zshzle
(1)
Name
zshzle - zsh command line editor
Synopsis
Please see following description for synopsis
Description
User Commands ZSHZLE(1)
NAME
zshzle - zsh command line editor
DESCRIPTION
If the ZLE option is set (which it is by default in interac-
tive shells) and the shell input is attached to the termi-
nal, 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 sec-
ond, single line mode, is used if TERM is invalid or inca-
pable of moving the cursor up, or if the SINGLE_LINE_ZLE
option is set. This mode is similar to ksh, and uses no
termcap sequences. If TERM is "emacs", the ZLE option will
be unset by default.
The parameters BAUD, COLUMNS, and LINES are also used by the
line editor. See Parameters Used By The Shell in zsh-
param(1).
The parameter zle_highlight is also used by the line editor;
see Character Highlighting below. Highlighting of special
characters and the region between the cursor and the mark
(as set with set-mark-command in Emacs mode) is enabled by
default; consult this reference for more information. Iras-
cible conservatives will wish to know that all highlighting
may be disabled by the following setting:
zle_highlight=(none)
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 manipu-
late keymap names.
Initially, there are six keymaps:
emacs
EMACS emulation
viins
vi emulation - insert mode
vicmd
vi emulation - command mode
isearch
incremental search mode
command
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read a command name
.safe
fallback keymap
The `.safe' keymap is special. It can never be altered, and
the name can never be removed. However, it can be linked to
other names, which can be removed. In the future other spe-
cial keymaps may be added; users should avoid using names
beginning with `.' for their own keymaps.
In addition to these names, either `emacs' or `viins' is
also linked to the name `main'. If one of the VISUAL or
EDITOR environment variables contain the string `vi' when
the shell starts up then it will be `viins', otherwise it
will be `emacs'. bindkey's -e and -v options provide a con-
venient 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 pre-
fix of a longer bound string. In this case ZLE will wait a
certain time to see if more characters are typed, and if not
(or they don't match any longer string) it will execute the
binding. This timeout is defined by the KEYTIMEOUT parame-
ter; its default is 0.4 sec. There is no timeout if the
prefix string is not itself bound to a command.
The key timeout is also applied when ZLE is reading the
bytes from a multibyte character string when it is in the
appropriate mode. (This requires that the shell was com-
piled with multibyte mode enabled; typically also the locale
has characters with the UTF-8 encoding, although any multi-
byte encoding known to the operating system is supported.)
If the second or a subsequent byte is not read within the
timeout period, the shell acts as if ? were typed and resets
the input state.
As well as ZLE commands, key sequences can be bound to other
strings, by using `bindkey -s'. When such a sequence is
read, the replacement string is pushed back as input, and
the command reading process starts again using these fake
keystrokes. This input can itself invoke further replace-
ment strings, but in order to detect loops the process will
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be stopped if there are twenty such replacements without a
real command being read.
A key sequence typed by the user can be turned into a com-
mand name for use in user-defined widgets with the read-com-
mand widget, described below.
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 func-
tions.
bindkey [ options ] -l [ -L ] [ keymap ... ]
bindkey [ options ] -d
bindkey [ options ] -D keymap ...
bindkey [ options ] -A old-keymap new-keymap
bindkey [ options ] -N new-keymap [ old-keymap ]
bindkey [ options ] -m
bindkey [ options ] -r in-string ...
bindkey [ options ] -s in-string out-string ...
bindkey [ options ] in-string command ...
bindkey [ options ] [ in-string ]
bindkey's options can be divided into three categories:
keymap selection for the current command, operation
selection, and others. The keymap selection options
are:
-e Selects keymap `emacs' for any operations by the
current command, and also links `emacs' to `main'
so that it is selected by default the next time
the editor starts.
-v Selects keymap `viins' for any operations by the
current command, and also links `viins' to `main'
so that it is selected by default the next time
the editor starts.
-a Selects keymap `vicmd' for any operations by the
current command.
-M keymap
The keymap specifies a keymap name that is
selected for any operations by the current com-
mand.
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:
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-l List all existing keymap names; if any arguments
are given, list just those keymaps.
If the -L option is also used, list in the form of
bindkey commands to create or link the keymaps.
`bindkey -lL main' shows which keymap is linked to
`main', if any, and hence if the standard emacs or
vi emulation is in effect. This option does not
show the .safe keymap because it cannot be created
in that fashion; however, neither is `bindkey -lL
.safe' reported as an error, it simply outputs
nothing.
-d Delete all existing keymaps and reset to the
default state.
-D keymap ...
Delete the named keymaps.
-A old-keymap new-keymap
Make the new-keymap name an alias for old-keymap,
so that both names refer to the same keymap. The
names have equal standing; if either is deleted,
the other remains. If there is already a keymap
with the new-keymap name, it is deleted.
-N new-keymap [ old-keymap ]
Create a new keymap, named new-keymap. If a
keymap already has that name, it is deleted. If
an old-keymap name is given, the new keymap is
initialized to be a duplicate of it, otherwise the
new keymap will be empty.
To use a newly created keymap, it should be linked to
main. Hence the sequence of commands to create and use
a new keymap `mymap' initialized from the emacs keymap
(which remains unchanged) is:
bindkey -N mymap emacs
bindkey -A mymap main
Note that while `bindkey -A newmap main' will work when
newmap is emacs or viins, it will not work for vicmd,
as switching from vi insert to command mode becomes
impossible.
The following operations act on the `main' keymap if no
keymap selection option was given:
-m Add the built-in set of meta-key bindings to the
selected keymap. Only keys that are unbound or
bound to self-insert are affected.
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-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 pre-
fixes. 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 cur-
sor keys), but leave the binding for the escape
character itself (probably vi-cmd-mode). This is
incompatible with the option -R.
-s in-string out-string ...
Bind each in-string to each out-string. When
in-string is typed, out-string will be pushed back
and treated as input to the line editor. When -R
is also used, interpret the in-strings as ranges.
in-string command ...
Bind each in-string to each command. When -R is
used, interpret the in-strings as ranges.
[ in-string ]
List key bindings. If an in-string is specified,
the binding of that string in the selected keymap
is displayed. Otherwise, all key bindings in the
selected keymap are displayed. (As a special
case, if the -e or -v option is used alone, the
keymap is not displayed - the implicit linking of
keymaps is the only thing that happens.)
When the option -p is used, the in-string must be
present. The listing shows all bindings which
have the given key sequence as a prefix, not
including any bindings for the key sequence
itself.
When the -L option is used, the list is in the
form of bindkey commands to create the key bind-
ings.
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When the -R option is used as noted above, a valid range
consists of two characters, with an optional `-' between
them. All characters between the two specified, inclusive,
are bound as specified.
For either in-string or out-string, the following escape
sequences are recognised:
\a bell character
\b backspace
\e, \E
escape
\f form feed
\n linefeed (newline)
\r carriage return
\t horizontal tab
\v vertical tab
\NNN character code in octal
\xNN character code in hexadecimal
\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 initial-
ized to the same bindings by `bindkey -m'.
vared [ -Aache ] [ -p prompt ] [ -r rprompt ]
[ -M main-keymap ] [ -m vicmd-keymap ]
[ -i init-widget ] [ -f finish-widget ]
[ -t tty ] name
The value of the parameter name is loaded into the edit
buffer, and the line editor is invoked. When the editor
exits, name is set to the string value returned by the edi-
tor. 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, separator char-
acters as defined in $IFS will be shown quoted with a back-
slash, as will backslashes themselves. Conversely, when the
edited text is split into an array, a backslash quotes an
immediately following separator character or backslash; no
other special handling of backslashes, or any handling of
quotes, is performed.
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Individual elements of existing array or associative array
parameters may be edited by using subscript syntax on name.
New elements are created automatically, even without -c.
If the -p flag is given, the following string will be taken
as the prompt to display at the left. If the -r flag is
given, the following string gives the prompt to display at
the right. If the -h flag is specified, the history can be
accessed from ZLE. If the -e flag is given, typing ^D (Con-
trol-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 dur-
ing editing, and the -m option gives a keymap to link to the
vicmd keymap during editing. For vi-style editing, this
allows a pair of keymaps to override viins and vicmd. For
emacs-style editing, only -M is normally needed but the -m
option may still be used. On exit, the previous keymaps
will be restored.
Vared calls the usual `zle-line-init' and `zle-line-finish'
hooks before and after it takes control. Using the -i and -f
options, it is possible to replace these with other custom
widgets.
If `-t tty' is given, tty is the name of a terminal device
to be used instead of the default /dev/tty. If tty does not
refer to a terminal an error is reported.
zle
zle -l [ -L | -a ] [ string ... ]
zle -D widget ...
zle -A old-widget new-widget
zle -N widget [ function ]
zle -C widget completion-widget function
zle -R [ -c ] [ display-string ] [ string ... ]
zle -M string
zle -U string
zle -K keymap
zle -F [ -L | -w ] [ fd [ handler ] ]
zle -I
zle -T [ tc function | -r tc | -L ]
zle widget [ -n num ] [ -Nw ] [ -K keymap ] args ...
The zle builtin performs a number of different actions con-
cerning ZLE.
With no options and no arguments, only the return status
will be set. It is zero if ZLE is currently active and wid-
gets 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.
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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, and -a is present or
-L is not used, nothing will be printed. The return
status will be zero if all strings are names of exist-
ing widgets and non-zero if at least one string is not
a name of a defined widget. If -a is also present, all
widget names are used for the comparison including
builtin widgets, else only user-defined widgets are
used.
If at least one string is present and the -L option is
used, user-defined widgets matching any string are
listed in the form of zle commands to create the wid-
gets.
-D widget ...
Delete the named widgets.
-A old-widget new-widget
Make the new-widget name an alias for old-widget, so
that both names refer to the same widget. The names
have equal standing; if either is deleted, the other
remains. If there is already a widget with the
new-widget name, it is deleted.
-N widget [ function ]
Create a user-defined widget. If there is already a
widget with the specified name, it is overwritten.
When the new widget is invoked from within the editor,
the specified shell function is called. If no function
name is specified, it defaults to the same name as the
widget. For further information, see the section Wid-
gets in zshzle(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 comple-
tion-widget. To generate the completions, the shell
function function will be called. For further informa-
tion, see zshcompwid(1).
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-R [ -c ] [ display-string ] [ string ... ]
Redisplay the command line; this is to be called from
within a user-defined widget to allow changes to become
visible. If a display-string is given and not empty,
this is shown in the status line (immediately below the
line being edited).
If the optional strings are given they are listed below
the prompt in the same way as completion lists are
printed. If no strings are given but the -c option is
used such a list is cleared.
Note that this option is only useful for widgets that
do not exit immediately after using it because the
strings displayed will be erased immediately after
return from the widget.
This command can safely be called outside user defined
widgets; if zle is active, the display will be
refreshed, while if zle is not active, the command has
no effect. In this case there will usually be no other
arguments.
The status is zero if zle was active, else one.
-M string
As with the -R option, the string will be displayed
below the command line; unlike the -R option, the
string will not be put into the status line but will
instead be printed normally below the prompt. This
means that the string will still be displayed after the
widget returns (until it is overwritten by subsequent
commands).
-U string
This pushes the characters in the string onto the input
stack of ZLE. After the widget currently executed fin-
ishes ZLE will behave as if the characters in the
string were typed by the user.
As ZLE uses a stack, if this option is used repeatedly
the last string pushed onto the stack will be processed
first. However, the characters in each string will be
processed in the order in which they appear in the
string.
-K keymap
Selects the keymap named keymap. An error message will
be displayed if there is no such keymap.
This keymap selection affects the interpretation of
following keystrokes within this invocation of ZLE.
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Any following invocation (e.g., the next command line)
will start as usual with the `main' keymap selected.
-F [ -L | -w ] [ fd [ handler ] ]
Only available if your system supports one of the
`poll' or `select' system calls; most modern systems
do.
Installs handler (the name of a shell function) to han-
dle input from file descriptor fd. When zle is
attempting to read data, it will examine both the ter-
minal 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 output to the terminal, it
should call `zle -I' before doing so (see below). The
handler should not attempt to read from the terminal.
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.
If the option -w is also given, the handler is instead
a line editor widget, typically a shell function made
into a widget using zle -N. In that case handler can
use all the facilities of zle to update the current
editing line. Note, however, that as handling fd takes
place at a low level changes to the display will not
automatically appear; the widget should call zle -R to
force redisplay.
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 han-
dler to be replaced.
If no handler is given, but an fd is present, any han-
dler 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 sup-
plied, a list of handlers is printed in a form which
can be stored for later execution.
An fd (but not a handler) may optionally be given with
the -L option; in this case, the function will list the
handler if any, else silently return status 1.
Note that this feature should be used with care.
Activity on one of the fd's which is not properly han-
dled can cause the terminal to become unusable.
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Here is a simple example of using this feature. A con-
nection 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 con-
nection. Note that `select' will indicate that the
file descriptor needs handling if the remote side has
closed the connection; we handle that by testing for a
failed read.
if ztcp pwspc 2811; then
tcpfd=$REPLY
handler() {
zle -I
local line
if ! read -r line <&$1; then
# select marks this fd if we reach EOF,
# so handle this specially.
print "[Read on fd $1 failed, removing.]" >&2
zle -F $1
return 1
fi
print -r - $line
}
zle -F $tcpfd handler
fi
-I Unusually, this option is most useful outside ordinary
widget functions, though it may be used within if nor-
mal output to the terminal is required. It invalidates
the current zle display in preparation for output; typ-
ically this will be from a trap function. It has no
effect if zle is not active. When a trap exits, the
shell checks to see if the display needs restoring,
hence the following will print output in such a way as
not to disturb the line being edited:
TRAPUSR1() {
# Invalidate zle display
[[ -o zle ]] && zle -I
# Show output
print Hello
}
In general, the trap function may need to test whether
zle is active before using this method (as shown in the
example), since the zsh/zle module may not even be
loaded; if it is not, the command can be skipped.
It is possible to call `zle -I' several times before
control is returned to the editor; the display will
only be invalidated the first time to minimise disrup-
tion.
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Note that there are normally better ways of manipulat-
ing the display from within zle widgets; see, for exam-
ple, `zle -R' above.
The returned status is zero if zle was invalidated,
even though this may have been by a previous call to
`zle -I' or by a system notification. To test if a zle
widget may be called at this point, execute zle with no
arguments and examine the return status.
-T This is used to add, list or remove internal transfor-
mations on the processing performed by the line editor.
It is typically used only for debugging or testing and
is therefore of little interest to the general user.
`zle -T transformation func' specifies that the given
transformation (see below) is effected by shell func-
tion func.
`zle -Tr transformation' removes the given transforma-
tion if it was present (it is not an error if none
was).
`zle -TL' can be used to list all transformations cur-
rently in operation.
Currently the only transformation is tc. This is used
instead of outputting termcap codes to the terminal.
When the transformation is in operation the shell func-
tion is passed the termcap code that would be output as
its first argument; if the operation required a numeric
argument, that is passed as a second argument. The
function should set the shell variable REPLY to the
transformed termcap code. Typically this is used to
produce some simply formatted version of the code and
optional argument for debugging or testing. Note that
this transformation is not applied to other non-print-
ing characters such as carriage returns and newlines.
widget [ -n num ] [ -Nw ] [ -K keymap ] args ...
Invoke the specified widget. This can only be done
when ZLE is active; normally this will be within a
user-defined widget.
With the options -n and -N, the current numerical argu-
ment will be saved and then restored after the call to
widget; `-n num' sets the numerical argument temporar-
ily to num, while `-N' sets it to the default, i.e. as
if there were none.
With the option -K, keymap will be used as the current
keymap during the execution of the widget. The
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previous keymap will be restored when the widget exits.
Normally, calling a widget in this way does not set the
special parameter WIDGET and related parameters, so
that the environment appears as if the top-level widget
called by the user were still active. With the option
-w, WIDGET and related parameters are set to reflect
the widget being executed by the zle call.
Any further arguments will be passed to the widget;
note that as standard argument handling is performed,
any general argument list should be preceded by --. If
it is a shell function, these are passed down as posi-
tional parameters; for builtin widgets it is up to the
widget in question what it does with them. Currently
arguments are only handled by the incremental-search
commands, the history-search-forward and -backward and
the corresponding functions prefixed by vi-, and by
universal-argument. No error is flagged if the command
does not use the arguments, or only uses some of them.
The return status reflects the success or failure of
the operation carried out by the widget, or if it is a
user-defined widget the return status of the shell
function.
A non-zero return status causes the shell to beep when
the widget exits, unless the BEEP options was unset or
the widget was called via the zle command. Thus if a
user defined widget requires an immediate beep, it
should call the beep widget directly.
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 into ZLE are listed in Standard
Widgets below. Other built-in widgets can be defined by
other modules (see zshmodules(1)). Each built-in widget has
two names: its normal canonical name, and the same name pre-
ceded by a `.'. The `.' name is special: it can't be
rebound to a different widget. This makes the widget avail-
able even when its usual name has been redefined.
User-defined widgets are defined using `zle -N', and imple-
mented as shell functions. When the widget is executed, the
corresponding shell function is executed, and can perform
editing (or other) actions. It is recommended that
user-defined widgets should not have names starting with
`.'.
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USER-DEFINED WIDGETS
User-defined widgets, being implemented as shell functions,
can execute any normal shell command. They can also run
other widgets (whether built-in or user-defined) using the
zle builtin command. The standard input of the function is
closed to prevent external commands from unintentionally
blocking ZLE by reading from the terminal, but read -k or
read -q can be used to read characters. Finally, they can
examine and edit the ZLE buffer being edited by reading and
setting the special parameters described below.
These special parameters are always available in widget
functions, but are not in any way special outside ZLE. If
they have some normal value outside ZLE, that value is tem-
porarily inaccessible, but will return when the widget func-
tion 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 writ-
ten 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 redis-
play); 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 definition equal to
$#LBUFFER. Attempts to move the cursor outside the buffer
will result in the cursor being moved to the appropriate end
of the buffer.
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CUTBUFFER (scalar)
The last item cut using one of the `kill-' commands; the
string which the next yank would insert in the line. Later
entries in the kill ring are in the array killring. Note
that the command `zle copy-region-as-kill string' can be
used to set the text of the cut buffer from a shell function
and cycle the kill ring in the same way as interactively
killing text.
HISTNO (integer)
The current history number. Setting this has the same
effect as moving up or down in the history to the corre-
sponding history line. An attempt to set it is ignored if
the line is not stored in the history. Note this is not the
same as the parameter HISTCMD, which always gives the number
of the history line being added to the main shell's history.
HISTNO refers to the line being retrieved within zle.
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. Note, however, that the
most recently killed item is in $CUTBUFFER; $killring shows
the array of previous entries.
The default size for the kill ring is eight, however the
length may be changed by normal array operations. Any empty
string in the kill ring is ignored by the yank-pop command,
hence the size of the array effectively sets the maximum
length of the kill ring, while the number of non-zero
strings gives the current length, both as seen by the user
at the command line.
LASTABORTEDSEARCH (scalar)
The last search string used by an interactive search that
was aborted by the user (status 3 returned by the search
widget).
LASTSEARCH (scalar)
The last search string used by an interactive search;
read-only. This is set even if the search failed (status 0,
1 or 2 returned by the search widget), but not if it was
aborted by the user.
LASTWIDGET (scalar)
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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 func-
tion, 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 dis-
play a complete line, a newline must be appended explicitly.
The text is reset on each new invocation (but not recursive
invocation) of zle.
POSTDISPLAY (scalar)
Text to be displayed after the end of the editable text
buffer. This does not have to be a complete line; to dis-
play a complete line, a newline must be prepended explic-
itly. The text is reset on each new invocation (but not
recursive invocation) of zle.
RBUFFER (scalar)
The part of the buffer that lies to the right of the cursor
position. If it is assigned to, only that part of the
buffer is replaced, and the cursor remains between the old
$LBUFFER and the new $RBUFFER.
REGION_ACTIVE (integer)
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Indicates if the region is currently active. It can be
assigned 0 or 1 to deactivate and activate the region
respectively; see Character Highlighting below.
region_highlight (array)
Each element of this array may be set to a string that
describes highlighting for an arbitrary region of the com-
mand line that will take effect the next time the command
line is redisplayed. Highlighting of the non-editable parts
of the command line in PREDISPLAY and POSTDISPLAY are possi-
ble, but note that the P flag is needed for character index-
ing to include PREDISPLAY.
Each string consists of the following parts:
Optionally, a `P' to signify that the start and end offset
that
follow include any string set by the PREDISPLAY special
parameter; this is needed if the predisplay string
itself is to be highlighted. Whitespace may follow the
`P'.
A start offset in the same units as CURSOR, terminated by
whitespace.
An end offset in the same units as CURSOR, terminated by
whitespace.
A highlight specification in the same format as
used for contexts in the parameter zle_highlight, see
Character Highlighting below; for example, standout or
fg=red,bold.
For example,
region_highlight=("P0 20 bold")
specifies that the first twenty characters of the text
including any predisplay string should be highlighted in
bold.
Note that the effect of region_highlight is not saved and
disappears as soon as the line is accepted.
UNDO_CHANGE_NO (integer)
A number representing the state of the undo history. The
only use of this is passing as an argument to the undo wid-
get in order to undo back to the recorded point. Read-only.
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,
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this is the second argument to the zle -N command that
defined the widget, or the first argument if there was no
second argument. In the latter case this is the third argu-
ment to the zle -C command that defined the widget.
Read-only.
WIDGETSTYLE (scalar)
Describes the implementation behind the completion widget
currently being executed; the second argument that followed
zle -C when the widget was defined. This is the name of a
builtin completion widget. For widgets defined with zle -N
this is set to the empty string. Read-only.
ZLE_STATE (scalar)
Contains a set of space-separated words that describe the
current zle state.
Currently, the states shown are the insert mode as set by
the overwrite-mode or vi-replace widgets and whether history
commands will visit imported entries as controlled by the
set-local-history widget. The string contains `insert' if
characters to be inserted on the command line move existing
characters to the right or `overwrite' if characters to be
inserted overwrite existing characters. It contains `local-
history' if only local history commands will be visited or
`globalhistory' if imported history commands will also be
visited.
The substrings are sorted in alphabetical order so that if
you want to test for two specific substrings in a
future-proof way, you can do match by doing:
if [[ $ZLE_STATE == *insert*globalhistory* ]]; then ...; fi
Special Widgets
There are a few user-defined widgets which are special to
the shell. If they do not exist, no special action is
taken. The environment provided is identical to that for
any other editing widget.
zle-isearch-exit
Executed at the end of incremental search at the point
where the isearch prompt is removed from the display.
See zle-isearch-update for an example.
zle-isearch-update
Executed within incremental search when the display is
about to be redrawn. Additional output below the
incremental search prompt can be generated by using
`zle -M' within the widget. For example,
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User Commands ZSHZLE(1)
zle-isearch-update() { zle -M "Line $HISTNO"; }
zle -N zle-isearch-update
Note the line output by `zle -M' is not deleted on exit
from incremental search. This can be done from a
zle-isearch-exit widget:
zle-isearch-exit() { zle -M ""; }
zle -N zle-isearch-exit
zle-line-init
Executed every time the line editor is started to read
a new line of input. The following example puts the
line editor into vi command mode when it starts up.
zle-line-init() { zle -K vicmd; }
zle -N zle-line-init
(The command inside the function sets the keymap
directly; it is equivalent to zle vi-cmd-mode.)
zle-line-finish
This is similar to zle-line-init but is executed every
time the line editor has finished reading a line of
input.
zle-history-line-set
Executed when the history line changes.
zle-keymap-select
Executed every time the keymap changes, i.e. the spe-
cial parameter KEYMAP is set to a different value,
while the line editor is active. Initialising the
keymap when the line editor starts does not cause the
widget to be called.
The value $KEYMAP within the function reflects the new
keymap. The old keymap is passed as the sole argument.
This can be used for detecting switches between the vi
command (vicmd) and insert (usually main) keymaps.
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
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User Commands ZSHZLE(1)
are those based on the VT100, common on many modern termi-
nals, 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 parame-
ter, 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
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a word is defined as a series of non-blank characters.
forward-char (^F ESC-[C) (unbound) (unbound)
Move forward one character.
vi-forward-char (unbound) (space l) (ESC-[C)
Move forward one character.
vi-find-next-char (^X^F) (f) (unbound)
Read a character from the keyboard, and move to the
next occurrence of it in the line.
vi-find-next-char-skip (unbound) (t) (unbound)
Read a character from the keyboard, and move to the
position just before the next occurrence of it in the
line.
vi-find-prev-char (unbound) (F) (unbound)
Read a character from the keyboard, and move to the
previous occurrence of it in the line.
vi-find-prev-char-skip (unbound) (T) (unbound)
Read a character from the keyboard, and move to the
position just after the previous occurrence of it in
the line.
vi-first-non-blank (unbound) (^) (unbound)
Move to the first non-blank character in the line.
vi-forward-word (unbound) (w) (unbound)
Move forward one word, vi-style.
forward-word (ESC-F ESC-f) (unbound) (unbound)
Move to the beginning of the next word. The editor's
idea of a word is specified with the WORDCHARS parame-
ter.
emacs-forward-word
Move to the end of the next word.
vi-forward-word-end (unbound) (e) (unbound)
Move to the end of the next word.
vi-goto-column (ESC-|) (|) (unbound)
Move to the column specified by the numeric argument.
vi-goto-mark (unbound) (`) (unbound)
Move to the specified mark.
vi-goto-mark-line (unbound) (') (unbound)
Move to beginning of the line containing the specified
mark.
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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 direc-
tion.
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 history
list.
vi-down-line-or-history (unbound) (+) (unbound)
Move down a line in the buffer, or if already at the
bottom line, move to the next event in the history
list. Then move to the first non-blank character on
the line.
down-line-or-search
Move down a line in the buffer, or if already at the
bottom line, search forward in the history for a line
beginning with the first word in the buffer.
If called from a function by the zle command with argu-
ments, 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.
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User Commands ZSHZLE(1)
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 argu-
ment. This defaults to the current history line (i.e.
the one that isn't history yet).
history-incremental-search-backward (^R ^Xr) (unbound)
(unbound)
Search backward incrementally for a specified string.
The search is case-insensitive if the search string
does not have uppercase letters and no numeric argument
was given. The string may begin with `^' to anchor the
search to the beginning of the line. When called from
a user-defined function returns the following statuses:
0, if the search succeeded; 1, if the search failed; 2,
if the search term was a bad pattern; 3, if the search
was aborted by the send-break command.
A restricted set of editing functions is available in
the mini-buffer. Keys are looked up in the special
isearch keymap, and if not found there in the main
keymap (note that by default the isearch keymap is
empty). An interrupt signal, as defined by the stty
setting, will stop the search and go back to the origi-
nal line. An undefined key will have the same effect.
Note that the following always perform the same task
within incremental searches and cannot be replaced by
user defined widgets, nor can the set of functions be
extended. The supported functions are:
accept-and-hold
accept-and-infer-next-history
accept-line
accept-line-and-down-history
Perform the usual function after exiting incremen-
tal search. The command line displayed is exe-
cuted.
backward-delete-char
vi-backward-delete-char
Back up one place in the search history. If the
search has been repeated this does not immediately
erase a character in the minibuffer.
accept-search
Exit incremental search, retaining the command
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User Commands ZSHZLE(1)
line but performing no further action. Note that
this function is not bound by default and has no
effect outside incremental search.
backward-delete-word
backward-kill-word
vi-backward-kill-word
Back up one character in the minibuffer; if multi-
ple searches have been performed since the charac-
ter was inserted the search history is rewound to
the point just before the character was entered.
Hence this has the effect of repeating back-
ward-delete-char.
clear-screen
Clear the screen, remaining in incremental search
mode.
history-incremental-search-backward
Find the next occurrence of the contents of the
mini-buffer.
history-incremental-search-forward
Invert the sense of the search.
magic-space
Inserts a non-magical space.
quoted-insert
vi-quoted-insert
Quote the character to insert into the minibuffer.
redisplay
Redisplay the command line, remaining in incremen-
tal search mode.
vi-cmd-mode
Toggle between the `main' and `vicmd' keymaps; the
`main' keymap (insert mode) will be selected ini-
tially.
vi-repeat-search
vi-rev-repeat-search
Repeat the search. The direction of the search is
indicated in the mini-buffer.
Any character that is not bound to one of the above
functions, or self-insert or self-insert-unmeta, will
cause the mode to be exited. The character is then
looked up and executed in the keymap in effect at that
point.
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When called from a widget function by the zle command,
the incremental search commands can take a string argu-
ment. This will be treated as a string of keys, as for
arguments to the bindkey command, and used as initial
input for the command. Any characters in the string
which are unused by the incremental search will be
silently ignored. For example,
zle history-incremental-search-backward forceps
will search backwards for forceps, leaving the
minibuffer containing the string `forceps'.
history-incremental-search-forward (^S ^Xs) (unbound)
(unbound)
Search forward incrementally for a specified string.
The search is case-insensitive if the search string
does not have uppercase letters and no numeric argument
was given. The string may begin with `^' to anchor the
search to the beginning of the line. The functions
available in the mini-buffer are the same as for his-
tory-incremental-search-backward.
history-incremental-pattern-search-backward
history-incremental-pattern-search-forward
These widgets behave similarly to the corresponding
widgets with no -pattern, but the search string typed
by the user is treated as a pattern, respecting the
current settings of the various options affecting pat-
tern matching. See FILENAME GENERATION in zshexpn(1)
for a description of patterns. If no numeric argument
was given lowercase letters in the search string may
match uppercase letters in the history. The string may
begin with `^' to anchor the search to the beginning of
the line.
The prompt changes to indicate an invalid pattern; this
may simply indicate the pattern is not yet complete.
Note that only non-overlapping matches are reported, so
an expression with wildcards may return fewer matches
on a line than are visible by inspection.
history-search-backward (ESC-P ESC-p) (unbound) (unbound)
Search backward in the history for a line beginning
with the first word in the buffer.
If called from a function by the zle command with argu-
ments, the first argument is taken as the string for
which to search, rather than the first word in the
buffer.
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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, back-
ward-delete-char, vi-backward-delete-char, back-
ward-kill-word, vi-backward-kill-word, clear-screen,
redisplay, quoted-insert and vi-quoted-insert.
vi-cmd-mode is treated the same as accept-line, and
magic-space is treated as a space. Any other character
that is not bound to self-insert or self-insert-unmeta
will beep and be ignored. If the function is called
from vi command mode, the bindings of the current
insert mode will be used.
If called from a function by the zle command with argu-
ments, 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 argu-
ments, the first argument is taken as the string for
which to search, rather than the first word in the
buffer.
vi-history-search-forward (unbound) (?) (unbound)
Search forward in the history for a specified string.
The string may begin with `^' to anchor the search to
the beginning of the line. The functions available in
the mini-buffer are the same as for vi-his-
tory-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 cur-
rent 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
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User Commands ZSHZLE(1)
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 off-
set which applies to successive calls to this widget:
if it is -1, the default behaviour is used, while if it
is 1, successive calls will move forwards through the
history. The value 0 can be used to indicate that the
history line examined by the previous execution of the
command will be reexamined. Note that negative numbers
should be preceded by a `--' argument to avoid confus-
ing 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 prefix 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 rela-
tive to the current history line, rather than the one
remembered after the previous invocations of
insert-last-word.
For example, the default behaviour of the command cor-
responds 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
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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 begin-
ning with the first word in the buffer.
If called from a function by the zle command with argu-
ments, the first argument is taken as the string for
which to search, rather than the first word in the
buffer.
up-history (unbound) (^P) (unbound)
Move to the previous event in the history list.
history-beginning-search-forward
Search forward in the history for a line beginning with
the current line up to the cursor. This leaves the
cursor in its original position.
set-local-history
By default, history movement commands visit the
imported lines as well as the local lines. This widget
lets you toggle this on and off, or set it with the
numeric argument. Zero for both local and imported
lines and nonzero for only local lines.
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 position,
without changing lines.
backward-delete-char (^H ^?) (unbound) (unbound)
Delete the character behind the cursor.
vi-backward-delete-char (unbound) (X) (^H)
Delete the character behind the cursor, without chang-
ing 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
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User Commands ZSHZLE(1)
Kill from the beginning of the line to the cursor posi-
tion.
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 move-
ment. 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.
If called from a ZLE widget function in the form `zle
copy-region-as-kill string' then string will be taken
as the text to copy to the kill buffer. The cursor,
the mark and the text on the command line are not used
in this case.
copy-prev-word (ESC-^_) (unbound) (unbound)
Duplicate the word to the left of the cursor.
copy-prev-shell-word
Like copy-prev-word, but the word is found by using
shell parsing, whereas copy-prev-word looks for blanks.
This makes a difference when the word is quoted and
contains spaces.
vi-delete (unbound) (d) (unbound)
Read a movement command from the keyboard, and kill
from the cursor position to the endpoint of the move-
ment. If the command is vi-delete, kill the current
line.
delete-char
Delete the character under the cursor.
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User Commands ZSHZLE(1)
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 char-
acter.
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)
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User Commands ZSHZLE(1)
Move to the bracket character (one of {}, () or [])
that matches the one under the cursor. If the cursor
is not on a bracket character, move forward without
going past the end of the line to find one, and then go
to the matching bracket.
vi-open-line-above (unbound) (O) (unbound)
Open a line above the cursor and enter insert mode.
vi-open-line-below (unbound) (o) (unbound)
Open a line below the cursor and enter insert mode.
vi-oper-swap-case
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 cur-
sor. 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 cur-
sor. 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 liter-
ally. An interrupt character will not be inserted.
vi-quoted-insert (unbound) (unbound) (^Q ^V)
Display a `^' at the cursor position, and insert the
next character typed into the buffer literally. An
interrupt character will not be inserted.
quote-line (ESC-') (unbound) (unbound)
Quote the current line; that is, put a `'' character at
the beginning and the end, and convert all `'' charac-
ters to `'\'''.
quote-region (ESC-") (unbound) (unbound)
Quote the region from the cursor to the mark.
vi-replace (unbound) (R) (unbound)
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User Commands ZSHZLE(1)
Enter overwrite mode.
vi-repeat-change (unbound) (.) (unbound)
Repeat the last vi mode text modification. If a count
was used with the modification, it is remembered. If a
count is given to this command, it overrides the remem-
bered count, and is remembered for future uses of this
command. The cut buffer specification is similarly
remembered.
vi-replace-chars (unbound) (r) (unbound)
Replace the character under the cursor with a character
read from the keyboard.
ters and some control characters)
self-insert (printable characters) (unbound) (printable
charac-
Insert a character into the buffer at the cursor posi-
tion.
self-insert-unmeta (ESC-^I ESC-^J ESC-^M) (unbound)
(unbound)
Insert a character into the buffer after stripping the
meta bit and converting ^M to ^J.
vi-substitute (unbound) (s) (unbound)
Substitute the next character(s).
vi-swap-case (unbound) (~) (unbound)
Swap the case of the character under the cursor and
move past it.
transpose-chars (^T) (unbound) (unbound)
Exchange the two characters to the left of the cursor
if at end of line, else exchange the character under
the cursor with the character to the left.
transpose-words (ESC-T ESC-t) (unbound) (unbound)
Exchange the current word with the one before it.
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 cursor
position.
yank-pop (ESC-y) (unbound) (unbound)
Remove the text just yanked, rotate the kill-ring (the
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User Commands ZSHZLE(1)
history of previously killed text) 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 command is
vi-yank, copy the current line.
vi-yank-whole-line (unbound) (Y) (unbound)
Copy the current line into the kill buffer.
vi-yank-eol
Copy the region from the cursor position to the end of
the line into the kill buffer. Arguably, this is what
Y should do in vi, but it isn't what it actually does.
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 deci-
mal 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. Alter-
natively, 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 for-
ward 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'.
argument-base
Use the existing numeric argument as a numeric base,
which must be in the range 2 to 36 inclusive. Subse-
quent use of digit-argument and universal-argument will
input a new prefix in the given base. The usual hexa-
decimal convention is used: the letter a or A
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User Commands ZSHZLE(1)
corresponds to 10, and so on. Arguments in bases
requiring digits from 10 upwards are more conveniently
input with universal-argument, since ESC-a etc. are not
usually bound to digit-argument.
The function can be used with a command argument inside
a user-defined widget. The following code sets the
base to 16 and lets the user input a hexadecimal argu-
ment until a key out of the digit range is typed:
zle argument-base 16
zle universal-argument
Completion
accept-and-menu-complete
In a menu completion, insert the current completion
into the buffer, and advance to the next possible com-
pletion.
complete-word
Attempt completion on the current word.
delete-char-or-list (^D) (unbound) (unbound)
Delete the character under the cursor. If the cursor
is at the end of the line, list possible completions
for the current word.
expand-cmd-path
Expand the current command to its full pathname.
expand-or-complete (TAB) (unbound) (TAB)
Attempt shell expansion on the current word. If that
fails, attempt completion.
expand-or-complete-prefix
Attempt shell expansion on the current word up to cur-
sor.
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
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User Commands ZSHZLE(1)
buffer. This is intended to be bound to space.
menu-complete
Like complete-word, except that menu completion is
used. See the MENU_COMPLETE option.
menu-expand-or-complete
Like expand-or-complete, except that menu completion is
used.
reverse-menu-complete
Perform menu completion, like menu-complete, except
that if a menu completion is already in progress, move
to the previous completion rather than the next.
end-of-list
When a previous completion displayed a list below the
prompt, this widget can be used to move the prompt
below the list.
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 buffer stack.
auto-suffix-remove
If the previous action added a suffix (space, slash,
etc.) to the word on the command line, remove it. Oth-
erwise do nothing. Removing the suffix ends any active
menu completion or menu selection.
This widget is intended to be called from user-defined
widgets to enforce a desired suffix-removal behavior.
auto-suffix-retain
If the previous action added a suffix (space, slash,
etc.) to the word on the command line, force it to be
preserved. Otherwise do nothing. Retaining the suffix
ends any active menu completion or menu selection.
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User Commands ZSHZLE(1)
This widget is intended to be called from user-defined
widgets to enforce a desired suffix-preservation behav-
ior.
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 (point) with the position
of the mark. Unless a negative prefix argument is
given, the region between point and mark is activated
so that it can be highlighted. If a zero prefix argu-
ment is given, the region is activated but point and
mark are not swapped.
execute-named-cmd (ESC-x) (:) (unbound)
Read the name of an editor command and execute it. A
restricted set of editing functions is available in the
mini-buffer. Keys are looked up in the special command
keymap, and if not found there in the main keymap. An
interrupt signal, as defined by the stty setting, will
abort the function. Note that the following always
perform the same task within the executed-named-cmd
environment and cannot be replaced by user defined wid-
gets, nor can the set of functions be extended. The
allowed functions are: backward-delete-char, vi-back-
ward-delete-char, clear-screen, redisplay,
quoted-insert, vi-quoted-insert, backward-kill-word,
vi-backward-kill-word, kill-whole-line, vi-kill-line,
backward-kill-line, list-choices, delete-char-or-list,
complete-word, accept-line, expand-or-complete and
expand-or-complete-prefix.
kill-region kills the last word, and vi-cmd-mode is
treated the same as accept-line. The space and tab
characters, if not bound to one of these functions,
will complete the name and then list the possibilities
zsh 5.0.5 Last change: January 5, 2014 36
User Commands ZSHZLE(1)
if the AUTO_LIST option is set. Any other character
that is not bound to self-insert or self-insert-unmeta
will beep and be ignored. The bindings of the current
insert mode will be used.
Currently this command may not be redefined or called
by name.
execute-last-named-cmd (ESC-z) (unbound) (unbound)
Redo the last function executed with execute-named-cmd.
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 INTERAC-
TIVE_COMMENTS option must be set for this to have any
usefulness.
vi-pound-insert
If there is no # character at the beginning of the cur-
rent 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.
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User Commands ZSHZLE(1)
read-command
Only useful from a user-defined widget. A keystroke is
read just as in normal operation, but instead of the
command being executed the name of the command that
would be executed is stored in the shell parameter
REPLY. This can be used as the argument of a future
zle command. If the key sequence is not bound, status
1 is returned; typically, however, REPLY is set to
undefined-key to indicate a useless key sequence.
recursive-edit
Only useful from a user-defined widget. At this point
in the function, the editor regains control until one
of the standard widgets which would normally cause zle
to exit (typically an accept-line caused by hitting the
return key) is executed. Instead, control returns to
the user-defined widget. The status returned is
non-zero if the return was caused by an error, but the
function still continues executing and hence may tidy
up. This makes it safe for the user-defined widget to
alter the command line or key bindings temporarily.
The following widget, caps-lock, serves as an example.
self-insert-ucase() {
LBUFFER+=${(U)KEYS[-1]}
}
integer stat
zle -N self-insert self-insert-ucase
zle -A caps-lock save-caps-lock
zle -A accept-line caps-lock
zle recursive-edit
stat=$?
zle -A .self-insert self-insert
zle -A save-caps-lock caps-lock
zle -D save-caps-lock
(( stat )) && zle send-break
return $stat
This causes typed letters to be inserted capitalised
until either accept-line (i.e. typically the return
key) is typed or the caps-lock widget is invoked again;
the later is handled by saving the old definition of
caps-lock as save-caps-lock and then rebinding it to
invoke accept-line. Note that an error from the recur-
sive edit is detected as a non-zero return status and
propagated by using the send-break widget.
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User Commands ZSHZLE(1)
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 vari-
ables themselves and changes in the expansion of the
values (for example, changes in time or directory, or
changes to the value of variables referred to by the
prompt).
Otherwise, the prompt is only expanded each time zle
starts, and when the display as been interrupted by
output from another part of the shell (such as a job
notification) which causes the command line to be
reprinted.
send-break (^G ESC-^G) (unbound) (unbound)
Abort the current editor function, e.g. exe-
cute-named-command, or the editor itself, e.g. if you
are in vared. Otherwise abort the parsing of the cur-
rent line; in this case the aborted line is available
in the shell variable ZLE_LINE_ABORTED.
run-help (ESC-H ESC-h) (unbound) (unbound)
Push the buffer onto the buffer stack, and execute the
command `run-help cmd', where cmd is the current com-
mand. run-help is normally aliased to man.
vi-set-buffer (unbound) (") (unbound)
Specify a buffer to be used in the following command.
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 speci-
fied buffer. If a named buffer is specified 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. If called with a
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User Commands ZSHZLE(1)
negative prefix argument, do not set the mark but deac-
tivate the region so that it is no longer highlighted
(it is still usable for other purposes). Otherwise the
region is marked as active.
spell-word (ESC-$ ESC-S ESC-s) (unbound) (unbound)
Attempt spelling correction on the current word.
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. When
called from a user-defined widget, takes an optional
argument indicating a previous state of the undo his-
tory as returned by the UNDO_CHANGE_NO variable; modi-
fications are undone until that state is reached.
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 current cur-
sor position within the buffer and the column of the
cursor in the current line.
where-is
Read the name of an editor command and print the list-
ing of key sequences that invoke the specified command.
A restricted set of editing functions is available in
the mini-buffer. Keys are looked up in the special
command keymap, and if not found there in the main
keymap.
which-command (ESC-?) (unbound) (unbound)
Push the buffer onto the buffer stack, and execute the
command `which-command cmd'. where cmd is the current
command. which-command is normally aliased to whence.
vi-digit-or-beginning-of-line (unbound) (0) (unbound)
If the last command executed was a digit as part of an
argument, continue the argument. Otherwise, execute
vi-beginning-of-line.
CHARACTER HIGHLIGHTING
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User Commands ZSHZLE(1)
The line editor has the ability to highlight characters or
regions of the line that have a particular significance.
This is controlled by the array parameter zle_highlight, if
it has been set by the user.
If the parameter contains the single entry none all high-
lighting is turned off. Note the parameter is still
expected to be an array.
Otherwise each entry of the array should consist of a word
indicating a context for highlighting, then a colon, then a
comma-separated list of the types of highlighting to apply
in that context.
The contexts available for highlighting are the following:
default
Any text within the command line not affected by any
other highlighting. Text outside the editable area of
the command line is not affected.
isearch
When one of the incremental history search widgets is
active, the area of the command line matched by the
search string or pattern.
region
The region between the cursor (point) and the mark as
set with set-mark-command. The region is only high-
lighted if it is active, which is the case if
set-mark-command or exchange-point-and-mark has been
called and the line has not been subsequently modified.
The region can be deactivated by calling set-mark-com-
mand with a negative prefix argument, or reactivated by
calling exchange-point-and-mark with a zero prefix
argument. Note that whether or not the region is
active has no effect on its use within widgets, it sim-
ply determines whether it is highlighted.
special
Individual characters that have no direct printable
representation but are shown in a special manner by the
line editor. These characters are described below.
suffix
This context is used in completion for characters that
are marked as suffixes that will be removed if the com-
pletion ends at that point, the most obvious example
being a slash (/) after a directory name. Note that
suffix removal is configurable; the circumstances under
which the suffix will be removed may differ for differ-
ent completions.
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User Commands ZSHZLE(1)
zle_highlight may contain additional fields for controlling
how terminal sequences to change colours are output. Each
of the following is followed by a colon and a string in the
same form as for key bindings. This will not be necessary
for the vast majority of terminals as the defaults shown in
parentheses are widely used.
fg_start_code (\e[3)
The start of the escape sequence for the foreground
colour. This is followed by an ASCII digit represent-
ing the colour.
fg_default_code (9)
The number to use instead of the colour to reset the
default foreground colour.
fg_end_code (m)
The end of the escape sequence for the foreground
colour.
bg_start_code (\e[4)
The start of the escape sequence for the background
colour. This is followed by an ASCII digit represent-
ing the colour.
bg_default_code (9)
The number to use instead of the colour to reset the
default background colour.
bg_end_code (m)
The end of the escape sequence for the background
colour.
The available types of highlighting are the following. Note
that not all types of highlighting are available on all ter-
minals:
none No highlighting is applied to the given context. It is
not useful for this to appear with other types of high-
lighting; it is used to override a default.
fg=colour
The foreground colour should be set to colour, a deci-
mal integer or the name of one of the eight most
widely-supported colours.
Not all terminals support this and, of those that do,
not all provide facilities to test the support, hence
the user should decide based on the terminal type.
Most terminals support the colours black, red, green,
yellow, blue, magenta, cyan and white, which can be set
by name. In addition. default may be used to set the
zsh 5.0.5 Last change: January 5, 2014 42
User Commands ZSHZLE(1)
terminal's default foreground colour. Abbreviations
are allowed; b or bl selects black. Some terminals may
generate additional colours if the bold attribute is
also present.
On recent terminals and on systems with an up-to-date
terminal database the number of colours supported may
be tested by the command `echotc Co'; if this succeeds,
it indicates a limit on the number of colours which
will be enforced by the line editor. The number of
colours is in any case limited to 256 (i.e. the range 0
to 255).
Colour is also known as color.
bg=colour
The background colour should be set to colour. This
works similarly to the foreground colour, except the
background is not usually affected by the bold
attribute.
bold The characters in the given context are shown in a bold
font. Not all terminals distinguish bold fonts.
standout
The characters in the given context are shown in the
terminal's standout mode. The actual effect is spe-
cific to the terminal; on many terminals it is inverse
video. On some such terminals, where the cursor does
not blink it appears with standout mode negated, making
it less than clear where the cursor actually is. On
such terminals one of the other effects may be prefer-
able for highlighting the region and matched search
string.
underline
The characters in the given context are shown under-
lined. Some terminals show the foreground in a differ-
ent colour instead; in this case whitespace will not be
highlighted.
The characters described above as `special' are as follows.
The formatting described here is used irrespective of
whether the characters are highlighted:
ASCII control characters
Control characters in the ASCII range are shown as `^'
followed by the base character.
Unprintable multibyte characters
This item applies to control characters not in the
ASCII range, plus other characters as follows. If the
zsh 5.0.5 Last change: January 5, 2014 43
User Commands ZSHZLE(1)
MULTIBYTE option is in effect, multibyte characters not
in the ASCII character set that are reported as having
zero width are treated as combining characters when the
option COMBINING_CHARS is on. If the option is off, or
if a character appears where a combining character is
not valid, the character is treated as unprintable.
Unprintable multibyte characters are shown as a hexa-
decimal number between angle brackets. The number is
the code point of the character in the wide character
set; this may or may not be Unicode, depending on the
operating system.
Invalid multibyte characters
If the MULTIBYTE option is in effect, any sequence of
one or more bytes that does not form a valid character
in the current character set is treated as a series of
bytes each shown as a special character. This case can
be distinguished from other unprintable characters as
the bytes are represented as two hexadecimal digits
between angle brackets, as distinct from the four or
eight digits that are used for unprintable characters
that are nonetheless valid in the current character
set.
Not all systems support this: for it to work, the sys-
tem's representation of wide characters must be code
values from the Universal Character Set, as defined by
IS0 10646 (also known as Unicode).
Wrapped double-width characters
When a double-width character appears in the final col-
umn of a line, it is instead shown on the next line.
The empty space left in the original position is high-
lighted as a special character.
If zle_highlight is not set or no value applies to a partic-
ular context, the defaults applied are equivalent to
zle_highlight=(region:standout special:standout
suffix:bold isearch:underline)
i.e. both the region and special characters are shown in
standout mode.
Within widgets, arbitrary regions may be highlighted by set-
ting the special array parameter region_highlight; see
above.
ATTRIBUTES
See attributes(5) for descriptions of the following
attributes:
zsh 5.0.5 Last change: January 5, 2014 44
User Commands ZSHZLE(1)
+---------------+------------------+
|ATTRIBUTE TYPE | ATTRIBUTE VALUE |
+---------------+------------------+
|Availability | shell/zsh |
+---------------+------------------+
|Stability | Volatile |
+---------------+------------------+
NOTES
This software was built from source available at
https://java.net/projects/solaris-userland. The original
community source was downloaded from http://down-
loads.source-
forge.net/project/zsh/zsh/5.0.5/zsh-5.0.5.tar.bz2
Further information about this software can be found on the
open source community website at http://www.zsh.org/.
zsh 5.0.5 Last change: January 5, 2014 45