zsh/cap module is used for manipulating POSIX.1e
(POSIX.6) capability sets. If the operating system does
not support this interface, the builtins defined by this
module will do nothing. The builtins in this module are:
cap [ capabilities ]
Change the shell's process capability sets to the
specified capabilities, otherwise display the
shell's current capabilities.
getcap filename ...
This is a built-in implementation of the POSIX
standard utility. It displays the capability sets
on each specified filename.
setcap capabilities filename ...
This is a built-in implementation of the POSIX
standard utility. It sets the capability sets on
each specified filename to the specified capabili-
ties.
THE ZSH/CLONE MODULE
The zsh/clone module makes available one builtin command:
clone tty
Creates a forked instance of the current shell,
attached to the specified tty. In the new shell,
the PID, PPID and TTY special parameters are
changed appropriately. $! is set to zero in the
new shell, and to the new shell's PID in the origi-
nal shell.
The return value of the builtin is zero in both
shells if successful, and non-zero on error.
The target of clone should be an unused terminal,
such as an unused virtual console or a virtual ter-
minal created by
xterm -e sh -c 'trap : INT QUIT TSTP; tty; while :;
do sleep 100000000; done'
Some words of explanation are warranted about this
long xterm command line: when doing clone on a
pseudo-terminal, some other session ("session"
meant as a unix session group, or SID) is already
owning the terminal. Hence the cloned zsh cannot
acquire the pseudo-terminal as a controlling tty.
That means two things:
the job control signals will go to the
sh-started-by-xterm process
group (that's why we disable INT QUIT and
TSTP with trap; otherwise
the while loop could get suspended or killed)
the cloned shell will have job control disabled,
and the job
control keys (control-C, control-\ and con-
trol-Z) will not work.
This does not apply when cloning to an unused vc.
Cloning to an used (and unprepared) terminal will
result in two processes reading simultaneously from
the same terminal, with input bytes going randomly
to either process.
clone is mostly useful as a shell built-in
replacement for openvt.
THE ZSH/COMPCTL MODULE
The zsh/compctl module makes available two builtin com-
mands. compctl, is the old, deprecated way to control com-
pletions for ZLE. See zshcompctl(1). The other builtin
command, compcall can be used in user-defined completion
widgets, see zshcompwid(1).
THE ZSH/COMPLETE MODULE
The zsh/complete module makes available several builtin
commands which can be used in user-defined completion wid-
gets, see zshcompwid(1).
THE ZSH/COMPLIST MODULE
The zsh/complist module offers three extensions to comple-
tion listings: the ability to highlight matches in such a
list, the ability to scroll through long lists and a dif-
ferent style of menu completion.
Colored completion listings
Whenever one of the parameters ZLS_COLORS or ZLS_COLOURS
is set and the zsh/complist module is loaded or linked
into the shell, completion lists will be colored. Note,
however, that complist will not automatically be loaded if
it is not linked in: on systems with dynamic loading,
`zmodload zsh/complist' is required.
The parameters ZLS_COLORS and ZLS_COLOURS describe how
matches are highlighted. To turn on highlighting an empty
value suffices, in which case all the default values given
below will be used. The format of the value of these
parameters is the same as used by the GNU version of the
ls command: a colon-separated list of specifications of
the form `name=value'. The name may be one of the follow-
ing strings, most of which specify file types for which
the value will be used. The strings and their default
values are:
no 0 for normal text (i.e. when displaying something
other than a matched file)
fi 0 for regular files
di 32 for directories
ln 36 for symbolic links
pi 31 for named pipes (FIFOs)
so 33 for sockets
bd 44;37
for block devices
cd 44;37
for character devices
ex 35 for executable files
mi none
for a non-existent file (default is the value
defined for fi)
lc \e[ for the left code (see below)
rc m for the right code
tc 0 for the character indicating the file type printed
after filenames if the LIST_TYPES option is set
sp 0 for the spaces printed after matches to align the
next column
ec none
for the end code
Apart from these strings, the name may also be an asterisk
(`*') followed by any string. The value given for such a
string will be used for all files whose name ends with the
string. The name may also be an equals sign (`=') fol-
lowed by a pattern. The value given for this pattern will
be used for all matches (not just filenames) whose display
string are matched by the pattern. Definitions for both
of these take precedence over the values defined for file
types and the form with the leading asterisk takes prece-
dence over the form with the leading equal sign.
The last form also allows different parts of the displayed
strings to be colored differently. For this, the pattern
has to use the `(#b)' globbing flag and pairs of parenthe-
ses surrounding the parts of the strings that are to be
colored differently. In this case the value may consist
of more than one color code separated by equal signs. The
first code will be used for all parts for which no
explicit code is specified and the following codes will be
used for the parts matched by the sub-patterns in paren-
theses. For example, the specification
`=(#b)(?)*(?)=0=3=7' will be used for all matches which
are at least two characters long and will use the code `3'
for the first character, `7' for the last character and
`0' for the rest.
All three forms of name may be preceded by a pattern in
parentheses. If this is given, the value will be used
only for matches in groups whose names are matched by the
pattern given in the parentheses. For example,
`(g*)m*=43' highlights all matches beginning with `m' in
groups whose names begin with `g' using the color code
`43'. In case of the `lc', `rc', and `ec' codes, the
group pattern is ignored.
Note also that all patterns are tried in the order in
which they appear in the parameter value until the first
one matches which is then used.
When printing a match, the code prints the value of lc,
the value for the file-type or the last matching specifi-
cation with a `*', the value of rc, the string to display
for the match itself, and then the value of ec if that is
defined or the values of lc, no, and rc if ec is not
defined.
The default values are ISO 6429 (ANSI) compliant and can
be used on vt100 compatible terminals such as xterms. On
monochrome terminals the default values will have no visi-
ble effect. The colors function from the contribution can
be used to get associative arrays containing the codes for
ANSI terminals (see the section `Other Functions' in zsh-
contrib(1)). For example, after loading colors, one could
use `$colors[red]' to get the code for foreground color
red and `$colors[bg-green]' for the code for background
color green.
If the completion system invoked by compinit is used,
these parameters should not be set directly because the
system controls them itself. Instead, the list-colors
style should be used (see the section `Completion System
Configuration' in zshcompsys(1)).
Scrolling in completion listings
To enable scrolling through a completion list, the LIST-
PROMPT parameter must be set. Its value will be used as
the prompt; if it is the empty string, a default prompt
will be used. The value may contain escapes of the form
`%x'. It supports the escapes `%B', `%b', `%S', `%s',
`%U', `%u' and `%{...%}' used also in shell prompts as
well as three pairs of additional sequences: a `%l' or
`%L' is replaced by the number of the last line shown and
the total number of lines in the form `number/total'; a
`%m' or `%M' is replaced with the number of the last match
shown and the total number of matches; and `%p' or `%P' is
replaced with `Top', `Bottom' or the position of the first
line shown in percent of the total number of lines,
respectively. In each of these cases the form with the
uppercase letter will be replaced with a string of fixed
width, padded to the right with spaces, while the lower-
case form will not be padded.
If the parameter LISTPROMPT is set, the completion code
will not ask if the list should be shown. Instead it
immediately starts displaying the list, stopping after the
first screenful, showing the prompt at the bottom, waiting
for a keypress after temporarily switching to the
listscroll keymap. Some of the zle functions have a spe-
cial meaning while scrolling lists:
send-break
stops listing discarding the key pressed
accept-line, down-history, down-line-or-history
down-line-or-search, vi-down-line-or-history
scrolls forward one line
complete-word, menu-complete, expand-or-complete
expand-or-complete-prefix, menu-complete-or-expand
scrolls forward one screenful
Every other character stops listing and immediately pro-
cesses the key as usual. Any key that is not bound in the
listscroll keymap or that is bound to undefined-key is
looked up in the keymap currently selected.
As for the ZLS_COLORS and ZLS_COLOURS parameters, LIST-
PROMPT should not be set directly when using the shell
function based completion system. Instead, the
list-prompt style should be used.
Menu selection
The zsh/complist module also offers an alternative style
of selecting matches from a list, called menu selection,
which can be used if the shell is set up to return to the
last prompt after showing a completion list (see the
ALWAYS_LAST_PROMPT option in zshoptions(1)). It can be
invoked directly by the widget menu-select defined by the
module. Alternatively, the parameter MENUSELECT can be
set to an integer, which gives the minimum number of
matches that must be present before menu selection is
automatically turned on. This second method requires that
menu completion be started, either directly from a widget
such as menu-complete, or due to one of the options
MENU_COMPLETE or AUTO_MENU being set. If MENUSELECT is
set, but is 0, 1 or empty, menu selection will always be
started during an ambiguous menu completion.
When using the completion system based on shell functions,
the MENUSELECT parameter should not be used (like the
ZLS_COLORS and ZLS_COLOURS parameters described above).
Instead, the menu style should be used with the select=...
keyword.
After menu selection is started, the matches will be
listed. If there are more matches than fit on the screen,
only the first screenful is shown. The matches to insert
into the command line can be selected from this list. In
the list one match is highlighted using the value for ma
from the ZLS_COLORS or ZLS_COLOURS parameter. The default
value for this is `7' which forces the selected match to
be highlighted using standout mode on a vt100-compatible
terminal. If neither ZLS_COLORS nor ZLS_COLOURS is set,
the same terminal control sequence as for the `%S' escape
in prompts is used.
If there are more matches than fit on the screen and the
parameter MENUPROMPT is set, its value will be shown below
the matches. It supports the same escape sequences as
LISTPROMPT, but the number of the match or line shown will
be that of the one where the mark is placed. If its value
is the empty string, a default prompt will be used.
The MENUSCROLL parameter can be used to specify how the
list is scrolled. If the parameter is unset, this is done
line by line, if it is set to `0' (zero), the list will
scroll half the number of lines of the screen. If the
value is positive, it gives the number of lines to scroll
and if it is negative, the list will be scrolled the num-
ber of lines of the screen minus the (absolute) value.
As for the ZLS_COLORS, ZLS_COLOURS and LISTPROMPT parame-
ters, neither MENUPROMPT nor MENUSCROLL should be set
directly when using the shell function based completion
system. Instead, the select-prompt and select-scroll
styles should be used.
The completion code sometimes decides not to show all of
the matches in the list. These hidden matches are either
matches for which the completion function which added them
explicitly requested that they not appear in the list
(using the -n option of the compadd builtin command) or
they are matches which duplicate a string already in the
list (because they differ only in things like prefixes or
suffixes that are not displayed). In the list used for
menu selection, however, even these matches are shown so
that it is possible to select them. To highlight such
matches the hi and du capabilities in the ZLS_COLORS and
ZLS_COLOURS parameters are supported for hidden matches of
the first and second kind, respectively.
Selecting matches is done by moving the mark around using
the zle movement functions. When not all matches can be
shown on the screen at the same time, the list will scroll
up and down when crossing the top or bottom line. The
following zle functions have special meaning during menu
selection:
accept-line
accepts the current match and leaves menu selection
send-break
leaves menu selection and restores the previous
contents of the command line
redisplay, clear-screen
execute their normal function without leaving menu
selection
accept-and-hold, accept-and-menu-complete
accept the currently inserted match and continue
selection allowing to select the next match to
insert into the line
accept-and-infer-next-history
accepts the current match and then tries completion
with menu selection again; in the case of files
this allows one to select a directory and immedi-
ately attempt to complete files in it; if there
are no matches, a message is shown and one can use
undo to go back to completion on the previous
level, every other key leaves menu selection
(including the other zle functions which are other-
wise special during menu selection)
undo removes matches inserted during the menu selection
by one of the three functions before
down-history, down-line-or-history
vi-down-line-or-history, down-line-or-search
moves the mark one line down
up-history, up-line-or-history
vi-up-line-or-history, up-line-or-search
moves the mark one line up
forward-char, vi-forward-char
moves the mark one column right
backward-char, vi-backward-char
moves the mark one column left
forward-word, vi-forward-word
vi-forward-word-end, emacs-forward-word
moves the mark one screenful down
backward-word, vi-backward-word, emacs-backward-word
moves the mark one screenful up
vi-forward-blank-word, vi-forward-blank-word-end
moves the mark to the first line of the next group
of matches
vi-backward-blank-word
moves the mark to the last line of the previous
group of matches
beginning-of-history
moves the mark to the first line
end-of-history
moves the mark to the last line
beginning-of-buffer-or-history, beginning-of-line
beginning-of-line-hist, vi-beginning-of-line
moves the mark to the leftmost column
end-of-buffer-or-history, end-of-line
end-of-line-hist, vi-end-of-line
moves the mark to the rightmost column
complete-word, menu-complete, expand-or-complete
expand-or-complete-prefix, menu-expand-or-complete
moves the mark to the next match
reverse-menu-complete
moves the mark to the previous match
vi-insert
this toggles between normal and interactive mode;
in interactive mode the keys bound to self-insert
and self-insert-unmeta insert into the command line
as in normal editing mode but without leaving menu
selection; after each character completion is tried
again and the list changes to contain only the new
matches; the completion widgets make the longest
unambiguous string be inserted in the command line
and undo and backward-delete-char go back to the
previous set of matches
history-incremental-search-forward,
history-incremental-search-backward this starts
incremental searches in the list of completions
displayed; in this mode, accept-line only leaves
incremental search, going back to the normal menu
selection mode
All movement functions wrap around at the edges; any other
zle function not listed leaves menu selection and executes
that function. It is possible to make widgets in the
above list do the same by using the form of the widget
with a `.' in front. For example, the widget
`.accept-line' has the effect of leaving menu selection
and accepting the entire command line.
During this selection the widget uses the keymap menuse-
lect. Any key that is not defined in this keymap or that
is bound to undefined-key is looked up in the keymap cur-
rently selected. This is used to ensure that the most
important keys used during selection (namely the cursor
keys, return, and TAB) have sensible defaults. However,
keys in the menuselect keymap can be modified directly
using the bindkey builtin command (see zshmodules(1)). For
example, to make the return key leave menu selection with-
out accepting the match currently selected one could call
bindkey -M menuselect '^M' send-break
after loading the zsh/complist module.
THE ZSH/COMPUTIL MODULE
The zsh/computil module adds several builtin commands that
are used by some of the completion functions in the com-
pletion system based on shell functions (see zshcompsys(1)
). Except for compquote these builtin commands are very
specialised and thus not very interesting when writing
your own completion functions. In summary, these builtin
commands are:
comparguments
This is used by the _arguments function to do the
argument and command line parsing. Like compde-
scribe it has an option -i to do the parsing and
initialize some internal state and various options
to access the state information to decide what
should be completed.
compdescribe
This is used by the _describe function to build the
displays for the matches and to get the strings to
add as matches with their options. On the first
call one of the options -i or -I should be supplied
as the first argument. In the first case, display
strings without the descriptions will be generated,
in the second case, the string used to separate the
matches from their descriptions must be given as
the second argument and the descriptions (if any)
will be shown. All other arguments are like the
definition arguments to _describe itself.
Once compdescribe has been called with either the
-i or the -I option, it can be repeatedly called
with the -g option and the names of five arrays as
its arguments. This will step through the differ-
ent sets of matches and store the options in the
first array, the strings with descriptions in the
second, the matches for these in the third, the
strings without descriptions in the fourth, and the
matches for them in the fifth array. These are
then directly given to compadd to register the
matches with the completion code.
compfiles
Used by the _path_files function to optimize com-
plex recursive filename generation (globbing). It
does three things. With the -p and -P options it
builds the glob patterns to use, including the
paths already handled and trying to optimize the
patterns with respect to the prefix and suffix from
the line and the match specification currently
used. The -i option does the directory tests for
the ignore-parents style and the -r option tests if
a component for some of the matches are equal to
the string on the line and removes all other
matches if that is true.
compgroups
Used by the _tags function to implement the inter-
nals of the group-order style. This only takes its
arguments as names of completion groups and creates
the groups for it (all six types: sorted and
unsorted, both without removing duplicates, with
removing all duplicates and with removing consecu-
tive duplicates).
compquote [ -p ] names ...
There may be reasons to write completion functions
that have to add the matches using the -Q option to
compadd and perform quoting themselves. Instead of
interpreting the first character of the all_quotes
key of the compstate special association and using
the q flag for parameter expansions, one can use
this builtin command. The arguments are the names
of scalar or array parameters and the values of
these parameters are quoted as needed for the
innermost quoting level. If the -p option is
given, quoting is done as if there is some prefix
before the values of the parameters, so that a
leading equal sign will not be quoted.
The return value is non-zero in case of an error
and zero otherwise.
comptags
comptry
These implement the internals of the tags mecha-
nism.
compvalues
Like comparguments, but for the _values function.
THE ZSH/DATETIME MODULE
The zsh/datetime module makes available one builtin com-
mand:
strftime [ -s scalar ] format epochtime
Output the date denoted by epochtime in the format
specified.
If -s scalar is given, assign the date to scalar
instead of printing it.
The zsh/datetime module makes available one parameter:
EPOCHSECONDS
An integer value representing the number of seconds
since the epoch.
THE ZSH/DELTOCHAR MODULE
The zsh/deltochar module makes available two ZLE func-
tions:
delete-to-char
Read a character from the keyboard, and delete from
the cursor position up to and including the next
(or, with repeat count n, the nth) instance of that
character. Negative repeat counts mean delete
backwards.
zap-to-char
This behaves like delete-to-char, except that the
final occurrence of the character itself is not
deleted.
THE ZSH/EXAMPLE MODULE
The zsh/example module makes available one builtin com-
mand:
example [ -flags ] [ args ... ]
Displays the flags and arguments it is invoked
with.
The purpose of the module is to serve as an example of how
to write a module.
THE ZSH/FILES MODULE
The zsh/files module makes some standard commands avail-
able as builtins:
chgrp [ -Rs ] group filename ...
Changes group of files specified. This is equiva-
lent to chown with a user-spec argument of
`:group'.
chown [ -Rs ] user-spec filename ...
Changes ownership and group of files specified.
The user-spec can be in four forms:
user change owner to user; do not change group
user:: change owner to user; do not change group
user: change owner to user; change group to user's
primary group
user:group
change owner to user; change group to group
:group do not change owner; change group to group
In each case, the `:' may instead be a `.'. The
rule is that if there is a `:' then the separator
is `:', otherwise if there is a `.' then the sepa-
rator is `.', otherwise there is no separator.
Each of user and group may be either a username (or
group name, as appropriate) or a decimal user ID
(group ID). Interpretation as a name takes prece-
dence, if there is an all-numeric username (or
group name).
The -R option causes chown to recursively descend
into directories, changing the ownership of all
files in the directory after changing the ownership
of the directory itself.
The -s option is a zsh extension to chown function-
ality. It enables paranoid behaviour, intended to
avoid security problems involving a chown being
tricked into affecting files other than the ones
intended. It will refuse to follow symbolic links,
so that (for example) ``chown luser
/tmp/foo/passwd'' can't accidentally chown
/etc/passwd if /tmp/foo happens to be a link to
/etc. It will also check where it is after leaving
directories, so that a recursive chown of a deep
directory tree can't end up recursively chowning
/usr as a result of directories being moved up the
tree.
ln [ -dfis ] filename dest
ln [ -dfis ] filename ... dir
Creates hard (or, with -s, symbolic) links. In the
first form, the specified destination is created,
as a link to the specified filename. In the second
form, each of the filenames is taken in turn, and
linked to a pathname in the specified directory
that has the same last pathname component.
Normally, ln will not attempt to create hard links
to directories. This check can be overridden using
the -d option. Typically only the super-user can
actually succeed in creating hard links to directo-
ries. This does not apply to symbolic links in any
case.
By default, existing files cannot be replaced by
links. The -i option causes the user to be queried
about replacing existing files. The -f option
causes existing files to be silently deleted, with-
out querying. -f takes precedence.
mkdir [ -p ] [ -m mode ] dir ...
Creates directories. With the -p option,
non-existing parent directories are first created
if necessary, and there will be no complaint if the
directory already exists. The -m option can be
used to specify (in octal) a set of file permis-
sions for the created directories, otherwise mode
777 modified by the current umask (see umask(2)) is
used.
mv [ -fi ] filename dest
mv [ -fi ] filename ... dir
Moves files. In the first form, the specified
filename is moved to the specified destination. In
the second form, each of the filenames is taken in
turn, and moved to a pathname in the specified
directory that has the same last pathname compo-
nent.
By default, the user will be queried before replac-
ing any file that the user cannot write to, but
writable files will be silently removed. The -i
option causes the user to be queried about replac-
ing any existing files. The -f option causes any
existing files to be silently deleted, without
querying. -f takes precedence.
Note that this mv will not move files across
devices. Historical versions of mv, when actual
renaming is impossible, fall back on copying and
removing files; if this behaviour is desired, use
cp and rm manually. This may change in a future
version.
rm [ -dfirs ] filename ...
Removes files and directories specified.
Normally, rm will not remove directories (except
with the -r option). The -d option causes rm to
try removing directories with unlink (see
unlink(2)), the same method used for files. Typi-
cally only the super-user can actually succeed in
unlinking directories in this way. -d takes prece-
dence over -r.
By default, the user will be queried before remov-
ing any file that the user cannot write to, but
writable files will be silently removed. The -i
option causes the user to be queried about removing
any files. The -f option causes files to be
silently deleted, without querying, and suppresses
all error indications. -f takes precedence.
The -r option causes rm to recursively descend into
directories, deleting all files in the directory
before removing the directory with the rmdir system
call (see rmdir(2)).
The -s option is a zsh extension to rm functional-
ity. It enables paranoid behaviour, intended to
avoid common security problems involving a root-run
rm being tricked into removing files other than the
ones intended. It will refuse to follow symbolic
links, so that (for example) ``rm /tmp/foo/passwd''
can't accidentally remove /etc/passwd if /tmp/foo
happens to be a link to /etc. It will also check
where it is after leaving directories, so that a
recursive removal of a deep directory tree can't
end up recursively removing /usr as a result of
directories being moved up the tree.
rmdir dir ...
Removes empty directories specified.
sync Calls the system call of the same name (see
sync(2)), which flushes dirty buffers to disk. It
might return before the I/O has actually been com-
pleted.
THE ZSH/MAPFILE MODULE
The zsh/mapfile module provides one special associative
array parameter of the same name.
mapfile
This associative array takes as keys the names of
files; the resulting value is the content of the
file. The value is treated identically to any
other text coming from a parameter. The value may
also be assigned to, in which case the file in
question is written (whether or not it originally
existed); or an element may be unset, which will
delete the file in question. For example, `vared
mapfile[myfile]' works as expected, editing the
file `myfile'.
When the array is accessed as a whole, the keys are
the names of files in the current directory, and
the values are empty (to save a huge overhead in
memory). Thus ${(k)mapfile} has the same affect as
the glob operator *(D), since files beginning with
a dot are not special. Care must be taken with
expressions such as rm ${(k)mapfile}, which will
delete every file in the current directory without
the usual `rm *' test.
The parameter mapfile may be made read-only; in
that case, files referenced may not be written or
deleted.
Limitations
Although reading and writing of the file in question is
efficiently handled, zsh's internal memory management may
be arbitrarily baroque. Thus it should not automatically
be assumed that use of mapfile represents a gain in effi-
ciency over use of other mechanisms. Note in particular
that the whole contents of the file will always reside
physically in memory when accessed (possibly multiple
times, due to standard parameter substitution operations).
In particular, this means handling of sufficiently long
files (greater than the machine's swap space, or than the
range of the pointer type) will be incorrect.
No errors are printed or flagged for non-existent, unread-
able, or unwritable files, as the parameter mechanism is
too low in the shell execution hierarchy to make this con-
venient.
It is unfortunate that the mechanism for loading modules
does not yet allow the user to specify the name of the
shell parameter to be given the special behaviour.
THE ZSH/MATHFUNC MODULE
The zsh/mathfunc module provides standard mathematical
functions for use when evaluating mathematical formulae.
The syntax agrees with normal C and FORTRAN conventions,
for example,
(( f = sin(0.3) ))
assigns the sine of 0.3 to the parameter f.
Most functions take floating point arguments and return a
floating point value. However, any necessary conversions
from or to integer type will be performed automatically by
the shell. Apart from atan with a second argument and the
abs, int and float functions, all functions behave as
noted in the manual page for the corresponding C function,
except that any arguments out of range for the function in
question will be detected by the shell and an error
reported.
The following functions take a single floating point argu-
ment: acos, acosh, asin, asinh, atan, atanh, cbrt, ceil,
cos, cosh, erf, erfc, exp, expm1, fabs, floor, gamma, j0,
j1, lgamma, log, log10, log1p, logb, sin, sinh, sqrt, tan,
tanh, y0, y1. The atan function can optionally take a
second argument, in which case it behaves like the C func-
tion atan2. The ilogb function takes a single floating
point argument, but returns an integer.
The function signgam takes no arguments, and returns an
integer, which is the C variable of the same name, as
described in gamma(3). Note that it is therefore only
useful immediately after a call to gamma or lgamma. Note
also that `signgam()' and `signgam' are distinct expres-
sions.
The following functions take two floating point arguments:
copysign, fmod, hypot, nextafter.
The following take an integer first argument and a float-
ing point second argument: jn, yn.
The following take a floating point first argument and an
integer second argument: ldexp, scalb.
The function abs does not convert the type of its single
argument; it returns the absolute value of either a float-
ing point number or an integer. The functions float and
int convert their arguments into a floating point or inte-
ger value (by truncation) respectively.
Note that the C pow function is available in ordinary math
evaluation as the `**' operator and is not provided here.
The function rand48 is available if your system's mathe-
matical library has the function erand48(3). It returns a
pseudo-random floating point number between 0 and 1. It
takes a single string optional argument.
If the argument is not present, the random number seed is
initialised by three calls to the rand(3) function ---
this produces the same random numbers as the next three
values of $RANDOM.
If the argument is present, it gives the name of a scalar
parameter where the current random number seed will be
stored. On the first call, the value must contain at
least twelve hexadecimal digits (the remainder of the
string is ignored), or the seed will be initialised in the
same manner as for a call to rand48 with no argument.
Subsequent calls to rand48(param) will then maintain the
seed in the parameter param as a string of twelve hexadec-
imal digits, with no base signifier. The random number
sequences for different parameters are completely indepen-
dent, and are also independent from that used by calls to
rand48 with no argument.
For example, consider
print $(( rand48(seed) ))
print $(( rand48() ))
print $(( rand48(seed) ))
Assuming $seed does not exist, it will be initialised by
the first call. In the second call, the default seed is
initialised; note, however, that because of the properties
of rand() there is a correlation between the seeds used
for the two initialisations, so for more secure uses, you
should generate your own 12-byte seed. The third call
returns to the same sequence of random numbers used in the
first call, unaffected by the intervening rand48().
THE ZSH/PARAMETER MODULE
The zsh/parameter module gives access to some of the
internal hash tables used by the shell by defining some
special parameters.
options
The keys for this associative array are the names
of the options that can be set and unset using the
setopt and unsetopt builtins. The value of each key
is either the string on if the option is currently
set, or the string off if the option is unset.
Setting a key to one of these strings is like set-
ting or unsetting the option, respectively. Unset-
ting a key in this array is like setting it to the
value off.
commands
This array gives access to the command hash table.
The keys are the names of external commands, the
values are the pathnames of the files that would be
executed when the command would be invoked. Setting
a key in this array defines a new entry in this
table in the same way as with the hash builtin.
Unsetting a key as in `unset "commands[foo]"'
removes the entry for the given key from the com-
mand hash table.
functions
This associative array maps names of enabled func-
tions to their definitions. Setting a key in it is
like defining a function with the name given by the
key and the body given by the value. Unsetting a
key removes the definition for the function named
by the key.
dis_functions
Like functions but for disabled functions.
builtins
This associative array gives information about the
builtin commands currently enabled. The keys are
the names of the builtin commands and the values
are either `undefined' for builtin commands that
will automatically be loaded from a module if
invoked or `defined' for builtin commands that are
already loaded.
dis_builtins
Like builtins but for disabled builtin commands.
reswords
This array contains the enabled reserved words.
dis_reswords
Like reswords but for disabled reserved words.
aliases
This maps the names of the regular aliases cur-
rently enabled to their expansions.
dis_aliases
Like aliases but for disabled regular aliases.
galiases
Like aliases, but for global aliases.
dis_galiases
Like galiases but for disabled global aliases.
saliases
Like raliases, but for suffix aliases.
dis_saliases
Like saliases but for disabled suffix aliases.
parameters
The keys in this associative array are the names of
the parameters currently defined. The values are
strings describing the type of the parameter, in
the same format used by the t parameter flag, see
zshexpn(1) . Setting or unsetting keys in this
array is not possible.
modules
An associative array giving information about mod-
ules. The keys are the names of the modules loaded,
registered to be autoloaded, or aliased. The value
says which state the named module is in and is one
of the strings `loaded', `autoloaded', or
`alias:name', where name is the name the module is
aliased to.
Setting or unsetting keys in this array is not pos-
sible.
dirstack
A normal array holding the elements of the direc-
tory stack. Note that the output of the dirs
builtin command includes one more directory, the
current working directory.
history
This associative array maps history event numbers
to the full history lines.
historywords
A special array containing the words stored in the
history.
jobdirs
This associative array maps job numbers to the
directories from which the job was started (which
may not be the current directory of the job).
jobtexts
This associative array maps job numbers to the
texts of the command lines that were used to start
the jobs.
jobstates
This associative array gives information about the
states of the jobs currently known. The keys are
the job numbers and the values are strings of the
form `job-state:mark:pid=state...'. The job-state
gives the state the whole job is currently in, one
of `running', `suspended', or `done'. The mark is
`+' for the current job, `-' for the previous job
and empty otherwise. This is followed by one
`pid=state' for every process in the job. The pids
are, of course, the process IDs and the state
describes the state of that process.
nameddirs
This associative array maps the names of named
directories to the pathnames they stand for.
userdirs
This associative array maps user names to the path-
names of their home directories.
funcstack
This array contains the names of the functions cur-
rently being executed. The first element is the
name of the function using the parameter.
THE ZSH/PCRE MODULE
The zsh/pcre module makes some commands available as
builtins:
pcre_compile [ -aimx ] PCRE
Compiles a perl-compatible regular expression.
Option -a will force the pattern to be anchored.
Option -i will compile a case-insensitive pattern.
Option -m will compile a multi-line pattern; that
is, ^ and $ will match newlines within the pattern.
Option -x will compile an extended pattern, wherein
whitespace and # comments are ignored.
pcre_study
Studies the previously-compiled PCRE which may
result in faster matching.
pcre_match [ -a arr ] string
Returns successfully if string matches the previ-
ously-compiled PCRE.
If the expression captures substrings within paren-
theses, pcre_match will set the array $match to
those substrings, unless the -a option is given, in
which case it will set the array arr.
The zsh/pcre module makes available the following test
condition:
expr -pcre-match pcre
Matches a string against a perl-compatible regular
expression.
For example,
[[ "$text" -pcre-match ^d+$ ]] && print text vari-
able contains only "d's".
THE ZSH/SCHED MODULE
The zsh/sched module makes available one builtin command:
sched [+]hh:mm command ...
sched [ -item ]
Make an entry in the scheduled list of commands to
execute. The time may be specified in either abso-
lute or relative time. With no arguments, prints
the list of scheduled commands. With the argument
`-item', removes the given item from the list.
THE ZSH/NET/SOCKET MODULE
The zsh/net/socket module makes available one builtin com-
mand:
zsocket [ -altv ] [ -d fd ] [ args ]
zsocket is implemented as a builtin to allow full
use of shell command line editing, file I/O, and
job control mechanisms.
Outbound Connections
zsocket [ -v ] [ -d fd ] filename
Open a new Unix domain connection to filename. The
shell parameter REPLY will be set to the file
descriptor associated with that connection. Cur-
rently, only stream connections are supported.
If -d is specified, its argument will be taken as
the target file descriptor for the connection.
In order to elicit more verbose output, use -v.
Inbound Connections
zsocket -l [ -v ] [ -d fd ] filename
zsocket -l will open a socket listening on file-
name. The shell parameter REPLY will be set to the
file descriptor associated with that listener.
If -d is specified, its argument will be taken as
the target file descriptor for the connection.
In order to elicit more verbose output, use -v.
zsocket -a [ -tv ] [ -d targetfd ] listenfd
zsocket -a will accept an incoming connection to
the socket associated with listenfd. The shell
parameter REPLY will be set to the file descriptor
associated with the inbound connection.
If -d is specified, its argument will be taken as
the target file descriptor for the connection.
If -t is specified, zsocket will return if no
incoming connection is pending. Otherwise it will
wait for one.
In order to elicit more verbose output, use -v.
THE ZSH/STAT MODULE
The zsh/stat module makes available one builtin command:
stat [ -gnNolLtTrs ] [ -f fd ] [ -H hash ] [ -A array ] [
-F fmt ] [ +element ] [ file ... ]
The command acts as a front end to the stat system
call (see stat(2)). If the stat call fails, the
appropriate system error message printed and status
1 is returned. The fields of struct stat give
information about the files provided as arguments
to the command. In addition to those available
from the stat call, an extra element `link' is pro-
vided. These elements are:
device The number of the device on which the file
resides.
inode The unique number of the file on this device
(`inode' number).
mode The mode of the file; that is, the file's
type and access permissions. With the -s
option, this will be returned as a string
corresponding to the first column in the
display of the ls -l command.
nlink The number of hard links to the file.
uid The user ID of the owner of the file. With
the -s option, this is displayed as a user
name.
gid The group ID of the file. With the -s
option, this is displayed as a group name.
rdev The raw device number. This is only useful
for special devices.
size The size of the file in bytes.
atime
mtime
ctime The last access, modification and inode
change times of the file, respectively, as
the number of seconds since midnight GMT on
1st January, 1970. With the -s option,
these are printed as strings for the local
time zone; the format can be altered with
the -F option, and with the -g option the
times are in GMT.
blksize
The number of bytes in one allocation block
on the device on which the file resides.
block The number of disk blocks used by the file.
link If the file is a link and the -L option is
in effect, this contains the name of the
file linked to, otherwise it is empty. Note
that if this element is selected (``stat
+link'') then the -L option is automatically
used.
A particular element may be selected by including
its name preceded by a `+' in the option list; only
one element is allowed. The element may be short-
ened to any unique set of leading characters. Oth-
erwise, all elements will be shown for all files.
Options:
-A array
Instead of displaying the results on stan-
dard output, assign them to an array, one
struct stat element per array element for
each file in order. In this case neither
the name of the element nor the name of the
files appears in array unless the -t or -n
options were given, respectively. If -t is
given, the element name appears as a prefix
to the appropriate array element; if -n is
given, the file name appears as a separate
array element preceding all the others.
Other formatting options are respected.
-H hash
Similar to -A, but instead assign the values
to hash. The keys are the elements listed
above. If the -n option is provided then
the name of the file is included in the hash
with key name.
-f fd Use the file on file descriptor fd instead
of named files; no list of file names is
allowed in this case.
-F fmt Supplies a strftime (see strftime(3)) string
for the formatting of the time elements.
The -s option is implied.
-g Show the time elements in the GMT time zone.
The -s option is implied.
-l List the names of the type elements (to
standard output or an array as appropriate)
and return immediately; options other than
-A and arguments are ignored.
-L Perform an lstat (see lstat(2)) rather than
a stat system call. In this case, if the
file is a link, information about the link
itself rather than the target file is
returned. This option is required to make
the link element useful.
-n Always show the names of files. Usually
these are only shown when output is to stan-
dard output and there is more than one file
in the list.
-N Never show the names of files.
-o If a raw file mode is printed, show it in
octal, which is more useful for human con-
sumption than the default of decimal. A
leading zero will be printed in this case.
Note that this does not affect whether a raw
or formatted file mode is shown, which is
controlled by the -r and -s options, nor
whether a mode is shown at all.
-r Print raw data (the default format) along-
side string data (the -s format); the string
data appears in parentheses after the raw
data.
-s Print mode, uid, gid and the three time ele-
ments as strings instead of numbers. In
each case the format is like that of ls -l.
-t Always show the type names for the elements
of struct stat. Usually these are only
shown when output is to standard output and
no individual element has been selected.
-T Never show the type names of the struct stat
elements.
THE ZSH/SYSTEM MODULE
The zsh/system module makes available three builtin com-
mands and a parameter.
BUILTINS
syserror [ -e errvar ] [ -p prefix ] [ errno | errname ]
This command prints out the error message associ-
ated with errno, a system error number, followed by
a newline to standard error.
Instead of the error number, a name errname, for
example ENOENT, may be used. The set of names is
the same as the contents of the array errnos, see
below.
If the string prefix is given, it is printed in
front of the error message, with no intervening
space.
If errvar is supplied, the entire message, without
a newline, is assigned to the parameter names
errvar and nothing is output.
A return value of 0 indicates the message was suc-
cessfully printed (although it may not be useful if
the error number was out of the system's range), a
return value of 1 indicates an error in the parame-
ters, and a return value of 2 indicates the error
name was not recognised (no message is printed for
this).
sysread [ -c countvar ] [ -i infd ] [ -o outfd ]
[ -s bufsize ] [ -t timeout ] [ param ]
Perform a single system read from file descriptor
infd, or zero if that is not given. The result of
the read is stored in param or REPLY if that is not
given. If countvar is given, the number of bytes
read is assigned to the parameter named by
countvar.
The maximum number of bytes read is bufsize or 8192
if that is not given, however the command returns
as soon as any number of bytes was successfully
read.
If timeout is given, it specifies a timeout in sec-
onds, which may be zero to poll the file descrip-
tor. This is handled by the poll system call if
available, otherwise the select system call if
available.
If outfd is given, an attempt is made to write all
the bytes just read to the file descriptor outfd.
If this fails, because of a system error other than
EINTR or because of an internal zsh error during an
interrupt, the bytes read but not written are
stored in the parameter named by param if supplied
(no default is used in this case), and the number
of bytes read but not written is stored in the
parameter named by countvar if that is supplied.
If it was successful, countvar contains the full
number of bytes transferred, as usual, and param is
not set.
The error EINTR (interrupted system call) is han-
dled internally so that shell interrupts are trans-
parent to the caller. Any other error causes a
return.
The possible return values are
0 At least one byte of data was successfully
read and, if appropriate, written.
1 There was an error in the parameters to the
command. This is the only error for which a
message is printed to standard error.
2 There was an error on the read, or on
polling the input file descriptor for a
timeout. The parameter ERRNO gives the
error.
3 Data were successfully read, but there was
an error writing them to outfd. The parame-
ter ERRNO gives the error.
4 The attempt to read timed out. Note this
does not set ERRNO as this is not a system
error.
5 No system error occurred, but zero bytes
were read. This usually indicates end of
file. The parameters are set according to
the usual rules; no write to outfd is
attempted.
syswrite [ -c countvar ] [ -o outfd ] data
The data (a single string of bytes) are written to
the file descriptor outfd, or 1 if that is not
given, using the write system call. Multiple write
operations may be used if the first does not write
all the data.
If countvar is given, the number of byte written is
stored in the parameter named by countvar; this may
not be the full length of data if an error
occurred.
The error EINTR (interrupted system call) is han-
dled internally by retrying; otherwise an error
causes the command to return. For example, if the
file descriptor is set to non-blocking output, an
error EAGAIN (on some systems, EWOULDBLOCK) may
result in the command returning early.
The return status may be 0 for success, 1 for an
error in the parameters to the command, or 2 for an
error on the write; no error message is printed in
the last case, but the parameter ERRNO will reflect
the error that occurred.
PARAMETERS
errnos A readonly array of the names of errors defined on
the system. These are typically macros defined in
C by including the system header file errno.h. The
index of each name (assuming the option KSH_ARRAYS
is unset) corresponds to the error number. Error
numbers num before the last known error which have
no name are given the name Enum in the array.
Note that aliases for errors are not handled; only
the canonical name is used.
THE ZSH/NET/TCP MODULE
The zsh/net/tcp module makes available one builtin com-
mand:
ztcp [ -acflLtv ] [ -d fd ] [ args ]
ztcp is implemented as a builtin to allow full use
of shell command line editing, file I/O, and job
control mechanisms.
If ztcp is run with no options, it will output the
contents of its session table.
If it is run with only the option -L, it will out-
put the contents of the session table in a format
suitable for automatic parsing. The option is
ignored if given with a command to open or close a
session. The output consists of a set of lines,
one per session, each containing the following ele-
ments separated by spaces:
File descriptor
The file descriptor in use for the connec-
tion. For normal inbound (I) and outbound
(O) connections this may be read and written
by the usual shell mechanisms. However, it
should only be close with `ztcp -c'.
Connection type
A letter indicating how the session was cre-
ated:
Z A session created with the zftp com-
mand.
L A connection opened for listening
with `ztcp -l'.
I An inbound connection accepted with
`ztcp -a'.
O An outbound connection created with
`ztcp host ...'.
The local host
This is usually set to an all-zero IP
address as the address of the localhost is
irrelevant.
The local port
This is likely to be zero unless the connec-
tion is for listening.
The remote host
This is the fully qualified domain name of
the peer, if available, else an IP address.
It is an all-zero IP address for a session
opened for listening.
The remote port
This is zero for a connection opened for
listening.
Outbound Connections
ztcp [ -v ] [ -d fd ] host [ port ]
Open a new TCP connection to host. If the port is
omitted, it will default to port 23. The connec-
tion will be added to the session table and the
shell parameter REPLY will be set to the file
descriptor associated with that connection.
If -d is specified, its argument will be taken as
the target file descriptor for the connection.
In order to elicit more verbose output, use -v.
Inbound Connections
ztcp -l [ -v ] [ -d fd ] port
ztcp -l will open a socket listening on TCP port.
The socket will be added to the session table and
the shell parameter REPLY will be set to the file
descriptor associated with that listener.
If -d is specified, its argument will be taken as
the target file descriptor for the connection.
In order to elicit more verbose output, use -v.
ztcp -a [ -tv ] [ -d targetfd ] listenfd
ztcp -a will accept an incoming connection to the
port associated with listenfd. The connection will
be added to the session table and the shell parame-
ter REPLY will be set to the file descriptor asso-
ciated with the inbound connection.
If -d is specified, its argument will be taken as
the target file descriptor for the connection.
If -t is specified, ztcp will return if no incoming
connection is pending. Otherwise it will wait for
one.
In order to elicit more verbose output, use -v.
Closing Connections
ztcp -cf [ -v ] [ fd ]
ztcp -c [ -v ] [ fd ]
ztcp -c will close the socket associated with fd.
The socket will be removed from the session table.
If fd is not specified, ztcp will close everything
in the session table.
Normally, sockets registered by zftp (see zshmod-
ules(1) ) cannot be closed this way. In order to
force such a socket closed, use -f.
In order to elicit more verbose output, use -v.
Example
Here is how to create a TCP connection between two
instances of zsh. We need to pick an unassigned port;
here we use the randomly chosen 5123.
On host1,
zmodload zsh/net/tcp
ztcp -l 5123
listenfd=$REPLY
ztcp -a $listenfd
fd=$REPLY
The second from last command blocks until there is an
incoming connection.
Now create a connection from host2 (which may, of course,
be the same machine):
zmodload zsh/net/tcp
ztcp host1 5123
fd=$REPLY
Now on each host, $fd contains a file descriptor for talk-
ing to the other. For example, on host1:
print This is a message >&$fd
and on host2:
read -r line <&$fd; print -r - $line
prints `This is a message'.
To tidy up, on host1:
ztcp -c $listenfd
ztcp -c $fd
and on host2
ztcp -c $fd
THE ZSH/TERMCAP MODULE
The zsh/termcap module makes available one builtin com-
mand:
echotc cap [ arg ... ]
Output the termcap value corresponding to the capa-
bility cap, with optional arguments.
The zsh/termcap module makes available one parameter:
termcap
An associative array that maps termcap capability
codes to their values.
THE ZSH/TERMINFO MODULE
The zsh/terminfo module makes available one builtin com-
mand:
echoti cap [ arg ]
Output the terminfo value corresponding to the
capability cap, instantiated with arg if applica-
ble.
The zsh/terminfo module makes available one parameter:
terminfo
An associative array that maps terminfo capability
names to their values.
THE ZSH/ZFTP MODULE
The zsh/zftp module makes available one builtin command:
zftp subcommand [ args ]
The zsh/zftp module is a client for FTP (file
transfer protocol). It is implemented as a builtin
to allow full use of shell command line editing,
file I/O, and job control mechanisms. Often, users
will access it via shell functions providing a more
powerful interface; a set is provided with the zsh
distribution and is described in zshzftpsys(1).
However, the zftp command is entirely usable in its
own right.
All commands consist of the command name zftp fol-
lowed by the name of a subcommand. These are
listed below. The return status of each subcommand
is supposed to reflect the success or failure of
the remote operation. See a description of the
variable ZFTP_VERBOSE for more information on how
responses from the server may be printed.
Subcommands
open host[:port] [ user [ password [ account ] ] ]
Open a new FTP session to host, which may be the
name of a TCP/IP connected host or an IP number in
the standard dot notation. If the argument is in
the form host:port, open a connection to TCP port
port instead of the standard FTP port 21. This may
be the name of a TCP service or a number: see the
description of ZFTP_PORT below for more informa-
tion.
If IPv6 addresses in colon format are used, the
host should be surrounded by quoted square brackets
to distinguish it from the port, for example
'[fe80::203:baff:fe02:8b56]'. For consistency this
is allowed with all forms of host.
Remaining arguments are passed to the login subcom-
mand. Note that if no arguments beyond host are
supplied, open will not automatically call login.
If no arguments at all are supplied, open will use
the parameters set by the params subcommand.
After a successful open, the shell variables
ZFTP_HOST, ZFTP_PORT, ZFTP_IP and ZFTP_SYSTEM are
available; see `Variables' below.
login [ name [ password [ account ] ] ]
user [ name [ password [ account ] ] ]
Login the user name with parameters password and
account. Any of the parameters can be omitted, and
will be read from standard input if needed (name is
always needed). If standard input is a terminal, a
prompt for each one will be printed on standard
error and password will not be echoed. If any of
the parameters are not used, a warning message is
printed.
After a successful login, the shell variables
ZFTP_USER, ZFTP_ACCOUNT and ZFTP_PWD are available;
see `Variables' below.
This command may be re-issued when a user is
already logged in, and the server will first be
reinitialized for a new user.
params [ host [ user [ password [ account ] ] ] ]
params -
Store the given parameters for a later open command
with no arguments. Only those given on the command
line will be remembered. If no arguments are
given, the parameters currently set are printed,
although the password will appear as a line of
stars; the return value is one if no parameters
were set, zero otherwise.
Any of the parameters may be specified as a `?',
which may need to be quoted to protect it from
shell expansion. In this case, the appropriate
parameter will be read from stdin as with the login
subcommand, including special handling of password.
If the `?' is followed by a string, that is used as
the prompt for reading the parameter instead of the
default message (any necessary punctuation and
whitespace should be included at the end of the
prompt). The first letter of the parameter (only)
may be quoted with a `\'; hence an argument
"\\$word" guarantees that the string from the shell
parameter $word will be treated literally, whether
or not it begins with a `?'.
If instead a single `-' is given, the existing
parameters, if any, are deleted. In that case,
calling open with no arguments will cause an error.
The list of parameters is not deleted after a
close, however it will be deleted if the zsh/zftp
module is unloaded.
For example,
zftp params ftp.elsewhere.xx juser '?Password for juser: '
will store the host ftp.elsewhere.xx and the user
juser and then prompt the user for the correspond-
ing password with the given prompt.
test Test the connection; if the server has reported
that it has closed the connection (maybe due to a
timeout), return status 2; if no connection was
open anyway, return status 1; else return status 0.
The test subcommand is silent, apart from messages
printed by the $ZFTP_VERBOSE mechanism, or error
messages if the connection closes. There is no
network overhead for this test.
The test is only supported on systems with either
the select(2) or poll(2) system calls; otherwise
the message `not supported on this system' is
printed instead.
The test subcommand will automatically be called at
the start of any other subcommand for the current
session when a connection is open.
cd directory
Change the remote directory to directory. Also
alters the shell variable ZFTP_PWD.
cdup Change the remote directory to the one higher in
the directory tree. Note that cd .. will also work
correctly on non-UNIX systems.
dir [ args... ]
Give a (verbose) listing of the remote directory.
The args are passed directly to the server. The
command's behaviour is implementation dependent,
but a UNIX server will typically interpret args as
arguments to the ls command and with no arguments
return the result of `ls -l'. The directory is
listed to standard output.
ls [ args ]
Give a (short) listing of the remote directory.
With no args, produces a raw list of the files in
the directory, one per line. Otherwise, up to
vagaries of the server implementation, behaves sim-
ilar to dir.
type [ type ]
Change the type for the transfer to type, or print
the current type if type is absent. The allowed
values are `A' (ASCII), `I' (Image, i.e. binary),
or `B' (a synonym for `I').
The FTP default for a transfer is ASCII. However,
if zftp finds that the remote host is a UNIX
machine with 8-bit byes, it will automatically
switch to using binary for file transfers upon
open. This can subsequently be overridden.
The transfer type is only passed to the remote host
when a data connection is established; this command
involves no network overhead.
ascii The same as type A.
binary The same as type I.
mode [ S | B ]
Set the mode type to stream (S) or block (B).
Stream mode is the default; block mode is not
widely supported.
remote files...
local [ files... ]
Print the size and last modification time of the
remote or local files. If there is more than one
item on the list, the name of the file is printed
first. The first number is the file size, the sec-
ond is the last modification time of the file in
the format CCYYMMDDhhmmSS consisting of year,
month, date, hour, minutes and seconds in GMT.
Note that this format, including the length, is
guaranteed, so that time strings can be directly
compared via the [[ builtin's < and > operators,
even if they are too long to be represented as
integers.
Not all servers support the commands for retrieving
this information. In that case, the remote command
will print nothing and return status 2, compared
with status 1 for a file not found.
The local command (but not remote) may be used with
no arguments, in which case the information comes
from examining file descriptor zero. This is the
same file as seen by a put command with no further
redirection.
get file [...]
Retrieve all files from the server, concatenating
them and sending them to standard output.
put file [...]
For each file, read a file from standard input and
send that to the remote host with the given name.
append file [...]
As put, but if the remote file already exists, data
is appended to it instead of overwriting it.
getat file point
putat file point
appendat file point
Versions of get, put and append which will start
the transfer at the given point in the remote file.
This is useful for appending to an incomplete local
file. However, note that this ability is not uni-
versally supported by servers (and is not quite the
behaviour specified by the standard).
delete file [...]
Delete the list of files on the server.
mkdir directory
Create a new directory directory on the server.
rmdir directory
Delete the directory directory on the server.
rename old-name new-name
Rename file old-name to new-name on the server.
site args...
Send a host-specific command to the server. You
will probably only need this if instructed by the
server to use it.
quote args...
Send the raw FTP command sequence to the server.
You should be familiar with the FTP command set as
defined in RFC959 before doing this. Useful com-
mands may include STAT and HELP. Note also the
mechanism for returning messages as described for
the variable ZFTP_VERBOSE below, in particular that
all messages from the control connection are sent
to standard error.
close
quit Close the current data connection. This unsets the
shell parameters ZFTP_HOST, ZFTP_PORT, ZFTP_IP,
ZFTP_SYSTEM, ZFTP_USER, ZFTP_ACCOUNT, ZFTP_PWD,
ZFTP_TYPE and ZFTP_MODE.
session [ sessname ]
Allows multiple FTP sessions to be used at once.
The name of the session is an arbitrary string of
characters; the default session is called
`default'. If this command is called without an
argument, it will list all the current sessions;
with an argument, it will either switch to the
existing session called sessname, or create a new
session of that name.
Each session remembers the status of the connec-
tion, the set of connection-specific shell parame-
ters (the same set as are unset when a connection
closes, as given in the description of close), and
any user parameters specified with the params sub-
command. Changing to a previous session restores
those values; changing to a new session initialises
them in the same way as if zftp had just been
loaded. The name of the current session is given
by the parameter ZFTP_SESSION.
rmsession [ sessname ]
Delete a session; if a name is not given, the cur-
rent session is deleted. If the current session is
deleted, the earliest existing session becomes the
new current session, otherwise the current session
is not changed. If the session being deleted is
the only one, a new session called `default' is
created and becomes the current session; note that
this is a new session even if the session being
deleted is also called `default'. It is recommended
that sessions not be deleted while background com-
mands which use zftp are still active.
Parameters
The following shell parameters are used by zftp. Cur-
rently none of them are special.
ZFTP_TMOUT
Integer. The time in seconds to wait for a network
operation to complete before returning an error.
If this is not set when the module is loaded, it
will be given the default value 60. A value of
zero turns off timeouts. If a timeout occurs on
the control connection it will be closed. Use a
larger value if this occurs too frequently.
ZFTP_IP
Readonly. The IP address of the current connection
in dot notation.
ZFTP_HOST
Readonly. The hostname of the current remote
server. If the host was opened as an IP number,
ZFTP_HOST contains that instead; this saves the
overhead for a name lookup, as IP numbers are most
commonly used when a nameserver is unavailable.
ZFTP_PORT
Readonly. The number of the remote TCP port to
which the connection is open (even if the port was
originally specified as a named service). Usually
this is the standard FTP port, 21.
In the unlikely event that your system does not
have the appropriate conversion functions, this
appears in network byte order. If your system is
little-endian, the port then consists of two
swapped bytes and the standard port will be
reported as 5376. In that case, numeric ports
passed to zftp open will also need to be in this
format.
ZFTP_SYSTEM
Readonly. The system type string returned by the
server in response to an FTP SYST request. The
most interesting case is a string beginning "UNIX
Type: L8", which ensures maximum compatibility with
a local UNIX host.
ZFTP_TYPE
Readonly. The type to be used for data transfers ,
either `A' or `I'. Use the type subcommand to
change this.
ZFTP_USER
Readonly. The username currently logged in, if
any.
ZFTP_ACCOUNT
Readonly. The account name of the current user, if
any. Most servers do not require an account name.
ZFTP_PWD
Readonly. The current directory on the server.
ZFTP_CODE
Readonly. The three digit code of the last FTP
reply from the server as a string. This can still
be read after the connection is closed, and is not
changed when the current session changes.
ZFTP_REPLY
Readonly. The last line of the last reply sent by
the server. This can still be read after the con-
nection is closed, and is not changed when the cur-
rent session changes.
ZFTP_SESSION
Readonly. The name of the current FTP session; see
the description of the session subcommand.
ZFTP_PREFS
A string of preferences for altering aspects of
zftp's behaviour. Each preference is a single
character. The following are defined:
P Passive: attempt to make the remote server
initiate data transfers. This is slightly
more efficient than sendport mode. If the
letter S occurs later in the string, zftp
will use sendport mode if passive mode is
not available.
S Sendport: initiate transfers by the FTP
PORT command. If this occurs before any P
in the string, passive mode will never be
attempted.
D Dumb: use only the bare minimum of FTP com-
mands. This prevents the variables
ZFTP_SYSTEM and ZFTP_PWD from being set, and
will mean all connections default to ASCII
type. It may prevent ZFTP_SIZE from being
set during a transfer if the server does not
send it anyway (many servers do).
If ZFTP_PREFS is not set when zftp is loaded, it
will be set to a default of `PS', i.e. use passive
mode if available, otherwise fall back to sendport
mode.
ZFTP_VERBOSE
A string of digits between 0 and 5 inclusive, spec-
ifying which responses from the server should be
printed. All responses go to standard error. If
any of the numbers 1 to 5 appear in the string, raw
responses from the server with reply codes begin-
ning with that digit will be printed to standard
error. The first digit of the three digit reply
code is defined by RFC959 to correspond to:
1. A positive preliminary reply.
2. A positive completion reply.
3. A positive intermediate reply.
4. A transient negative completion reply.
5. A permanent negative completion reply.
It should be noted that, for unknown reasons, the
reply `Service not available', which forces termi-
nation of a connection, is classified as 421, i.e.
`transient negative', an interesting interpretation
of the word `transient'.
The code 0 is special: it indicates that all but
the last line of multiline replies read from the
server will be printed to standard error in a pro-
cessed format. By convention, servers use this
mechanism for sending information for the user to
read. The appropriate reply code, if it matches
the same response, takes priority.
If ZFTP_VERBOSE is not set when zftp is loaded, it
will be set to the default value 450, i.e., mes-
sages destined for the user and all errors will be
printed. A null string is valid and specifies that
no messages should be printed.
Functions
zftp_chpwd
If this function is set by the user, it is called
every time the directory changes on the server,
including when a user is logged in, or when a con-
nection is closed. In the last case, $ZFTP_PWD
will be unset; otherwise it will reflect the new
directory.
zftp_progress
If this function is set by the user, it will be
called during a get, put or append operation each
time sufficient data has been received from the
host. During a get, the data is sent to standard
output, so it is vital that this function should
write to standard error or directly to the termi-
nal, not to standard output.
When it is called with a transfer in progress, the
following additional shell parameters are set:
ZFTP_FILE
The name of the remote file being trans-
ferred from or to.
ZFTP_TRANSFER
A G for a get operation and a P for a put
operation.
ZFTP_SIZE
The total size of the complete file being
transferred: the same as the first value
provided by the remote and local subcommands
for a particular file. If the server cannot
supply this value for a remote file being
retrieved, it will not be set. If input is
from a pipe the value may be incorrect and
correspond simply to a full pipe buffer.
ZFTP_COUNT
The amount of data so far transferred; a
number between zero and $ZFTP_SIZE, if that
is set. This number is always available.
The function is initially called with ZFTP_TRANSFER
set appropriately and ZFTP_COUNT set to zero.
After the transfer is finished, the function will
be called one more time with ZFTP_TRANSFER set to
GF or PF, in case it wishes to tidy up. It is oth-
erwise never called twice with the same value of
ZFTP_COUNT.
Sometimes the progress meter may cause disruption.
It is up to the user to decide whether the function
should be defined and to use unfunction when neces-
sary.
Problems
A connection may not be opened in the left hand side of a
pipe as this occurs in a subshell and the file information
is not updated in the main shell. In the case of type or
mode changes or closing the connection in a subshell, the
information is returned but variables are not updated
until the next call to zftp. Other status changes in sub-
shells will not be reflected by changes to the variables
(but should be otherwise harmless).
Deleting sessions while a zftp command is active in the
background can have unexpected effects, even if it does
not use the session being deleted. This is because all
shell subprocesses share information on the state of all
connections, and deleting a session changes the ordering
of that information.
On some operating systems, the control connection is not
valid after a fork(), so that operations in subshells, on
the left hand side of a pipeline, or in the background are
not possible, as they should be. This is presumably a bug
in the operating system.
THE ZSH/ZLE MODULE
The zsh/zle module contains the Zsh Line Editor. See zsh-
zle(1).
THE ZSH/ZLEPARAMETER MODULE
The zsh/zleparameter module defines two special parameters
that can be used to access internal information of the Zsh
Line Editor (see zshzle(1)).
keymaps
This array contains the names of the keymaps cur-
rently defined.
widgets
This associative array contains one entry per wid-
get defined. The name of the widget is the key and
the value gives information about the widget. It is
either the string `builtin' for builtin widgets, a
string of the form `user:name' for user-defined
widgets, where name is the name of the shell func-
tion implementing the widget, or it is a string of
the form `completion:type:name', for completion
widgets. In the last case type is the name of the
builtin widgets the completion widget imitates in
its behavior and name is the name of the shell
function implementing the completion widget.
THE ZSH/ZPROF MODULE
When loaded, the zsh/zprof causes shell functions to be
profiled. The profiling results can be obtained with the
zprof builtin command made available by this module.
There is no way to turn profiling off other than unloading
the module.
zprof [ -c ]
Without the -c option, zprof lists profiling
results to standard output. The format is compara-
ble to that of commands like gprof.
At the top there is a summary listing all functions
that were called at least once. This summary is
sorted in decreasing order of the amount of time
spent in each. The lines contain the number of the
function in order, which is used in other parts of
the list in suffixes of the form `[num]'.RE, then
the number of calls made to the function. The next
three columns list the time in milliseconds spent
in the function and its descendents, the average
time in milliseconds spent in the function and its
descendents per call and the percentage of time
spent in all shell functions used in this function
and its descendents. The following three columns
give the same information, but counting only the
time spent in the function itself. The final col-
umn shows the name of the function.
After the summary, detailed information about every
function that was invoked is listed, sorted in
decreasing order of the amount of time spent in
each function and its descendents. Each of these
entries consists of descriptions for the functions
that called the function described, the function
itself, and the functions that were called from it.
The description for the function itself has the
same format as in the summary (and shows the same
information). The other lines don't show the num-
ber of the function at the beginning and have their
function named indented to make it easier to dis-
tinguish the line showing the function described in
the section from the surrounding lines.
The information shown in this case is almost the
same as in the summary, but only refers to the call
hierarchy being displayed. For example, for a
calling function the column showing the total run-
ning time lists the time spent in the described
function and its descendents only for the times
when it was called from that particular calling
function. Likewise, for a called function, this
columns lists the total time spent in the called
function and its descendents only for the times
when it was called from the function described.
Also in this case, the column showing the number of
calls to a function also shows a slash and then the
total number of invocations made to the called
function.
As long as the zsh/zprof module is loaded, profil-
ing will be done and multiple invocations of the
zprof builtin command will show the times and num-
bers of calls since the module was loaded. With
the -c option, the zprof builtin command will reset
its internal counters and will not show the list-
ing. )
THE ZSH/ZPTY MODULE
The zsh/zpty module offers one builtin:
zpty [ -e ] [ -b ] name [ arg ... ]
The arguments following name are concatenated with
spaces between, then executed as a command, as if
passed to the eval builtin. The command runs under
a newly assigned pseudo-terminal; this is useful
for running commands non-interactively which expect
an interactive environment. The name is not part
of the command, but is used to refer to this com-
mand in later calls to zpty.
With the -e option, the pseudo-terminal is set up
so that input characters are echoed.
With the -b option, input to and output from the
pseudo-terminal are made non-blocking.
zpty -d [ names ... ]
The second form, with the -d option, is used to
delete commands previously started, by supplying a
list of their names. If no names are given, all
commands are deleted. Deleting a command causes
the HUP signal to be sent to the corresponding
process.
zpty -w [ -n ] name [ strings ... ]
The -w option can be used to send the to command
name the given strings as input (separated by
spaces). If the -n option is not given, a newline
is added at the end.
If no strings are provided, the standard input is
copied to the pseudo-terminal; this may stop before
copying the full input if the pseudo-terminal is
non-blocking.
Note that the command under the pseudo-terminal
sees this input as if it were typed, so beware when
sending special tty driver characters such as
word-erase, line-kill, and end-of-file.
zpty -r [ -t ] name [ param [ pattern ] ]
The -r option can be used to read the output of the
command name. With only a name argument, the out-
put read is copied to the standard output. Unless
the pseudo-terminal is non-blocking, copying con-
tinues until the command under the pseudo-terminal
exits; when non-blocking, only as much output as is
immediately available is copied. The return value
is zero if any output is copied.
When also given a param argument, at most one line
is read and stored in the parameter named param.
Less than a full line may be read if the
pseudo-terminal is non-blocking. The return value
is zero if at least one character is stored in
param.
If a pattern is given as well, output is read until
the whole string read matches the pattern, even in
the non-blocking case. The return value is zero if
the string read matches the pattern, or if the com-
mand has exited but at least one character could
still be read. As of this writing, a maximum of
one megabyte of output can be consumed this way; if
a full megabyte is read without matching the pat-
tern, the return value is non-zero.
In all cases, the return value is non-zero if noth-
ing could be read, and is 2 if this is because the
command has finished.
If the -r option is combined with the -t option,
zpty tests whether output is available before try-
ing to read. If no output is available, zpty imme-
diately returns the value 1.
zpty -t name
The -t option without the -r option can be used to
test whether the command name is still running. It
returns a zero value if the command is running and
a non-zero value otherwise.
zpty [ -L ]
The last form, without any arguments, is used to
list the commands currently defined. If the -L
option is given, this is done in the form of calls
to the zpty builtin.
THE ZSH/ZSELECT MODULE
The zsh/zselect module makes available one builtin com-
mand:
zselect [ -rwe -t timeout -a array ] [ fd ... ]
The zselect builtin is a front-end to the `select'
system call, which blocks until a file descriptor
is ready for reading or writing, or has an error
condition, with an optional timeout. If this is
not available on your system, the command prints an
error message and returns status 2 (normal errors
return status 1). For more information, see your
systems documentation for select(3). Note there is
no connection with the shell builtin of the same
name.
Arguments and options may be intermingled in any
order. Non-option arguments are file descriptors,
which must be decimal integers. By default, file
descriptors are to be tested for reading, i.e. zse-
lect will return when data is available to be read
from the file descriptor, or more precisely, when a
read operation from the file descriptor will not
block. After a -r, -w and -e, the given file
descriptors are to be tested for reading, writing,
or error conditions. These options and an arbi-
trary list of file descriptors may be given in any
order.
(The presence of an `error condition' is not well
defined in the documentation for many implementa-
tions of the select system call. According to
recent versions of the POSIX specification, it is
really an exception condition, of which the only
standard example is out-of-band data received on a
socket. So zsh users are unlikely to find the -e
option useful.)
The option `-t timeout' specifies a timeout in hun-
dredths of a second. This may be zero, in which
case the file descriptors will simply be polled and
zselect will return immediately. It is possible to
call zselect with no file descriptors and a
non-zero timeout for use as a finer-grained
replacement for `sleep'; not, however, the return
status is always 1 for a timeout.
The option `-a array' indicates that array should
be set to indicate the file descriptor(s) which are
ready. If the option is not given, the array reply
will be used for this purpose. The array will con-
tain a string similar to the arguments for zselect.
For example,
zselect -t 0 -r 0 -w 1
might return immediately with status 0 and $reply
containing `-r 0 -w 1' to show that both file
descriptors are ready for the requested operations.
The option `-A assoc' indicates that the associa-
tive array assoc should be set to indicate the file
descriptor(s) which are ready. This option over-
rides the option -a, nor will reply be modified.
The keys of assoc are the file descriptors, and the
corresponding values are any of the characters
`rwe' to indicate the condition.
The command returns 0 if some file descriptors are
ready for reading. If the operation timed out, or
a timeout of 0 was given and no file descriptors
were ready, or there was an error, it returns sta-
tus 1 and the array will not be set (nor modified
in any way). If there was an error in the select
operation the appropriate error message is printed.
THE ZSH/ZUTIL MODULE
The zsh/zutil module only adds some builtins:
zstyle [ -L ]
zstyle [ -e | - | -- ] pattern style strings ...
zstyle -d [ pattern [ styles ... ] ]
zstyle -g name [ pattern [ style ] ]
zstyle -abs context style name [ sep ]
zstyle -Tt context style [ strings ...]
zstyle -m context style pattern
This builtin command is used to define and lookup
styles. Styles are pairs of names and values,
where the values consist of any number of strings.
They are stored together with patterns and lookup
is done by giving a string, called the `context',
which is compared to the patterns. The definition
stored for the first matching pattern will be
returned.
For ordering of comparisons, patterns are searched
from most specific to least specific, and patterns
that are equally specific keep the order in which
they were defined. A pattern is considered to be
more specific than another if it contains more com-
ponents (substrings separated by colons) or if the
patterns for the components are more specific,
where simple strings are considered to be more spe-
cific than patterns and complex patterns are con-
sidered to be more specific than the pattern `*'.
The first form (without arguments) lists the defi-
nitions in the order zstyle will test them. If the
-L option is given, listing is done in the form of
calls to zstyle. Forms with arguments:
zstyle [ - | -- | -e ] pattern style strings ...
Defines the given style for the pattern with
the strings as the value. If the -e option
is given, the strings will be concatenated
(separated by spaces) and the resulting
string will be evaluated (in the same way as
it is done by the eval builtin command) when
the style is looked up. In this case the
parameter `reply' must be assigned to set
the strings returned after the evaluation.
Before evaluating the value, reply is unset,
and if it is still unset after the evalua-
tion, the style is treated as if it were not
set.
zstyle -d [ pattern [ styles ... ] ]
Delete style definitions. Without arguments
all definitions are deleted, with a pattern
all definitions for that pattern are deleted
and if any styles are given, then only those
styles are deleted for the pattern.
zstyle -g name [ pattern [ style ] ]
Retrieve a style definition. The name is
used as the name of an array in which the
results are stored. Without any further
arguments, all patterns defined are
returned. With a pattern the styles defined
for that pattern are returned and with both
a pattern and a style, the value strings of
that combination is returned.
The other forms can be used to look up or test pat-
terns.
zstyle -s context style name [ sep ]
The parameter name is set to the value of
the style interpreted as a string. If the
value contains several strings they are con-
catenated with spaces (or with the sep
string if that is given) between them.
zstyle -b context style name
The value is stored in name as a boolean,
i.e. as the string `yes' if the value has
only one string and that string is equal to
one of `yes', `true', `on', or `1'. If the
value is any other string or has more than
one string, the parameter is set to `no'.
zstyle -a context style name
The value is stored in name as an array. If
name is declared as an associative array,
the first, third, etc. strings are used as
the keys and the other strings are used as
the values.
zstyle -t context style [ strings ...]
zstyle -T context style [ strings ...]
Test the value of a style, i.e. the -t
option only returns a status (sets $?).
Without any strings the return status is
zero if the style is defined for at least
one matching pattern, has only one string in
its value, and that is equal to one of
`true', `yes', `on' or `1'. If any strings
are given the status is zero if and only if
at least one of the strings is equal to at
least one of the strings in the value. If
the style is not defined, the status is 2.
The -T option tests the values of the style
like -t, but it returns zero (rather than 2)
if the style is not defined for any matching
pattern.
zstyle -m context style pattern
Match a value. Returns status zero if the
pattern matches at least one of the strings
in the value.
zformat -f param format specs ...
zformat -a array sep specs ...
This builtin provides two different forms of for-
matting. The first form is selected with the -f
option. In this case the format string will be mod-
ified by replacing sequences starting with a
percent sign in it with strings from the specs.
Each spec should be of the form `char:string' which
will cause every appearance of the sequence `%char'
in format to be replaced by the string. The `%'
sequence may also contain optional minimum and max-
imum field width specifications between the `%' and
the `char' in the form `%min.maxc', i.e. the mini-
mum field width is given first and if the maximum
field width is used, it has to be preceded by a
dot. Specifying a minimum field width makes the
result be padded with spaces to the right if the
string is shorter than the requested width.
Padding to the left can be achieved by giving a
negative minimum field width. If a maximum field
width is specified, the string will be truncated
after that many characters. After all `%'
sequences for the given specs have been processed,
the resulting string is stored in the parameter
param.
The %-escapes also understand ternary expressions
in the form used by prompts. The % is followed by
a `(' and then an ordinary format specifier charac-
ter as described above. There may be a set of dig-
its either before or after the `('; these specify a
test number, which defaults to zero. Negative num-
bers are also allowed. An arbitrary delimiter
character follows the format specifier, which is
followed by a piece of `true' text, the delimiter
character again, a piece of `false' text, and a
closing parenthesis. The complete expression
(without the digits) thus looks like
`%(X.text1.text2)', except that the `.' character
is arbitrary. The value given for the format spec-
ifier in the char:string expressions is evaluated
as a mathematical expression, and compared with the
test number. If they are the same, text1 is out-
put, else text2 is output. A parenthesis may be
escaped in text2 as %). Either of text1 or text2
may contain nested %-escapes.
For example:
zformat -f REPLY "The answer is '%3(c.yes.no)'." c:3
outputs "The answer is 'yes'." to REPLY since the
value for the format specifier c is 3, agreeing
with the digit argument to the ternary expression.
The second form, using the -a option, can be used
for aligning strings. Here, the specs are of the
form `left:right' where `left' and `right' are
arbitrary strings. These strings are modified by
replacing the colons by the sep string and padding
the left strings with spaces to the right so that
the sep strings in the result (and hence the right
strings after them) are all aligned if the strings
are printed below each other. All strings without
a colon are left unchanged and all strings with an
empty right string have the trailing colon removed.
In both cases the lengths of the strings are not
used to determine how the other strings are to be
aligned. The resulting strings are stored in the
array.
zregexparse
This implements some internals of the _regex_argu-
ments function.
zparseopts [ -D ] [ -K ] [ -E ] [ -a array ] [ -A assoc ]
specs
This builtin simplifies the parsing of options in
positional parameters, i.e. the set of arguments
given by $*. Each spec describes one option and
must be of the form `opt[=array]'. If an option
described by opt is found in the positional parame-
ters it is copied into the array specified with the
-a option; if the optional `=array' is given, it is
instead copied into that array.
Note that it is an error to give any spec without
an `=array' unless one of the -a or -A options is
used.
Unless the -E option is given, parsing stops at the
first string that isn't described by one of the
specs. Even with -E, parsing always stops at a
positional parameter equal to `-' or `--'.
The opt description must be one of the following.
Any of the special characters can appear in the
option name provided it is preceded by a backslash.
name
name+ The name is the name of the option without
the leading `-'. To specify a GNU-style
long option, one of the usual two leading
`-' must be included in name; for example, a
`--file' option is represented by a name of
`-file'.
If a `+' appears after name, the option is
appended to array each time it is found in
the positional parameters; without the `+'
only the last occurrence of the option is
preserved.
If one of these forms is used, the option
takes no argument, so parsing stops if the
next positional parameter does not also
begin with `-' (unless the -E option is
used).
name:
name:-
name:: If one or two colons are given, the option
takes an argument; with one colon, the argu-
ment is mandatory and with two colons it is
optional. The argument is appended to the
array after the option itself.
An optional argument is put into the same
array element as the option name (note that
this makes empty strings as arguments indis-
tinguishable). A mandatory argument is
added as a separate element unless the `:-'
form is used, in which case the argument is
put into the same element.
A `+' as described above may appear between
the name and the first colon.
The options of zparseopts itself are:
-a array
As described above, this names the default array in
which to store the recognised options.
-A assoc
If this is given, the options and their values are
also put into an associative array with the option
names as keys and the arguments (if any) as the
values.
-D If this option is given, all options found are
removed from the positional parameters of the call-
ing shell or shell function, up to but not includ-
ing any not described by the specs. This is simi-
lar to using the shift builtin.
-K With this option, the arrays specified with the -a
and -A options and with the `=array' forms are kept
unchanged when none of the specs for them is used.
This allows assignment of default values to them
before calling zparseopts.
-E This changes the parsing rules to not stop at the
first string that isn't described by one of the
specs. It can be used to test for or (if used
together with -D) extract options and their argu-
ments, ignoring all other options and arguments
that may be in the positional parameters.
For example,
set -- -a -bx -c y -cz baz -cend
zparseopts a=foo b:=bar c+:=bar
will have the effect of
foo=(-a)
bar=(-b x -c y -c z)
The arguments from `baz' on will not be used.
As an example for the -E option, consider:
set -- -a x -b y -c z arg1 arg2
zparseopts -E -D b:=bar
will have the effect of
bar=(-b y)
set -- -a x -c z arg1 arg2
I.e., the option -b and its arguments are taken from the
positional parameters and put into the array bar.
ZSHTCPSYS(1) ZSHTCPSYS(1)
NAME
zshtcpsys - zsh tcp system
DESCRIPTION
A module zsh/net/tcp is provided to provide network I/O
over TCP/IP from within the shell; see its description in
zshmodules(1) . This manual page describes a function
suite based on the module. If the module is installed,
the functions are usually installed at the same time, in
which case they will be available for autoloading in the
default function search path. In addition to the
zsh/net/tcp module, the zsh/zselect module is used to
implement timeouts on read operations. For troubleshoot-
ing tips, consult the corresponding advice for the zftp
functions described in zshftpsys(1) .
There are functions corresponding to the basic I/O opera-
tions open, close, read and send, named tcp_open etc., as
well as a function tcp_expect for pattern match analysis
of data read as input. The system makes it easy to
receive data from and send data to multiple named sessions
at once. In addition, it can be linked with the shell's
line editor in such a way that input data is automatically
shown at the terminal. Other facilities available includ-
ing logging, filtering and configurable output prompts.
To use the system where it is available, it should be
enough to `autoload -U tcp_open' and run tcp_open as docu-
mented below to start a session. The tcp_open function
will autoload the remaining functions.
TCP USER FUNCTIONS
Basic I/O
tcp_open [-qz] host port [ sess ]
tcp_open [-qz] [ -s sess | -l sess,... ] ...
tcp_open [-qz] [-a fd | -f fd ] [ sess ]
Open a new session. In the first and simplest
form, open a TCP connection to host host at port
port; numeric and symbolic forms are understood for
both.
If sess is given, this becomes the name of the ses-
sion which can be used to refer to multiple differ-
ent TCP connections. If sess is not given, the
function will invent a numeric name value (note
this is not the same as the file descriptor to
which the session is attached). It is recommended
that session names not include `funny' characters,
where funny characters are not well-defined but
certainly do not include alphanumerics or under-
scores, and certainly do include whitespace.
In the second case, one or more sessions to be
opened are given by name. A single session name is
given after -s and a comma-separated list after -l;
both options may be repeated as many times as nec-
essary. The host and port are read from the file
.ztcp_sessions in the same directory as the user's
zsh initialisation files, i.e. usually the home
directory, but $ZDOTDIR if that is set. The file
consists of lines each giving a session name and
the corresponding host and port, in that order
(note the session name comes first, not last), sep-
arated by whitespace.
The third form allows passive and fake TCP connec-
tions. If the option -a is used, its argument is a
file descriptor open for listening for connections.
No function front-end is provided to open such a
file descriptor, but a call to `ztcp -l port' will
create one with the file descriptor stored in the
parameter $REPLY. The listening port can be closed
with `ztcp -c fd'. A call to `tcp_open -a fd' will
block until a remote TCP connection is made to port
on the local machine. At this point, a session is
created in the usual way and is largely indistin-
guishable from an active connection created with
one of the first two forms.
If the option -f is used, its argument is a file
descriptor which is used directly as if it were a
TCP session. How well the remainder of the TCP
function system copes with this depends on what
actually underlies this file descriptor. A regular
file is likely to be unusable; a FIFO (pipe) of
some sort will work better, but note that it is not
a good idea for two different sessions to attempt
to read from the same FIFO at once.
If the option -q is given with any of the three
forms, tcp_open will not print informational mes-
sages, although it will in any case exit with an
appropriate status.
If the line editor (zle) is in use, which is typi-
cally the case if the shell is interactive,
tcp_open installs a handler inside zle which will
check for new data at the same time as it checks
for keyboard input. This is convenient as the
shell consumes no CPU time while waiting; the test
is performed by the operating system. Giving the
option -z to any of the forms of tcp_open prevents
the handler from being installed, so data must be
read explicitly. Note, however, this is not neces-
sary for executing complete sets of send and read
commands from a function, as zle is not active at
this point. Generally speaking, the handler is
only active when the shell is waiting for input at
a command prompt or in the vared builtin. The
option has no effect if zle is not active; `[[ -o
zle]]' will test for this.
The first session to be opened becomes the current
session and subsequent calls to tcp_open do not
change it. The current session is stored in the
parameter $TCP_SESS; see below for more detail
about the parameters used by the system.
tcp_close [-qn] [ -a | -l sess,... | sess ... ]
Close the named sessions, or the current session if
none is given, or all open sessions if -a is given.
The options -l and -s are both handled for consis-
tency with tcp_open, although the latter is redun-
dant.
If the session being closed is the current one,
$TCP_SESS is unset, leaving no current session,
even if there are other sessions still open.
If the session was opened with tcp_open -f, the
file descriptor is closed so long as it is in the
range 0 to 9 accessible directly from the command
line. If the option -n is given, no attempt will
be made to close file descriptors in this case.
The -n option is not used for genuine ztcp session;
the file descriptors are always closed with the
session.
If the option -q is given, no informational mes-
sages will be printed.
tcp_read [-bdq] [ -t TO ] [ -T TO ]
[ -a | -u fd ... | -l sess,... | -s sess ...]
Perform a read operation on the current session, or
on a list of sessions if any are given with -u, -l
or -s, or all open sessions if the option -a is
given. Any of the -u, -l or -s options may be
repeated or mixed together. The -u option speci-
fies a file descriptor directly (only those managed
by this system are useful), the other two specify
sessions as described for tcp_open above.
The function checks for new data available on all
the sessions listed. Unless the -b option is
given, it will not block waiting for new data. Any
one line of data from any of the available sessions
will be read, stored in the parameter $TCP_LINE,
and displayed to standard output unless $TCP_SILENT
contains a non-empty string. When printed to stan-
dard output the string $TCP_PROMPT will be shown at
the start of the line; the default form for this
includes the name of the session being read. See
below for more information on these parameters. In
this mode, tcp_read can be called repeatedly until
it returns status 2 which indicates all pending
input from all specified sessions has been handled.
With the option -b, equivalent to an infinite time-
out, the function will block until a line is avail-
able to read from one of the specified sessions.
However, only a single line is returned.
The option -d indicates that all pending input
should be drained. In this case tcp_read may pro-
cess multiple lines in the manner given above; only
the last is stored in $TCP_LINE, but the complete
set is stored in the array $tcp_lines. This is
cleared at the start of each call to tcp_read.
The options -t and -T specify a timeout in seconds,
which may be a floating point number for increased
accuracy. With -t the timeout is applied before
each line read. With -T, the timeout applies to
the overall operation, possibly including multiple
read operations if the option -d is present; with-
out this option, there is no distinction between -t
and -T.
The function does not print informational messages,
but if the option -q is given, no error message is
printed for a non-existent session.
A return value of 2 indicates a timeout or no data
to read. Any other non-zero return value indicates
some error condition.
See tcp_log for how to control where data is sent
by tcp_read.
tcp_send [-nq] [ -s sess | -l sess,... ] data ...
tcp_send [-nq] -a data ...
Send the supplied data strings to all the specified
sessions in turn. The underlying operation differs
little from a `print -r' to the session's file
descriptor, although it attempts to prevent the
shell from dying owing to a SIGPIPE caused by an
attempt to write to a defunct session.
The option -n prevents tcp_send from putting a new-
line at the end of the data strings.
The remaining options all behave as for tcp_read.
The data arguments are not further processed once
they have been passed to tcp_send; they are simply
passed down to print -r.
If the parameter $TCP_OUTPUT is a non-empty string
and logging is enabled then the data sent to each
session will be echoed to the log file(s) with
$TCP_OUTPUT in front where appropriate, much in the
manner of $TCP_PROMPT.
Session Management
tcp_alias [-q] alias=sess ...
tcp_alias [-q] [ alias ] ...
tcp_alias -d [-q] alias ...
This function is not particularly well tested.
The first form creates an alias for a session name;
alias can then be used to refer to the existing
session sess. As many aliases may be listed as
required.
The second form lists any aliases specified, or all
aliases if none.
The third form deletes all the aliases listed. The
underlying sessions are not affected.
The option -q suppresses an inconsistently chosen
subset of error messages.
tcp_log [-asc] [ -n | -N ] [ logfile ]
With an argument logfile, all future input from
tcp_read will be logged to the named file. Unless
-a (append) is given, this file will first be trun-
cated or created empty. With no arguments, show
the current status of logging.
With the option -s, per-session logging is enabled.
Input from tcp_read is output to the file log-
file.sess. As the session is automatically dis-
criminated by the filename, the contents are raw
(no $TCP_PROMPT). The option -a applies as above.
Per-session logging and logging of all data in one
file are not mutually exclusive.
The option -c closes all logging, both complete and
per-session logs.
The options -n and -N respectively turn off or
restore output of data read by tcp_read to standard
output; hence `tcp_log -cn' turns off all output by
tcp_read.
The function is purely a convenient front end to
setting the parameters $TCP_LOG, $TCP_LOG_SESS,
$TCP_SILENT, which are described below.
tcp_rename old new
Rename session old to session new. The old name
becomes invalid.
tcp_sess [ sess [ command ... ] ]
With no arguments, list all the open sessions and
associated file descriptors. The current session
is marked with a star. For use in functions,
direct access to the parameters $tcp_by_name,
$tcp_by_fd and $TCP_SESS is probably more conve-
nient; see below.
With a sess argument, set the current session to
sess. This is equivalent to changing $TCP_SESS
directly.
With additional arguments, temporarily set the cur-
rent session while executing the string command
.... The first argument is re-evaluated so as to
expand aliases etc., but the remaining arguments
are passed through as the appear to tcp_sess. The
original session is restored when tcp_sess exits.
Advanced I/O
tcp_command send-options ... send-arguments ...
This is a convenient front-end to tcp_send. All
arguments are passed to tcp_send, then the function
pauses waiting for data. While data is arriving at
least every $TCP_TIMEOUT (default 0.3) seconds,
data is handled and printed out according to the
current settings. Status 0 is always returned.
This is generally only useful for interactive use,
to prevent the display becoming fragmented by out-
put returned from the connection. Within a pro-
gramme or function it is generally better to handle
reading data by a more explicit method.
tcp_expect [ -q ] [ -p var ] [ -t to | -T TO]
[ -a | -s sess ... | -l sess,... ] pattern ...
Wait for input matching any of the given patterns
from any of the specified sessions. Input is
ignored until an input line matches one of the
given patterns; at this point status zero is
returned, the matching line is stored in $TCP_LINE,
and the full set of lines read during the call to
tcp_expect is stored in the array
$tcp_expect_lines.
Sessions are specified in the same way as tcp_read:
the default is to use the current session, other-
wise the sessions specified by -a, -s, or -l are
used.
Each pattern is a standard zsh extended-globbing
pattern; note that it needs to be quoted to avoid
it being expanded immediately by filename genera-
tion. It must match the full line, so to match a
substring there must be a `*' at the start and end.
The line matched against includes the $TCP_PROMPT
added by tcp_read. It is possible to include the
globbing flags `#b' or `#m' in the patterns to make
backreferences available in the parameters $MATCH,
$match, etc., as described in the base zsh documen-
tation on pattern matching.
Unlike tcp_read, the default behaviour of
tcp_expect is to block indefinitely until the
required input is found. This can be modified by
specifying a timeout with -t or -T; these function
as in tcp_read, specifying a per-read or overall
timeout, respectively, in seconds, as an integer or
floating-point number. As tcp_read, the function
returns status 2 if a timeout occurs.
The function returns as soon as any one of the pat-
terns given match. If the caller needs to know
which of the patterns matched, the option -p var
can be used; on return, $var is set to the number
of the pattern using ordinary zsh indexing, i.e.
the first is 1, and so on. Note the absence of a
`$' in front of var. To avoid clashes, the parame-
ter cannot begin with `_expect'.
The option -q is passed directly down to tcp_read.
As all input is done via tcp_read, all the usual
rules about output of lines read apply. One excep-
tion is that the parameter $tcp_lines will only
reflect the line actually matched by tcp_expect;
use $tcp_expect_lines for the full set of lines
read during the function call.
tcp_proxy
This is a simple-minded function to accept a TCP
connection and execute a command with I/O redi-
rected to the connection. Extreme caution should
be taken as there is no security whatsoever and
this can leave your computer open to the world.
Ideally, it should only be used behind a firewall.
The first argument is a TCP port on which the func-
tion will listen.
The remaining arguments give a command and its
arguments to execute with standard input, standard
output and standard error redirected to the file
descriptor on which the TCP session has been
accepted. If no command is given, a new zsh is
started. This gives everyone on your network
direct access to your account, which in many cases
will be a bad thing.
The command is run in the background, so tcp_proxy
can then accept new connections. It continues to
accept new connections until interrupted.
tcp_spam [-ertv] [ -a | -s sess | -l sess,... ] cmd ...
Execute `cmd ...' for each session in turn. Note
this executes the command and arguments; it does
not send the command line as data unless the -t
(transmit) option is given.
The sessions may be selected explicitly with the
standard -a, -s or -l options, or may be chosen
implicitly. If none of the three options is given
the rules are: first, if the array $tcp_spam_list
is set, this is taken as the list of sessions, oth-
erwise all sessions are taken. Second, any
sessions given in the array $tcp_no_spam_list are
removed from the list of sessions.
Normally, any sessions added by the `-a' flag or
when all sessions are chosen implicitly are spammed
in alphabetic order; sessions given by the
$tcp_spam_list array or on the command line are
spammed in the order given. The -r flag reverses
the order however it was arrived it.
The -v flag specifies that a $TCP_PROMPT will be
output before each session. This is output after
any modification to TCP_SESS by the user-defined
tcp_on_spam function described below. (Obviously
that function is able to generate its own output.)
If the option -e is present, the line given as cmd
... is executed using eval, otherwise it is exe-
cuted without any further processing.
tcp_talk
This is a fairly simple-minded attempt to force
input to the line editor to go straight to the
default TCP_SESSION.
An escape string, $TCP_TALK_ESCAPE, default `:', is
used to allow access to normal shell operation. If
it is on its own at the start of the line, or fol-
lowed only by whitespace, the line editor returns
to normal operation. Otherwise, the string and any
following whitespace are skipped and the remainder
of the line executed as shell input without any
change of the line editor's operating mode.
The current implementation is somewhat deficient in
terms of use of the command history. For this rea-
son, many users will prefer to use some form of
alternative approach for sending data easily to the
current session. One simple approach is to alias
some special character (such as `%') to `tcp_com-
mand --'.
tcp_wait
The sole argument is an integer or floating point
number which gives the seconds to delay. The shell
will do nothing for that period except wait for
input on all TCP sessions by calling tcp_read -a.
This is similar to the interactive behaviour at the
command prompt when zle handlers are installed.
`One-shot' file transfer
tcp_point port
tcp_shoot host port
This pair of functions provide a simple way to
transfer a file between two hosts within the shell.
Note, however, that bulk data transfer is currently
done using cat. tcp_point reads any data arriving
at port and sends it to standard output; tcp_shoot
connects to port on host and sends its standard
input. Any unused port may be used; the standard
mechanism for picking a port is to think of a ran-
dom four-digit number above 1024 until one works.
To transfer a file from host woodcock to host
springes, on springes:
tcp_point 8091 >output_file
and on woodcock:
tcp_shoot springes 8091 zshzle(1) .
While active, the function sets the parameter
TCP_HANDLER_ACTIVE to 1. This allows shell code
called internally (for example, by setting
tcp_on_read) to tell if is being called when the
shell is otherwise idle at the editor prompt.
tcp_output [ -q ] -P prompt -F fd -S sess
This function is used for both logging and handling
output to standard output, from within tcp_read and
(if $TCP_OUTPUT is set) tcp_send.
The prompt to use is specified by -P; the default
is the empty string. It can contain:
%c Expands to 1 if the session is the current
session, otherwise 0. Used with ternary
expresions such as `%(c.-.+)' to output `+'
for the current session and `-' otherwise.
%f Replaced by the session's file descriptor.
%s Replaced by the session name.
%% Replaced by a single `%'.
The option -q suppresses output to standard output,
but not to any log files which are configured.
The -S and -F options are used to pass in the ses-
sion name and file descriptor for possible replace-
ment in the prompt.
TCP USER PARAMETERS
Parameters follow the usual convention that uppercase is
used for scalars and integers, while lowercase is used for
normal and associative array. It is always safe for user
code to read these parameters. Some parameters may also
be set; these are noted explicitly. Others are included
in this group as they are set by the function system for
the user's benefit, i.e. setting them is typically not
useful but is benign.
It is often also useful to make settable parameters local
to a function. For example, `local TCP_SILENT=1' speci-
fies that data read during the function call will not be
printed to standard output, regardless of the setting out-
side the function. Likewise, `local TCP_SESS=sess' sets a
session for the duration of a function, and `local
TCP_PROMPT=' specifies that no prompt is used for input
during the function.
tcp_expect_lines
Array. The set of lines read during the last call
to tcp_expect, including the last ($TCP_LINE).
tcp_filter
Array. May be set directly. A set of extended
globbing patterns which, if matched in tcp_output,
will cause the line not to be printed to standard
output. The patterns should be defined as
described for the arguments to tcp_expect. Output
of line to log files is not affected.
TCP_HANDLER_ACTIVE
Scalar. Set to 1 within tcp_fd_handler to indicate
to functions called recursively that they have been
called during an editor session. Otherwise unset.
TCP_LINE
The last line read by tcp_read, and hence also
tcp_expect.
TCP_LINE_FD
The file descriptor from which $TCP_LINE was read.
${tcp_by_fd[$TCP_LINE_FD]} will give the corre-
sponding session name.
tcp_lines
Array. The set of lines read during the last call
to tcp_read, including the last ($TCP_LINE).
TCP_LOG
May be set directly, although it is also controlled
by tcp_log. The name of a file to which output
from all sessions will be sent. The output is pro-
ceeded by the usual $TCP_PROMPT. If it is not an
absolute path name, it will follow the user's cur-
rent directory.
TCP_LOG_SESS
May be set directly, although it is also controlled
by tcp_log. The prefix for a set of files to which
output from each session separately will be sent;
the full filename is ${TCP_LOG_SESS}.sess. Output
to each file is raw; no prompt is added. If it is
not an absolute path name, it will follow the
user's current directory.
tcp_no_spam_list
Array. May be set directly. See tcp_spam for how
this is used.
TCP_OUTPUT
May be set directly. If a non-empty string, any
data sent to a session by tcp_send will be logged.
This parameter gives the prompt to be used in a
file specified by $TCP_LOG but not in a file gener-
ated from $TCP_LOG_SESS. The prompt string has the
same format as TCP_PROMPT and the same rules for
its use apply.
TCP_PROMPT
May be set directly. Used as the prefix for data
read by tcp_read which is printed to standard out-
put or to the log file given by $TCP_LOG, if any.
Any `%s', `%f' or `%%' occurring in the string will
be replaced by the name of the session, the ses-
sion's underlying file descriptor, or a single `%',
respectively. The expression `%c' expands to 1 if
the session being read is the current session, else
0; this is most useful in ternary expressions such
as `%(c.-.+)' which outputs `+' if the session is
the current one, else `-'.
TCP_READ_DEBUG
May be set directly. If this has non-zero length,
tcp_read will give some limited diagnostics about
data being read.
TCP_SECONDS_START
This value is created and initialised to zero by
tcp_open.
The functions tcp_read and tcp_expect use the
shell's SECONDS parameter for their own timing pur-
poses. If that parameter is not of floating point
type on entry to one of the functions, it will cre-
ate a local parameter SECONDS which is floating
point and set the parameter TCP_SECONDS_START to
the previous value of $SECONDS. If the parameter
is already floating point, it is used without a
local copy being created and TCP_SECONDS_START is
not set. As the global value is zero, the shell
elapsed time is guaranteed to be the sum of $SEC-
ONDS and $TCP_SECONDS_START.
This can be avoided by setting SECONDS globally to
a floating point value using `typeset -F SECONDS';
then the TCP functions will never make a local copy
and never set TCP_SECONDS_START to a non-zero
value.
TCP_SESS
May be set directly. The current session; must
refer to one of the sessions established by
tcp_open.
TCP_SILENT
May be set directly, although it is also controlled
by tcp_log. If of non-zero length, data read by
tcp_read will not be written to standard output,
though may still be written to a log file.
tcp_spam_list
Array. May be set directly. See the description
of the function tcp_spam for how this is used.
TCP_TALK_ESCAPE
May be set directly. See the description of the
function tcp_talk for how this is used.
TCP_TIMEOUT
May be set directly. Currently this is only used
by the function tcp_command, see above.
TCP USER-DEFINED PARAMETERS
The following parameters are not set by the function sys-
tem, but have a special effect if set by the user.
tcp_on_read
This should be an associative array; if it is not,
the behaviour is undefined. Each key is the name
of a shell function or other command, and the cor-
responding value is a shell pattern (using
EXTENDED_GLOB). Every line read from a TCP session
directly or indirectly using tcp_read (which
includes lines read by tcp_expect) is compared
against the pattern. If the line matches, the com-
mand given in the key is called with two arguments:
the name of the session from which the line was
read, and the line itself.
If any function called to handle a line returns a
non-zero status, the line is not output. Thus a
tcp_on_read handler containing only the instruction
`return 1' can be used to suppress output of par-
ticular lines (see, however, tcp_filter above).
However, the line is still stored in TCP_LINE and
tcp_lines; this occurs after all tcp_on_read pro-
cessing.
TCP UTILITY PARAMETERS
These parameters are controlled by the function system;
they may be read directly, but should not usually be set
by user code.
tcp_aliases
Associative array. The keys are the names of ses-
sions established with tcp_open; each value is a
space-separated list of aliases which refer to that
session.
tcp_by_fd
Associative array. The keys are session file
descriptors; each value is the name of that ses-
sion.
tcp_by_name
Associative array. The keys are the names of ses-
sions; each value is the file descriptor associated
with that session.
TCP EXAMPLES
Here is a trivial example using a remote calculator.
TO create a calculator server on port 7337 (see the dc
manual page for quite how infuriating the underlying com-
mand is):
tcp_proxy 7337 dc
To connect to this from the same host with a session also
named `dc':
tcp_open localhost 7337 dc
To send a command to the remote session and wait a short
while for output (assuming dc is the current session):
tcp_command 2 4 + p
To close the session:
tcp_close
The tcp_proxy needs to be killed to be stopped. Note this
will not usually kill any connections which have already
been accepted, and also that the port is not immediately
available for reuse.
The following chunk of code puts a list of sessions into
an xterm header, with the current session followed by a
star.
print -n "\033]2;TCP:" ${(k)tcp_by_name:/$TCP_SESS/$TCP_SESS\*} "\a"
TCP BUGS
The function tcp_read uses the shell's normal read
builtin. As this reads a complete line at once, data
arriving without a terminating newline can cause the func-
tion to block indefinitely.
Though the function suite works well for interactive use
and for data arriving in small amounts, the performance
when large amounts of data are being exchanged is likely
ZSHZFTPSYS(1) ZSHZFTPSYS(1)
to be extremely poor.
NAME
zshzftpsys - zftp function front-end
DESCRIPTION
This describes the set of shell functions supplied with
the source distribution as an interface to the zftp
builtin command, allowing you to perform FTP operations
from the shell command line or within functions or
scripts. The interface is similar to a traditional FTP
client (e.g. the ftp command itself, see ftp(1)), but as
it is entirely done within the shell all the familiar com-
pletion, editing and globbing features, and so on, are
present, and macros are particularly simple to write as
they are just ordinary shell functions.
The prerequisite is that the zftp command, as described in
zshmodules(1) , must be available in the version of zsh
installed at your site. If the shell is configured to
load new commands at run time, it probably is: typing
`zmodload zsh/zftp' will make sure (if that runs silently,
it has worked). If this is not the case, it is possible
zftp was linked into the shell anyway: to test this, type
`which zftp' and if zftp is available you will get the
message `zftp: shell built-in command'.
Commands given directly with zftp builtin may be inter-
spersed between the functions in this suite; in a few
cases, using zftp directly may cause some of the status
information stored in shell parameters to become invalid.
Note in particular the description of the variables
$ZFTP_TMOUT, $ZFTP_PREFS and $ZFTP_VERBOSE for zftp.
INSTALLATION
You should make sure all the functions from the Func-
tions/Zftp directory of the source distribution are avail-
able; they all begin with the two letters `zf'. They may
already have been installed on your system; otherwise, you
will need to find them and copy them. The directory
should appear as one of the elements of the $fpath array
(this should already be the case if they were installed),
and at least the function zfinit should be autoloaded; it
will autoload the rest. Finally, to initialize the use of
the system you need to call the zfinit function. The fol-
lowing code in your .zshrc will arrange for this; assume
the functions are stored in the directory ~/myfns:
fpath=(~/myfns $fpath)
autoload -U zfinit
zfinit
Note that zfinit assumes you are using the zmodload method
to load the zftp command. If it is already built into the
shell, change zfinit to zfinit -n. It is helpful (though
not essential) if the call to zfinit appears after any
code to initialize the new completion system, else unnec-
essary compctl commands will be given.
FUNCTIONS
The sequence of operations in performing a file transfer
is essentially the same as that in a standard FTP client.
Note that, due to a quirk of the shell's getopts builtin,
for those functions that handle options you must use `--'
rather than `-' to ensure the remaining arguments are
treated literally (a single `-' is treated as an argu-
ment).
Opening a connection
zfparams [ host [ user [ password ... ] ] ]
Set or show the parameters for a future zfopen with
no arguments. If no arguments are given, the cur-
rent parameters are displayed (the password will be
shown as a line of asterisks). If a host is given,
and either the user or password is not, they will
be prompted for; also, any parameter given as `?'
will be prompted for, and if the `?' is followed by
a string, that will be used as the prompt. As
zfopen calls zfparams to store the parameters, this
usually need not be called directly.
A single argument `-' will delete the stored param-
eters. This will also cause the memory of the last
directory (and so on) on the other host to be
deleted.
zfopen [ -1 ] [ host [ user [ password [ account ] ] ] ]
If host is present, open a connection to that host
under username user with password password (and, on
the rare occasions when it is necessary, account
account). If a necessary parameter is missing or
given as `?' it will be prompted for. If host is
not present, use a previously stored set of parame-
ters.
If the command was successful, and the terminal is
compatible with xterm or is sun-cmd, a summary will
appear in the title bar, giving the local
host:directory and the remote host:directory; this
is handled by the function zftp_chpwd, described
below.
Normally, the host, user and password are inter-
nally recorded for later re-opening, either by a
zfopen with no arguments, or automatically (see
below). With the option `-1', no information is
stored. Also, if an open command with arguments
failed, the parameters will not be retained (and
any previous parameters will also be deleted). A
zfopen on its own, or a zfopen -1, never alters the
stored parameters.
Both zfopen and zfanon (but not zfparams) under-
stand URLs of the form ftp://host/path... as mean-
ing to connect to the host, then change directory
to path (which must be a directory, not a file).
The `ftp://' can be omitted; the trailing `/' is
enough to trigger recognition of the path. Note
prefixes other than `ftp:' are not recognized, and
that all characters after the first slash beyond
host are significant in path.
zfanon [ -1 ] host
Open a connection host for anonymous FTP. The
username used is `anonymous'. The password (which
will be reported the first time) is generated as
user@host; this is then stored in the shell parame-
ter $EMAIL_ADDR which can alternatively be set man-
ually to a suitable string.
Directory management
zfcd [ dir ]
zfcd -
zfcd old new
Change the current directory on the remote server:
this is implemented to have many of the features of
the shell builtin cd.
In the first form with dir present, change to the
directory dir. The command `zfcd ..' is treated
specially, so is guaranteed to work on non-UNIX
servers (note this is handled internally by zftp).
If dir is omitted, has the effect of `zfcd ~'.
The second form changes to the directory previously
current.
The third form attempts to change the current
directory by replacing the first occurrence of the
string old with the string new in the current
directory.
Note that in this command, and indeed anywhere a
remote filename is expected, the string which on
the local host corresponds to `~' is converted back
to a `~' before being passed to the remote machine.
This is convenient because of the way expansion is
performed on the command line before zfcd receives
a string. For example, suppose the command is
`zfcd ~/foo'. The shell will expand this to a full
path such as `zfcd /home/user2/pws/foo'. At this
stage, zfcd recognises the initial path as corre-
sponding to `~' and will send the directory to the
remote host as ~/foo, so that the `~' will be
expanded by the server to the correct remote host
directory. Other named directories of the form
`~name' are not treated in this fashion.
zfhere Change directory on the remote server to the one
corresponding to the current local directory, with
special handling of `~' as in zfcd. For example,
if the current local directory is ~/foo/bar, then
zfhere performs the effect of `zfcd ~/foo/bar'.
zfdir [ -rfd ] [ - ] [ dir-options ] [ dir ]
Produce a long directory listing. The arguments
dir-options and dir are passed directly to the
server and their effect is implementation depen-
dent, but specifying a particular remote directory
dir is usually possible. The output is passed
through a pager given by the environment variable
$PAGER, or `more' if that is not set.
The directory is usually cached for re-use. In
fact, two caches are maintained. One is for use
when there is no dir-options or dir, i.e. a full
listing of the current remote directory; it is
flushed when the current remote directory changes.
The other is kept for repeated use of zfdir with
the same arguments; for example, repeated use of
`zfdir /pub/gnu' will only require the directory to
be retrieved on the first call. Alternatively,
this cache can be re-viewed with the -r option. As
relative directories will confuse zfdir, the -f
option can be used to force the cache to be flushed
before the directory is listed. The option -d will
delete both caches without showing a directory
listing; it will also delete the cache of file
names in the current remote directory, if any.
zfls [ ls-options ] [ dir ]
List files on the remote server. With no argu-
ments, this will produce a simple list of file
names for the current remote directory. Any argu-
ments are passed directly to the server. No pager
and no caching is used.
Status commands
zftype [ type ]
With no arguments, show the type of data to be
transferred, usually ASCII or binary. With an
argument, change the type: the types `A' or `ASCII'
for ASCII data and `B' or `BINARY', `I' or `IMAGE'
for binary data are understood case-insensitively.
zfstat [ -v ]
Show the status of the current or last connection,
as well as the status of some of zftp's status
variables. With the -v option, a more verbose
listing is produced by querying the server for its
version of events, too.
Retrieving files
The commands for retrieving files all take at least two
options. -G suppresses remote filename expansion which
would otherwise be performed (see below for a more
detailed description of that). -t attempts to set the
modification time of the local file to that of the remote
file: this requires version 5 of perl, see the description
of the function zfrtime below for more information.
zfget [ -Gtc ] file1 ...
Retrieve all the listed files file1 ... one at a
time from the remote server. If a file contains a
`/', the full name is passed to the remote server,
but the file is stored locally under the name given
by the part after the final `/'. The option -c
(cat) forces all files to be sent as a single
stream to standard output; in this case the -t
option has no effect.
zfuget [ -Gvst ] file1 ...
As zfget, but only retrieve files where the version
on the remote server is newer (has a later modifi-
cation time), or where the local file does not
exist. If the remote file is older but the files
have different sizes, or if the sizes are the same
but the remote file is newer, the user will usually
be queried. With the option -s, the command runs
silently and will always retrieve the file in
either of those two cases. With the option -v, the
command prints more information about the files
while it is working out whether or not to transfer
them.
zfcget [ -Gt ] file1 ...
As zfget, but if any of the local files exists, and
is shorter than the corresponding remote file, the
command assumes that it is the result of a par-
tially completed transfer and attempts to transfer
the rest of the file. This is useful on a poor
connection which keeps failing.
Note that this requires a commonly implemented, but
non-standard, version of the FTP protocol, so is
not guaranteed to work on all servers.
zfgcp [ -Gt ] remote-file local-file
zfgcp [ -Gt ] rfile1 ... ldir
This retrieves files from the remote server with
arguments behaving similarly to the cp command.
In the first form, copy remote-file from the server
to the local file local-file.
In the second form, copy all the remote files
rfile1 ... into the local directory ldir retaining
the same basenames. This assumes UNIX directory
semantics.
Sending files
zfput [ -r ] file1 ...
Send all the file1 ... given separately to the
remote server. If a filename contains a `/', the
full filename is used locally to find the file, but
only the basename is used for the remote file name.
With the option -r, if any of the files are direc-
tories they are sent recursively with all their
subdirectories, including files beginning with `.'.
This requires that the remote machine understand
UNIX file semantics, since `/' is used as a direc-
tory separator.
zfuput [ -vs ] file1 ...
As zfput, but only send files which are newer than
their local equivalents, or if the remote file does
not exist. The logic is the same as for zfuget,
but reversed between local and remote files.
zfcput file1 ...
As zfput, but if any remote file already exists and
is shorter than the local equivalent, assume it is
the result of an incomplete transfer and send the
rest of the file to append to the existing part.
As the FTP append command is part of the standard
set, this is in principle more likely to work than
zfcget.
zfpcp local-file remote-file
zfpcp lfile1 ... rdir
This sends files to the remote server with argu-
ments behaving similarly to the cp command.
With two arguments, copy local-file to the server
as remote-file.
With more than two arguments, copy all the local
files lfile1 ... into the existing remote directory
rdir retaining the same basenames. This assumes
UNIX directory semantics.
A problem arises if you attempt to use zfpcp lfile1
rdir, i.e. the second form of copying but with two
arguments, as the command has no simple way of
knowing if rdir corresponds to a directory or a
filename. It attempts to resolve this in various
ways. First, if the rdir argument is `.' or `..'
or ends in a slash, it is assumed to be a direc-
tory. Secondly, if the operation of copying to a
remote file in the first form failed, and the
remote server sends back the expected failure code
553 and a reply including the string `Is a direc-
tory', then zfpcp will retry using the second form.
Closing the connection
zfclose
Close the connection.
Session management
zfsession [ -lvod ] [ sessname ]
Allows you to manage multiple FTP sessions at once.
By default, connections take place in a session
called `default'; by giving the command `zfsession
sessname' you can change to a new or existing ses-
sion with a name of your choice. The new session
remembers its own connection, as well as associated
shell parameters, and also the host/user parameters
set by zfparams. Hence you can have different ses-
sions set up to connect to different hosts, each
remembering the appropriate host, user and pass-
word.
With no arguments, zfsession prints the name of the
current session; with the option -l it lists all
sessions which currently exist, and with the option
-v it gives a verbose list showing the host and
directory for each session, where the current ses-
sion is marked with an asterisk. With -o, it will
switch to the most recent previous session.
With -d, the given session (or else the current
one) is removed; everything to do with it is com-
pletely forgotten. If it was the only session, a
new session called `default' is created and made
current. It is safest not to delete sessions while
background commands using zftp are active.
zftransfer sess1:file1 sess2:file2
Transfer files between two sessions; no local copy
is made. The file is read from the session sess1
as file1 and written to session sess2 as file
file2; file1 and file2 may be relative to the cur-
rent directories of the session. Either sess1 or
sess2 may be omitted (though the colon should be
retained if there is a possibility of a colon
appearing in the file name) and defaults to the
current session; file2 may be omitted or may end
with a slash, in which case the basename of file1
will be added. The sessions sess1 and sess2 must
be distinct.
The operation is performed using pipes, so it is
required that the connections still be valid in a
subshell, which is not the case under versions of
some operating systems, presumably due to a system
bug.
Bookmarks
The two functions zfmark and zfgoto allow you to `book-
mark' the present location (host, user and directory) of
the current FTP connection for later use. The file to be
used for storing and retrieving bookmarks is given by the
parameter $ZFTP_BMFILE; if not set when one of the two
functions is called, it will be set to the file .zfbkmarks
in the directory where your zsh startup files live (usu-
ally ~).
zfmark [ bookmark ]
If given an argument, mark the current host, user
and directory under the name bookmark for later use
by zfgoto. If there is no connection open, use the
values for the last connection immediately before
it was closed; it is an error if there was none.
Any existing bookmark under the same name will be
silently replaced.
If not given an argument, list the existing book-
marks and the points to which they refer in the
form user@host:directory; this is the format in
which they are stored, and the file may be edited
directly.
zfgoto [ -n ] bookmark
Return to the location given by bookmark, as previ-
ously set by zfmark. If the location has user
`ftp' or `anonymous', open the connection with
zfanon, so that no password is required. If the
user and host parameters match those stored for the
current session, if any, those will be used, and
again no password is required. Otherwise a pass-
word will be prompted for.
With the option -n, the bookmark is taken to be a
nickname stored by the ncftp program in its
bookmark file, which is assumed to be
~/.ncftp/bookmarks. The function works identically
in other ways. Note that there is no mechanism for
adding or modifying ncftp bookmarks from the zftp
functions.
Other functions
Mostly, these functions will not be called directly (apart
from zfinit), but are described here for completeness.
You may wish to alter zftp_chpwd and zftp_progress, in
particular.
zfinit [ -n ]
As described above, this is used to initialize the
zftp function system. The -n option should be used
if the zftp command is already built into the
shell.
zfautocheck [ -dn ]
This function is called to implement automatic
reopening behaviour, as described in more detail
below. The options must appear in the first argu-
ment; -n prevents the command from changing to the
old directory, while -d prevents it from setting
the variable do_close, which it otherwise does as a
flag for automatically closing the connection after
a transfer. The host and directory for the last
session are stored in the variable $zflastsession,
but the internal host/user/password parameters must
also be correctly set.
zfcd_match prefix suffix
This performs matching for completion of remote
directory names. If the remote server is UNIX, it
will attempt to persuade the server to list the
remote directory with subdirectories marked, which
usually works but is not guaranteed. On other
hosts it simply calls zfget_match and hence com-
pletes all files, not just directories. On some
systems, directories may not even look like file-
names.
zfget_match prefix suffix
This performs matching for completion of remote
filenames. It caches files for the current direc-
tory (only) in the shell parameter $zftp_fcache.
It is in the form to be called by the -K option of
compctl, but also works when called from a wid-
get-style completion function with prefix and suf-
fix set appropriately.
zfrglob varname
Perform remote globbing, as describes in more
detail below. varname is the name of a variable
containing the pattern to be expanded; if there
were any matches, the same variable will be set to
the expanded set of filenames on return.
zfrtime lfile rfile [ time ]
Set the local file lfile to have the same modifica-
tion time as the remote file rfile, or the explicit
time time in FTP format CCYYMMDDhhmmSS for the GMT
timezone.
Currently this requires perl version 5 to perform
the conversion from GMT to local time. This is
unfortunately difficult to do using shell code
alone.
zftp_chpwd
This function is called every time a connection is
opened, or closed, or the remote directory changes.
This version alters the title bar of an xterm-com-
patible or sun-cmd terminal emulator to reflect the
local and remote hostnames and current directories.
It works best when combined with the function
chpwd. In particular, a function of the form
chpwd() {
if [[ -n $ZFTP_USER ]]; then
zftp_chpwd
else
# usual chpwd e.g put host:directory in title bar
fi
}
fits in well.
zftp_progress
This function shows the status of the transfer. It
will not write anything unless the output is going
to a terminal; however, if you transfer files in
the background, you should turn off progress
reports by hand using `zstyle ':zftp:*' progress
none'. Note also that if you alter it, any output
must be to standard error, as standard output may
be a file being received. The form of the progress
meter, or whether it is used at all, can be config-
ured without altering the function, as described in
the next section.
zffcache
This is used to implement caching of files in the
current directory for each session separately. It
is used by zfget_match and zfrglob.
MISCELLANEOUS FEATURES
Configuration
Various styles are available using the standard shell
style mechanism, described in zshmodules(1). Briefly, the
command `zstyle ':zftp:*' style value ...'. defines the
style to have value value; more than one value may be
given, although that is not useful in the cases described
here. These values will then be used throughout the zftp
function system. For more precise control, the first
argument, which gives a context in which the style
applies, can be modified to include a particular function,
as for example `:zftp:zfget': the style will then have the
given value only in the zfget function. Values for the
same style in different contexts may be set; the most spe-
cific function will be used, where strings are held to be
more specific than patterns, and longer patterns and
shorter patterns. Note that only the top level function
name, as called by the user, is used; calling of lower
level functions is transparent to the user. Hence modifi-
cations to the title bar in zftp_chpwd use the contexts
:zftp:zfopen, :zftp:zfcd, etc., depending where it was
called from. The following styles are understood:
progress
Controls the way that zftp_progress reports on the
progress of a transfer. If empty, unset, or
`none', no progress report is made; if `bar' a
growing bar of inverse video is shown; if `percent'
(or any other string, though this may change in
future), the percentage of the file transferred is
shown. The bar meter requires that the width of
the terminal be available via the $COLUMNS parame-
ter (normally this is set automatically). If the
size of the file being transferred is not avail-
able, bar and percent meters will simply show the
number of bytes transferred so far.
When zfinit is run, if this style is not defined
for the context :zftp:*, it will be set to `bar'.
update Specifies the minimum time interval between updates
of the progress meter in seconds. No update is
made unless new data has been received, so the
actual time interval is limited only by $ZFTP_TIME-
OUT.
As described for progress, zfinit will force this
to default to 1.
remote-glob
If set to `1', `yes' or `true', filename generation
(globbing) is performed on the remote machine
instead of by zsh itself; see below.
titlebar
If set to `1', `yes' or `true', zftp_chpwd will put
the remote host and remote directory into the
titlebar of terminal emulators such as xterm or
sun-cmd that allow this.
As described for progress, zfinit will force this
to default to 1.
chpwd If set to `1' `yes' or `true', zftp_chpwd will call
the function chpwd when a connection is closed.
This is useful if the remote host details were put
into the terminal title bar by zftp_chpwd and your
usual chpwd also modifies the title bar.
When zfinit is run, it will determine whether chpwd
exists and if so it will set the default value for
the style to 1 if none exists already.
Note that there is also an associative array zfconfig
which contains values used by the function system. This
should not be modified or overwritten.
Remote globbing
The commands for retrieving files usually perform filename
generation (globbing) on their arguments; this can be
turned off by passing the option -G to each of the com-
mands. Normally this operates by retrieving a complete
list of files for the directory in question, then matching
these locally against the pattern supplied. This has the
advantage that the full range of zsh patterns (respecting
the setting of the option EXTENDED_GLOB) can be used.
However, it means that the directory part of a filename
will not be expanded and must be given exactly. If the
remote server does not support the UNIX directory
semantics, directory handling is problematic and it is
recommended that globbing only be used within the current
directory. The list of files in the current directory, if
retrieved, will be cached, so that subsequent globs in the
same directory without an intervening zfcd are much
faster.
If the remote-glob style (see above) is set, globbing is
instead performed on the remote host: the server is asked
for a list of matching files. This is highly dependent on
how the server is implemented, though typically UNIX
servers will provide support for basic glob patterns.
This may in some cases be faster, as it avoids retrieving
the entire list of directory contents.
Automatic and temporary reopening
As described for the zfopen command, a subsequent zfopen
with no parameters will reopen the connection to the last
host (this includes connections made with the zfanon com-
mand). Opened in this fashion, the connection starts in
the default remote directory and will remain open until
explicitly closed.
Automatic re-opening is also available. If a connection
is not currently open and a command requiring a connection
is given, the last connection is implicitly reopened. In
this case the directory which was current when the connec-
tion was closed again becomes the current directory
(unless, of course, the command given changes it). Auto-
matic reopening will also take place if the connection was
close by the remote server for whatever reason (e.g. a
timeout). It is not available if the -1 option to zfopen
or zfanon was used.
Furthermore, if the command issued is a file transfer, the
connection will be closed after the transfer is finished,
hence providing a one-shot mode for transfers. This does
not apply to directory changing or listing commands; for
example a zfdir may reopen a connection but will leave it
open. Also, automatic closure will only ever happen in
the same command as automatic opening, i.e a zfdir
directly followed by a zfget will never close the connec-
tion automatically.
Information about the previous connection is given by the
zfstat function. So, for example, if that reports:
Session: default
Not connected.
Last session: ftp.bar.com:/pub/textfiles
then the command zfget file.txt will attempt to reopen a
connection to ftp.bar.com, retrieve the file
/pub/textfiles/file.txt, and immediately close the connec-
tion again. On the other hand, zfcd .. will open the
connection in the directory /pub and leave it open.
Note that all the above is local to each session; if you
return to a previous session, the connection for that ses-
sion is the one which will be reopened.
Completion
Completion of local and remote files, directories, ses-
sions and bookmarks is supported. The older,
compctl-style completion is defined when zfinit is called;
support for the new widget-based completion system is pro-
vided in the function Completion/Zsh/Command/_zftp, which
should be installed with the other functions of the com-
pletion system and hence should automatically be avail-
ZSHCONTRIB(1) ZSHCONTRIB(1)
able.
NAME
zshcontrib - user contributions to zsh
DESCRIPTION
The Zsh source distribution includes a number of items
contributed by the user community. These are not inher-
ently a part of the shell, and some may not be available
in every zsh installation. The most significant of these
are documented here. For documentation on other con-
tributed items such as shell functions, look for comments
in the function source files.
UTILITIES
Accessing On-Line Help
The key sequence ESC h is normally bound by ZLE to execute
the run-help widget (see zshzle(1)). This invokes the
run-help command with the command word from the current
input line as its argument. By default, run-help is an
alias for the man command, so this often fails when the
command word is a shell builtin or a user-defined func-
tion. By redefining the run-help alias, one can improve
the on-line help provided by the shell.
The helpfiles utility, found in the Util directory of the
distribution, is a Perl program that can be used to pro-
cess the zsh manual to produce a separate help file for
each shell builtin and for many other shell features as
well. The autoloadable run-help function, found in Func-
tions/Misc, searches for these helpfiles and performs sev-
eral other tests to produce the most complete help possi-
ble for the command.
There may already be a directory of help files on your
system; look in /usr/share/zsh or /usr/local/share/zsh and
subdirectories below those, or ask your system administra-
tor.
To create your own help files with helpfiles, choose or
create a directory where the individual command help files
will reside. For example, you might choose ~/zsh_help.
If you unpacked the zsh distribution in your home direc-
tory, you would use the commands:
mkdir ~/zsh_help
cd ~/zsh_help
man zshall | colcrt - | \
perl ~/zsh-4.2.5/Util/helpfiles
Next, to use the run-help function, you need to add lines
something like the following to your .zshrc or equivalent
startup file:
unalias run-help
autoload run-help
HELPDIR=~/zsh_help
The HELPDIR parameter tells run-help where to look for the
help files. If your system already has a help file direc-
tory installed, set HELPDIR to the path of that directory
instead.
Note that in order for `autoload run-help' to work, the
run-help file must be in one of the directories named in
your fpath array (see zshparam(1)). This should already
be the case if you have a standard zsh installation; if it
is not, copy Functions/Misc/run-help to an appropriate
directory.
Recompiling Functions
If you frequently edit your zsh functions, or periodically
update your zsh installation to track the latest develop-
ments, you may find that function digests compiled with
the zcompile builtin are frequently out of date with
respect to the function source files. This is not usually
a problem, because zsh always looks for the newest file
when loading a function, but it may cause slower shell
startup and function loading. Also, if a digest file is
explicitly used as an element of fpath, zsh won't check
whether any of its source files has changed.
The zrecompile autoloadable function, found in Func-
tions/Misc, can be used to keep function digests up to
date.
zrecompile [ -qt ] [ name ... ]
zrecompile [ -qt ] -p args [ -- args ... ]
This tries to find *.zwc files and automatically
re-compile them if at least one of the original
files is newer than the compiled file. This works
only if the names stored in the compiled files are
full paths or are relative to the directory that
contains the .zwc file.
In the first form, each name is the name of a com-
piled file or a directory containing *.zwc files
that should be checked. If no arguments are given,
the directories and *.zwc files in fpath are used.
When -t is given, no compilation is performed, but
a return status of zero (true) is set if there are
files that need to be re-compiled and non-zero
(false) otherwise. The -q option quiets the chatty
output that describes what zrecompile is doing.
Without the -t option, the return status is zero if
all files that needed re-compilation could be com-
piled and non-zero if compilation for at least one
of the files failed.
If the -p option is given, the args are interpreted
as one or more sets of arguments for zcompile, sep-
arated by `--'. For example:
zrecompile -p \
-R ~/.zshrc -- \
-M ~/.zcompdump -- \
~/zsh/comp.zwc ~/zsh/Completion/*/_*
This compiles ~/.zshrc into ~/.zshrc.zwc if that
doesn't exist or if it is older than ~/.zshrc. The
compiled file will be marked for reading instead of
mapping. The same is done for ~/.zcompdump and
~/.zcompdump.zwc, but this compiled file is marked
for mapping. The last line re-creates the file
~/zsh/comp.zwc if any of the files matching the
given pattern is newer than it.
Without the -p option, zrecompile does not create
function digests that do not already exist, nor
does it add new functions to the digest.
The following shell loop is an example of a method for
creating function digests for all functions in your fpath,
assuming that you have write permission to the directo-
ries:
for ((i=1; i <= $#fpath; ++i)); do
dir=$fpath[i]
zwc=${dir:t}.zwc
if [[ $dir == (.|..) || $dir == (.|..)/* ]]; then
continue
fi
files=($dir/*(N-.))
if [[ -w $dir:h && -n $files ]]; then
files=(${${(M)files%/*/*}#/})
if ( cd $dir:h &&
zrecompile -p -U -z $zwc $files ); then
fpath[i]=$fpath[i].zwc
fi
fi
done
The -U and -z options are appropriate for functions in the
default zsh installation fpath; you may need to use dif-
ferent options for your personal function directories.
Once the digests have been created and your fpath modified
to refer to them, you can keep them up to date by running
zrecompile with no arguments.
Keyboard Definition
The large number of possible combinations of keyboards,
workstations, terminals, emulators, and window systems
makes it impossible for zsh to have built-in key bindings
for every situation. The zkbd utility, found in Func-
tions/Misc, can help you quickly create key bindings for
your configuration.
Run zkbd either as an autoloaded function, or as a shell
script:
zsh -f ~/zsh-4.2.5/Functions/Misc/zkbd
When you run zkbd, it first asks you to enter your termi-
nal type; if the default it offers is correct, just press
return. It then asks you to press a number of different
keys to determine characteristics of your keyboard and
terminal; zkbd warns you if it finds anything out of the
ordinary, such as a Delete key that sends neither ^H nor
^?.
The keystrokes read by zkbd are recorded as a definition
for an associative array named key, written to a file in
the subdirectory .zkbd within either your HOME or ZDOTDIR
directory. The name of the file is composed from the
TERM, VENDOR and OSTYPE parameters, joined by hyphens.
You may read this file into your .zshrc or another startup
file with the "source" or "." commands, then reference the
key parameter in bindkey commands, like this:
source ${ZDOTDIR:-$HOME}/.zkbd/$TERM-$VENDOR-$OSTYPE
[[ -n ${key[Left]} ]] && bindkey "${key[Left]}" backward-char
[[ -n ${key[Right]} ]] && bindkey "${key[Right]}" forward-char
# etc.
Note that in order for `autoload zkbd' to work, the zkdb
file must be in one of the directories named in your fpath
array (see zshparam(1)). This should already be the case
if you have a standard zsh installation; if it is not,
copy Functions/Misc/zkbd to an appropriate directory.
Dumping Shell State
Occasionally you may encounter what appears to be a bug in
the shell, particularly if you are using a beta version of
zsh or a development release. Usually it is sufficient to
send a description of the problem to one of the zsh mail-
ing lists (see zsh(1)), but sometimes one of the zsh
developers will need to recreate your environment in order
to track the problem down.
The script named reporter, found in the Util directory of
the distribution, is provided for this purpose. (It is
also possible to autoload reporter, but reporter is not
installed in fpath by default.) This script outputs a
detailed dump of the shell state, in the form of another
script that can be read with `zsh -f' to recreate that
state.
To use reporter, read the script into your shell with the
`.' command and redirect the output into a file:
. ~/zsh-4.2.5/Util/reporter > zsh.report
You should check the zsh.report file for any sensitive
information such as passwords and delete them by hand
before sending the script to the developers. Also, as the
output can be voluminous, it's best to wait for the devel-
opers to ask for this information before sending it.
You can also use reporter to dump only a subset of the
shell state. This is sometimes useful for creating
startup files for the first time. Most of the output from
reporter is far more detailed than usually is necessary
for a startup file, but the aliases, options, and zstyles
states may be useful because they include only changes
from the defaults. The bindings state may be useful if
you have created any of your own keymaps, because reporter
arranges to dump the keymap creation commands as well as
the bindings for every keymap.
As is usual with automated tools, if you create a startup
file with reporter, you should edit the results to remove
unnecessary commands. Note that if you're using the new
completion system, you should not dump the functions state
to your startup files with reporter; use the compdump
function instead (see zshcompsys(1)).
reporter [ state ... ]
Print to standard output the indicated subset of
the current shell state. The state arguments may
be one or more of:
all Output everything listed below.
aliases
Output alias definitions.
bindings
Output ZLE key maps and bindings.
completion
Output old-style compctl commands. New com-
pletion is covered by functions and zstyles.
functions
Output autoloads and function definitions.
limits Output limit commands.
options
Output setopt commands.
styles Same as zstyles.
variables
Output shell parameter assignments, plus
export commands for any environment vari-
ables.
zstyles
Output zstyle commands.
If the state is omitted, all is assumed.
With the exception of `all', every state can be abbrevi-
ated by any prefix, even a single letter; thus a is the
same as aliases, z is the same as zstyles, etc.
PROMPT THEMES
Installation
You should make sure all the functions from the Func-
tions/Prompts directory of the source distribution are
available; they all begin with the string `prompt_' except
for the special function`promptinit'. You also need the
`colors' function from Functions/Misc. All of these func-
tions may already have been installed on your system; if
not, you will need to find them and copy them. The direc-
tory should appear as one of the elements of the fpath
array (this should already be the case if they were
installed), and at least the function promptinit should be
autoloaded; it will autoload the rest. Finally, to ini-
tialize the use of the system you need to call the promp-
tinit function. The following code in your .zshrc will
arrange for this; assume the functions are stored in the
directory ~/myfns:
fpath=(~/myfns $fpath)
autoload -U promptinit
promptinit
Theme Selection
Use the prompt command to select your preferred theme.
This command may be added to your .zshrc following the
call to promptinit in order to start zsh with a theme
already selected.
prompt [ -c | -l ]
prompt [ -p | -h ] [ theme ... ]
prompt [ -s ] theme [ arg ... ]
Set or examine the prompt theme. With no options
and a theme argument, the theme with that name is
set as the current theme. The available themes are
determined at run time; use the -l option to see a
list. The special theme `random' selects at random
one of the available themes and sets your prompt to
that.
In some cases the theme may be modified by one or
more arguments, which should be given after the
theme name. See the help for each theme for
descriptions of these arguments.
Options are:
-c Show the currently selected theme and its
parameters, if any.
-l List all available prompt themes.
-p Preview the theme named by theme, or all
themes if no theme is given.
-h Show help for the theme named by theme, or
for the prompt function if no theme is
given.
-s Set theme as the current theme and save
state.
prompt_theme_setup
Each available theme has a setup function which is
called by the prompt function to install that
theme. This function may define other functions as
necessary to maintain the prompt, including func-
tions used to preview the prompt or provide help
for its use. You should not normally call a
theme's setup function directly.
ZLE FUNCTIONS
Widgets
These functions all implement user-defined ZLE widgets
(see zshzle(1)) which can be bound to keystrokes in inter-
active shells. To use them, your .zshrc should contain
lines of the form
autoload function
zle -N function
followed by an appropriate bindkey command to associate
the function with a key sequence. Suggested bindings are
described below.
bash-style word functions
If you are looking for functions to implement mov-
ing over and editing words in the manner of bash,
where only alphanumeric characters are considered
word characters, you can use the functions
described in the next section. The following is
sufficient:
autoload -U select-word-style
select-word-style bash
forward-word-match, backward-word-match
kill-word-match, backward-kill-word-match
transpose-words-match, capitalize-word-match
up-case-word-match, down-case-word-match
select-word-style, match-words-by-style
The eight `-match' functions are drop-in replace-
ments for the builtin widgets without the suffix.
By default they behave in a similar way. However,
by the use of styles and the function
select-word-style, the way words are matched can be
altered.
The simplest way of configuring the functions is to
use select-word-style, which can either be called
as a normal function with the appropriate argument,
or invoked as a user-defined widget that will
prompt for the first character of the word style to
be used. The first time it is invoked, the eight
-match functions will automatically replace the
builtin versions, so they do not need to be loaded
explicitly.
The word styles available are as follows. Only the
first character is examined.
bash Word characters are alphanumeric characters
only.
normal As in normal shell operation: word charac-
ters are alphanumeric characters plus any
characters present in the string given by
the parameter $WORDCHARS.
shell Words are complete shell command arguments,
possibly including complete quoted strings,
or any tokens special to the shell.
whitespace
Words are any set of characters delimited by
whitespace.
default
Restore the default settings; this is usu-
ally the same as `normal'.
More control can be obtained using the zstyle com-
mand, as described in zshmodules(1). Each style is
looked up in the context :zle:widget where widget
is the name of the user-defined widget, not the
name of the function implementing it, so in the
case of the definitions supplied by
select-word-style the appropriate contexts are
:zle:forward-word, and so on. The function
select-word-style itself always defines styles for
the context `:zle:*' which can be overridden by
more specific (longer) patterns as well as explicit
contexts.
The style word-style specifies the rules to use.
This may have the following values.
normal Use the standard shell rules, i.e. alphanu-
merics and $WORDCHARS, unless overridden by
the styles word-chars or word-class.
specified
Similar to normal, but only the specified
characters, and not also alphanumerics, are
considered word characters.
unspecified
The negation of specified. The given char-
acters are those which will not be consid-
ered part of a word.
shell Words are obtained by using the syntactic
rules for generating shell command argu-
ments. In addition, special tokens which
are never command arguments such as `()' are
also treated as words.
whitespace
Words are whitespace-delimited strings of
characters.
The first three of those styles usually use $WORD-
CHARS, but the value in the parameter can be over-
ridden by the style word-chars, which works in
exactly the same way as $WORDCHARS. In addition,
the style word-class uses character class syntax to
group characters and takes precedence over
word-chars if both are set. The word-class style
does not include the surrounding brackets of the
character class; for example, `-:[:alnum:]' is a
valid word-class to include all alphanumerics plus
the characters `-' and `:'. Be careful including
`]', `^' and `-' as these are special inside char-
acter classes.
The final style is skip-chars. This is mostly use-
ful for transpose-words and similar functions. If
set, it gives a count of characters starting at the
cursor position which will not be considered part
of the word and are treated as space, regardless of
what they actually are. For example, if
zstyle ':zle:transpose-words' skip-chars 1
has been set, and transpose-words-match is called
with the cursor on the X of fooXbar, where X can be
any character, then the resulting expression is
barXfoo.
Here are some examples of use of the styles, actu-
ally taken from the simplified interface in
select-word-style:
zstyle ':zle:*' word-style standard
zstyle ':zle:*' word-chars ''
Implements bash-style word handling for all wid-
gets, i.e. only alphanumerics are word characters;
equivalent to setting the parameter WORDCHARS empty
for the given context.
style ':zle:*kill*' word-style space
Uses space-delimited words for widgets with the
word `kill' in the name. Neither of the styles
word-chars nor word-class is used in this case.
The word matching and all the handling of zstyle
settings is actually implemented by the function
match-words-by-style. This can be used to create
new user-defined widgets. The calling function
should set the local parameter curcontext to
:zle:widget, create the local parameter
matched_words and call match-words-by-style with no
arguments. On return, matched_words will be set to
an array with the elements: (1) the start of the
line (2) the word before the cursor (3) any
non-word characters between that word and the cur-
sor (4) any non-word character at the cursor posi-
tion plus any remaining non-word characters before
the next word, including all characters specified
by the skip-chars style, (5) the word at or follow-
ing the cursor (6) any non-word characters follow-
ing that word (7) the remainder of the line. Any
of the elements may be an empty string; the calling
function should test for this to decide whether it
can perform its function.
It is possible to pass options with arguments to
match-words-by-style to override the use of styles.
The options are:
-w word-style
-s skip-chars
-c word-class
-C word-chars
For example, match-words-by-style -w shell -c 0 may
be used to extract the command argument around the
cursor.
delete-whole-word-match
This is another function which works like the
-match functions described immediately above, i.e.
using styles to decide the word boundaries. How-
ever, it is not a replacement for any existing
function.
The basic behaviour is to delete the word around
the cursor. There is no numeric prefix handling;
only the single word around the cursor is consid-
ered. If the widget contains the string kill, the
removed text will be placed in the cutbuffer for
future yanking. This can be obtained by defining
kill-whole-word-match as follows:
zle -N kill-whole-word-match delete-whole-word-match
and then binding the widget kill-whole-word-match.
copy-earlier-word
This widget works like a combination of
insert-last-word and copy-prev-shell-word.
Repeated invocations of the widget retrieve earlier
words on the relevant history line. With a numeric
argument N, insert the Nth word from the history
line; N may be negative to count from the end of
the line.
If insert-last-word has been used to retrieve the
last word on a previous history line, repeated
invocations will replace that word with earlier
words from the same line.
Otherwise, the widget applies to words on the line
currently being edited. The widget style can be
set to the name of another widget that should be
called to retrieve words. This widget must accept
the same three arguments as insert-last-word.
cycle-completion-positions
After inserting an unambiguous string into the com-
mand line, the new function based completion system
may know about multiple places in this string where
characters are missing or differ from at least one
of the possible matches. It will then place the
cursor on the position it considers to be the most
interesting one, i.e. the one where one can disam-
biguate between as many matches as possible with as
little typing as possible.
This widget allows the cursor to be easily moved to
the other interesting spots. It can be invoked
repeatedly to cycle between all positions reported
by the completion system.
edit-command-line
Edit the command line using your visual editor, as
in ksh.
bindkey -M vicmd v edit-command-line
history-search-end
This function implements the widgets history-begin-
ning-search-backward-end and history-begin-
ning-search-forward-end. These commands work by
first calling the corresponding builtin widget (see
`History Control' in zshzle(1)) and then moving the
cursor to the end of the line. The original cursor
position is remembered and restored before calling
the builtin widget a second time, so that the same
search is repeated to look farther through the his-
tory.
Although you autoload only one function, the com-
mands to use it are slightly different because it
implements two widgets.
zle -N history-beginning-search-backward-end \
history-search-end
zle -N history-beginning-search-forward-end \
history-search-end
bindkey '\e^P' history-beginning-search-backward-end
bindkey '\e^N' history-beginning-search-forward-end
history-pattern-search
The function history-pattern-search implements wid-
gets which prompt for a pattern with which to
search the history backwards or forwards. The pat-
tern is in the usual zsh format, however the first
character may be ^ to anchor the search to the
start of the line, and the last character may be $
to anchor the search to the end of the line. If
the search was not anchored to the end of the line
the cursor is positioned just after the pattern
found.
The commands to create bindable widgets are similar
to those in the example immediately above:
autoload -U history-pattern-search
zle -N history-pattern-search-backward history-pattern-search
zle -N history-pattern-search-forward history-pattern-search
up-line-or-beginning-search, down-line-or-beginning-search
These widgets are similar to the builtin functions
up-line-or-search and down-line-or-search: if in a
multiline buffer they move up or down within the
buffer, otherwise they search for a history line
matching the start of the current line. In this
case, however, they search for a line which matches
the current line up to the current cursor position,
in the manner of history-beginning-search-backward
and -forward, rather than the first word on the
line.
incarg Typing the keystrokes for this widget with the cur-
sor placed on or to the left of an integer causes
that integer to be incremented by one. With a
numeric prefix argument, the number is incremented
by the amount of the argument (decremented if the
prefix argument is negative). The shell parameter
incarg may be set to change the default increment
to something other than one.
bindkey '^X+' incarg
incremental-complete-word
This allows incremental completion of a word.
After starting this command, a list of completion
choices can be shown after every character you
type, which you can delete with ^H or DEL. Press-
ing return accepts the completion so far and
returns you to normal editing (that is, the command
line is not immediately executed). You can hit TAB
to do normal completion, ^G to abort back to the
state when you started, and ^D to list the matches.
This works only with the new function based comple-
tion system.
bindkey '^Xi' incremental-complete-word
insert-files
This function allows you type a file pattern, and
see the results of the expansion at each step.
When you hit return, all expansions are inserted
into the command line.
bindkey '^Xf' insert-files
narrow-to-region [ -p pre ] [ -P post ]
[ -S statepm | -R statepm ] [ -n ] [ start end ])
narrow-to-region-invisible
Narrow the editable portion of the buffer to the
region between the cursor and the mark, which may
be in either order. The region may not be empty.
narrow-to-region may be used as a widget or called
as a function from a user-defined widget; by
default, the text outside the editable area remains
visible. A recursive-edit is performed and the
original widening status is then restored. Various
options and arguments are available when it is
called as a function.
The options -p pretext and -P posttext may be used
to replace the text before and after the display
for the duration of the function; either or both
may be an empty string.
If the option -n is also given, pretext or posttext
will only be inserted if there is text before or
after the region respectively which will be made
invisible.
Two numeric arguments may be given which will be
used instead of the cursor and mark positions.
The option -S statepm is used to narrow according
to the other options while saving the original
state in the parameter with name statepm, while the
option -R statepm is used to restore the state from
the parameter; note in both cases the name of the
parameter is required. In the second case, other
options and arguments are irrelevant. When this
method is used, no recursive-edit is performed; the
calling widget should call this function with the
option -S, perform its own editing on the command
line or pass control to the user via `zle recur-
sive-edit', then call this function with the option
-R. The argument statepm must be a suitable name
for an ordinary parameter, except that parameters
beginning with the prefix _ntr_ are reserved for
use within narrow-to-region. Typically the parame-
ter will be local to the calling function.
narrow-to-region-invisible is a simple widget which
calls narrow-to-region with arguments which replace
any text outside the region with `...'.
The display is restored (and the widget returns)
upon any zle command which would usually cause the
line to be accepted or aborted. Hence an addi-
tional such command is required to accept or abort
the current line.
The return status of both widgets is zero if the
line was accepted, else non-zero.
Here is a trivial example of a widget using this
feature.
local state
narrow-to-region -p $'Editing restricted region\n' \
-P '' -S state
zle recursive-edit
narrow-to-region -R state
predict-on
This set of functions implements predictive typing
using history search. After predict-on, typing
characters causes the editor to look backward in
the history for the first line beginning with what
you have typed so far. After predict-off, editing
returns to normal for the line found. In fact, you
often don't even need to use predict-off, because
if the line doesn't match something in the history,
adding a key performs standard completion, and then
inserts itself if no completions were found. How-
ever, editing in the middle of a line is liable to
confuse prediction; see the toggle style below.
With the function based completion system (which is
needed for this), you should be able to type TAB at
almost any point to advance the cursor to the next
``interesting'' character position (usually the end
of the current word, but sometimes somewhere in the
middle of the word). And of course as soon as the
entire line is what you want, you can accept with
return, without needing to move the cursor to the
end first.
The first time predict-on is used, it creates sev-
eral additional widget functions:
delete-backward-and-predict
Replaces the backward-delete-char widget.
You do not need to bind this yourself.
insert-and-predict
Implements predictive typing by replacing
the self-insert widget. You do not need to
bind this yourself.
predict-off
Turns off predictive typing.
Although you autoload only the predict-on function,
it is necessary to create a keybinding for pre-
dict-off as well.
zle -N predict-on
zle -N predict-off
bindkey '^X^Z' predict-on
bindkey '^Z' predict-off
read-from-minibuffer
This is most useful when called as a function from
inside a widget, but will work correctly as a wid-
get in its own right. It prompts for a value below
the current command line; a value may be input
using all of the standard zle operations (and not
merely the restricted set available when executing,
for example, execute-named-cmd). The value is then
returned to the calling function in the parameter
$REPLY and the editing buffer restored to its pre-
vious state. If the read was aborted by a keyboard
break (typically ^G), the function returns status 1
and $REPLY is not set.
If one argument is supplied to the function it is
taken as a prompt, otherwise `? ' is used. If two
arguments are supplied, they are the prompt and the
initial value of $LBUFFER, and if a third argument
is given it is the initial value of $RBUFFER. This
provides a default value and starting cursor place-
ment. Upon return the entire buffer is the value
of $REPLY.
One option is available: `-k num' specifies that
num characters are to be read instead of a whole
line. The line editor is not invoked recursively
in this case, so depending on the terminal settings
the input may not be visible, and only the input
keys are placed in $REPLY, not the entire buffer.
Note that unlike the read builtin num must be
given; there is no default.
The name is a slight misnomer, as in fact the
shell's own minibuffer is not used. Hence it is
still possible to call executed-named-cmd and simi-
lar functions while reading a value.
replace-string, replace-pattern
The function replace-string implements two widgets.
If defined under the same name as the function, it
prompts for two strings; the first (source) string
will be replaced by the second everywhere it occurs
in the line editing buffer.
If the widget name contains the word `pattern', for
example by defining the widget using the command
`zle -N replace-pattern replace-string', then the
replacement is done by pattern matching. All zsh
extended globbing patterns can be used in the
source string; note that unlike filename generation
the pattern does not need to match an entire word,
nor do glob qualifiers have any effect. In addi-
tion, the replacement string can contain parameter
or command substitutions. Furthermore, a `&' in
the replacement string will be replaced with the
matched source string, and a backquoted digit `\N'
will be replaced by the Nth parenthesised expres-
sion matched. The form `\{N}' may be used to pro-
tect the digit from following digits.
For example, starting from the line:
print This line contains fan and fond
and invoking replace-pattern with the source string
`f(?)n' and the replacment string `c\1r' produces
the not very useful line:
print This line contains car and cord
The range of the replacement string can be limited
by using the narrow-to-region-invisible widget.
One limitation of the current version is that undo
will cycle through changes to the replacement and
source strings before undoing the replacement
itself.
smart-insert-last-word
This function may replace the insert-last-word wid-
get, like so:
zle -N insert-last-word smart-insert-last-word
With a numeric prefix, or when passed command line
arguments in a call from another widget, it behaves
like insert-last-word, except that words in com-
ments are ignored when INTERACTIVE_COMMENTS is set.
Otherwise, the rightmost ``interesting'' word from
the previous command is found and inserted. The
default definition of ``interesting'' is that the
word contains at least one alphabetic character,
slash, or backslash. This definition may be over-
ridden by use of the match style. The context used
to look up the style is the widget name, so usually
the context is :insert-last-word. However, you can
bind this function to different widgets to use dif-
ferent patterns:
zle -N insert-last-assignment smart-insert-last-word
zstyle :insert-last-assignment match '[[:alpha:]][][[:alnum:]]#=*'
bindkey '\e=' insert-last-assignment
Styles
The behavior of several of the above widgets can be
controlled by the use of the zstyle mechanism. In partic-
ular, widgets that interact with the completion system
pass along their context to any completions that they
invoke.
break-keys
This style is used by the incremental-complete-word
widget. Its value should be a pattern, and all keys
matching this pattern will cause the widget to stop
incremental completion without the key having any
further effect. Like all styles used directly by
incremental-complete-word, this style is looked up
using the context `:incremental'.
completer
The incremental-complete-word and insert-and-pre-
dict widgets set up their top-level context name
before calling completion. This allows one to
define different sets of completer functions for
normal completion and for these widgets. For exam-
ple, to use completion, approximation and correc-
tion for normal completion, completion and correc-
tion for incremental completion and only completion
for prediction one could use:
zstyle ':completion:*' completer \
_complete _correct _approximate
zstyle ':completion:incremental:*' completer \
_complete _correct
zstyle ':completion:predict:*' completer \
_complete
It is a good idea to restrict the completers used
in prediction, because they may be automatically
invoked as you type. The _list and _menu com-
pleters should never be used with prediction. The
_approximate, _correct, _expand, and _match com-
pleters may be used, but be aware that they may
change characters anywhere in the word behind the
cursor, so you need to watch carefully that the
result is what you intended.
cursor The insert-and-predict widget uses this style, in
the context `:predict', to decide where to place
the cursor after completion has been tried. Values
are:
complete
The cursor is left where it was when comple-
tion finished, but only if it is after a
character equal to the one just inserted by
the user. If it is after another character,
this value is the same as `key'.
key The cursor is left after the nth occurrence
of the character just inserted, where n is
the number of times that character appeared
in the word before completion was attempted.
In short, this has the effect of leaving the
cursor after the character just typed even
if the completion code found out that no
other characters need to be inserted at that
position.
Any other value for this style unconditionally
leaves the cursor at the position where the
completion code left it.
list When using the incremental-complete-word widget,
this style says if the matches should be listed on
every key press (if they fit on the screen). Use
the context prefix `:completion:incremental'.
The insert-and-predict widget uses this style to
decide if the completion should be shown even if
there is only one possible completion. This is
done if the value of this style is the string
always. In this case the context is `:predict'
(not `:completion:predict').
match This style is used by smart-insert-last-word to
provide a pattern (using full EXTENDED_GLOB syntax)
that matches an interesting word. The context is
the name of the widget to which
smart-insert-last-word is bound (see above). The
default behavior of smart-insert-last-word is
equivalent to:
zstyle :insert-last-word match '*[[:alpha:]/\\]*'
However, you might want to include words that con-
tain spaces:
zstyle :insert-last-word match '*[[:alpha:][:space:]/\\]*'
Or include numbers as long as the word is at least
two characters long:
zstyle :insert-last-word match '*([[:digit:]]?|[[:alpha:]/\\])*'
The above example causes redirections like "2>" to
be included.
prompt The incremental-complete-word widget shows the
value of this style in the status line during
incremental completion. The string value may con-
tain any of the following substrings in the manner
of the PS1 and other prompt parameters:
%c Replaced by the name of the completer func-
tion that generated the matches (without the
leading underscore).
%l When the list style is set, replaced by
`...' if the list of matches is too long to
fit on the screen and with an empty string
otherwise. If the list style is `false' or
not set, `%l' is always removed.
%n Replaced by the number of matches generated.
%s Replaced by `-no match-', `-no prefix-', or
an empty string if there is no completion
matching the word on the line, if the
matches have no common prefix different from
the word on the line, or if there is such a
common prefix, respectively.
%u Replaced by the unambiguous part of all
matches, if there is any, and if it is dif-
ferent from the word on the line.
Like `break-keys', this uses the `:incremental'
context.
stop-keys
This style is used by the incremental-complete-word
widget. Its value is treated similarly to the one
for the break-keys style (and uses the same con-
text: `:incremental'). However, in this case all
keys matching the pattern given as its value will
stop incremental completion and will then execute
their usual function.
toggle This boolean style is used by predict-on and its
related widgets in the context `:predict'. If set
to one of the standard `true' values, predictive
typing is automatically toggled off in situations
where it is unlikely to be useful, such as when
editing a multi-line buffer or after moving into
the middle of a line and then deleting a character.
The default is to leave prediction turned on until
an explicit call to predict-off.
verbose
This boolean style is used by predict-on and its
related widgets in the context `:predict'. If set
to one of the standard `true' values, these widgets
display a message below the prompt when the predic-
tive state is toggled. This is most useful in com-
bination with the toggle style. The default does
not display these messages.
widget This style is similar to the command style: For
widget functions that use zle to call other wid-
gets, this style can sometimes be used to override
the widget which is called. The context for this
style is the name of the calling widget (not the
name of the calling function, because one function
may be bound to multiple widget names).
zstyle :copy-earlier-word widget smart-insert-last-word
Check the documentation for the calling widget or
function to determine whether the widget style is
used.
MIME FUNCTIONS
Three functions are available to provide handling of files
recognised by extension, for example to dispatch a file
text.ps when executed as a command to an appropriate
viewer.
zsh-mime-setup [-flv]
zsh-mime-handler
These two functions use the files ~/.mime.types and
/etc/mime.types, which associate types and exten-
sions, as well as ~/.mailcap and /etc/mailcap
files, which associate types and the programs that
handle them. These are provided on many systems
with the Multimedia Internet Mail Extensions.
To enable the system, the function zsh-mime-setup
should be autoloaded and run. This allows files
with extensions to be treated as executable; such
files be completed by the function completion sys-
tem. The function zsh-mime-handler should not need
to be called by the user.
The system works by setting up suffix aliases with
`alias -s'. Suffix aliases already installed by
the user will not be overwritten.
Repeated calls to zsh-mime-setup do not override
the existing mapping between suffixes and exe-
cutable files unless the option -f is given. Note,
however, that this does not override existing suf-
fix aliases assigned to handlers other than
zsh-mime-handler. Calling zsh-mime-setup with the
option -l lists the existing mappings without
altering them. Calling zsh-mime-setup with the
option -v causes verbose output to be shown during
the setup operation.
The system respects the mailcap flags needsterminal
and copiousoutput, see mailcap(4).
The functions use the following styles, which are
defined with the zstyle builtin command (see zsh-
modules(1)). They should be defined before
zsh-mime-setup is run. The contexts used all start
with :mime:, with additional components in some
cases. It is recommended that a trailing * (suit-
ably quoted) be appended to style patterns in case
the system is extended in future. Some examples
are given below.
mime-types
A list of files in the format of
~/.mime.types and /etc/mime.types to be read
during setup, replacing the default list
which consists of those two files. The con-
text is :mime:. A + in the list will be
replaced by the default files.
mailcap
A list of files in the format of ~/.mailcap
and /etc/mailcap to be read during setup,
replacing the default list which consists of
those two files. The context is :mime:. A
+ in the list will be replaced by the
default files.
handler
Specifies a handler for a suffix; the suffix
is given by the context as :mime:.suffix:,
and the format of the handler is exactly
that in mailcap. Note in particular the `.'
and trailing colon to distinguish this use
of the context. This overrides any handler
specified by the mailcap files. If the han-
dler requires a terminal, the flags style
should be set to include the word needster-
minal, or if the output is to be displayed
through a pager (but not if the handler is
itself a pager), it should include copi-
ousoutput.
flags Defines flags to go with a handler; the con-
text is as for the handler style, and the
format is as for the flags in mailcap.
pager If set, will be used instead of $PAGER or
more to handle suffixes where the
copiousoutput flag is set. The context is
as for handler, i.e. :mime:.suffix: for han-
dling a file with the given suffix.
Examples:
zstyle ':mime:*' mailcap ~/.mailcap /usr/local/etc/mailcap
zstyle ':mime:.txt:' handler less %s
zstyle ':mime:.txt:' flags needsterminal
When zsh-mime-setup is subsequently run, it will
look for mailcap entries in the two files given.
Files of suffix .txt will be handled by running
`less file.txt'. The flag needsterminal is set to
show that this program must run attached to a ter-
minal.
As there are several steps to dispatching a com-
mand, the following should be checked if attempting
to execute a file by extension .ext does not have
the expected effect.
The command `alias -s ext' should show
`ps=zsh-mime-handler'. If it shows some-
thing else, another suffix alias was already
installed and was not overwritten. If it
shows nothing, no handler was installed:
this is most likely because no handler was
found in the .mime.types and mailcap combi-
nation for .ext files. In that case, appro-
priate handling should be added to
~/.mime.types and mailcap.
If the extension is handled by zsh-mime-handler but
the file is
not opened correctly, either the handler
defined for the type is incorrect, or the
flags associated with it are in appropriate.
Running zsh-mime-setup -l will show the han-
dler and, if there are any, the flags. A %s
in the handler is replaced by the file
(suitably quoted if necessary). Check that
the handler program listed lists and can be
run in the way shown. Also check that the
flags needsterminal or copiousoutput are set
if the handler needs to be run under a ter-
minal; the second flag is used if the output
should be sent to a pager. An example of a
suitable mailcap entry for such a program
is:
text/html; /usr/bin/lynx '%s'; needsterminal
pick-web-browser
This function is separate from the two MIME func-
tions described above and can be assigned directly
to a suffix:
autoload -U pick-web-browser
alias -s html=pick-web-browser
It is provided as an intelligent front end to dis-
patch a web browser. It will check if an X Windows
display is available, and if so if there is already
a browser running which can accept a remote connec-
tion. In that case, the file will be displayed in
that browser; you should check explicitly if it has
appeared in the running browser's window. Other-
wise, it will start a new browser according to a
builtin set of preferences.
Alternatively, pick-web-browser can be run as a zsh
script.
Two styles are available to customize the choice of
browsers: x-browsers when running under the X Win-
dows System, and tty-browsers otherwise. These are
arrays in decreasing order of preference consiting
of the command name under which to start the
browser. They are looked up in the context :mime:
(which may be extended in future, so appending `*'
is recommended). For example,
zstyle ':mime:*' x-browsers opera konqueror netscape
specifies that pick-web-browser should first look
for a runing instance of Opera, Konqueror or
Netscape, in that order, and if it fails to find
any should attempt to start Opera.
OTHER FUNCTIONS
There are a large number of helpful functions in the Func-
tions/Misc directory of the zsh distribution. Most are
very simple and do not require documentation here, but a
few are worthy of special mention.
Descriptions
colors This function initializes several associative
arrays to map color names to (and from) the ANSI
standard eight-color terminal codes. These are
used by the prompt theme system (see above). You
seldom should need to run colors more than once.
The eight base colors are: black, red, green, yel-
low, blue, magenta, cyan, and white. Each of these
has codes for foreground and background. In addi-
tion there are eight intensity attributes: bold,
faint, standout, underline, blink, reverse, and
conceal. Finally, there are six codes used to
negate attributes: none (reset all attributes to
the defaults), normal (neither bold nor faint),
no-standout, no-underline, no-blink, and
no-reverse.
Some terminals do not support all combinations of
colors and intensities.
The associative arrays are:
color
colour Map all the color names to their integer
codes, and integer codes to the color names.
The eight base names map to the foreground
color codes, as do names prefixed with
`fg-', such as `fg-red'. Names prefixed
with `bg-', such as `bg-blue', refer to the
background codes. The reverse mapping from
code to color yields base name for
foreground codes and the bg- form for back-
grounds.
Although it is a misnomer to call them `col-
ors', these arrays also map the other four-
teen attributes from names to codes and
codes to names.
fg
fg_bold
fg_no_bold
Map the eight basic color names to ANSI ter-
minal escape sequences that set the corre-
sponding foreground text properties. The fg
sequences change the color without changing
the eight intensity attributes.
bg
bg_bold
bg_no_bold
Map the eight basic color names to ANSI ter-
minal escape sequences that set the corre-
sponding background properties. The bg
sequences change the color without changing
the eight intensity attributes.
In addition, the scalar parameters reset_color and
bold_color are set to the ANSI terminal escapes
that turn off all attributes and turn on bold
intensity, respectively.
fned name
Same as zed -f. This function does not appear in
the zsh distribution, but can be created by linking
zed to the name fned in some directory in your
fpath.
is-at-least needed [ present ]
Perform a greater-than-or-equal-to comparison of
two strings having the format of a zsh version num-
ber; that is, a string of numbers and text with
segments separated by dots or dashes. If the pre-
sent string is not provided, $ZSH_VERSION is used.
Segments are paired left-to-right in the two
strings with leading non-number parts ignored. If
one string has fewer segments than the other, the
missing segments are considered zero.
This is useful in startup files to set options and
other state that are not available in all versions
of zsh.
is-at-least 3.1.6-15 && setopt NO_GLOBAL_RCS
is-at-least 3.1.0 && setopt HIST_REDUCE_BLANKS
is-at-least 2.6-17 || print "You can't use is-at-least here."
nslookup [ arg ... ]
This wrapper function for the nslookup command
requires the zsh/zpty module (see zshmodules(1)).
It behaves exactly like the standard nslookup
except that it provides customizable prompts
(including a right-side prompt) and completion of
nslookup commands, host names, etc. (if you use the
function-based completion system). Completion
styles may be set with the context prefix `:comple-
tion:nslookup'.
See also the pager, prompt and rprompt styles
below.
run-help
See `Accessing On-Line Help' above.
tetris Zsh was once accused of not being as complete as
Emacs, because it lacked a Tetris game. This func-
tion was written to refute this vicious slander.
This function must be used as a ZLE widget:
autoload -U tetris
zle -N tetris
bindkey keys tetris
To start a game, execute the widget by typing the
keys. Whatever command line you were editing dis-
appears temporarily, and your keymap is also tem-
porarily replaced by the Tetris control keys. The
previous editor state is restored when you quit the
game (by pressing `q') or when you lose.
If you quit in the middle of a game, the next invo-
cation of the tetris widget will continue where you
left off. If you lost, it will start a new game.
zargs [ option ... -- ] [ input ... ] [ -- command [ arg
... ] ]
This function works like GNU xargs, except that
instead of reading lines of arguments from the
standard input, it takes them from the command
line. This is useful because zsh, especially with
recursive glob operators, often can construct a
command line for a shell function that is longer
than can be accepted by an external command.
The option list represents options of the zargs
command itself, which are the same as those of
xargs. The input list is the collection of strings
(often file names) that become the arguments of the
command, analogous to the standard input of xargs.
Finally, the arg list consists of those arguments
(usually options) that are passed to the command
each time it runs. The arg list precedes the ele-
ments from the input list in each run. If no com-
mand is provided, then no arg list may be provided,
and in that event the default command is `print'
with arguments `-r --'.
For example, to get a long ls listing of all plain
files in the current directory or its subdirecto-
ries:
autoload -U zargs
zargs -- **/*(.) -- ls -l
Note that `--' is used both to mark the end of the
option list and to mark the end of the input list,
so it must appear twice whenever the input list may
be empty. If there is guaranteed to be at least
one input and the first input does not begin with a
`-', then the first `--' may be omitted.
In the event that the string `--' is or may be an
input, the -e option may be used to change the
end-of-inputs marker. Note that this does not
change the end-of-options marker. For example, to
use `..' as the marker:
zargs -e.. -- **/*(.) .. ls -l
This is a good choice in that example because no
plain file can be named `..', but the best
end-marker depends on the circumstances.
For details of the other zargs options, see
xargs(1) or run zargs with the --help option.
zcalc [ expression ... ]
A reasonably powerful calculator based on zsh's
arithmetic evaluation facility. The syntax is sim-
ilar to that of formulae in most programming lan-
guages; see the section `Arithmetic Evaluation' in
zshmisc(1) for details. The mathematical library
zsh/mathfunc will be loaded if it is available; see
the section `The zsh/mathfunc Module' in zshmod-
ules(1). The mathematical functions correspond to
the raw system libraries, so trigonometric func-
tions are evaluated using radians, and so on.
Each line typed is evaluated as an expression. The
prompt shows a number, which corresponds to a posi-
tional parameter where the result of that calcula-
tion is stored. For example, the result of the
calculation on the line preceded by `4> ' is avail-
able as $4. Full command line editing, including
the history of previous calculations, is available;
the history is saved in the file ~/.zcalc_history.
To exit, enter a blank line or type `q' on its own.
If arguments are given to zcalc on start up, they
are used to prime the first few positional parame-
ters. A visual indication of this is given when
the calculator starts.
The constants PI (3.14159...) and E (2.71828...)
are provided. Parameter assignment is possible,
but note that all parameters will be put into the
global namespace.
An extra facility is provided for changing the
default output base. Use, for example, `[#16]' to
display hexadecimal output preceded by an indica-
tion of the base, or `[##16]' just to display the
raw number in the given base. Bases themselves are
always specified in decimal. `[#]' restores the
normal output format.
The output base can be initialised by passing the
option `-#base', for example `zcalc -#16' (the `#'
may have to be quoted, depending on the globbing
options set).
The prompt is configurable via the parameter ZCAL-
CPROMPT, which undergoes standard prompt expansion.
The index of the current entry is stored locally in
the first element of the array psvar, which can be
referred to in ZCALCPROMPT as `%1v'. The default
prompt is `%1v> '.
See the comments in the function for a few extra
tips.
zed [ -f ] name
zed -b This function uses the ZLE editor to edit a file or
function.
Only one name argument is allowed. If the -f
option is given, the name is taken to be that of a
function; if the function is marked for autoload-
ing, zed searches for it in the fpath and loads it.
Note that functions edited this way are installed
into the current shell, but not written back to the
autoload file.
Without -f, name is the path name of the file to
edit, which need not exist; it is created on write,
if necessary.
While editing, the function sets the main keymap to
zed and the vi command keymap to zed-vicmd. These
will be copied from the existing main and vicmd
keymaps if they do not exist the first time zed is
run. They can be used to provide special key bind-
ings used only in zed.
If it creates the keymap, zed rebinds the return
key to insert a line break and `^X^W' to accept the
edit in the zed keymap, and binds `ZZ' to accept
the edit in the zed-vicmd keymap.
The bindings alone can be installed by running `zed
-b'. This is suitable for putting into a startup
file. Note that, if rerun, this will overwrite the
existing zed and zed-vicmd keymaps.
Completion is available, and styles may be set with
the context prefix `:completion:zed'.
A zle widget zed-set-file-name is available. This
can be called by name from within zed using `\ex
zed-set-file-name' (note, however, that because of
zed's rebindings you will have to type ^j at the
end instead of the return key), or can be bound to
a key in either of the zed or zed-vicmd keymaps
after `zed -b' has been run. When the widget is
called, it prompts for a new name for the file
being edited. When zed exits the file will be
written under that name and the original file will
be left alone. The widget has no effect with `zed
-f'.
While zed-set-file-name is running, zed uses the
keymap zed-normal-keymap, which is linked from the
main keymap in effect at the time zed initialised
its bindings. (This is to make the return key
operate normally.) The result is that if the main
keymap has been changed, the widget won't notice.
This is not a concern for most users.
zcp [ -finqQvwW ] srcpat dest
zln [ -finqQsvwW ] srcpat dest
Same as zmv -C and zmv -L, respectively. These
functions do not appear in the zsh distribution,
but can be created by linking zmv to the names zcp
and zln in some directory in your fpath.
zkbd See `Keyboard Definition' above.
zmv [ -finqQsvwW ] [ -C | -L | -M | -p program ] [ -o opt-
string ] srcpat dest
Move (usually, rename) files matching the pattern
srcpat to corresponding files having names of the
form given by dest, where srcpat contains parenthe-
ses surrounding patterns which will be replaced in
turn by $1, $2, ... in dest. For example,
zmv '(*).lis' '$1.txt'
renames `foo.lis' to `foo.txt', `my.old.stuff.lis'
to `my.old.stuff.txt', and so on.
The pattern is always treated as an EXTENDED_GLOB
pattern. Any file whose name is not changed by the
substitution is simply ignored. Any error (a sub-
stitution resulted in an empty string, two substi-
tutions gave the same result, the destination was
an existing regular file and -f was not given)
causes the entire function to abort without doing
anything.
Options:
-f Force overwriting of destination files. Not
currently passed down to the mv/cp/ln com-
mand due to vagaries of implementations (but
you can use -o-f to do that).
-i Interactive: show each line to be executed
and ask the user whether to execute it. `Y'
or `y' will execute it, anything else will
skip it. Note that you just need to type
one character.
-n No execution: print what would happen, but
don't do it.
-q Turn bare glob qualifiers off: now assumed
by default, so this has no effect.
-Q Force bare glob qualifiers on. Don't turn
this on unless you are actually using glob
qualifiers in a pattern.
-s Symbolic, passed down to ln; only works with
-L.
-v Verbose: print each command as it's being
executed.
-w Pick out wildcard parts of the pattern, as
described above, and implicitly add paren-
theses for referring to them.
-W Just like -w, with the addition of turning
wildcards in the replacement pattern into
sequential ${1} .. ${N} references.
-C
-L
-M Force cp, ln or mv, respectively, regardless
of the name of the function.
-p program
Call program instead of cp, ln or mv. What-
ever it does, it should at least understand
the form `program -- oldname newname' where
oldname and newname are filenames generated
by zmv.
-o optstring
The optstring is split into words and passed
down verbatim to the cp, ln or mv command
called to perform the work. It should prob-
ably begin with a `-'.
For more complete examples and other implementation
details, see the zmv source file, usually located
in one of the directories named in your fpath, or
in Functions/Misc/zmv in the zsh distribution.
zrecompile
See `Recompiling Functions' above.
zstyle+ context style value [ + subcontext style value ...
]
This makes defining styles a bit simpler by using a
single `+' as a special token that allows you to
append a context name to the previously used con-
text name. Like this:
zstyle+ ':foo:bar' style1 value1 \
+ ':baz' style2 value2 \
+ ':frob' style3 value3
This defines `style1' with `value1' for the context
:foo:bar as usual, but it also defines `style2'
with `value2' for the context :foo:bar:baz and
`style3' with `value3' for :foo:bar:frob. Any sub-
context may be the empty string to re-use the first
context unchanged.
Styles
insert-tab
The zed function sets this style in context `:com-
pletion:zed:*' to turn off completion when TAB is
typed at the beginning of a line. You may override
this by setting your own value for this context and
style.
pager The nslookup function looks up this style in the
context `:nslookup' to determine the program used
to display output that does not fit on a single
screen.
prompt
rprompt
The nslookup function looks up this style in the
context `:nslookup' to set the prompt and the
right-side prompt, respectively. The usual expan-
sions for the PS1 and RPS1 parameters may be used
ZSHALL(1) ZSHALL(1)
(see zshmisc(1)).
FILES
$ZDOTDIR/.zshenv
$ZDOTDIR/.zprofile
$ZDOTDIR/.zshrc
$ZDOTDIR/.zlogin
$ZDOTDIR/.zlogout
${TMPPREFIX}* (default is /tmp/zsh*)
/etc/zshenv
/etc/zprofile
/etc/zshrc
/etc/zlogin
/etc/zlogout (installation-specific - /etc is the
default)
SEE ALSO
sh(1), csh(1), tcsh(1), rc(1), bash(1), ksh(1)
IEEE Standard for information Technology - Portable Oper-
ating System Interface (POSIX) - Part 2: Shell and Utili-
ties, IEEE Inc, 1993, ISBN 1-55937-255-9.
zsh 4.2.5 April 6, 2005 ZSHALL(1)