ZSHALL(1) General Commands Manual 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:
zsh Zsh overview
zshroadmap Informal introduction to the manual
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
zshcalsys Zsh built-in calendar functions
zshtcpsys Zsh built-in TCP functions
zshzftpsys Zsh built-in FTP client
zshcontrib Additional zsh functions and utilities
DESCRIPTION
Zsh is a UNIX command interpreter (shell) usable as an interactive login shell and as a shell script com-
mand processor. Of the standard shells, zsh most closely resembles ksh but includes many enhancements.
It does not provide compatibility with POSIX or other shells in its default operating mode: see the section
Compatibility below.
Zsh has command line editing, builtin spelling correction, programmable command completion, shell func-
tions (with autoloading), a history mechanism, and a host of other features.
AUTHOR
Zsh was originally written by Paul Falstad <[email protected]>. Zsh is now maintained by the members of the
zsh-workers mailing list <[email protected]>. The development is currently coordinated by Peter
Stephenson <[email protected]>. The coordinator can be contacted at <[email protected]>, but matters
relating to the code should generally go to the mailing list.
AVAILABILITY
Zsh is available from the following HTTP and anonymous FTP site.
ftp://ftp.zsh.org/pub/
https://www.zsh.org/pub/
)
The up-to-date source code is available via Git from Sourceforge. See https://source-
forge.net/projects/zsh/ for details. A summary of instructions for the archive can be found at
http://zsh.sourceforge.net/.
MAILING LISTS
Zsh has 3 mailing lists:
<[email protected]>
Announcements about releases, major changes in the shell and the monthly posting of the Zsh
FAQ. (moderated)
<[email protected]>
User discussions.

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<[email protected]>
Hacking, development, bug reports and patches.
To subscribe or unsubscribe, send mail to the associated administrative address for the mailing list.
<[email protected]>
<[email protected]>
<[email protected]>
<[email protected]>
<[email protected]>
<[email protected]>
YOU ONLY NEED TO JOIN ONE OF THE MAILING LISTS AS THEY ARE NESTED. All submis-
sions to zsh-announce are automatically forwarded to zsh-users. All submissions to zsh-users are auto-
matically forwarded to zsh-workers.
If you have problems subscribing/unsubscribing to any of the mailing lists, send mail to <listmas-
[email protected]>. The mailing lists are maintained by Karsten Thygesen <[email protected]>.
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 <[email protected]>, available at
https://www.zsh.org/mla/.
THE ZSH FAQ
Zsh has a list of Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ), maintained by Peter Stephenson <[email protected]>. It
is regularly posted to the newsgroup comp.unix.shell and the zsh-announce mailing list. The latest ver-
sion 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 <[email protected]>.
THE ZSH WEB PAGE
Zsh has a web page which is located at https://www.zsh.org/. This is maintained by Karsten Thygesen
<[email protected]>, of SunSITE Denmark. The contact address for web-related matters is <webmas-
[email protected]>.
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 ‘hierographic’ does not exist). It can be viewed in its current state at http://zsh.source-
forge.net/Guide/. At the time of writing, chapters dealing with startup files and their contents and the new
completion system were essentially complete.
INVOCATION
The following flags are interpreted by the shell when invoked to determine where the shell will read com-
mands from:
-c Take the first argument as a command to execute, rather than reading commands from a script or
standard 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. It is still possible to specify a script to execute.
-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.
If there are any remaining arguments after option processing, and neither of the options -c or -s was sup-
plied, the first argument is taken as the file name of a script containing shell commands to be executed. If
the option PATH_SCRIPT is set, and the file name does not contain a directory path (i.e. there is no ‘/’ in
the name), first the current directory and then the command path given by the variable PATH are searched
for the script. If the option is not set or the file name contains a ‘/’ it is used directly.
After the first one or two arguments have been appropriated as described above, the remaining arguments
are assigned to the positional parameters.

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For further options, which are common to invocation and the set builtin, see zshoptions(1).
The long option ‘--emulate’ followed (in a separate word) by an emulation mode may be passed to the
shell. The emulation modes are those described for the emulate builtin, see zshbuiltins(1). The ‘--emu-
late’ option must precede any other options (which might otherwise be overridden), but following options
are honoured, so may be used to modify the requested emulation mode. Note that certain extra steps are
taken to ensure a smooth emulation when this option is used compared with the emulate command within
the shell: for example, variables that conflict with POSIX usage such as path are not defined within the
shell.
Options may be specified by name using the -o option. -o acts like a single-letter option, but takes a fol-
lowing string as the option name. For example,
zsh -x -o shwordsplit scr
runs the script scr, setting the XTRACE option by the corresponding 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 single-letter options, so for example ‘-xo shwordsplit’ or ‘-xoshword-
split’ 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 ex-
ample, ‘zsh --sh-word-split’ invokes zsh with the SH_WORD_SPLIT option turned on. Like other op-
tion 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 cannot 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 infor-
mation, 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
normal arguments, in two ways. Firstly, a lone ‘-’ (or ‘+’) as an argument by itself ends option processing.
Secondly, a special option ‘--’ (or ‘+-’), which may be specified on its own (which is the standard POSIX
usage) or may be stacked with preceding options (so ‘-x-’ is equivalent to ‘-x --’). Options are not per-
mitted to be stacked after ‘--’ (so ‘-x-f’ is an error), but note the GNU-style option form discussed above,
where ‘--shwordsplit’ is permitted 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
processing. ‘-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 ‘b’, ‘s’ or ‘k’ it will emulate sh or ksh. Furthermore, if invoked as su (which happens on cer-
tain systems when the shell is executed by the su command), the shell will try to find an alternative name
from the SHELL environment 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, MANPATH, 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/.profile. If the ENV environment variable is set on invocation, $ENV is sourced after the profile
scripts. The value of ENV is subjected to parameter expansion, command substitution, and arithmetic ex-
pansion before being interpreted as a pathname. Note that the PRIVILEGED option also affects the exe-
cution 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,

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NO_GLOBAL_EXPORT, NO_HUP, INTERACTIVE_COMMENTS, KSH_ARRAYS, NO_MUL-

TIOS, 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 in-
voked 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:
• changing directories with the cd builtin
• changing or unsetting the EGID, EUID, GID, HISTFILE, HISTSIZE, IFS, LD_AOUT_LI-
BRARY_PATH, LD_AOUT_PRELOAD, LD_LIBRARY_PATH, LD_PRELOAD, MOD-
ULE_PATH, module_path, PATH, path, SHELL, UID and USERNAME parameters
• specifying command names containing /
• specifying command pathnames using hash
• redirecting output to files
• using the exec builtin command to replace the shell with another command
• using jobs -Z to overwrite the shell process’ argument and environment space
• using the ARGV0 parameter to override argv[0] for external commands
• 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.
A shell Restricted Mode is an outdated way to restrict what users may do: modern systems have better,
safer and more reliable ways to confine user actions, such as chroot jails, containers and zones.
A restricted shell is very difficult to implement safely. The feature may be removed in a future version of
zsh.
It is important to realise that the restrictions only apply to the shell, not to the commands it runs (except for
some shell builtins). While a restricted shell can only run the restricted list of commands accessible via the
predefined ‘PATH’ variable, it does not prevent those commands from running any other command.
As an example, if ‘env’ is among the list of allowed commands, then it allows the user to run any command
as ‘env’ is not a shell builtin command and can run arbitrary executables.
So when implementing a restricted shell framework it is important to be fully aware of what actions each of
the allowed commands or features (which may be regarded as modules) can perform.
Many commands can have their behaviour affected by environment variables. Except for the few listed
above, zsh does not restrict the setting of environment variables.
If a ‘perl’, ‘python’, ‘bash’, or other general purpose interpreted script it treated as a restricted command,
the user can work around the restriction by setting specially crafted ‘PERL5LIB’, ‘PYTHONPATH’,
‘BASHENV’ (etc.) environment variables. On GNU systems, any command can be made to run arbitrary
code when performing character set conversion (including zsh itself) by setting a ‘GCONV_PATH’ envi-
ronment variable. Those are only a few examples.
Bear in mind that, contrary to some other shells, ‘readonly’ is not a security feature in zsh as it can be un-
done and so cannot be used to mitigate the above.

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A restricted shell only works if the allowed commands are few and carefully written so as not to grant more
access to users than intended. It is also important to restrict what zsh module the user may load as some of
them, such as ‘zsh/system’, ‘zsh/mapfile’ and ‘zsh/files’, allow bypassing most of the restrictions.
STARTUP/SHUTDOWN FILES
Commands are first read from /etc/zsh/zshenv; this cannot be overridden. Subsequent behaviour is modi-
fied by the RCS and GLOBAL_RCS options; the former affects all startup files, while the second only af-
fects global startup files (those shown here with an path starting with a /). 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/zsh/zprofile and then $ZDOTDIR/.zprofile. Then, if the shell is interactive, commands are read from
/etc/zsh/zshrc and then $ZDOTDIR/.zshrc. Finally, if the shell is a login shell, /etc/zsh/zlogin and
$ZDOTDIR/.zlogin are read.
When a login shell exits, the files $ZDOTDIR/.zlogout and then /etc/zsh/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. Files listed above as being in /etc may be in another direc-
tory, depending on the installation.
As /etc/zsh/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 executed 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 com-
piled file exists (named for the original file plus the .zwc extension) and it is newer than the original file, the
compiled file will be used instead.

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NAME
zshroadmap - informal introduction to the zsh manual The Zsh Manual, like the shell itself, is large and of-
ten complicated. This section of the manual provides some pointers to areas of the shell that are likely to
be of particular interest to new users, and indicates where in the rest of the manual the documentation is to
be found.
WHEN THE SHELL STARTS
When it starts, the shell reads commands from various files. These can be created or edited to customize
the shell. See the section Startup/Shutdown Files in zsh(1).
If no personal initialization files exist for the current user, a function is run to help you change some of the
most common settings. It won’t appear if your administrator has disabled the zsh/newuser module. The
function is designed to be self-explanatory. You can run it by hand with ‘autoload -Uz zsh-newuser-in-
stall; zsh-newuser-install -f’. See also the section User Configuration Functions in zshcontrib(1).
INTERACTIVE USE
Interaction with the shell uses the builtin Zsh Line Editor, ZLE. This is described in detail in zshzle(1).
The first decision a user must make is whether to use the Emacs or Vi editing mode as the keys for editing
are substantially different. Emacs editing mode is probably more natural for beginners and can be selected
explicitly with the command bindkey -e.
A history mechanism for retrieving previously typed lines (most simply with the Up or Down arrow keys)
is available; note that, unlike other shells, zsh will not save these lines when the shell exits unless you set
appropriate variables, and the number of history lines retained by default is quite small (30 lines). See the
description of the shell variables (referred to in the documentation as parameters) HISTFILE, HISTSIZE
and SAVEHIST in zshparam(1). Note that it’s currently only possible to read and write files saving history
when the shell is interactive, i.e. it does not work from scripts.
The shell now supports the UTF-8 character set (and also others if supported by the operating system).
This is (mostly) handled transparently by the shell, but the degree of support in terminal emulators is vari-
able. There is some discussion of this in the shell FAQ, http://www.zsh.org/FAQ/. Note in particular that
for combining characters to be handled the option COMBINING_CHARS needs to be set. Because the
shell is now more sensitive to the definition of the character set, note that if you are upgrading from an
older version of the shell you should ensure that the appropriate variable, either LANG (to affect all aspects
of the shell’s operation) or LC_CTYPE (to affect only the handling of character sets) is set to an appropri-
ate value. This is true even if you are using a single-byte character set including extensions of ASCII such
as ISO-8859-1 or ISO-8859-15. See the description of LC_CTYPE in zshparam(1).
Completion
Completion is a feature present in many shells. It allows the user to type only a part (usually the prefix) of a
word and have the shell fill in the rest. The completion system in zsh is programmable. For example, the
shell can be set to complete email addresses in arguments to the mail command from your ˜/.abook/ad-
dressbook; usernames, hostnames, and even remote paths in arguments to scp, and so on. Anything that
can be written in or glued together with zsh can be the source of what the line editor offers as possible com-
pletions.
Zsh has two completion systems, an old, so called compctl completion (named after the builtin command
that serves as its complete and only user interface), and a new one, referred to as compsys, organized as li-
brary of builtin and user-defined functions. The two systems differ in their interface for specifying the
completion behavior. The new system is more customizable and is supplied with completions for many
commonly used commands; it is therefore to be preferred.
The completion system must be enabled explicitly when the shell starts. For more information see zsh-
compsys(1).
Extending the line editor
Apart from completion, the line editor is highly extensible by means of shell functions. Some useful func-
tions are provided with the shell; they provide facilities such as:

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insert-composed-char
composing characters not found on the keyboard
match-words-by-style
configuring what the line editor considers a word when moving or deleting by word
history-beginning-search-backward-end, etc.
alternative ways of searching the shell history
replace-string, replace-pattern
functions for replacing strings or patterns globally in the command line
edit-command-line
edit the command line with an external editor.
See the section ‘ZLE Functions’ in zshcontrib(1) for descriptions of these.
OPTIONS
The shell has a large number of options for changing its behaviour. These cover all aspects of the shell;
browsing the full documentation is the only good way to become acquainted with the many possibilities.
See zshoptions(1).
PATTERN MATCHING
The shell has a rich set of patterns which are available for file matching (described in the documentation as
‘filename generation’ and also known for historical reasons as ‘globbing’) and for use when programming.
These are described in the section ‘Filename Generation’ in zshexpn(1).
Of particular interest are the following patterns that are not commonly supported by other systems of pat-
tern matching:
** for matching over multiple directories
| for matching either of two alternatives
˜, ˆ the ability to exclude patterns from matching when the EXTENDED_GLOB option is set
(...) glob qualifiers, included in parentheses at the end of the pattern, which select files by type (such as
directories) or attribute (such as size).
GENERAL COMMENTS ON SYNTAX
Although the syntax of zsh is in ways similar to the Korn shell, and therefore more remotely to the original
UNIX shell, the Bourne shell, its default behaviour does not entirely correspond to those shells. General
shell syntax is introduced in the section ‘Shell Grammar’ in zshmisc(1).
One commonly encountered difference is that variables substituted onto the command line are not split into
words. See the description of the shell option SH_WORD_SPLIT in the section ‘Parameter Expansion’ in
zshexpn(1). In zsh, you can either explicitly request the splitting (e.g. ${=foo}) or use an array when you
want a variable to expand to more than one word. See the section ‘Array Parameters’ in zshparam(1).
PROGRAMMING
The most convenient way of adding enhancements to the shell is typically by writing a shell function and
arranging for it to be autoloaded. Functions are described in the section ‘Functions’ in zshmisc(1). Users
changing from the C shell and its relatives should notice that aliases are less used in zsh as they don’t per-
form argument substitution, only simple text replacement.
A few general functions, other than those for the line editor described above, are provided with the shell
and are described in zshcontrib(1). Features include:
promptinit
a prompt theme system for changing prompts easily, see the section ‘Prompt Themes’

zsh-mime-setup
a MIME-handling system which dispatches commands according to the suffix of a file as done by
graphical file managers

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zcalc a calculator
zargs a version of xargs that makes the find command redundant
zmv a command for renaming files by means of shell patterns.

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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. For a description of assignment, see the beginning of zshparam(1).
The first word is the command to be executed, and the remaining words, if any, are arguments to the com-
mand. If a command name is given, the parameter assignments modify the environment of the command
when it is executed. The value of a simple command is its exit status, or 128 plus the signal number if ter-
minated 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 com-
mand is separated 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 standard 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
second.
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 control 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 status). If two pipelines are separated by ‘||’, the second is executed only if the first fails (returns a
nonzero status). 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 status. If it does not, the value of the sublist is that return status,
else it is the status 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 sublist is terminated by ‘;’ or newline, the shell waits
for it to finish before executing the next sublist. If a sublist is terminated by a ‘&’, ‘&|’, or ‘&!’, the shell
executes 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 com-
mands below; this is implied wherever the word ‘list’ appears in later descriptions. For example, the com-
mands in a shell function 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 in-
terpreted. These modifiers are shell builtin commands with the exception of nocorrect which is a reserved
word.

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- The command is executed with a ‘-’ prepended to its argv[0] string.

builtin The command word is taken to be the name of a builtin command, rather than a shell function or
external command.
command [ -pvV ]
The command word is taken to be the name of an external command, rather than a shell function
or builtin. If the POSIX_BUILTINS option is set, builtins will also be executed but certain spe-
cial 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.
exec [ -cl ] [ -a argv0 ]
The following command together with any arguments is run in place of the current process, rather
than as a sub-process. The shell does not fork and is replaced. The shell does not invoke
TRAPEXIT, nor does it source zlogout files. The options are provided for compatibility with
other shells.
The -c option clears the environment.
The -l option is equivalent to the - precommand modifier, to treat the replacement command as a
login shell; the command is executed with a - prepended to its argv[0] string. This flag has no ef-
fect if used together with the -a option.
The -a option is used to specify explicitly the argv[0] string (the name of the command as seen by
the process itself) to be used by the replacement command and is directly equivalent to setting a
value for the ARGV0 environment variable.
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.
noglob Filename generation (globbing) is not performed on any of the words.
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 status is zero, the then list is executed. If each elif list returns non-
zero status, the else list is executed.
for name ... [ in word ... ] term do list done
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 parameters instead of the words.
The term consists of one or more newline or ; which terminate the words, and are optional when
the ‘in word’ is omitted.
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 parameters 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.

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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.
The repeat syntax is disabled by default when the shell starts in a mode emulating another shell.
It can be enabled with the command ‘enable -r repeat’
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 generation. See the section ‘Filename Generation’.
Note further that, unless the SH_GLOB option is set, the whole pattern with alternatives is treated
by the shell as equivalent to a group of patterns within parentheses, although white space may ap-
pear about the parentheses and the vertical bar and will be stripped from the pattern at those
points. White space may appear elsewhere in the pattern; this is not stripped. If the SH_GLOB
option is set, so that an opening parenthesis can be unambiguously treated as part of the case syn-
tax, the expression is parsed into separate words and these are treated as strict alternatives (as in
other shells).
If the list that is executed is terminated with ;& rather than ;;, the following list is also executed.
The rule for the terminator of the following list ;;, ;& or ;| is applied unless the esac is reached.
If the list that is executed is terminated with ;| the shell continues to scan the patterns looking for
the next match, executing the corresponding list, and applying the rule for the corresponding ter-
minator ;;, ;& or ;|. Note that word is not re-expanded; all applicable patterns are tested with the
same word.
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 pre-
ceded 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 pa-
rameter 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 selection
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 exe-
cuting list.
{ list } Execute list.
{ try-list } always { always-list }
First execute try-list. Regardless of errors, or break or continue 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 or continue 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 preceding closing brace and the always.
An ‘error’ in this context is a condition such as a syntax error which causes the shell to abort exe-
cution of the current function, script, or list. Syntax errors encountered while the shell is parsing
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

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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_ER-
ROR. 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 con-
tinues 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 try-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.
When a try block occurs outside of any function, a return or a exit encountered in try-list does
not cause the execution of always-list. Instead, the shell exits immediately after any EXIT trap
has been executed. Otherwise, a return command encountered in try-list will cause the execution
of always-list, just like break and continue.
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 be-
tween 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.
In any of the forms above, a redirection may appear outside the function body, for example
func() { ... } 2>&1
The redirection is stored with the function and applied whenever the function is executed. Any
variables in the redirection are expanded at the point the function is executed, but outside the func-
tion scope.
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 are non-standard and are likely not to be
obvious even to seasoned shell programmers; they should not be used anywhere that portability of shell
code is a concern.

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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, re-
peat, case and select commands no such special form for the arguments is necessary, but the other condi-
tion (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 limitations on the form of list apply as for the previous
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.
function word ... [ () ] [ term ] sublist
This is a short form of function.
RESERVED WORDS
The following words are recognized as reserved words when used as the first word of a command unless
quoted or disabled using disable -r:
do done esac then elif else fi for case if while function repeat time until select coproc nocorrect fore-
ach end ! [[ { } declare export float integer local readonly typeset
Additionally, ‘}’ is recognized in any position if neither the IGNORE_BRACES option nor the IG-
NORE_CLOSE_BRACES option is set.

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ERRORS
Certain errors are treated as fatal by the shell: in an interactive shell, they cause control to return to the
command line, and in a non-interactive shell they cause the shell to be aborted. In older versions of zsh, a
non-interactive shell running a script would not abort completely, but would resume execution at the next
command to be read from the script, skipping the remainder of any functions or shell constructs such as
loops or conditions; this somewhat illogical behaviour can be recovered by setting the option CON-
TINUE_ON_ERROR.
Fatal errors found in non-interactive shells include:
• Failure to parse shell options passed when invoking the shell
• Failure to change options with the set builtin
• Parse errors of all sorts, including failures to parse mathematical expressions
• Failures to set or modify variable behaviour with typeset, local, declare, export, integer, float
• Execution of incorrectly positioned loop control structures (continue, break)
• Attempts to use regular expression with no regular expression module available
• Disallowed operations when the RESTRICTED options is set
• Failure to create a pipe needed for a pipeline
• Failure to create a multio
• Failure to autoload a module needed for a declared shell feature
• Errors creating command or process substitutions
• Syntax errors in glob qualifiers
• File generation errors where not caught by the option BAD_PATTERN
• All bad patterns used for matching within case statements
• File generation failures where not caused by NO_MATCH or similar options
• All file generation errors where the pattern was used to create a multio
• Memory errors where detected by the shell
• Invalid subscripts to shell variables
• Attempts to assign read-only variables
• Logical errors with variables such as assignment to the wrong type
• Use of invalid variable names
• Errors in variable substitution syntax
• Failure to convert characters in $’...’ expressions
If the POSIX_BUILTINS option is set, more errors associated with shell builtin commands are treated as
fatal, as specified by the POSIX standard.
COMMENTS
In non-interactive 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 eligible word 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 replacement text ends with a space, the next word in the shell input is always eli-
gible for purposes of alias expansion. An alias is defined using the alias builtin; global aliases may be de-
fined using the -g option to that builtin.

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A word is defined as:

• Any plain string or glob pattern
• Any quoted string, using any quoting method (note that the quotes must be part of the alias defini-
tion for this to be eligible)
• Any parameter reference or command substitution
• Any series of the foregoing, concatenated without whitespace or other tokens between them
• Any reserved word (case, do, else, etc.)
• With global aliasing, any command separator, any redirection operator, and ‘(’ or ‘)’ when not part
of a glob pattern
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.
Any form of quoting works, although there is nothing to prevent an alias being defined for the quoted form
such as \foo as well.
When POSIX_ALIASES is set, only plain unquoted strings are eligible for aliasing. The alias builtin does
not reject ineligible aliases, but they are not expanded.
For use with completion, which would remove an initial backslash followed by a character that isn’t spe-
cial, it may be more convenient to quote the word by starting with a single quote, i.e. ’foo; completion will
automatically add the trailing single quote.
Alias difficulties
Although aliases can be used in ways that bend normal shell syntax, not every string of non-white-space
characters can be used as an alias.
Any set of characters not listed as a word above is not a word, hence no attempt is made to expand it as an
alias, no matter how it is defined (i.e. via the builtin or the special parameter aliases described in the section
THE ZSH/PARAMETER MODULE in zshmodules(1)). However, as noted in the case of
POSIX_ALIASES above, the shell does not attempt to deduce whether the string corresponds to a word at
the time the alias is created.
For example, an expression containing an = at the start of a command line is an assignment and cannot be
expanded as an alias; a lone = is not an assignment but can only be set as an alias using the parameter, as
otherwise the = is taken part of the syntax of the builtin command.
It is not presently possible to alias the ‘((’ token that introduces arithmetic expressions, because until a full
statement has been parsed, it cannot be distinguished from two consecutive ‘(’ tokens introducing nested
subshells. Also, if a separator such as && is aliased, \&& turns into the two tokens \& and &, each of
which may have been aliased separately. Similarly for \<<, \>|, etc.
There is a commonly encountered problem with aliases illustrated by the following code:
alias echobar=’echo bar’; echobar
This prints a message that the command echobar could not be found. This happens because aliases are ex-
panded when the code is read in; the entire line is read in one go, so that when echobar is executed it is too
late to expand the newly defined alias. This is often a problem in shell scripts, functions, and code executed
with ‘source’ or ‘.’. Consequently, use of functions rather than aliases is recommended in non-interactive
code.
Note also the unhelpful interaction of aliases and function definitions:
alias func=’noglob func’
func() {
echo Do something with $*
}
Because aliases are expanded in function definitions, this causes the following command to be executed:

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noglob func() {
echo Do something with $*
}
which defines noglob as well as func as functions with the body given. To avoid this, either quote the
name func or use the alternative function definition form ‘function func’. Ensuring the alias is defined af-
ter the function works but is problematic if the code fragment might be re-executed.
QUOTING
A character may be quoted (that is, made to stand for itself) by preceding it with a ‘\’. ‘\’ followed by a
newline is ignored.
A string enclosed between ‘$’’ 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 ‘$’ are quoted. A sin-
gle quote cannot appear within single quotes unless the option RC_QUOTES is set, in which case a pair of
single quotes are turned into a single quote. For example,
print ’’’’
outputs nothing apart from a newline if RC_QUOTES is not set, but one single quote if it is set.
Inside double quotes (""), parameter and command substitution occur, and ‘\’ quotes the characters ‘\’, ‘‘’,
‘"’, ‘$’, and the first character of $histchars (default ‘!’).
REDIRECTION
If a command is followed by & and job control is not active, then the default standard input for the com-
mand 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 specifications.
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. It is an error to open a file in this fashion if it does
not exist.
<> 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, regardless of CLOBBER.
>> word
Open file word for writing in append mode as standard output. If the file does not exist, and the
CLOBBER and APPEND_CREATE options are both unset, this causes an error; otherwise, the
file is created.
>>| word
>>! word
Same as >>, except that the file is created if it does not exist, regardless of CLOBBER and AP-
PEND_CREATE.
<<[-] 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 generation is performed on word. The resulting

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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, ‘\’
followed 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 expansion. 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 recom-
mended 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 in-
stead of the default 0 or 1. The order in which redirections are specified is significant. The shell evaluates
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 asso-
ciated with file fname.

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The ‘|&’ command separator described in Simple Commands & Pipelines in zshmisc(1) is a shorthand for
‘2>&1 |’.
The various forms of process substitution, ‘<(list)’, and ‘=(list)’ for input and ‘>(list)’ for output, are often
used together with redirection. For example, if word in an output redirection is of the form ‘>(list)’ then the
output is piped to the command represented by list. See Process Substitution in zshexpn(1).
OPENING FILE DESCRIPTORS USING PARAMETERS
When the shell is parsing arguments to a command, and the shell option IGNORE_BRACES is not set, a
different form of redirection is allowed: instead of a digit before the operator there is a valid shell identifier
enclosed in braces. The shell will open a new file descriptor that is guaranteed to be at least 10 and set the
parameter named by the identifier to the file descriptor opened. No whitespace is allowed between the clos-
ing brace and the redirection character. For example:
... {myfd}>&1
This opens a new file descriptor that is a duplicate of file descriptor 1 and sets the parameter myfd to the
number of the file descriptor, which will be at least 10. The new file descriptor can be written to using the
syntax >&$myfd. The file descriptor remains open in subshells and forked external executables.
The syntax {varid}>&-, for example {myfd}>&-, may be used to close a file descriptor opened in this
fashion. Note that the parameter given by varid must previously be set to a file descriptor in this case.
It is an error to open or close a file descriptor in this fashion when the parameter is readonly. However, it is
not an error to read or write a file descriptor using <&$param or >&$param if param is readonly.
If the option CLOBBER is unset, it is an error to open a file descriptor using a parameter that is already set
to an open file descriptor previously allocated by this mechanism. Unsetting the parameter before using it
for allocating a file descriptor avoids the error.
Note that this mechanism merely allocates or closes a file descriptor; it does not perform any redirections
from or to it. It is usually convenient to allocate a file descriptor prior to use as an argument to exec. The
syntax does not in any case work when used around complex commands such as parenthesised subshells or
loops, where the opening brace is interpreted as part of a command list to be executed in the current shell.
The following shows a typical sequence of allocation, use, and closing of a file descriptor:
integer myfd
exec {myfd}>˜/logs/mylogfile.txt
print This is a log message. >&$myfd
exec {myfd}>&-
Note that the expansion of the variable in the expression >&$myfd occurs at the point the redirection is
opened. This is after the expansion of command arguments and after any redirections to the left on the
command line have been processed.
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 specified 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.
Note that the shell opens all the files to be used in the multio process immediately, not at the point they are
about to be written.
Note also that redirections are always expanded in order. This happens regardless of the setting of the
MULTIOS option, but with the option in effect there are additional consequences. For example, the mean-
ing of the expression >&1 will change after a previous redirection:

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date >&1 >output

In the case above, the >&1 refers to the standard output at the start of the line; the result is similar to the tee
command. However, consider:
date >output >&1
As redirections are evaluated in order, when the >&1 is encountered the standard output is set to the file
output and another copy of the output is therefore sent to that file. This is unlikely to be what is intended.
If the MULTIOS option is set, the word after a redirection operator is also subjected to filename generation
(globbing). Thus
:>*
will truncate all files in the current directory, assuming there’s at least one. (Without the MULTIOS op-
tion, 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, provided the MUL-
TIOS option is set. It should be noted that each file is opened immediately, not at the point where it is
about to be read: this behaviour differs from cat, so if strictly standard behaviour is needed, cat should be
used instead.
Thus
sort <foo <fubar
or even
sort <f{oo,ubar}
is equivalent to ‘cat foo fubar | sort’.
Expansion of the redirection argument occurs at the point the redirection is opened, at the point described
above for the expansion of the variable in >&$myfd.
Note that a pipe is an implicit redirection; thus
cat bar | sort <foo
is equivalent to ‘cat bar foo | sort’ (note the order of the inputs).
If the MULTIOS option is unset, each redirection replaces the previous redirection for that file descriptor.
However, all files redirected to are actually opened, so
echo Hello > bar > baz
when MULTIOS is unset will truncate ‘bar’, and write ‘Hello’ 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 display the full contents of file1 and file2 (i.e. the original
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 writing 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.

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REDIRECTIONS WITH NO COMMAND

When a simple command consists of one or more redirection operators and zero or more parameter assign-
ments, 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 redirec-
tions. 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 READ-
NULLCMD is ‘more’. Thus
< file
shows the contents of file on standard output, with paging if that is a terminal. NULLCMD and READ-
NULLCMD 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 message 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 remain-
der of the first line specifies an interpreter for the program. The shell will execute the specified interpreter
on operating systems that do not handle this executable format in the kernel.
If no external command is found but a function command_not_found_handler exists the shell executes
this function with all command line arguments. The return status of the function becomes the status of the
command. If the function wishes to mimic the behaviour of the shell when the command is not found, it
should print the message ‘command not found: cmd’ to standard error and return status 127. Note that the
handler is executed in a subshell forked to execute an external command, hence changes to directories, shell
parameters, etc. have no effect on the main shell.
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 executed like commands with the arguments passed as positional parameters. (See the section ‘Com-
mand 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 unfunc-
tion 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 executed, 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 suppressed if the autoload builtin or its equivalent is given

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the option -U. This is recommended for the use of functions 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 created, as the corresponding information is compiled into the latter.
For each element in fpath, the shell looks for three possible files, the newest of which is used to load the
definition 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 function 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 in-
cluding 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 in-
clude 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 definition for function.
In summary, the order of searching is, first, in the parents 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
function that is sought, the leftmost in the fpath is chosen; and third, within a directory, the newer of either
a compiled 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 contents 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 execution, and may therefore define local pa-
rameters. It is an error if the function is not defined by loading the file.
Otherwise, the function body (with no surrounding ‘funcname() {...}’) 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 per-
form initialization and then call the function defined, the file should contain initialization code (which will
be executed then discarded) in addition to a complete function definition (which will be retained for subse-
quent 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 pro-
duce the initialization message on the first call, and the other message on the second 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 equiva-
lent:
myfunc() {
autoload -X
}
myfunc args...

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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
‘# undefined’ 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
ANONYMOUS FUNCTIONS
If no name is given for a function, it is ‘anonymous’ and is handled specially. Either form of function defi-
nition may be used: a ‘()’ with no preceding name, or a ‘function’ with an immediately following open
brace. The function is executed immediately at the point of definition and is not stored for future use. The
function name is set to ‘(anon)’.
Arguments to the function may be specified as words following the closing brace defining the function,
hence if there are none no arguments (other than $0) are set. This is a difference from the way other func-
tions are parsed: normal function definitions may be followed by certain keywords such as ‘else’ or ‘fi’,
which will be treated as arguments to anonymous functions, so that a newline or semicolon is needed to
force keyword interpretation.
Note also that the argument list of any enclosing script or function is hidden (as would be the case for any
other function called at this point).
Redirections may be applied to the anonymous function in the same manner as to a current-shell structure
enclosed in braces. The main use of anonymous functions is to provide a scope for local variables. This is
particularly convenient in start-up files as these do not provide their own local variable scope.
For example,
variable=outside
function {
local variable=inside
print "I am $variable with arguments $*"
} this and that
print "I am $variable"
outputs the following:
I am inside with arguments this and that
I am outside
Note that function definitions with arguments that expand to nothing, for example ‘name=; function
$name { ... }’, are not treated as anonymous functions. Instead, they are treated as normal function defini-
tions where the definition is silently discarded.
SPECIAL FUNCTIONS
Certain functions, if defined, have special meaning to the shell.
Hook Functions
For the functions below, it is possible to define an array that has the same name as the function with ‘_func-
tions’ appended. Any element in such an array is taken as the name of a function to execute; it is executed
in the same context and with the same arguments as the basic function. For example, if $chpwd_functions
is an array containing the values ‘mychpwd’, ‘chpwd_save_dirstack’, then the shell attempts to execute
the functions ‘chpwd’, ‘mychpwd’ and ‘chpwd_save_dirstack’, in that order. Any function that does not
exist is silently ignored. A function found by this mechanism is referred to elsewhere as a ‘hook function’.

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An error in any function causes subsequent functions not to be run. Note further that an error in a precmd
hook causes an immediately following periodic function not to run (though it may run at the next opportu-
nity).
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. Note that if multiple functions are defined using the array periodic_functions only one
period is applied to the complete set of functions, and the scheduled time is not reset if the list of
functions is altered. Hence the set of functions is always called together.
precmd
Executed before each prompt. Note that precommand functions are not re-executed simply be-
cause the command line is redrawn, as happens, for example, when a notification about an exiting
job is displayed.
preexec
Executed just after a command has been read and is about to be executed. If the history mecha-
nism is active (regardless of whether the line was 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 executed (including expanded aliases) is passed in two different forms: the second ar-
gument is a single-line, size-limited version of the command (with things like function bodies
elided); the third argument contains the full text that is being executed.
zshaddhistory
Executed when a history line has been read interactively, but before it is executed. The sole argu-
ment is the complete history line (so that any terminating newline will still be present).
If any of the hook functions returns status 1 (or any non-zero value other than 2, though this is not
guaranteed for future versions of the shell) the history line will not be saved, although it lingers in
the history until the next line is executed, allowing you to reuse or edit it immediately.
If any of the hook functions returns status 2 the history line will be saved on the internal history
list, but not written to the history file. In case of a conflict, the first non-zero status value is taken.
A hook function may call ‘fc -p ...’ to switch the history context so that the history is saved in a
different file from the that in the global HISTFILE parameter. This is handled specially: the his-
tory context is automatically restored after the processing of the history line is finished.
The following example function works with one of the options INC_APPEND_HISTORY or
SHARE_HISTORY set, in order that the line is written out immediately after the history entry is
added. It first adds the history line to the normal history with the newline stripped, which is usu-
ally the correct behaviour. Then it switches the history context so that the line will be written to a
history file in the current directory.
zshaddhistory() {
print -sr -- ${1%%$’\n’}
fc -p .zsh_local_history
}
zshexit Executed at the point where the main shell is about to exit normally. This is not called by exiting
subshells, nor when the exec precommand modifier is used before an external command. Also,
unlike TRAPEXIT, it is not called when functions exit.
Trap Functions
The functions below are treated specially but do not have corresponding hook arrays.
TRAPNAL
If defined and non-null, this function will be executed whenever the shell catches a signal SIG-
NAL, 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.

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If a function of this form is defined and null, the shell and processes spawned by it will ignore
SIGNAL.
The return status from the function is handled specially. If it is zero, the signal is assumed to have
been handled, and execution continues normally. Otherwise, the shell will behave as interrupted
except that the return status of the trap is retained.
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 ef-
fect of the signal.
TRAPINT() {
print "Caught SIGINT, aborting."
return $(( 128 + $1 ))
}
The functions TRAPZERR, TRAPDEBUG and TRAPEXIT are never executed inside other
traps.
TRAPDEBUG
If the option DEBUG_BEFORE_CMD is set (as it is by default), executed before each com-
mand; otherwise executed after each command. See the description of the trap builtin in zsh-
builtins(1) for details of additional features provided in debug traps.
TRAPEXIT
Executed when the shell exits, or when the current function exits if defined inside a function. The
value of $? at the start of execution is the exit status of the shell or the return status of the function
exiting.
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 function TRAPERR acts the same as TRAPZ-
ERR on systems where there is no SIGERR (this is the usual case).
The functions beginning ‘TRAP’ may alternatively be defined with the trap builtin: this may be preferable
for some uses. Setting a trap with one form removes any trap of the other form for the same signal; remov-
ing a trap in either form removes all traps for the same signal. The forms
TRAPNAL() {
# code
}
(’function traps’) and
trap ’
# code
’ NAL
(’list traps’) are equivalent in most ways, the exceptions being the following:
• Function traps have all the properties of normal functions, appearing in the list of functions and
being called with their own function context rather than the context where the trap was triggered.
• The return status from function traps is special, whereas a return from a list trap causes the sur-
rounding context to return with the given status.
• Function traps are not reset within subshells, in accordance with zsh behaviour; list traps are reset,
in accordance with POSIX behaviour.
JOBS
If the MONITOR option is set, an interactive shell associates a job with each pipeline. It keeps a table of
current jobs, printed by the jobs command, and assigns them small integer numbers. When a job is started
asynchronously with ‘&’, the shell prints a line to standard error which looks like:

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[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 control features described here.
If you are running a job and wish to do something else you may hit the key ˆZ (control-Z) which sends a
TSTP signal to the current job: this key may be redefined by the susp option of the external stty com-
mand. 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 command, or run
some other commands and then eventually bring the job back into the foreground with the foreground com-
mand fg. A ˆZ takes effect immediately and is like an interrupt in that pending output and unread input are
discarded when it is typed.
A job being run in the background will suspend if it tries to read from the terminal.
Note that if the job running in the foreground is a shell function, then suspending it will have the effect of
causing the shell to fork. This is necessary to separate the function’s state from that of the parent shell per-
forming the job control, so that the latter can return to the command line prompt. As a result, even if fg is
used to continue the job the function will no longer be part of the parent shell, and any variables set by the
function will not be visible in the parent shell. Thus the behaviour is different from the case where the
function was never suspended. Zsh is different from many other shells in this regard.
One additional side effect is that use of disown with a job created by suspending shell code in this fashion
is delayed: the job can only be disowned once any process started from the parent shell has terminated. At
that point, the disowned job disappears silently from the job list.
The same behaviour is found when the shell is executing code as the right hand side of a pipeline or any
complex shell construct such as if, for, etc., in order that the entire block of code can be managed as a sin-
gle job. 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 pro-
duce 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
The last job whose command line begins with string.
%?string
The last 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 notifications are sent directly to the terminal, not
to the standard output or standard error.
When the monitor mode is on, each background job that completes 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 immedi-
ately try to exit again, the shell will not warn you a second time; the suspended jobs will be terminated, and

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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. The shell itself always ignores the QUIT signal. Otherwise, signals
have the values inherited by the shell from its parent (but see the TRAPNAL special functions in the section
‘Functions’).
Certain jobs are run asynchronously by the shell other than those explicitly put into the background; even in
cases where the shell would usually wait for such jobs, an explicit exit command or exit due to the option
ERR_EXIT will cause the shell to exit without waiting. Examples of such asynchronous jobs are process
substitution, see the section PROCESS SUBSTITUTION in the zshexpn(1) manual page, and the handler
processes for multios, see the section MULTIOS in the zshmisc(1) manual page.
ARITHMETIC EVALUATION
The shell can perform integer and floating point arithmetic, 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 avail-
able, 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 arith-
metic always uses the ‘double’ type with whatever corresponding precision is provided by the compiler and
the library.
The let builtin command takes arithmetic expressions as arguments; each is evaluated separately. Since
many of the arithmetic operators, as well as spaces, require quoting, 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
"..."’. The return status is 0 if the arithmetic value of the expression is non-zero, 1 if it is zero, and 2 if an
error occurred.
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 and a leading ‘0b’ or
‘0B’ binary. 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
hexadecimal). The base# may also be omitted, in which case base 10 is used. For backwards compatibility
the form ‘[base]n’ is also accepted.
An integer expression or a base given in the form ‘base#n’ may contain underscores (‘_’) after the leading
digit for visual guidance; these are ignored in computation. Examples are 1_000_000 or 0xffff_ffff which
are equivalent to 1000000 and 0xffffffff respectively.
It is also possible to specify a base to be used for output 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 arithmetic 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 encountered is used. For clarity it is rec-
ommended 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

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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.
The base may be replaced or followed by an underscore, which may itself be followed by a positive integer
(if it is missing the value 3 is used). This indicates that underscores should be inserted into the output
string, grouping the number for visual clarity. The following integer specifies the number of digits to group
together. For example:
setopt cbases
print $(( [#16_4] 65536 ** 2 ))
outputs ‘0x1_0000_0000’.
The feature can be used with floating point numbers, in which case the base must be omitted; grouping is
away from the decimal point. For example,
zmodload zsh/mathfunc
print $(( [#_] sqrt(1e7) ))
outputs ‘3_162.277_660_168_379_5’ (the number of decimal places shown may vary).
If the C_BASES option is set, hexadecimal numbers are output 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), oc-
tal 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 hexadecimal and octal, and these formats are always understood on input.
When an output base is specified using the ‘[#base]’ syntax, an appropriate base prefix will be output if
necessary, 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 parameter name. All numeric parts (before and after the decimal point and in the exponent) may
contain underscores after the leading digit for visual guidance; these are ignored in computation.
An arithmetic expression uses nearly the same syntax and associativity of expressions as in C.
In the native mode of operation, the following operators are supported (listed in decreasing order of prece-
dence):
+ - ! ˜ ++ --
unary plus/minus, logical NOT, complement, {pre,post}{in,de}crement
<< >> bitwise shift left, right
& bitwise AND
ˆ bitwise XOR
| bitwise OR
** exponentiation
* / % multiplication, division, modulus (remainder)
+- addition, subtraction
< > <= >=
comparison
== != equality and inequality
&& logical AND
|| ˆˆ logical OR, XOR
?: ternary operator
= += -= *= /= %= &= ˆ= |= <<= >>= &&= ||= ˆˆ= **=
assignment
, comma operator
The operators ‘&&’, ‘||’, ‘&&=’, and ‘||=’ are short-circuiting, 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.

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With the option C_PRECEDENCES the precedences (but no other properties) of the operators are altered
to be the same as those in most other languages that support the relevant operators:
+ - ! ˜ ++ --
unary plus/minus, logical NOT, complement, {pre,post}{in,de}crement
** exponentiation
* / % multiplication, division, modulus (remainder)
+- addition, subtraction
<< >> bitwise shift left, right
< > <= >=
comparison
== != equality and inequality
& bitwise AND
ˆ bitwise XOR
| bitwise OR
&& logical AND
ˆˆ logical XOR
|| logical OR
?: ternary operator
= += -= *= /= %= &= ˆ= |= <<= >>= &&= ||= ˆˆ= **=
assignment
, comma operator
Note the precedence of exponentiation in both cases is below that of unary operators, hence ‘-3**2’ evalu-
ates as ‘9’, not ‘-9’. Use parentheses where necessary: ‘-(3**2)’. This is for compatibility with other
shells.
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 mathe-
matical 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’, ‘ˆA’, or ‘\M-\C-x’ gives
the value of this character and an expression of the form ‘#name’ gives the value of the first character of the
contents of the parameter name. Character values are according to the character set used in the current lo-
cale; for multibyte character handling the option MULTIBYTE must be set. Note that this form is differ-
ent from ‘$#name’, a standard parameter substitution which gives the length of the parameter name. ‘#\’ is
accepted instead of ‘##’, but its use is deprecated.
Named parameters and subscripted arrays can be referenced by name within an arithmetic expression with-
out using the parameter expansion syntax. For example,
((val2 = val1 * 2))
assigns twice the value of $val1 to the parameter named val2.
An internal integer representation of a named parameter can be specified with the integer builtin. Arith-
metic evaluation is performed on the value of each assignment to a named parameter declared integer in
this manner. Assigning a floating point number to an integer results in rounding towards zero.
Likewise, floating point numbers can be declared with the float builtin; there are two types, differing only
in their output format, as described for the typeset builtin. The output format can be bypassed by using
arithmetic substitution instead of the parameter substitution, i.e. ‘${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 (‘&’, ‘|’, ‘ˆ’, ‘<<’, ‘>>’ and their equivalents with assignment) is given a floating
point argument, it will be silently rounded towards zero except for ‘˜’ which rounds down.
Users should beware that, in common with many other programming languages but not software designed
for calculation, the evaluation of an expression in zsh is taken a term at a time and promotion of integers to

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floating point does not occur in terms only containing integers. A typical result of this is that a division
such as 6/8 is truncated, in this being rounded towards 0. The FORCE_FLOAT shell option can be used in
scripts or functions where floating point evaluation is required throughout.
Scalar variables can hold integer or floating point values at different times; there is no memory of the nu-
meric type in this case.
If a variable is first assigned in a numeric context without 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 command 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’.)
When no option named option exists, and the POSIX_BUILTINS option hasn’t been set, return 3
with a warning. If that option is set, return 1 with no warning.
-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 process.
-s file true if file exists and has size greater than zero.
-t fd true if file descriptor number fd is open and associated with a terminal device. (note: fd is not op-
tional)
-u file true if file exists and has its setuid bit set.
-v varname
true if shell variable varname is set.
-w file true if file exists and is writable by current process.

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-x file true if file exists and is executable by current process. If file exists and is a directory, then the cur-
rent 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 two forms are exactly equivalent. The ‘=’ form is the tradi-
tional shell syntax (and hence the only one generally used with the test and [ builtins); the ‘==’
form provides compatibility with other sorts of computer language.
string != pattern
true if string does not match pattern.
string =˜ regexp
true if string matches the regular expression regexp. If the option RE_MATCH_PCRE is set reg-
exp is tested as a PCRE regular expression using the zsh/pcre module, else it is tested as a POSIX
extended regular expression using the zsh/regex module. Upon successful match, some variables
will be updated; no variables are changed if the matching fails.
If the option BASH_REMATCH is not set the scalar parameter MATCH is set to the substring
that matched the pattern and the integer parameters MBEGIN and MEND to the index of the start
and end, respectively, of the match in string, such that if string is contained in variable var the ex-
pression ‘${var[$MBEGIN,$MEND]}’ is identical to ‘$MATCH’. The setting of the option
KSH_ARRAYS is respected. Likewise, the array match is set to the substrings that matched
parenthesised subexpressions and the arrays mbegin and mend to the indices of the start and end
positions, respectively, of the substrings within string. The arrays are not set if there were no
parenthesised subexpressions. For example, if the string ‘a short string’ is matched against the
regular expression ‘s(...)t’, then (assuming the option KSH_ARRAYS is not set) MATCH, MBE-
GIN and MEND are ‘short’, 3 and 7, respectively, while match, mbegin and mend are single en-
try arrays containing the strings ‘hor’, ‘4’ and ‘6’, respectively.
If the option BASH_REMATCH is set the array BASH_REMATCH is set to the substring that
matched the pattern followed by the substrings that matched parenthesised subexpressions within
the 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. Note that for purely numeric comparisons use of the
((...)) builtin described in the section ‘ARITHMETIC EVALUATION’ is more convenient than

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conditional expressions.
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.
For compatibility, if there is a single argument that is not syntactically significant, typically a variable, the
condition is treated as a test for whether the expression expands as a string of non-zero length. In other
words, [[ $var ]] is the same as [[ -n $var ]]. It is recommended that the second, explicit, form be used
where possible.
Normal shell expansion is performed on the file, string and pattern arguments, but the result of each expan-
sion is constrained to be a single word, similar to the effect of double quotes.
Filename generation is not performed on any form of argument to conditions. However, it can be forced in
any case where normal shell expansion is valid and when the option EXTENDED_GLOB is in effect by
using an explicit glob qualifier of the form (#q) at the end of the string. A normal glob qualifier expression
may appear between the ‘q’ and the closing parenthesis; if none appears the expression has no effect be-
yond causing filename generation. The results of filename generation are joined together to form a single
word, as with the results of other forms of expansion.
This special use of filename generation is only available with the [[ syntax. If the condition occurs within
the [ or test builtin commands then globbing occurs instead as part of normal command line expansion be-
fore the condition is evaluated. In this case it may generate multiple words which are likely to confuse the
syntax of the test command.
For example,
[[ -n file*(#qN) ]]
produces status zero if and only if there is at least one file in the current directory beginning with the string
‘file’. The globbing qualifier N ensures that the expression is empty if there is no matching file.
Pattern metacharacters are active for the pattern arguments; the patterns are the same as those used for file-
name generation, see zshexpn(1), but there is no special behaviour of ‘/’ nor initial dots, and no glob quali-
fiers 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 di-
rectory.
In the forms which do numeric comparison, the expressions exp undergo arithmetic expansion as if they
were enclosed in $((...)).
For example, the following:

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[[ ( -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.
EXPANSION OF PROMPT SEQUENCES
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, com-
mand substitution 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.
Many escapes are followed by a single character, although some of these take an optional integer argument
that should appear between the ‘%’ and the next character of the sequence. More complicated escape se-
quences are available to provide conditional expansion.
SIMPLE PROMPT ESCAPES
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 defini-
tion 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 status 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-in-
teractively.
%ˆ The status of the parser in reverse. This is the same as ‘%_’ other than the order of strings. It is
often used in RPS2.
%d
%/ Current working directory. If an integer follows the ‘%’, it specifies a number of trailing compo-
nents of the current working directory to show; zero means the whole path. A negative integer
specifies leading components, i.e. %-1d specifies the first component.

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%˜ As %d and %/, but if the current working directory starts with $HOME, that part is replaced by a
‘˜’. Furthermore, if it has a named directory as its prefix, that part is replaced by a ‘˜’ followed by
the name of the directory, but only if the result is shorter than the full path; see Dynamic and Static
named directories in zshexpn(1).
%e Evaluation depth of the current sourced file, shell function, or eval. This is incremented or decre-
mented every time the value of %N is set or reverted to a previous value, respectively. This is
most useful for debugging as part of $PS4.
%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.
%I The line number currently being executed in the file %x. This is similar to %i, but the line num-
ber is always a line number in the file where the code was defined, even if the code is a shell func-
tion.
%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.
%x The name of the file containing the source code currently being executed. This behaves as %N
except that function and eval command names are not shown, instead the file where they were de-
fined.
%c
%.
%C Trailing component of the current working directory. An integer may follow the ‘%’ to get more
than one component. Unless ‘%C’ is used, tilde contraction is performed first. These are depre-
cated 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 seconds.
%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. Various zsh ex-
tensions provide numbers with no leading zero or space if the number is a single digit:
%f a day of the month
%K the hour of the day on the 24-hour clock
%L the hour of the day on the 12-hour clock
In addition, if the system supports the POSIX gettimeofday system call, %. provides decimal
fractions of a second since the epoch with leading zeroes. By default three decimal places are pro-
vided, but a number of digits up to 9 may be given following the %; hence %6. outputs microsec-
onds, and %9. outputs nanoseconds. (The latter requires a nanosecond-precision clock_gettime;

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systems lacking this will return a value multiplied by the appropriate power of 10.) A typical ex-
ample of this is the format ‘%D{%H:%M:%S.%.}’.
The GNU extension %N is handled as a synonym for %9..
Additionally, the GNU extension that a ‘-’ between the % and the format character causes a lead-
ing zero or space to be stripped is handled directly by the shell for the format characters d, f, H, k,
l, m, M, S and y; any other format characters are provided to the system’s strftime(3) with any
leading ‘-’ present, so the handling is system dependent. Further GNU (or other) extensions are
also passed to strftime(3) and may work if the system supports them.
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.
%F (%f)
Start (stop) using a different foreground colour, if supported by the terminal. The colour may be
specified two ways: either as a numeric argument, as normal, or by a sequence in braces following
the %F, for example %F{red}. In the latter case the values allowed are as described for the fg
zle_highlight attribute; see Character Highlighting in zshzle(1). This means that numeric colours
are allowed in the second format also.
%K (%k)
Start (stop) using a different bacKground colour. The syntax is identical to that for %F and %f.
%{...%}
Include a string as a literal escape sequence. The string within the braces should not change the
cursor position. Brace pairs can nest.
A positive numeric argument between the % and the { is treated as described for %G below.
%G Within a %{...%} sequence, include a ‘glitch’: that is, assume that a single character width will be
output. This is useful when outputting characters that otherwise cannot be correctly handled by
the shell, such as the alternate character set on some terminals. The characters in question can be
included within a %{...%} sequence together with the appropriate number of %G sequences to in-
dicate the correct width. An integer between the ‘%’ and ‘G’ indicates a character width other
than one. Hence %{seq%2G%} outputs seq and assumes it takes up the width of two standard
characters.
Multiple uses of %G accumulate in the obvious fashion; the position of the %G is unimportant.
Negative integers are not handled.
Note that when prompt truncation is in use it is advisable to divide up output into single characters
within each %{...%} group so that the correct truncation point can be found.
CONDITIONAL SUBSTRINGS IN PROMPTS
%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 following 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.

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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, except as noted below for ‘l’. The test character x
may be any of the following:
! True if the shell is running with privileges.
# 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 directory,
hence / is counted as 0 elements.
c
.
˜ True if the current path, with prefix replacement, has at least n elements relative 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.
e True if the evaluation depth is at least 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. When n is neg-
ative, true if at least abs(n) characters remain before the opposite margin (thus the left
margin for RPROMPT).
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 elements.
V True if element n of the array psvar is set and non-empty.
w True if the day of the week is equal to n (Sunday = 0).
%<string<
%>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 string will be displayed in place of the
truncated portion of any string; note this does not undergo prompt expansion.
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. In the first
two forms, this numeric argument may be negative, in which case the truncation length is deter-
mined by subtracting the absolute value of the numeric argument from the number of character po-
sitions remaining on the current prompt line. If this results in a zero or negative length, a length of
1 is used. In other words, a negative argument arranges that after truncation at least n characters
remain before the right margin (left margin for RPROMPT).
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 ex-
pand 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 standard print processing, in addition to any backslashes removed
by a double quoted string: the worst case is therefore ‘print -P "%<\\\\<<..."’.
If the string is longer than the specified truncation length, it will appear in full, completely replac-
ing 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

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level (i.e. truncations inside a ‘%(’ are separate), which ever comes first. In particular, a trunca-
tion 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.
Note that ‘%-0<<’ is not equivalent to ‘%<<’ but specifies that the prompt is truncated at the
right margin.
Truncation applies only within each individual line of the prompt, as delimited by embedded new-
lines (if any). If the total length of any line of the prompt after truncation is greater than the termi-
nal width, or if the part to be truncated contains embedded newlines, truncation behavior is unde-
fined and may change in a future version of the shell. Use ‘%-n(l.true-text.false-text)’ to re-
move parts of the prompt when the available space is less than n.

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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 zshmisc(1).
Process Substitution
Parameter Expansion
Command Substitution
Arithmetic Expansion
Brace Expansion
These five are performed in left-to-right fashion. On each argument, any of the five steps that are
needed are performed one after the other. Hence, for example, all the parts of parameter expan-
sion are completed before command substitution is started. 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 performed 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 typ-
ing. This simplifies spelling corrections and the repetition of complicated commands or arguments.
Immediately before execution, 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 com-
mand 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 EXPANSION OF PROMPT SE-
QUENCES 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, including inside double quotes (but not inside single quotes ’...’
or C-style quotes $’...’ nor when escaped with a backslash).
The first character is followed by an optional event designator (see the section ‘Event Designators’) and
then an optional word designator (the section ‘Word Designators’); 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 references.
History expansions do not nest.
By default, a history reference with no event designator refers to the same event as any preceding history
reference on that command line; if it is the only history reference 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.

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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 ‘!!$’, respec-
tively. Conversely, if CSH_JUNKIE_HISTORY is unset, then ‘!:1’ and ‘!$’ 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 ‘ˆfooˆbar’ (where ‘ˆ’ is actually the second character of the histchars parameter)
repeats the last command, replacing the string foo with bar. More precisely, the sequence ‘ˆfooˆbarˆ’ is
synonymous with ‘!!:sˆfooˆbarˆ’, hence other modifiers (see the section ‘Modifiers’) may follow the final
‘ˆ’. In particular, ‘ˆfooˆbarˆ:G’ performs a global substitution.
If the shell encounters the character sequence ‘!"’ in the input, the history mechanism is temporarily dis-
abled 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 character by setting the histchars parameter.
! Start a history expansion, except when followed by a blank, newline, ‘=’ or ‘(’. If followed imme-
diately 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 characters (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 designator begins with a ‘ˆ’, ‘$’, ‘*’, ‘-’ or ‘%’. Word designators include:
0 The first input word (command).
n The nth argument.
ˆ 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, al-
though 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

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expansion, except where noted.

a Turn a file name into an absolute path: prepends the current directory, if necessary; remove ‘.’
path segments; and remove ‘..’ path segments and the segments that immediately precede them.
This transformation is agnostic about what is in the filesystem, i.e. is on the logical, not the physi-
cal directory. It takes place in the same manner as when changing directories when neither of the
options CHASE_DOTS or CHASE_LINKS is set. For example, ‘/before/here/../after’ is always
transformed to ‘/before/after’, regardless of whether ‘/before/here’ exists or what kind of object
(dir, file, symlink, etc.) it is.
A Turn a file name into an absolute path as the ‘a’ modifier does, and then pass the result through the
realpath(3) library function to resolve symbolic links.
Note: on systems that do not have a realpath(3) library function, symbolic links are not resolved,
so on those systems ‘a’ and ‘A’ are equivalent.
Note: foo:A and realpath(foo) are different on some inputs. For realpath(foo) semantics, see the
‘P‘ modifier.
c Resolve a command name into an absolute path by searching the command path given by the
PATH variable. This does not work for commands containing directory parts. Note also that this
does not usually work as a glob qualifier unless a file of the same name is found in the current di-
rectory.
e Remove all but the part of the filename extension following the ‘.’; see the definition of the file-
name extension in the description of the r modifier below. Note that according to that definition
the result will be empty if the string ends with a ‘.’.
h [ digits ]
Remove a trailing pathname component, shortening the path by one directory level: this is the
‘head’ of the pathname. This works like ‘dirname’. If the h is followed immediately (with no
spaces or other separator) by any number of decimal digits, and the value of the resulting number
is non-zero, that number of leading components is preserved instead of the final component being
removed. In an absolute path the leading ‘/’ is the first component, so, for example, if
var=/my/path/to/something, then ${var:h3} substitutes /my/path. Consecutive ‘/’s are treated
the same as a single ‘/’. In parameter substitution, digits may only be used if the expression is in
braces, so for example the short form substitution $var:h2 is treated as ${var:h}2, not as
${var:h2}. No restriction applies to the use of digits in history substitution or globbing qualifiers.
If more components are requested than are present, the entire path is substituted (so this does not
trigger a ‘failed modifier’ error in history expansion).
l Convert the words to all lowercase.
p Print the new command but do not execute it. Only works with history expansion.
P Turn a file name into an absolute path, like realpath(3). The resulting path will be absolute, have
neither ‘.’ nor ‘..’ components, and refer to the same directory entry as the input filename.
Unlike realpath(3), non-existent trailing components are permitted and preserved.
q Quote the substituted words, escaping further substitutions. Works with history expansion and pa-
rameter expansion, though for parameters it is only useful if the resulting text is to be re-evaluated
such as by eval.
Q Remove one level of quotes from the substituted words.
r Remove a filename extension leaving the root name. Strings with no filename extension are not
altered. A filename extension is a ‘.’ followed by any number of characters (including zero) that
are neither ‘.’ nor ‘/’ and that continue to the end of the string. For example, the extension of
‘foo.orig.c’ is ‘.c’, and ‘dir.c/foo’ has no extension.
s/l/r[/] Substitute r for l as described below. The substitution is done only for the first string that matches
l. For arrays and for filename generation, this applies to each word of the expanded text. See

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below for further notes on substitutions.

The forms ‘gs/l/r’ and ‘s/l/r/:G’ perform global substitution, i.e. substitute every occurrence of r
for l. Note that the g or :G must appear in exactly the position shown.
See further notes on this form of substitution below.
& Repeat the previous s substitution. Like s, may be preceded immediately by a g. In parameter ex-
pansion the & must appear inside braces, and in filename generation it must be quoted with a
backslash.
t [ digits ]
Remove all leading pathname components, leaving the final component (tail). This works like
‘basename’. Any trailing slashes are first removed. Decimal digits are handled as described
above for (h), but in this case that number of trailing components is preserved instead of the de-
fault 1; 0 is treated the same as 1.
u Convert the words to all uppercase.
x Like q, but break into words at whitespace. Does not work with parameter expansion.
The s/l/r/ substitution works as follows. By default the left-hand side of substitutions are not patterns, 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 omitted. Note the same record of the last l
and r is maintained across all forms of expansion.
Note that if a ‘&’ is used within glob qualifiers an extra backslash is needed as a & is a special character in
this case.
Also note that the order of expansions affects the interpretation of l and r. When used in a history expan-
sion, which occurs before any other expansions, l and r are treated as literal strings (except as explained for
HIST_SUBST_PATTERN below). When used in parameter expansion, the replacement of r into the pa-
rameter’s value is done first, and then any additional process, parameter, command, arithmetic, or brace ref-
erences are applied, which may evaluate those substitutions and expansions more than once if l appears
more than once in the starting value. When used in a glob qualifier, any substitutions or expansions are per-
formed once at the time the qualifier is parsed, even before the ‘:s’ expression itself is divided into l and r
sides.
If the option HIST_SUBST_PATTERN is set, l is treated as a pattern of the usual form described in the
section FILENAME GENERATION below. This can be used in all the places where modifiers are avail-
able; note, however, that in globbing qualifiers parameter substitution has already taken place, so parame-
ters in the replacement string should be quoted to ensure they are replaced at the correct time. Note also
that complicated patterns used in globbing qualifiers may need the extended glob qualifier notation
(#q:s/.../.../) in order for the shell to recognize the expression as a glob qualifier. Further, note that bad pat-
terns in the substitution are not subject to the NO_BAD_PATTERN option so will cause an error.
When HIST_SUBST_PATTERN is set, l may start with a # to indicate that the pattern must match at the
start of the string to be substituted, and a % may appear at the start or after an # to indicate that the pattern
must match at the end of the string to be substituted. The % or # may be quoted with two backslashes.
For example, the following piece of filename generation code with the EXTENDED_GLOB option:
print -r -- *.c(#q:s/#%(#b)s(*).c/’S${match[1]}.C’/)
takes the expansion of *.c and applies the glob qualifiers in the (#q...) expression, which consists of a sub-
stitution modifier anchored to the start and end of each word (#%). This turns on backreferences ((#b)), so
that the parenthesised subexpression is available in the replacement string as ${match[1]}. The replace-
ment string is quoted so that the parameter is not substituted before the start of filename generation.
The following f, F, w and W modifiers work only with parameter expansion and filename generation. They

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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 charac-
ter can be used instead of the ‘:’; opening parentheses are handled specially, see above.
PROCESS SUBSTITUTION
Each part of a command argument that takes the form ‘<(list)’, ‘>(list)’ or ‘=(list)’ is subject to process
substitution. The expression may be preceded or followed by other strings except that, to prevent clashes
with commonly occurring strings and patterns, the last form must occur at the start of a command argu-
ment, and the forms are only expanded when first parsing command or assignment arguments. Process sub-
stitutions may be used following redirection operators; in this case, the substitution must appear with no
trailing string.
Note that ‘<<(list)’ is not a special syntax; it is equivalent to ‘< <(list)’, redirecting standard input from the
result of process substitution. Hence all the following documentation applies. The second form (with the
space) is recommended for clarity.
In the case of the < or > forms, the shell runs the commands in list as a subprocess of the job executing the
shell command line. If the system supports the /dev/fd mechanism, the command argument is the name of
the device file corresponding 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 connected 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 respectively, 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
containing 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.
There is an optimisation for substitutions of the form =(<<<arg), where arg is a single-word argument to
the here-string redirection <<<. This form produces a file name containing the value of arg after any sub-
stitutions have been performed. This is handled entirely within the current shell. This is effectively the re-
verse of the special form $(<arg) which treats arg as a file name and replaces it with the file’s contents.
The = form is useful as both the /dev/fd and the named pipe implementation of <(...) have drawbacks. In
the former 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 security reasons such as when the pro-
gramme 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, different operating systems
may have different behaviour) block for ever and have to be killed explicitly. In both cases, the shell actu-
ally 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 MUL-
TIOS option is set) as:
paste <(cut -f1 file1) <(cut -f3 file2) \
> >(process1) > >(process2)

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The shell uses pipes instead of FIFOs to implement the latter two process substitutions in the above exam-
ple.
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 complete. The problem and solution are the same as described in the section MULTIOS in
zshmisc(1). Hence in a simplified version of the example above:
paste <(cut -f1 file1) <(cut -f3 file2) > >(process)
(note that no MULTIOS are involved), process will be run asynchronously as far as the parent shell is con-
cerned. 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.
Another problem arises any time a job with a substitution that requires a temporary file is disowned by the
shell, including the case where ‘&!’ or ‘&|’ appears at the end of a command containing a substitution. In
that case the temporary file will not be cleaned up as the shell no longer has any memory of the job. A
workaround is to use a subshell, for example,
(mycmd =(myoutput)) &!
as the forked subshell will wait for the command to finish then remove the temporary file.
A general workaround to ensure a process substitution endures for an appropriate length of time is to pass it
as a parameter to an anonymous shell function (a piece of shell code that is run immediately with function
scope). For example, this code:
() {
print File $1:
cat $1
} =(print This be the verse)
outputs something resembling the following
File /tmp/zsh6nU0kS:
This be the verse
The temporary file created by the process substitution will be deleted when the function exits.
PARAMETER EXPANSION
The character ‘$’ is used to introduce parameter expansions. See zshparam(1) for a description of parame-
ters, including arrays, associative arrays, and subscript notation to access individual array elements.
Note in particular the fact that words of unquoted parameters are not automatically split on whitespace un-
less the option SH_WORD_SPLIT is set; see references to this option below for more details. This is an
important difference from other shells. However, as in other shells, null words are elided from unquoted
parameters’ expansions.
With default options, after the assignments:
array=("first word" "" "third word")
scalar="only word"
then $array substitutes two words, ‘first word’ and ‘third word’, and $scalar substitutes a single word
‘only word’. Note that second element of array was elided. Scalar parameters can be elided too if their
value is null (empty). To avoid elision, use quoting as follows: "$scalar" for scalars and "${array[@]}"
or "${(@)array}" for arrays. (The last two forms are equivalent.)
Parameter expansions can involve flags, as in ‘${(@kv)aliases}’, and other operators, such as ‘${PRE-
FIX:-"/usr/local"}’. Parameter expansions can also be nested. These topics will be introduced below.
The full rules are complicated and are noted at the end.
In the expansions discussed below that require a pattern, the form of the pattern is the same as that used for

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filename generation; see the section ‘Filename Generation’. Note that these patterns, along with the re-
placement text of any substitutions, are themselves subject to parameter expansion, command substitution,
and arithmetic expansion. In addition to the following operations, the colon modifiers described in the sec-
tion ‘Modifiers’ in the section ‘History Expansion’ can be applied: for example, ${i:s/foo/bar/} performs
string substitution on the expansion of parameter $i.
In the following descriptions, ‘word’ refers to a single word substituted on the command line, not necessar-
ily a space delimited word.
${name}
The value, if any, of the parameter name is substituted. 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 addi-
tion, more complicated forms of substitution usually require the braces to be present; exceptions,
which only apply if the option KSH_ARRAYS is not set, are a single subscript or any colon mod-
ifiers appearing after the name, or any of the characters ‘ˆ’, ‘=’, ‘˜’, ‘#’ 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 el-
ement of name is substituted, one element per word. Otherwise, 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. See also the flags = and s:string:.
${+name}
If name is the name of a set parameter ‘1’ is substituted, otherwise ‘0’ is substituted.
${name-word}
${name:-word}
If name is set, or in the second form is non-null, then substitute its value; otherwise substitute
word. In the second form name may be omitted, in which case word is always substituted.
${name+word}
${name:+word}
If name is set, or in the second form is non-null, then substitute word; otherwise substitute noth-
ing.
${name=word}
${name:=word}
${name::=word}
In the first form, if name is unset then set it to word; in the second form, if name is unset or null
then set it to word; and in the third form, unconditionally set name to word. In all forms, the value
of the parameter is then substituted.
${name?word}
${name:?word}
In the first form, if name is set, or in the second form if name is both set and non-null, then substi-
tute its value; otherwise, print word and exit from the shell. Interactive shells instead return to the
prompt. If word is omitted, then a standard message is printed.
In any of the above expressions that test a variable and substitute an alternate word, note that you can use
standard shell quoting in the word value to selectively override the splitting done by the
SH_WORD_SPLIT option and the = flag, but not splitting by the s:string: flag.
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 pre-
ferred.

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${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 small-
est 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 substitute 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:|arrayname}
If arrayname is the name (N.B., not contents) of an array variable, then any elements contained in
arrayname are removed from the substitution of name. If the substitution is scalar, either because
name is a scalar variable or the expression is quoted, the elements of arrayname are instead tested
against the entire expression.
${name:*arrayname}
Similar to the preceding substitution, but in the opposite sense, so that entries present in both the
original substitution and as elements of arrayname are retained and others removed.
${name:ˆarrayname}
${name:ˆˆarrayname}
Zips two arrays, such that the output array is twice as long as the shortest (longest for ‘:ˆˆ’) of
name and arrayname, with the elements alternatingly being picked from them. For ‘:ˆ’, if one of
the input arrays is longer, the output will stop when the end of the shorter array is reached. Thus,
a=(1 2 3 4); b=(a b); print ${a:ˆb}
will output ‘1 a 2 b’. For ‘:ˆˆ’, then the input is repeated until all of the longer array has been used
up and the above will output ‘1 a 2 b 3 a 4 b’.
Either or both inputs may be a scalar, they will be treated as an array of length 1 with the scalar as
the only element. If either array is empty, the other array is output with no extra elements inserted.
Currently the following code will output ‘a b’ and ‘1’ as two separate elements, which can be un-
expected. The second print provides a workaround which should continue to work if this is
changed.
a=(a b); b=(1 2); print -l "${a:ˆb}"; print -l "${${a:ˆb}}"
${name:offset}
${name:offset:length}
This syntax gives effects similar to parameter subscripting in the form $name[start,end], but is
compatible with other shells; note that both offset and length are interpreted differently from the
components of a subscript.
If offset is non-negative, then if the variable name is a scalar substitute the contents starting offset
characters from the first character of the string, and if name is an array substitute elements starting
offset elements from the first element. If length is given, substitute that many characters or ele-
ments, otherwise the entire rest of the scalar or array.
A positive offset is always treated as the offset of a character or element in name from the first
character or element of the array (this is different from native zsh subscript notation). Hence 0
refers to the first character or element regardless of the setting of the option KSH_ARRAYS.
A negative offset counts backwards from the end of the scalar or array, so that -1 corresponds to
the last character or element, and so on.
When positive, length counts from the offset position toward the end of the scalar or array. When
negative, length counts back from the end. If this results in a position smaller than offset, a diag-
nostic is printed and nothing is substituted.

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The option MULTIBYTE is obeyed, i.e. the offset and length count multibyte characters where
appropriate.
offset and length undergo the same set of shell substitutions as for scalar assignment; in addition,
they are then subject to arithmetic evaluation. Hence, for example
print ${foo:3}
print ${foo: 1 + 2}
print ${foo:$(( 1 + 2))}
print ${foo:$(echo 1 + 2)}
all have the same effect, extracting the string starting at the fourth character of $foo if the substitu-
tion would otherwise return a scalar, or the array starting at the fourth element if $foo would return
an array. Note that with the option KSH_ARRAYS $foo always returns a scalar (regardless of the
use of the offset syntax) and a form such as ${foo[*]:3} is required to extract elements of an array
named foo.
If offset is negative, the - may not appear immediately after the : as this indicates the
${name:-word} form of substitution. Instead, a space may be inserted before the -. Furthermore,
neither offset nor length may begin with an alphabetic character or & as these are used to indicate
history-style modifiers. To substitute a value from a variable, the recommended approach is to
precede it with a $ as this signifies the intention (parameter substitution can easily be rendered un-
readable); however, as arithmetic substitution is performed, the expression ${var: offs} does work,
retrieving the offset from $offs.
For further compatibility with other shells there is a special case for array offset 0. This usually
accesses the first element of the array. However, if the substitution refers to the positional parame-
ter array, e.g. $@ or $*, then offset 0 instead refers to $0, offset 1 refers to $1, and so on. In other
words, the positional parameter array is effectively extended by prepending $0. Hence ${*:0:1}
substitutes $0 and ${*:1:1} substitutes $1.
${name/pattern/repl}
${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, and the third
form replaces only if pattern matches the entire string. Both pattern and repl are subject to dou-
ble-quoted substitution, so that expressions like ${name/$opat/$npat} will work, but obey the
usual rule that pattern characters 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, or ‘#%’ in which case the pattern must
match the entire 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.
If, after quoting rules apply, ${name} expands to an array, the replacements act on each element
individually. 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’.

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${#spec}
If spec is one of the above substitutions, substitute the length in characters of the result instead of
the result itself. If spec is an array expression, substitute the number of elements of the result.
This has the side-effect that joining is skipped even in quoted forms, which may affect other
sub-expressions in spec. Note that ‘ˆ’, ‘=’, and ‘˜’, below, must appear to the left of ‘#’ when
these forms are combined.
If the option POSIX_IDENTIFIERS is not set, and spec is a simple name, then the braces are op-
tional; this is true even for special parameters so e.g. $#- and $#* take the length of the string $-
and the array $* respectively. If POSIX_IDENTIFIERS is set, then braces are required for the #
to be treated in this fashion.
${ˆspec}
Turn on the RC_EXPAND_PARAM option for the evaluation of spec; if the ‘ˆ’ is doubled, turn it
off. When this option is set, array expansions of the form foo${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’.
Note that an empty array will therefore cause all arguments to be removed.
Internally, each such expansion is converted into the equivalent list for brace expansion. E.g.,
${ˆvar} becomes {$var[1],$var[2],...}, and is processed as described in the section ‘Brace Expan-
sion’ below: note, however, the expansion happens immediately, with any explicit brace expansion
happening later. If word splitting is also in effect the $var[N] may themselves be split into differ-
ent 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 double 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 any-
where that is possible, such as in filename expansion and filename generation and pattern-match-
ing contexts like the right hand side of the ‘=’ and ‘!=’ operators in conditions.
In nested substitutions, note that the effect of the ˜ applies to the result of the current level of sub-
stitution. A surrounding pattern operation on the result may cancel it. Hence, for example, if the
parameter foo is set to *, ${˜foo//\*/*.c} is substituted by the pattern *.c, which may be expanded
by filename generation, but ${${˜foo}//\*/*.c} substitutes to the string *.c, which will not be further
expanded.
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 followed by a subscript expression as described
in Array Parameters in zshparam(1).
Note that double quotes may appear around nested expressions, 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.

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Parameter Expansion Flags

If the opening brace is directly followed by an opening parenthesis, the string up to the matching closing
parenthesis 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:
# Evaluate the resulting words as numeric expressions and output the characters corresponding to
the resulting integer. Note that this form is entirely distinct from use of the # without parentheses.
If the MULTIBYTE option is set and the number is greater than 127 (i.e. not an ASCII character)
it is treated as a Unicode character.
% Expand all % escapes in the resulting words in the same way as in prompts (see EXPANSION OF
PROMPT SEQUENCES in zshmisc(1)). 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 separate 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 f, s or z flags, which still applies within each array element.
A Convert the substitution into an array expression, even if it otherwise would be scalar. This has
lower precedence than subscripting, so one level of nested expansion is required in order that sub-
scripts apply to array elements. Thus ${${(A)name}[1]} yields the full value of name when name
is scalar.
This assigns an array parameter with ‘${...=...}’, ‘${...:=...}’ or ‘${...::=...}’. If this flag is repeated
(as in ‘AA’), assigns an associative array parameter. Assignment is made before sorting or pad-
ding; if field splitting is active, the word part is split before assignment. The name part may be a
subscripted range for ordinary arrays; when assigning an associative array, the word part must be
converted to an array, for example by using ‘${(AA)=name=...}’ to activate field splitting.
Surrounding context such as additional nesting or use of the value in a scalar assignment may
cause the array to be joined back into a single string again.
a Sort in array index order; when combined with ‘O’ sort in reverse array index order. Note that ‘a’
is therefore equivalent to the default but ‘Oa’ is useful for obtaining an array’s elements in reverse
order.
b Quote with backslashes only characters that are special to pattern matching. This is useful when
the contents of the variable are to be tested using GLOB_SUBST, including the ${˜...} switch.
Quoting using one of the q family of flags does not work for this purpose since quotes are not
stripped from non-pattern characters by GLOB_SUBST. In other words,
pattern=${(q)str}
[[ $str = ${˜pattern} ]]
works if $str is ‘a*b’ but not if it is ‘a b’, whereas
pattern=${(b)str}
[[ $str = ${˜pattern} ]]
is always true for any possible value of $str.
c With ${#name}, count the total number of characters in an array, as if the elements were concate-
nated with spaces between them. This is not a true join of the array, so other expressions used
with this flag may have an effect on the elements of the array before it is counted.
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.
D Assume the string or array elements contain directories and attempt to substitute the leading part
of these by names. The remainder of the path (the whole of it if the leading part was not substi-
tuted) is then quoted so that the whole string can be used as a shell argument. This is the reverse

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of ‘˜’ substitution: see the section FILENAME EXPANSION below.

e Perform single word shell expansions, namely parameter expansion, command substitution and
arithmetic expansion, on the result. Such expansions can be nested but too deep recursion may
have unpredictable effects.
f Split the result of the expansion at newlines. 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:’.
g:opts: Process escape sequences like the echo builtin when no options are given (g::). With the o option,
octal escapes don’t take a leading zero. With the c option, sequences like ‘ˆX’ are also processed.
With the e option, processes ‘\M-t’ and similar sequences like the print builtin. With both of the o
and e options, behaves like the print builtin except that in none of these modes is ‘\c’ interpreted.
i Sort case-insensitively. May be combined with ‘n’ or ‘O’.
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 substi-
tuted even if the subscript form refers to values. However, this flag may not be combined with
subscript ranges. With the KSH_ARRAYS option a subscript ‘[*]’ or ‘[@]’ is needed to operate
on the whole array, as usual.
L Convert all letters in the result to lower case.
n Sort decimal integers numerically; if the first differing characters of two test strings are not digits,
sorting is lexical. Integers with more initial zeroes are sorted before those with fewer or none.
Hence the array ‘foo1 foo02 foo2 foo3 foo20 foo23’ is sorted into the order shown. May be com-
bined with ‘i’ or ‘O’.
o Sort the resulting words in ascending order; if this appears on its own the sorting is lexical and
case-sensitive (unless the locale renders it case-insensitive). Sorting in ascending order is the de-
fault for other forms of sorting, so this is ignored if combined with ‘a’, ‘i’ or ‘n’.
O Sort the resulting words in descending order; ‘O’ without ‘a’, ‘i’ or ‘n’ sorts in reverse lexical or-
der. May be combined with ‘a’, ‘i’ or ‘n’ to reverse the order of sorting.
P This forces the value of the parameter name to be interpreted as a further parameter name, whose
value will be used where appropriate. Note that flags set with one of the typeset family of com-
mands (in particular case transformations) are not applied to the value of name used in this fash-
ion.
If used with a nested parameter or command substitution, the result of that will be taken as a pa-
rameter 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’.
Likewise, if the reference is itself nested, the expression with the flag is treated as if it were di-
rectly replaced by the parameter name. It is an error if this nested substitution produces an array
with more than one word. For example, if ‘name=assoc’ where the parameter assoc is an associa-
tive array, then ‘${${(P)name}[elt]}’ refers to the element of the associative subscripted ‘elt’.
q Quote characters that are special to the shell in the resulting words with backslashes; unprintable
or invalid characters are quoted using the $’\NNN’ form, with separate quotes for each octet.
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; in these forms no special handling of unprintable or
invalid characters is attempted. If the flag is given four times, the words are quoted in single
quotes preceded by a $. Note that in all three of these forms quoting is done unconditionally, even
if this does not change the way the resulting string would be interpreted by the shell.
If a q- is given (only a single q may appear), a minimal form of single quoting is used that only
quotes the string if needed to protect special characters. Typically this form gives the most read-
able output.
If a q+ is given, an extended form of minimal quoting is used that causes unprintable characters to

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be rendered using $’...’. This quoting is similar to that used by the output of values by the typeset
family of commands.
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 ‘associa-
tion’. 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 occurrence of duplicated values
hide for parameters with the ‘hide’ flag
hideval for parameters with the ‘hideval’ 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 ${#name}, count words in arrays or strings; the s flag may be used to set a word delimiter.
W Similar to w with the difference that empty words between repeated delimiters are also counted.
X With this flag, parsing errors occurring with the Q, e and # flags or the pattern matching forms
such as ‘${name#pattern}’ are reported. Without the flag, errors 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. Comments are not treated specially but as ordinary strings, simi-
lar to interactive shells with the INTERACTIVE_COMMENTS option unset (however, see the Z
flag below for related options)
Note that this is done very late, even later than the ‘(s)’ flag. So to access single words in the result
use nested expansions as in ‘${${(z)foo}[2]}’. Likewise, to remove the quotes in the resulting
words use ‘${(Q)${(z)foo}}’.
0 Split the result of the expansion on null bytes. This is a shorthand for ‘ps:\0:’.
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.

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p Recognize the same escape sequences as the print builtin in string arguments to any of the flags
described below that follow this argument.
Alternatively, with this option string arguments may be in the form $var in which case the value of
the variable is substituted. Note this form is strict; the string argument does not undergo general
parameter expansion.
For example,
sep=:
val=a:b:c
print ${(ps.$sep.)val}
splits the variable on a :.
˜ Strings inserted into the expansion by any of the flags below are to be treated as patterns. This ap-
plies to the string arguments of flags that follow ˜ within the same set of parentheses. Compare
with ˜ outside parentheses, which forces the entire substituted string to be treated as a pattern.
Hence, for example,
[[ "?" = ${(˜j.|.)array} ]]
treats ‘|’ as a pattern and succeeds if and only if $array contains the string ‘?’ as an element. The
˜ may be repeated to toggle the behaviour; its effect only lasts to the end of the parenthesised
group.
j:string:
Join the words of arrays together using string as a separator. Note that this occurs before field
splitting by the s:string: flag or 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 arguments :string1: and :string2: are optional; neither, the first, or both may be given. Note
that the same pairs of delimiters must be used for each of the three arguments. 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, string2 is inserted once directly to the left of each word, trun-
cated if necessary, before string1 is used to produce any remaining padding.
If either of string1 or string2 is present but empty, i.e. there are two delimiters together at that
point, the first character of $IFS is used instead.
If the MULTIBYTE option is in effect, the flag m may also be given, in which case widths will be
used for the calculation of padding; otherwise individual multibyte characters are treated as occu-
pying one unit of width.
If the MULTIBYTE option is not in effect, each byte in the string is treated as occupying one unit
of width.
Control characters are always assumed to be one unit wide; this allows the mechanism to be used
for generating repetitions of control characters.
m Only useful together with one of the flags l or r or with the # length operator when the MULTI-
BYTE option is in effect. Use the character width reported by the system in calculating how
much of the string it occupies or the overall length of the string. Most printable characters have a
width of one unit, however certain Asian character sets and certain special effects use wider char-
acters; combining characters have zero width. Non-printable characters are arbitrarily counted as
zero width; how they would actually be displayed will vary.
If the m is repeated, the character either counts zero (if it has zero width), else one. For printable
character strings this has the effect of counting the number of glyphs (visibly separate characters),
except for the case where combining characters themselves have non-zero width (true in certain
alphabets).

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r:expr::string1::string2:
As l, but pad the words on the right and insert string2 immediately to the right of the string to be
padded.
Left and right padding may be used together. In this case the strategy is to apply left padding to
the first half width of each of the resulting words, and right padding to the second half. If the
string to be padded has odd width the extra padding is applied on the left.
s:string:
Force field splitting at the separator string. Note that a string of two or more characters means that
all of them must match in sequence; this differs from the treatment of two or more characters in
the IFS parameter. See also the = flag and the SH_WORD_SPLIT option. An empty string may
also be given in which case every character will be a separate element.
For historical reasons, the usual behaviour that empty array elements are retained inside double
quotes is disabled for arrays generated by splitting; hence the following:
line="one::three"
print -l "${(s.:.)line}"
produces two lines of output for one and three and elides the empty field. To override this behav-
iour, supply the ‘(@)’ flag as well, i.e. "${(@s.:.)line}".
Z:opts: As z but takes a combination of option letters between a following pair of delimiter characters.
With no options the effect is identical to z. (Z+c+) causes comments to be parsed as a string and
retained; any field in the resulting array beginning with an unquoted comment character is a com-
ment. (Z+C+) causes comments to be parsed and removed. The rule for comments is standard:
anything between a word starting with the third character of $HISTCHARS, default #, up to the
next newline is a comment. (Z+n+) causes unquoted newlines to be treated as ordinary white-
space, else they are treated as if they are shell code delimiters and converted to semicolons. Op-
tions are combined within the same set of delimiters, e.g. (Z+Cn+).
_:flags: The underscore (_) flag is reserved for future use. As of this revision of zsh, there are no valid
flags; anything following an underscore, other than an empty pair of delimiters, is treated as an er-
ror, and the flag itself has no effect.
The following flags are meaningful with the ${...#...} or ${...%...} forms. The S and I flags may also be
used with the ${.../...} forms.
S With # or ##, search for the match that starts closest to the start of the string (a ‘substring match’).
Of all matches at a particular position, # selects the shortest and ## the longest:
% str="aXbXc"
% echo ${(S)str#X*}
abXc
% echo ${(S)str##X*}
a
%
With % or %%, search for the match that starts closest to the end of the string:
% str="aXbXc"
% echo ${(S)str%X*}
aXbc
% echo ${(S)str%%X*}
aXb
%
(Note that % and %% don’t search for the match that ends closest to the end of the string, as one
might expect.)
With substitution via ${.../...} or ${...//...}, specifies non-greedy matching, i.e. that the shortest in-
stead of the longest match should be replaced:

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% str="abab"
% echo ${str/*b/_}
_
% echo ${(S)str/*b/_}
_ab
%
I:expr: Search the exprth match (where expr evaluates to a number). This only applies when searching for
substrings, 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 substitution 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 one character past the end of the match in the result (note this is inconsistent
with other uses of parameter index).
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 re-
sponsibility for any brain damage which may occur during the reading of the following rules.
1. Nested substitution
If multiple nested ${...} forms are present, substitution 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 substitution will return either a scalar or an array as deter-
mined by the flags, possibly adjusted for quoting. All the following steps take place where appli-
cable 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}.
When the ‘(P)’ flag is present in a nested substitution, the other substitution rules are applied to
the value before it is interpreted as a name, so ${${(P)foo}} may differ from ${(P)foo}.
At each nested level of substitution, the substituted words undergo all forms of single-word sub-
stitution (i.e. not filename generation), including command substitution, arithmetic expansion and
filename expansion (i.e. leading ˜ and =). Thus, for example, ${${:-=cat}:h} expands to the direc-
tory where the cat program resides. (Explanation: the internal substitution has no parameter but a
default value =cat, which is expanded by filename expansion to a full path; the outer substitution
then applies the modifier :h and takes the directory part of the path.)

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2. Internal parameter flags

Any parameter flags set by one of the typeset family of commands, in particular the -L, -R, -Z,
-u and -l options for padding and capitalization, are applied directly to the parameter value. Note
these flags are options to the command, e.g. ‘typeset -Z’; they are not the same as the flags used
within parameter substitutions.
At the outermost level of substitution, the ‘(P)’ flag (rule 4.) ignores these transformations and
uses the unmodified value of the parameter as the name to be replaced. This is usually the desired
behavior because padding may make the value syntactically illegal as a parameter name, but if
capitalization changes are desired, use the ${${(P)foo}} form (rule 25.).
3. 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 ar-
ray, ${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 number
of subscripts may appear. Flags such as ‘(k)’ and ‘(v)’ which alter the result of subscripting are
applied.
4. Parameter name replacement
At the outermost level of nesting only, the ‘(P)’ flag is applied. This treats the value so far as a pa-
rameter name (which may include a subscript expression) and replaces that with the corresponding
value. This replacement occurs later if the ‘(P)’ flag appears in a nested substitution.
If the value so far names a parameter that has internal flags (rule 2.), those internal flags are ap-
plied to the new value after replacement.
5. Double-quoted joining
If the value after this process is an array, and the substitution appears in double quotes, and neither
an ‘(@)’ flag nor a ‘#’ length operator is present at the current level, then words of the value are
joined with the first character of the parameter $IFS, by default a space, between each word (sin-
gle word arrays are not modified). If the ‘(j)’ flag is present, that is used for joining instead of
$IFS.
6. Nested subscripting
Any remaining subscripts (i.e. of a nested substitution) are evaluated at this point, based on
whether the value is an array or a scalar. As with 3., 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 sub-
stitution returns a scalar because of the quotes).
7. 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.
8. Character evaluation
Any ‘(#)’ flag is applied, evaluating the result so far numerically as a character.
9. Length
Any initial ‘#’ modifier, i.e. in the form ${#var}, is used to evaluate the length of the expression so
far.
10. Forced joining
If the ‘(j)’ flag is present, or no ‘(j)’ flag is present but the string is to be split as given by rule 11.,
and joining did not take place at rule 5., 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.

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11. Simple word splitting

If one of the ‘(s)’ or ‘(f)’ flags are present, 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.
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.
12. Case modification
Any case modification from one of the flags ‘(L)’, ‘(U)’ or ‘(C)’ is applied.
13. Escape sequence replacement
First any replacements from the ‘(g)’ flag are performed, then any prompt-style formatting from
the ‘(%)’ family of flags is applied.
14. Quote application
Any quoting or unquoting using ‘(q)’ and ‘(Q)’ and related flags is applied.
15. Directory naming
Any directory name substitution using ‘(D)’ flag is applied.
16. Visibility enhancement
Any modifications to make characters visible using the ‘(V)’ flag are applied.
17. Lexical word splitting
If the ’(z)’ flag or one of the forms of the ’(Z)’ flag is present, the word is split as if it were a shell
command line, so that quotation marks and other metacharacters are used to decide what consti-
tutes a word. Note this form of splitting is entirely distinct from that described by rule 11.: it does
not use $IFS, and does not cause forced joining.
18. Uniqueness
If the result is an array and the ‘(u)’ flag was present, duplicate elements are removed from the ar-
ray.
19. Ordering
If the result is still an array and one of the ‘(o)’ or ‘(O)’ flags was present, the array is reordered.
20. RC_EXPAND_PARAM
At this point the decision is made whether any resulting array elements are to be combined ele-
ment by element with surrounding text, as given by either the RC_EXPAND_PARAM option or
the ‘ˆ’ flag.
21. Re-evaluation
Any ‘(e)’ flag is applied to the value, forcing it to be re-examined for new parameter substitutions,
but also for command and arithmetic substitutions.
22. Padding
Any padding of the value by the ‘(l.fill.)’ or ‘(r.fill.)’ flags is applied.
23. Semantic joining
In contexts where expansion semantics requires a single word to result, all words are rejoined with
the first character of IFS between. So in ‘${(P)${(f)lines}}’ the value of ${lines} is split at new-
lines, but then must be joined again before the ‘(P)’ flag can be applied.
If a single word is not required, this rule is skipped.
24. Empty argument removal
If the substitution does not appear in double quotes, any resulting zero-length argument, whether
from a scalar or an element of an array, is elided from the list of arguments inserted into the com-
mand line.
Strictly speaking, the removal happens later as the same happens with other forms of substitution;
the point to note here is simply that it occurs after any of the above parameter operations.

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25. Nested parameter name replacement

If the ‘(P)’ flag is present and rule 4. has not applied, the value so far is treated as a parameter
name (which may include a subscript expression) and replaced with the corresponding value, with
internal flags (rule 2.) applied to the new value.
Examples
The flag f is useful to split a double-quoted substitution line by line. For example, ${(f)"$(<file)"} substi-
tutes the contents of file divided so that each line is an element of the resulting array. Compare this with the
effect of $(<file) alone, which divides the file up by words, or the same inside double quotes, which makes
the entire content of the file a single string.
The following illustrates the rules for nested parameter expansions. Suppose that $foo contains the array
(bar baz):
"${(@)${foo}[1]}"
This produces the result b. First, the inner substitution "${foo}", which has no array (@) flag,
produces a single word result "bar baz". The outer substitution "${(@)...[1]}" detects that this is
a scalar, so that (despite the ‘(@)’ flag) the subscript picks the first character.
"${${(@)foo}[1]}"
This produces the result ‘bar’. In this case, the inner substitution "${(@)foo}" produces the array
‘(bar baz)’. The outer substitution "${...[1]}" detects that this is an array and picks the first word.
This is similar to the simple case "${foo[1]}".
As an example of the rules for word splitting and joining, suppose $foo contains the array ‘(ax1 bx1)’.
Then
${(s/x/)foo}
produces the words ‘a’, ‘1 b’ and ‘1’.
${(j/x/s/x/)foo}
produces ‘a’, ‘1’, ‘b’ and ‘1’.
${(s/x/)foo%%1*}
produces ‘a’ and ‘ b’ (note the extra space). As substitution occurs before either joining or split-
ting, the operation first generates the modified array (ax bx), which is joined to give "ax bx", and
then split to give ‘a’, ‘ b’ and ‘’. The final empty string will then be elided, as it is not in double
quotes.
COMMAND SUBSTITUTION
A command enclosed in parentheses preceded by a dollar sign, like ‘$(...)’, or quoted with grave accents,
like ‘‘...‘’, is replaced with its standard output, with any trailing newlines deleted. If the substitution is not
enclosed in double quotes, the output is broken into words using the IFS parameter.
The substitution ‘$(cat foo)’ may be replaced by the faster ‘$(<foo)’. In this case foo undergoes single
word shell expansions (parameter expansion, command substitution and arithmetic expansion), but not file-
name generation.
If the option GLOB_SUBST is set, the result of any unquoted command substitution, including the special
form just mentioned, is eligible for filename generation.
ARITHMETIC EXPANSION
A string of the form ‘$[exp]’ or ‘$((exp))’ is substituted with the value of the arithmetic expression exp. exp
is subjected to parameter expansion, command substitution and arithmetic expansion before it is evaluated.
See the section ‘Arithmetic Evaluation’.
BRACE EXPANSION
A string of the form ‘foo{xx,yy,zz}bar’ is expanded to the individual words ‘fooxxbar’, ‘fooyybar’ and
‘foozzbar’. Left-to-right order is preserved. This construct may be nested. Commas may be quoted in or-
der to include them literally in a word.
An expression of the form ‘{n1..n2}’, where n1 and n2 are integers, is expanded to every number between
n1 and n2 inclusive. If either number begins with a zero, all the resulting numbers will be padded with

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leading zeroes to that minimum width, but for negative numbers the - character is also included in the
width. If the numbers are in decreasing order the resulting sequence will also be in decreasing order.
An expression of the form ‘{n1..n2..n3}’, where n1, n2, and n3 are integers, is expanded as above, but only
every n3th number starting from n1 is output. If n3 is negative the numbers are output in reverse order, this
is slightly different from simply swapping n1 and n2 in the case that the step n3 doesn’t evenly divide the
range. Zero padding can be specified in any of the three numbers, specifying it in the third can be useful to
pad for example ‘{-99..100..01}’ which is not possible to specify by putting a 0 on either of the first two
numbers (i.e. pad to two characters).
An expression of the form ‘{c1..c2}’, where c1 and c2 are single characters (which may be multibyte char-
acters), is expanded to every character in the range from c1 to c2 in whatever character sequence is used in-
ternally. For characters with code points below 128 this is US ASCII (this is the only case most users will
need). If any intervening character is not printable, appropriate quotation is used to render it printable. If
the character sequence is reversed, the output is in reverse order, e.g. ‘{d..a}’ is substituted as ‘d c b a’.
If a brace expression matches none of the above forms, it is left unchanged, unless the option
BRACE_CCL (an abbreviation for ‘brace character class’) is set. In that case, it is expanded to a list of the
individual characters between the braces sorted into the order of the characters in the ASCII character set
(multibyte characters are not currently handled). The syntax is similar to a [...] expression in filename gen-
eration: ‘-’ is treated specially to denote a range of characters, but ‘ˆ’ or ‘!’ as the first character is treated
normally. For example, ‘{abcdef0-9}’ expands to 16 words 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 a b c d e f.
Note that brace expansion is not part of filename generation (globbing); an expression such as */{foo,bar}
is split into two separate words */foo and */bar before filename generation takes place. In particular, note
that this is liable to produce a ‘no match’ error if either of the two expressions does not match; this is to be
contrasted with */(foo|bar), which is treated as a single pattern but otherwise has similar effects.
To combine brace expansion with array expansion, see the ${ˆspec} form described in the section Parameter
Expansion above.
FILENAME EXPANSION
Each word is checked to see if it begins with an unquoted ‘˜’. If it does, then the word up to a ‘/’, or the end
of the word if there is no ‘/’, is checked to see if it can be substituted in one of the ways described here. If
so, then the ‘˜’ and the checked portion are replaced with the appropriate substitute value.
A ‘˜’ by itself is replaced by the value of $HOME. A ‘˜’ followed by a ‘+’ or a ‘-’ is replaced by current
or previous working directory, respectively.
A ‘˜’ followed by a number is replaced by the directory at that position in the directory stack. ‘˜0’ is equiv-
alent to ‘˜+’, and ‘˜1’ is the top of the stack. ‘˜+’ followed by a number is replaced by the directory at that
position in the directory stack. ‘˜+0’ is equivalent to ‘˜+’, and ‘˜+1’ is the top of the stack. ‘˜-’ followed
by a number is replaced by the directory that many positions from the bottom of the stack. ‘˜-0’ is the bot-
tom of the stack. The PUSHD_MINUS option exchanges the effects of ‘˜+’ and ‘˜-’ where they are fol-
lowed by a number.
Dynamic named directories
If the function zsh_directory_name exists, or the shell variable zsh_directory_name_functions exists and
contains an array of function names, then the functions are used to implement dynamic directory naming.
The functions are tried in order until one returns status zero, so it is important that functions test whether
they can handle the case in question and return an appropriate status.
A ‘˜’ followed by a string namstr in unquoted square brackets is treated specially as a dynamic directory
name. Note that the first unquoted closing square bracket always terminates namstr. The shell function is
passed two arguments: the string n (for name) and namstr. It should either set the array reply to a single el-
ement which is the directory corresponding to the name and return status zero (executing an assignment as
the last statement is usually sufficient), or it should return status non-zero. In the former case the element
of reply is used as the directory; in the latter case the substitution is deemed to have failed. If all functions
fail and the option NOMATCH is set, an error results.
The functions defined as above are also used to see if a directory can be turned into a name, for example

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when printing the directory stack or when expanding %˜ in prompts. In this case each function is passed
two arguments: the string d (for directory) and the candidate for dynamic naming. The function should ei-
ther return non-zero status, if the directory cannot be named by the function, or it should set the array reply
to consist of two elements: the first is the dynamic name for the directory (as would appear within ‘˜[...]’),
and the second is the prefix length of the directory to be replaced. For example, if the trial directory is
/home/myname/src/zsh and the dynamic name for /home/myname/src (which has 16 characters) is s, then
the function sets
reply=(s 16)
The directory name so returned is compared with possible static names for parts of the directory path, as
described below; it is used if the prefix length matched (16 in the example) is longer than that matched by
any static name.
It is not a requirement that a function implements both n and d calls; for example, it might be appropriate
for certain dynamic forms of expansion not to be contracted to names. In that case any call with the first ar-
gument d should cause a non-zero status to be returned.
The completion system calls ‘zsh_directory_name c’ followed by equivalent calls to elements of the array
zsh_directory_name_functions, if it exists, in order to complete dynamic names for directories. The code
for this should be as for any other completion function as described in zshcompsys(1).
As a working example, here is a function that expands any dynamic names beginning with the string p: to
directories below /home/pws/perforce. In this simple case a static name for the directory would be just as
effective.
zsh_directory_name() {
emulate -L zsh
setopt extendedglob
local -a match mbegin mend
if [[ $1 = d ]]; then
# turn the directory into a name
if [[ $2 = (#b)(/home/pws/perforce/)([ˆ/]##)* ]]; then
typeset -ga reply
reply=(p:$match[2] $(( ${#match[1]} + ${#match[2]} )) )
else
return 1
fi
elif [[ $1 = n ]]; then
# turn the name into a directory
[[ $2 != (#b)p:(?*) ]] && return 1
typeset -ga reply
reply=(/home/pws/perforce/$match[1])
elif [[ $1 = c ]]; then
# complete names
local expl
local -a dirs
dirs=(/home/pws/perforce/*(/:t))
dirs=(p:${ˆdirs})
_wanted dynamic-dirs expl ’dynamic directory’ compadd -S\] -a dirs
return
else
return 1
fi
return 0
}

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Static named directories

A ‘˜’ followed by anything not already covered consisting of any number of alphanumeric characters or un-
derscore (‘_’), hyphen (‘-’), or dot (‘.’) is looked up as a named directory, and replaced by the value of that
named directory if found. Named directories are typically home directories for users on the system. They
may also be defined if the text after the ‘˜’ is the name of a string shell parameter whose value begins with a
‘/’. Note that trailing slashes will be removed from the path to the directory (though the original parameter
is not modified).
It is also possible to define directory names using the -d option to the hash builtin.
When the shell prints a path (e.g. when expanding %˜ in prompts or when printing the directory stack), the
path is checked to see if it has a named directory as its prefix. If so, then the prefix portion is replaced with
a ‘˜’ followed by the name of the directory. The shorter of the two ways of referring to the directory is
used, i.e. either the directory name or the full path; the name is used if they are the same length. The pa-
rameters $PWD and $OLDPWD are never abbreviated in this fashion.
‘=’ expansion
If a word begins with an unquoted ‘=’ and the EQUALS option is set, the remainder of the word is taken as
the name of a command. If a command exists by that name, the word is replaced by the full pathname of
the command.
Notes
Filename expansion is performed on the right hand side of a parameter assignment, including those appear-
ing after commands of the typeset family. In this case, the right hand side will be treated as a colon-sepa-
rated list in the manner of the PATH parameter, so that a ‘˜’ or an ‘=’ following a ‘:’ is eligible for expan-
sion. All such behaviour can be disabled by quoting the ‘˜’, the ‘=’, or the whole expression (but not sim-
ply the colon); the EQUALS option is also respected.
If the option MAGIC_EQUAL_SUBST is set, any unquoted shell argument in the form ‘identifier=expres-
sion’ becomes eligible for file expansion as described in the previous paragraph. Quoting the first ‘=’ also
inhibits this.
FILENAME GENERATION
If a word contains an unquoted instance of one of the characters ‘*’, ‘(’, ‘|’, ‘<’, ‘[’, or ‘?’, it is regarded as
a pattern for filename generation, unless the GLOB option is unset. If the EXTENDED_GLOB option is
set, the ‘ˆ’ and ‘#’ characters also denote a pattern; otherwise they are not treated specially by the shell.
The word is replaced with a list of sorted filenames that match the pattern. If no matching pattern is found,
the shell gives an error message, unless the NULL_GLOB option is set, in which case the word is deleted;
or unless the NOMATCH option is unset, in which case the word is left unchanged.
In filename generation, the character ‘/’ must be matched explicitly; also, a ‘.’ must be matched explicitly at
the beginning of a pattern or after a ‘/’, unless the GLOB_DOTS option is set. No filename generation pat-
tern matches the files ‘.’ or ‘..’. In other instances of pattern matching, the ‘/’ and ‘.’ are not treated spe-
cially.
Glob Operators
* Matches any string, including the null string.
? Matches any character.
[...] Matches any of the enclosed characters. Ranges of characters can be specified by separating two
characters by a ‘-’. A ‘-’ or ‘]’ may be matched by including it as the first character in the list.
There are also several named classes of characters, in the form ‘[:name:]’ with the following
meanings. The first set use the macros provided by the operating system to test for the given char-
acter combinations, including any modifications due to local language settings, see ctype(3):
[:alnum:]
The character is alphanumeric

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[:alpha:]
The character is alphabetic
[:ascii:]
The character is 7-bit, i.e. is a single-byte character without the top bit set.
[:blank:]
The character is a blank character
[:cntrl:]
The character is a control character
[:digit:]
The character is a decimal digit
[:graph:]
The character is a printable character other than whitespace
[:lower:]
The character is a lowercase letter
[:print:]
The character is printable
[:punct:]
The character is printable but neither alphanumeric nor whitespace
[:space:]
The character is whitespace
[:upper:]
The character is an uppercase letter
[:xdigit:]
The character is a hexadecimal digit
Another set of named classes is handled internally by the shell and is not sensitive to the locale:
[:IDENT:]
The character is allowed to form part of a shell identifier, such as a parameter name
[:IFS:] The character is used as an input field separator, i.e. is contained in the IFS parameter
[:IFSSPACE:]
The character is an IFS white space character; see the documentation for IFS in the zsh-
param(1) manual page.
[:INCOMPLETE:]
Matches a byte that starts an incomplete multibyte character. Note that there may be a
sequence of more than one bytes that taken together form the prefix of a multibyte char-
acter. To test for a potentially incomplete byte sequence, use the pattern ‘[[:INCOM-
PLETE:]]*’. This will never match a sequence starting with a valid multibyte character.
[:INVALID:]
Matches a byte that does not start a valid multibyte character. Note this may be a contin-
uation byte of an incomplete multibyte character as any part of a multibyte string consist-
ing of invalid and incomplete multibyte characters is treated as single bytes.
[:WORD:]
The character is treated as part of a word; this test is sensitive to the value of the WORD-
CHARS parameter
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]’.

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[ˆ...]
[!...] 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 in-
evitable consequence of the rule that the longest possible match always succeeds. Expressions
such as ‘<0-9>[ˆ[: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 filename 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. The alternatives are tried in order from
left to right.
ˆx (Requires EXTENDED_GLOB to be set.) Matches anything except the pattern x. This has a
higher precedence than ‘/’, so ‘ˆfoo/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 operator 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. (Note the potential clash with glob qualifiers
in the form ‘1(2##)’ which should therefore be avoided.)
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 ‘(...)#’, except that recursive directory searching is not
supported.)
+(...) Match at least one occurrence. (Like ‘(...)##’, except that recursive directory searching is not sup-
ported.)
?(...) Match zero or one occurrence. (Like ‘(|...)’.)

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!(...) Match anything but the expression in parentheses. (Like ‘(ˆ(...))’.)

Precedence
The precedence of the operators given above is (highest) ‘ˆ’, ‘/’, ‘˜’, ‘|’ (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 parentheses, 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 special; 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
generation. When a pattern with a set of active parentheses 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 el-
ements of $mend and $mbegin may be used in subscripts; the KSH_ARRAYS option is re-
spected. Sets of globbing flags are not considered parenthesised groups; only the first nine active
parentheses can be referenced.
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_message’. Note that the first set of parentheses 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 substitu-
tion, 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 ex-
ample, in ‘[[ abab = (#b)([ab])# ]]’, only the final ‘b’ is stored in match[1]. Thus extra parenthe-
ses may be necessary to match the complete segment: 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 ini-
tialise them beforehand. If some of the backreferences 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.

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B Deactivate backreferences, negating the effect of the b flag from that point on.
cN,M The flag (#cN,M) can be used anywhere that the # or ## operators can be used except in the ex-
pressions ‘(*/)#’ and ‘(*/)##’ in filename generation, where ‘/’ has special meaning; it cannot be
combined with other globbing flags and a bad pattern error occurs if it is misplaced. It is equiva-
lent to the form {N,M} in regular expressions. The previous character or group is required to
match between N and M times, inclusive. The form (#cN) requires exactly N matches; (#c,M) is
equivalent to specifying N as 0; (#cN,) specifies that there is no maximum limit on the number of
matches.
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, $MBEGIN 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 ‘ˆ’ and ‘$’ in standard reg-
ular expressions. They are useful for matching path segments in patterns other than those in file-
name generation (where path segments are in any case treated separately). For example,
‘*((#s)|/)test((#e)|/)*’ matches a path segment ‘test’ in any of the following strings: test,
test/at/start, at/end/test, in/test/middle.
Another use is in parameter substitution; for example ‘${array/(#s)A*Z(#e)}’ will remove only el-
ements 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 ‘(ˆ(#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 backreferences and the ‘(#q.)’ will be ignored. Note that
colon modifiers in the glob qualifiers are also not applied in ordinary pattern matching.
u Respect the current locale in determining the presence of multibyte characters in a pattern, pro-
vided the shell was compiled with MULTIBYTE_SUPPORT. This overrides the MULTIBYTE
option; the default behaviour is taken from the option. Compare U. (Mnemonic: typically multi-
byte characters are from Unicode in the UTF-8 encoding, although any extension of ASCII sup-
ported by the system library may be used.)

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U All characters are considered to be a single byte long. The opposite of u. This overrides the
MULTIBYTE option.
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 directory 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 num-
ber 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 file-
names (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 pattern, so that (ab|cd)ef is two errors from aebf.
When using exclusion via the ˜ operator, approximate matching is treated entirely separately for the ex-
cluded 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 pattern 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 example, (#a1)cat((#a0)dog)fox allows one er-
ror in total, which may not occur in the dog section, and the pattern (#a1)cat(#a0)dog(#a1)fox is equiva-
lent. Note that the point at which an error is first found is the crucial one for establishing whether to use ap-
proximation; for example, (#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 without the (#a1), however, since every di-
rectory 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 match-
ing the pattern foo.
As a shorthand, ‘**/’ is equivalent to ‘(*/)#’; note that this therefore matches files in the current directory as
well as subdirectories. Thus:
ls -ld -- (*/)#bar
or
ls -ld -- **/bar

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does a recursive directory search for files named ‘bar’ (potentially including the file ‘bar’ in the current di-
rectory). This form does not follow symbolic links; the alternative form ‘***/’ does, but is otherwise iden-
tical. Neither of these can be combined with other forms of globbing within the same path segment; in that
case, the ‘*’ operators revert to their usual effect.
Even shorter forms are available when the option GLOB_STAR_SHORT is set. In that case if no / imme-
diately follows a ** or *** they are treated as if both a / plus a further * are present. Hence:
setopt GLOBSTARSHORT
ls -ld -- **.c
is equivalent to
ls -ld -- **/*.c
Glob Qualifiers
Patterns used for filename generation may end in a list of qualifiers enclosed in parentheses. The qualifiers
specify 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 ‘(’ charac-
ters (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 ‘(ˆx)’, can be forced to be treated as part of the glob pattern by dou-
bling the parentheses, in this case producing ‘((ˆx))’.
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 pattern. 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 recognised 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. Note that
within conditions using the ‘[[’ form the presence of a parenthesised expression (#q...) at the end of a string
indicates that globbing should be performed; the expression may include glob qualifiers, but it is also valid
if it is simply (#q). This does not apply to the right hand side of pattern match operators as the syntax al-
ready has special significance.
A qualifier may be any one of the following:
/ directories
F ‘full’ (i.e. non-empty) directories. Note that the opposite sense (ˆF) expands to empty directories
and all non-directories. Use (/ˆF) for empty directories.
. plain files
@ symbolic links
= sockets
p named pipes (FIFOs)
* executable plain files (0100 or 0010 or 0001)
% 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)

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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 oc-
tal 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 character anything up to the next matching character
(‘[’, ‘{’, and ‘<’ match ‘]’, ‘}’, and ‘>’ respectively, 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 ‘-’, fol-
lowed 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 ac-
cess, ‘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, independent of the permissions for other users. The
pattern ‘*(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 status of the last command).
In the first form, the first character after the ‘e’ will be used as a separator and anything up to the
next matching separator will be taken as the string; ‘[’, ‘{’, and ‘<’ match ‘]’, ‘}’, and ‘>’, respec-
tively, while any other character matches itself. Note that expansions must be quoted in the string
to prevent them from being expanded before globbing is done. string is then executed as shell
code. The string globqual is appended to the array zsh_eval_context the duration of execution.
During the execution of string the filename currently 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:’re-
ply=(${REPLY}{1,2})’:)’ will cause the words ‘lonely1’ and ‘lonely2’ to be inserted into the
command line. Note the quoting of string.
The form +cmd has the same effect, but no delimiters appear around cmd. Instead, cmd is taken as

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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 -ld -- *(+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 that is a number. Otherwise, id specifies a user name: the character af-
ter the ‘u’ will be taken as a separator and the string between it and the next matching separator
will be taken as a user name. The starting separators ‘[’, ‘{’, and ‘<’ match the final separators ‘]’,
‘}’, and ‘>’, respectively; any other character matches itself. The selected files are those owned by
this user. For example, ‘u:foo:’ or ‘u[foo]’ selects files owned by 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 seconds instead of days, respectively. An explicit
‘d’ for days is also allowed.
Any fractional part of the difference between the access time and the current part in the appropri-
ate units is ignored in the comparison. For instance, ‘echo *(ah-5)’ would echo files accessed
within the last five hours, while ‘echo *(ah+5)’ would echo files accessed at least six hours ago, as
times strictly between five and six hours are treated as 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 size specifier ‘k’ (‘K’), ‘m’ (‘M’), or ‘p’ (‘P’) (e.g. ‘Lk-50’)
the check is performed with kilobytes, megabytes, or blocks (of 512 bytes) instead. (On some sys-
tems additional specifiers are available for gigabytes, ‘g’ or ‘G’, and terabytes, ‘t’ or ‘T’.) If a size
specifier is used a file is regarded as "exactly" the size if the file size rounded up to the next unit is
equal to the test size. Hence ‘*(Lm1)’ matches files from 1 byte up to 1 Megabyte inclusive.
Note also that the set of files "less than" the test size only includes files that would not match the
equality test; hence ‘*(Lm-1)’ only matches files of zero size.
ˆ negates all qualifiers following it
- toggles between making the qualifiers work on symbolic 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

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D sets the GLOB_DOTS option for the current pattern

n sets the NUMERIC_GLOB_SORT option for the current pattern
Yn enables short-circuit mode: the pattern will expand to at most n filenames. If more than n matches
exist, only the first n matches in directory traversal order will be considered.
Implies oN when no oc qualifier is used.
oc specifies how the names of the files should be sorted. If c is n they are sorted by name; 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, modification, or inode change re-
spectively; if d, files in subdirectories appear before those in the current 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; if N, no sorting is performed. 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 ˆ and - are used, so ‘*(ˆ-oL)’ gives a list of all files sorted by file size in descending or-
der, following any symbolic links. Unless oN is used, multiple order specifiers may occur to re-
solve ties.
The default sorting is n (by name) unless the Y glob qualifier is used, in which case it is N (un-
sorted).
oe and o+ are special cases; they are each followed by shell code, delimited as for the e glob quali-
fier and the + glob qualifier respectively (see above). The code is executed for each matched file
with the parameter REPLY set to the name of the file on entry and globsort appended to
zsh_eval_context. The code should modify the parameter REPLY in some fashion. On return,
the value of the parameter is used instead of the file name as the string on which to sort. Unlike
other sort operators, oe and o+ may be repeated, but note that the maximum number of sort opera-
tors of any kind that may appear in any glob expression is 12.
Oc like ‘o’, but sorts in descending order; i.e. ‘*(ˆoc)’ is the same as ‘*(Oc)’ and ‘*(ˆOc)’ 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 pa-
rameter 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.
Pstring The string will be prepended to each glob match as a separate word. string is delimited in the
same way as arguments to the e glob qualifier described above. The qualifier can be repeated; the
words are prepended separately so that the resulting command line contains the words in the same
order they were given in the list of glob qualifiers.
A typical use for this is to prepend an option before all occurrences of a file name; for example,
the pattern ‘*(P:-f:)’ produces the command line arguments ‘-f file1 -f file2 ...’
If the modifier ˆ is active, then string will be appended instead of prepended. Prepending and ap-
pending is done independently so both can be used on the same glob expression; for example by
writing ‘*(P:foo:ˆP:bar:ˆP:baz:)’ which produces the command line arguments ‘foo baz file1 bar
...’
More than one of these lists can be combined, separated by commas. The whole list matches if at least one
of the sublists matches (they are ‘or’ed, the qualifiers in the sublists 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’). Each modifier must be introduced by a
separate ‘:’. Note also that the result after modification does not have to be an existing file. The name of

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any existing file can be followed by a modifier of the form ‘(:...)’ even if no actual filename generation is
performed, although note that the presence of the parentheses causes the entire expression to be subjected
to any global pattern matching options such as NULL_GLOB. Thus:
ls -ld -- *(-/)
lists all directories and symbolic links that point to directories, and
ls -ld -- *(-@)
lists all broken symbolic links, and
ls -ld -- *(%W)
lists all world-writable device files in the current directory, and
ls -ld -- *(W,X)
lists all files in the current directory that are world-writable or world-executable, and
print -rC1 /tmp/foo*(u0ˆ@:t)
outputs the basename of all root-owned files beginning with the string ‘foo’ in /tmp, ignoring symlinks,
and
ls -ld -- *.*˜(lex|parse).[ch](ˆDˆl1)
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 -rC1 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 ‘shmiltin.shmo’.

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ZSHPARAM(1) General Commands Manual ZSHPARAM(1)

NAME
zshparam - zsh parameters
DESCRIPTION
A parameter has a name, a value, and a number of attributes. A name may be any sequence of alphanu-
meric characters and underscores, or the single characters ‘*’, ‘@’, ‘#’, ‘?’, ‘-’, ‘$’, or ‘!’. A parameter
whose name begins with an alphanumeric or underscore is also referred to as a variable.
The attributes of a parameter determine the type of its value, often referred to as the parameter type or vari-
able type, and also control other processing that may be applied to the value when it is referenced. The
value type may be a scalar (a string, an integer, or a floating point number), an array (indexed numerically),
or an associative array (an unordered set of name-value pairs, indexed by name, also referred to as a hash).
Named scalar parameters may have the exported, -x, attribute, to copy them into the process environment,
which is then passed from the shell to any new processes that it starts. Exported parameters are called envi-
ronment variables. The shell also imports environment variables at startup time and automatically marks
the corresponding parameters as exported. Some environment variables are not imported for reasons of se-
curity or because they would interfere with the correct operation of other shell features.
Parameters may also be special, that is, they have a predetermined meaning to the shell. 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.
To declare the type of a parameter, or to assign a string or numeric value to a scalar parameter, use the type-
set builtin.
The value of a scalar parameter may also be assigned by writing:

name=value
In scalar assignment, value is expanded as a single string, in which the elements of arrays are joined to-
gether; filename expansion is not performed unless the option GLOB_ASSIGN is set.
When the integer attribute, -i, or a floating point attribute, -E or -F, is set for name, the value is subject to
arithmetic evaluation. Furthermore, by replacing ‘=’ with ‘+=’, a parameter can be incremented or ap-
pended to. See the section ‘Array Parameters’ and Arithmetic Evaluation (in zshmisc(1)) for additional
forms of assignment.
Note that assignment may implicitly change the attributes of a parameter. For example, assigning a number
to a variable in arithmetic evaluation may change its type to integer or float, and with GLOB_ASSIGN as-
signing a pattern to a variable may change its type to an array.
To reference the value of a parameter, write ‘$name’ or ‘${name}’. See Parameter Expansion in zshexpn(1)
for complete details. That section also explains the effect of the difference between scalar and array assign-
ment on parameter expansion.
ARRAY PARAMETERS
To assign an array value, write one of:

set -A name value ...

name=(value ...)
name=([key]=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.
In the third form, key is an expression that will be evaluated in arithmetic context (in its simplest form, an
integer) that gives the index of the element to be assigned with value. In this form any elements not explic-
itly mentioned that come before the largest index to which a value is assigned are assigned an empty string.
The indices may be in any order. Note that this syntax is strict: [ and ]= must not be quoted, and key may
not consist of the unquoted string ]=, but is otherwise treated as a simple string. The enhanced forms of
subscript expression that may be used when directly subscripting a variable name, described in the section

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Array Subscripts below, are not available.

The syntaxes with and without the explicit key may be mixed. An implicit key is deduced by incrementing
the index from the previously assigned element. Note that it is not treated as an error if latter assignments
in this form overwrite earlier assignments.
For example, assuming the option KSH_ARRAYS is not set, the following:
array=(one [3]=three four)
causes the array variable array to contain four elements one, an empty string, three and four, in that order.
In the forms where only value is specified, full command line expansion is performed.
In the [key]=value form, both key and value undergo all forms of expansion allowed for single word shell
expansions (this does not include filename generation); these are as performed by the parameter expansion
flag (e) as described in zshexpn(1). Nested parentheses may surround value and are included as part of the
value, which is joined into a plain string; this differs from ksh which allows the values themselves to be ar-
rays. A future version of zsh may support that. To cause the brackets to be interpreted as a character class
for filename generation, and therefore to treat the resulting list of files as a set of values, quote the equal
sign using any form of quoting. Example:

name=([a-z]’=’*)
To append to an array without changing the existing values, use one of the following:

name+=(value ...)
name+=([key]=value ...)
In the second form key may specify an existing index as well as an index off the end of the old array; any
existing value is overwritten by value. Also, it is possible to use [key]+=value to append to the existing
value at that index.
Within the parentheses on the right hand side of either form of the assignment, newlines and semicolons are
treated the same as white space, separating individual values. Any consecutive sequence of such characters
has the same effect.
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 val-
ues:

set -A name key value ...

name=(key value ...)
name=([key]=value ...)
Note that only one of the two syntaxes above may be used in any given assignment; the forms may not be
mixed. This is unlike the case of numerically indexed arrays.
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. The append syntax may also be used with an associative array:

name+=(key value ...)

name+=([key]=value ...)
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. In the second form it is also possible to use [key]+=value to append to the existing value at that key.

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Expansion is performed identically to the corresponding forms for normal arrays, as described above.
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 ‘$((...))’. The elements are numbered beginning with 1, unless the KSH_AR-
RAYS option is set in which case they are numbered from zero.
Subscripts may be used inside braces used to delimit a parameter name, thus ‘${foo[2]}’ is equivalent to
‘$foo[2]’. If the KSH_ARRAYS option is set, the braced form is the only one that works, as bracketed ex-
pressions otherwise are not treated as subscripts.
If the KSH_ARRAYS option is not set, then by default accesses to an array element with a subscript that
evaluates to zero return an empty string, while an attempt to write such an element is treated as an error.
For backward compatibility the KSH_ZERO_SUBSCRIPT option can be set to cause subscript values 0
and 1 to be equivalent; see the description of the option in zshoptions(1).
The same subscripting syntax is used for associative arrays, except that no arithmetic expansion is applied
to exp. However, the parsing rules for arithmetic expressions still apply, which affects the way that certain
special characters must be protected from interpretation. See Subscript Parsing below for details.
A subscript of the form ‘[*]’ or ‘[@]’ evaluates to all elements of an array; there is no difference between
the two except when they appear within double quotes. ‘"$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 pa-
rameter is referenced as ‘$name’ (with no subscript) it evaluates to ‘$name[*]’, unless the KSH_ARRAYS
option is set in which case it evaluates 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’. Note that
some forms of subscripting described below perform pattern matching, and in that case the substring ex-
tends from the start of the match of the first subscript to the end of the match of the second subscript. For
example,
string="abcdefghijklm"
print ${string[(r)d?,(r)h?]}
prints ‘defghi’. This is an obvious generalisation of the rule for single-character matches. For a single
subscript, only a single character is referenced (not the range of characters covered by the match).
Note that in substring operations the second subscript is handled differently by the r and R subscript flags:
the former takes the shortest match as the length and the latter the longest match. Hence in the former case
a * at the end is redundant while in the latter case it matches the whole remainder of the string. This does
not affect the result of the single subscript case as here the length of the match is irrelevant.
Array Element Assignment
A subscript may be used on the left side of an assignment like so:

name[exp]=value

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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 ele-
ments in the array, shifting 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 command:

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 file-
name 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 s, n and b take an argument; the delimiter is shown below as ‘:’, but any character, or the match-
ing pairs ‘(...)’, ‘{...}’, ‘[...]’, or ‘<...>’, may be used, but note that ‘<...>’ can only be used if the subscript is
inside a double quoted expression or a parameter substitution enclosed in braces as otherwise the expres-
sion is interpreted as a redirection.
The flags currently understood are:
w If the parameter subscripted is a scalar then this flag makes subscripting work on words instead of
characters. The default word separator is whitespace. When combined with the i or I flag, the ef-
fect is to produce the index of the first character of the first/last word which matches the given pat-
tern; note that a failed match in this case always yields 0.
s:string:
This gives the string that separates words (for use with the w flag). The delimiter character : is ar-
bitrary; see above.
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 then this flag makes subscripting work on lines instead of
characters, i.e. with elements separated by newlines. 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, respectively). 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 possible 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.
If a search through an ordinary array failed, the search sets the subscript to one past the end of the
array, and hence ${array[(r)pattern]} will substitute the empty string. Thus the success of a
search can be tested by using the (i) flag, for example (assuming the option KSH_ARRAYS is not
in effect):
[[ ${array[(i)pattern]} -le ${#array} ]]
If KSH_ARRAYS is in effect, the -le should be replaced by -lt.

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R Like ‘r’, but gives the last match. For associative arrays, gives all possible matches. May be used
for assigning to ordinary array elements, but not for assigning to associative arrays. On failure, for
normal arrays this has the effect of returning the element corresponding to subscript 0; this is
empty unless one of the options KSH_ARRAYS or KSH_ZERO_SUBSCRIPT is in effect.
Note that in subscripts with both ‘r’ and ‘R’ pattern characters are active even if they were substi-
tuted for a parameter (regardless of the setting of GLOB_SUBST which controls this feature in
normal pattern matching). The flag ‘e’ can be added to inhibit pattern matching. As this flag does
not inhibit other forms of substitution, care is still required; using a parameter to hold the key has
the desired effect:
key2=’original key’
print ${array[(Re)$key2]}
i Like ‘r’, but gives the index of the match instead; this may not be combined with a second argu-
ment. 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. On failure sub-
stitutes the length of the array plus one, as discussed under the description of ‘r’, or the empty
string for an associative array.
I Like ‘i’, but gives the index of the last match, or all possible matching keys in an associative array.
On failure substitutes 0, or the empty string for an associative array. This flag is best when testing
for values or keys that do not exist.
k If used in a subscript on an associative array, this flag causes the keys to be interpreted as patterns,
and returns the value for the first key found where exp is matched by the key. Note this could be
any such key as no ordering of associative arrays is defined. 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. The delimiter character : is arbitrary; see
above.
b:expr: If combined with ‘r’, ‘R’, ‘i’ or ‘I’, makes them begin at the nth or nth last element, word, or char-
acter (if expr evaluates to n). This flag is ignored when the array is associative. The delimiter
character : is arbitrary; see above.
e This flag causes any pattern matching that would be performed on the subscript to use plain string
matching instead. Hence ‘${array[(re)*]}’ matches only the array element whose value is *.
Note that other forms of substitution such as parameter substitution are not inhibited.
This flag can also be used to force * or @ to be interpreted as a single key rather than as a refer-
ence to all values. It may be used for either purpose on the left side of an assignment.
See Parameter Expansion Flags (zshexpn(1)) for additional ways to manipulate the results of array sub-
scripting.
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 parameter substitutions that appear as part of an arith-
metic expression in an ordinary subscript.
To avoid subscript parsing limitations in assignments to associative array elements, use the append syntax:
aa+=(’key with "*strange*" characters’ ’value string’)
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

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subscript 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 un-
less they are preceded by a backslash (‘\’). Therefore, within a subscript expression (and unlike true dou-
ble-quoting) the sequence ‘\[’ becomes ‘[’, and similarly ‘\]’ becomes ‘]’. This applies even in cases where
a backslash is not normally required; for example, the pattern ‘[ˆ[]’ (to match any character other than an
open bracket) should be written ‘[ˆ\[]’ in a reverse-subscript pattern. However, note that ‘\[ˆ\[\]’ and even
‘\[ˆ[]’ 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 bal-
anced pairs or preceded by a backslash, and backslashes that protect parentheses or braces are removed dur-
ing parsing. This is because parameter expansions may be surrounded by balanced braces, and subscript
flags are introduced by balanced parentheses.
The second difference is that a double-quote (‘"’) may appear as part of a subscript expression without be-
ing preceded by a backslash, and therefore that the two characters ‘\"’ remain as two characters in the sub-
script (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 double-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. Param-
eters 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 subscript parsing is not different from double quote
parsing. As in true double-quoting, the sequences ‘\*’, and ‘\@’ remain as two characters when they ap-
pear 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 $aa[(e)*]
A last detail must be considered when reverse subscripting is performed. Parameters appearing in the sub-
script expression are first expanded and then the complete expression is interpreted as a pattern. This has
two effects: first, parameters behave as if GLOB_SUBST were on (and it cannot be turned off); second,
backslashes are interpreted twice, once when parsing the array subscript and again when parsing the pat-
tern. In a reverse subscript, it’s necessary to use four backslashes to cause a single backslash to match liter-
ally in the pattern. For complex patterns, it is often easiest to assign the desired pattern to a parameter and
then refer to that parameter in the subscript, because then the backslashes, brackets, parentheses, etc., are
seen only when the complete expression is converted to a pattern. To match the value of a parameter liter-
ally in a reverse subscript, rather than as a pattern, use ‘${(q)name}’ (see zshexpn(1)) to quote the expanded
value.
Note that the ‘k’ and ‘K’ flags are reverse subscripting for an ordinary array, but are not reverse subscript-
ing 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

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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 characters 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 command-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 parameter ‘$0’ is a special case, see the section ‘Parame-
ters Set By The Shell’.
The parameters *, @ and argv are arrays containing all the positional parameters; thus ‘$argv[n]’, etc., is
equivalent to simply ‘$n’. Note that the options KSH_ARRAYS or KSH_ZERO_SUBSCRIPT apply to
these arrays as well, so with either of those options set, ‘${argv[0]}’ is equivalent to ‘$1’ and so on.
Positional parameters may be changed after the shell or function starts by using the set builtin, by assigning
to the argv array, or by direct assignment of the form ‘n=value’ where n is the number of the positional pa-
rameter to be changed. This also creates (with empty values) any of the positions from 1 to n that do not al-
ready have values. Note that, because the positional parameters form an array, an array assignment of the
form ‘n=(value ...)’ is allowed, and has the effect of shifting all the values at positions greater than n by as
many positions as necessary to accommodate the new values.
LOCAL PARAMETERS
Shell function executions delimit scopes for shell parameters. (Parameters are dynamically scoped.) The
typeset builtin, and its alternative forms declare, integer, local and readonly (but not export), can be used
to declare a parameter as being local to the innermost scope.
When a parameter is read or assigned to, the innermost existing parameter of that name is used. (That is,
the local parameter hides any less-local parameter.) However, assigning to a non-existent parameter, or
declaring a new parameter with export, causes it to be created in the outermost scope.
Local parameters disappear when their scope ends. unset can be used to delete a parameter while it is still
in scope; any outer parameter of the same name remains hidden.
Special parameters may also be made local; they retain their special attributes unless either the existing or
the newly-created parameter has the -h (hide) attribute. This may have unexpected effects: there is no de-
fault value, so if there is no assignment at the point the variable is made local, it will be set to an empty
value (or zero in the case of integers). The following:
typeset PATH=/new/directory:$PATH
is valid for temporarily allowing the shell or programmes called from it to find the programs in /new/direc-
tory inside a function.
Note that the restriction in older versions of zsh that local parameters were never exported has been re-
moved.
PARAMETERS SET BY THE SHELL
In the parameter lists that follow, the mark ‘<S>’ indicates that the parameter is special. ‘<Z>’ indicates
that the parameter does not exist when the shell initializes in sh or ksh emulation mode.
The following parameters are automatically set by the shell:
! <S> The process ID of the last command started in the background with &, put into the background
with the bg builtin, or spawned with coproc.
# <S> The number of positional parameters in decimal. Note that some confusion may occur with the
syntax $#param which substitutes the length of param. Use ${#} to resolve ambiguities. In par-
ticular, the sequence ‘$#-...’ in an arithmetic expression is interpreted as the length of the parame-
ter -, q.v.
ARGC <S> <Z>
Same as #.

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$ <S> The process ID of this shell. Note that this indicates the original shell started by invoking zsh; all
processes forked from the shells without executing a new program, such as subshells started by
(...), substitute the same value.
- <S> Flags supplied to the shell on invocation or by the set or setopt commands.
* <S> An array containing the positional parameters.
argv <S> <Z>
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 in-
nermost positional parameter array is deleted (so * and @ in other scopes are not affected).
@ <S> Same as argv[@], even when argv is not set.
? <S> The exit status returned by the last command.
0 <S> The name used to invoke the current shell, or as set by the -c command line option upon invoca-
tion. If the FUNCTION_ARGZERO option is set, $0 is set upon entry to a shell function to the
name of the function, and upon entry to a sourced script to the name of the script, and reset to its
previous value when the function or script returns.
status <S> <Z>
Same as ?.
pipestatus <S> <Z>
An array containing the exit statuses returned by all commands in the last pipeline.
_ <S> The last argument of the previous command. Also, this parameter is set in the environment of ev-
ery command executed to the full pathname of the command.
CPUTYPE
The machine type (microprocessor class or machine model), as determined at run time.
EGID <S>
The effective group ID of the shell process. If you have sufficient privileges, you may change the
effective group ID of the shell process by assigning to this parameter. Also (assuming sufficient
privileges), you may start a single command with a different effective group ID by ‘(EGID=gid;
command)’
If this is made local, it is not implicitly set to 0, but may be explicitly set locally.
EUID <S>
The effective user ID of the shell process. If you have sufficient privileges, you may change the
effective user ID of the shell process by assigning to this parameter. Also (assuming sufficient
privileges), you may start a single command with a different effective user ID by ‘(EUID=uid;
command)’
If this is made local, it is not implicitly set to 0, but may be explicitly set locally.
ERRNO <S>
The value of errno (see errno(3)) as set by the most recently failed system call. This value is sys-
tem dependent and is intended for debugging purposes. It is also useful with the zsh/system mod-
ule which allows the number to be turned into a name or message.
FUNCNEST <S>
Integer. If greater than or equal to zero, the maximum nesting depth of shell functions. When it is
exceeded, an error is raised at the point where a function is called. The default value is determined
when the shell is configured, but is typically 500. Increasing the value increases the danger of a
runaway function recursion causing the shell to crash. Setting a negative value turns off the check.
GID <S>
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)’

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If this is made local, it is not implicitly set to 0, but may be explicitly set locally.
HISTCMD
The current history event number in an interactive shell, in other words the event number for the
command that caused $HISTCMD to be read. If the current history event modifies the history,
HISTCMD changes to the new maximum history event number.
HOST The current hostname.
LINENO <S>
The line number of the current line within the current script, sourced file, or shell function being
executed, whichever was started most recently. Note that in the case of shell functions the line
number refers to the function as it appeared in the original definition, not necessarily as displayed
by the functions builtin.
LOGNAME
If the corresponding variable is not set in the environment of the shell, it is initialized to the login
name corresponding to the current login session. This parameter is exported by default but this can
be disabled using the typeset builtin. The value is set to the string returned by the getlogin(3) sys-
tem call if that is available.
MACHTYPE
The machine type (microprocessor class or machine model), as determined at compile time.
OLDPWD
The previous working directory. This is set when the shell initializes and whenever the directory
changes.
OPTARG <S>
The value of the last option argument processed by the getopts command.
OPTIND <S>
The index of the last option argument processed by the getopts command.
OSTYPE
The operating system, as determined at compile time.
PPID <S>
The process ID of the parent of the shell. As for $$, the value indicates the parent of the original
shell and does not change in subshells.
PWD The present working directory. This is set when the shell initializes and whenever the directory
changes.
RANDOM <S>
A pseudo-random integer from 0 to 32767, newly generated each time this parameter is refer-
enced. The random number generator can be seeded by assigning a numeric value to RANDOM.
The values of RANDOM form an intentionally-repeatable pseudo-random sequence; subshells
that reference RANDOM will result in identical pseudo-random values unless the value of RAN-
DOM is referenced or seeded in the parent shell in between subshell invocations.
SECONDS <S>
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 value is
available to microsecond accuracy, although the shell may show more or fewer digits depending
on the use of typeset. See the documentation for the builtin typeset in zshbuiltins(1) for more de-
tails.

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SHLVL <S>
Incremented by one each time a new shell is started.
signals An array containing the names of the signals. Note that with the standard zsh numbering of array
indices, where the first element has index 1, the signals are offset by 1 from the signal number
used by the operating system. For example, on typical Unix-like systems HUP is signal number
1, but is referred to as $signals[2]. This is because of EXIT at position 1 in the array, which is
used internally by zsh but is not known to the operating system.
TRY_BLOCK_ERROR <S>
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 Com-
mands in zshmisc(1)
TRY_BLOCK_INTERRUPT <S>
This variable works in a similar way to TRY_BLOCK_ERROR, but represents the status of an
interrupt from the signal SIGINT, which typically comes from the keyboard when the user types
ˆC. If set to 0, any such interrupt will be reset; otherwise, the interrupt is propagated after the al-
ways block.
Note that it is possible that an interrupt arrives during the execution of the always block; this inter-
rupt is also propagated.
TTY The name of the tty associated with the shell, if any.
TTYIDLE <S>
The idle time of the tty associated with the shell in seconds or -1 if there is no such tty.
UID <S>
The real user ID of the shell process. If you have sufficient privileges, you may change the user ID
of the shell by assigning to this parameter. Also (assuming sufficient privileges), you may start a
single command under a different user ID by ‘(UID=uid; command)’
If this is made local, it is not implicitly set to 0, but may be explicitly set locally.
USERNAME <S>
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 privileges), you may start a single command under a
different username (and user ID and group ID) by ‘(USERNAME=username; command)’
VENDOR
The vendor, as determined at compile time.
zsh_eval_context <S> <Z> (ZSH_EVAL_CONTEXT <S>)
An array (colon-separated list) indicating the context of shell code that is being run. Each time a
piece of shell code that is stored within the shell is executed a string is temporarily appended to the
array to indicate the type of operation that is being performed. Read in order the array gives an in-
dication of the stack of operations being performed with the most immediate context last.
Note that the variable does not give information on syntactic context such as pipelines or sub-
shells. Use $ZSH_SUBSHELL to detect subshells.
The context is one of the following:
cmdarg
Code specified by the -c option to the command line that invoked the shell.
cmdsubst
Command substitution using the ‘...‘ or $(...) construct.
equalsubst
File substitution using the =(...) construct.

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eval Code executed by the eval builtin.

evalautofunc
Code executed with the KSH_AUTOLOAD mechanism in order to define an autoloaded
function.
fc Code from the shell history executed by the -e option to the fc builtin.
file Lines of code being read directly from a file, for example by the source builtin.
filecode
Lines of code being read from a .zwc file instead of directly from the source file.
globqual
Code executed by the e or + glob qualifier.
globsort
Code executed to order files by the o glob qualifier.
insubst File substitution using the <(...) construct.
loadautofunc
Code read directly from a file to define an autoloaded function.
outsubst
File substitution using the >(...) construct.
sched Code executed by the sched builtin.
shfunc A shell function.
stty Code passed to stty by the STTY environment variable. Normally this is passed directly
to the system’s stty command, so this value is unlikely to be seen in practice.
style Code executed as part of a style retrieved by the zstyle builtin from the zsh/zutil module.
toplevel
The highest execution level of a script or interactive shell.
trap Code executed as a trap defined by the trap builtin. Traps defined as functions have the
context shfunc. As traps are asynchronous they may have a different hierarchy from
other code.
zpty Code executed by the zpty builtin from the zsh/zpty module.
zregexparse-guard
Code executed as a guard by the zregexparse command from the zsh/zutil module.
zregexparse-action
Code executed as an action by the zregexparse command from the zsh/zutil module.
ZSH_ARGZERO
If zsh was invoked to run a script, this is the name of the script. Otherwise, it is the name used to
invoke the current shell. This is the same as the value of $0 when the POSIX_ARGZERO option
is set, but is always available.
ZSH_EXECUTION_STRING
If the shell was started with the option -c, this contains the argument passed to the option. Other-
wise it is not set.
ZSH_NAME
Expands to the basename of the command used to invoke this instance of zsh.
ZSH_PATCHLEVEL
The output of ‘git describe --tags --long’ for the zsh repository used to build the shell. This is
most useful in order to keep track of versions of the shell during development between releases;
hence most users should not use it and should instead rely on $ZSH_VERSION.

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zsh_scheduled_events
See the section ‘The zsh/sched Module’ in zshmodules(1).
ZSH_SCRIPT
If zsh was invoked to run a script, this is the name of the script, otherwise it is unset.
ZSH_SUBSHELL
Readonly integer. Initially zero, incremented each time the shell forks to create a subshell for exe-
cuting code. Hence ‘(print $ZSH_SUBSHELL)’ and ‘print $(print $ZSH_SUBSHELL)’ out-
put 1, while ‘( (print $ZSH_SUBSHELL) )’ outputs 2.
ZSH_VERSION
The version number of the release of zsh.
PARAMETERS USED BY THE SHELL
The following parameters are used by the shell. Again, ‘<S>’ indicates that the parameter is special and
‘<Z>’ indicates that the parameter does not exist when the shell initializes in sh or ksh emulation mode.
In cases where there are two parameters with an upper- and lowercase form of the same name, such as
path and PATH, the lowercase form is an array and the uppercase form is a scalar with the elements of the
array joined together by colons. These are similar to tied parameters created via ‘typeset -T’. The normal
use for the colon-separated form is for exporting to the environment, while the array form is easier to ma-
nipulate within the shell. Note that unsetting either of the pair will unset the other; they retain their special
properties when recreated, and recreating one of the pair will recreate the other.
ARGV0
If exported, its value is used as the argv[0] of external commands. Usually used in constructs like
‘ARGV0=emacs nethack’.
BAUD The rate in bits per second at which data reaches the terminal. The line editor will use this value
in order to compensate for a slow terminal by delaying updates to the display until necessary. If
the parameter is unset or the value is zero the compensation mechanism is turned off. The param-
eter is not set by default.
This parameter may be profitably set in some circumstances, e.g. for slow modems dialing into a
communications server, or on a slow wide area network. It should be set to the baud rate of the
slowest part of the link for best performance.
cdpath <S> <Z> (CDPATH <S>)
An array (colon-separated list) of directories specifying the search path for the cd command.
COLUMNS <S>
The number of columns for this terminal session. Used for printing select lists and for the line edi-
tor.
CORRECT_IGNORE
If set, is treated as a pattern during spelling correction. Any potential correction that matches the
pattern is ignored. For example, if the value is ‘_*’ then completion functions (which, by conven-
tion, have names beginning with ‘_’) will never be offered as spelling corrections. The pattern
does not apply to the correction of file names, as applied by the CORRECT_ALL option (so with
the example just given files beginning with ‘_’ in the current directory would still be completed).
CORRECT_IGNORE_FILE
If set, is treated as a pattern during spelling correction of file names. Any file name that matches
the pattern is never offered as a correction. For example, if the value is ‘.*’ then dot file names
will never be offered as spelling corrections. This is useful with the CORRECT_ALL option.
DIRSTACKSIZE
The maximum size of the directory stack, by default there is no limit. If the stack gets larger than
this, it will be truncated automatically. This is useful with the AUTO_PUSHD option.
ENV If the ENV environment variable is set when zsh is invoked as sh or ksh, $ENV is sourced after
the profile scripts. The value of ENV is subjected to parameter expansion, command substitution,

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and arithmetic expansion before being interpreted as a pathname. Note that ENV is not used un-
less the shell is interactive and zsh is emulating sh or ksh.
FCEDIT
The default editor for the fc builtin. If FCEDIT is not set, the parameter EDITOR is used; if that
is not set either, a builtin default, usually vi, is used.
fignore <S> <Z> (FIGNORE <S>)
An array (colon separated list) containing the suffixes 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 <S> <Z> (FPATH <S>)
An array (colon separated list) of directories specifying the search path for function definitions.
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 <S>
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 ‘ˆ’). The third character is the comment character (default ‘#’).
The characters must be in the ASCII character set; any attempt to set histchars to characters with
a locale-dependent meaning will be rejected with an error message.
HISTCHARS <S> <Z>
Same as histchars. (Deprecated.)
HISTFILE
The file to save the history in when an interactive shell exits. If unset, the history is not saved.
HISTORY_IGNORE
If set, is treated as a pattern at the time history files are written. Any potential history entry that
matches the pattern is skipped. For example, if the value is ‘fc *’ then commands that invoke the
interactive history editor are never written to the history file.
Note that HISTORY_IGNORE defines a single pattern: to specify alternatives use the ‘(first|sec-
ond|...)’ syntax.
Compare the HIST_NO_STORE option or the zshaddhistory hook, either of which would pre-
vent such commands from being added to the interactive history at all. If you wish to use HIS-
TORY_IGNORE to stop history being added in the first place, you can define the following hook:
zshaddhistory() {
emulate -L zsh
## uncomment if HISTORY_IGNORE
## should use EXTENDED_GLOB syntax
# setopt extendedglob
[[ $1 != ${˜HISTORY_IGNORE} ]]
}
HISTSIZE <S>
The maximum number of events stored in the internal history list. If you use the HIST_EX-
PIRE_DUPS_FIRST option, setting this value larger than the SAVEHIST size will give you the
difference as a cushion for saving duplicated history events.
If this is made local, it is not implicitly set to 0, but may be explicitly set locally.
HOME <S>
The default argument for the cd command. This is not set automatically by the shell in sh, ksh or
csh emulation, but it is typically present in the environment anyway, and if it becomes set it has its
usual special behaviour.

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IFS <S>
Internal field separators (by default space, tab, newline and NUL), that are used to separate words
which result from command or parameter expansion and words read by the read builtin. Any
characters from the set space, tab and newline that appear in the IFS are called IFS white space.
One or more IFS white space characters or one non-IFS white space character together with any
adjacent IFS white space character delimit a field. If an IFS white space character appears twice
consecutively in the IFS, this character is treated as if it were not an IFS white space character.
If the parameter is unset, the default is used. Note this has a different effect from setting the pa-
rameter to an empty string.
KEYBOARD_HACK
This variable defines a character to be removed from the end of the command line before interpret-
ing it (interactive shells only). It is intended to fix the problem with keys placed annoyingly close
to return and replaces the SUNKEYBOARDHACK option which did this for backquotes only.
Should the chosen character be one of singlequote, doublequote or backquote, there must also be
an odd number of them on the command line for the last one to be removed.
For backward compatibility, if the SUNKEYBOARDHACK option is explicitly set, the value of
KEYBOARD_HACK reverts to backquote. If the option is explicitly unset, this variable is set to
empty.
KEYTIMEOUT
The time the shell waits, in hundredths of seconds, for another key to be pressed when reading
bound multi-character sequences.
LANG <S>
This variable determines the locale category for any category not specifically selected via a vari-
able starting with ‘LC_’.
LC_ALL <S>
This variable overrides the value of the ‘LANG’ variable and the value of any of the other vari-
ables starting with ‘LC_’.
LC_COLLATE <S>
This variable determines the locale category for character collation information within ranges in
glob brackets and for sorting.
LC_CTYPE <S>
This variable determines the locale category for character handling functions. If the MULTI-
BYTE option is in effect this variable or LANG should contain a value that reflects the character
set in use, even if it is a single-byte character set, unless only the 7-bit subset (ASCII) is used.
For example, if the character set is ISO-8859-1, a suitable value might be en_US.iso88591 (cer-
tain Linux distributions) or en_US.ISO8859-1 (MacOS).
LC_MESSAGES <S>
This variable determines the language in which messages should be written. Note that zsh does
not use message catalogs.
LC_NUMERIC <S>
This variable affects the decimal point character and thousands separator character for the format-
ted input/output functions and string conversion functions. Note that zsh ignores this setting when
parsing floating point mathematical expressions.
LC_TIME <S>
This variable determines the locale category for date and time formatting in prompt escape se-
quences.
LINES <S>
The number of lines for this terminal session. Used for printing select lists and for the line editor.

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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 <S> <Z> (MAILPATH <S>)
An array (colon-separated list) of filenames to check for new mail. Each filename can be fol-
lowed by a ‘?’ and a message that will be printed. The message will undergo parameter expan-
sion, command substitution and arithmetic expansion with the variable $_ defined as the name of
the file that has changed. The default message is ‘You have new mail’. If an element is a direc-
tory instead of a file the shell will recursively check every file in every subdirectory of the element.
manpath <S> <Z> (MANPATH <S> <Z>)
An array (colon-separated list) whose value is not used by the shell. The manpath array can be
useful, however, since setting it also sets MANPATH, and vice versa.
match
mbegin
mend Arrays set by the shell when the b globbing flag is used in pattern matches. See the subsection
Globbing flags in the documentation for Filename Generation in zshexpn(1).
MATCH
MBEGIN
MEND Set by the shell when the m globbing flag is used in pattern matches. See the subsection Globbing
flags in the documentation for Filename Generation in zshexpn(1).
module_path <S> <Z> (MODULE_PATH <S>)
An array (colon-separated list) of directories that zmodload searches for dynamically loadable
modules. This is initialized to a standard pathname, usually ‘/usr/local/lib/zsh/$ZSH_VER-
SION’. (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 <S>
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 <S> <Z> (PATH <S>)
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 <S>
This string is output whenever the line editor exits. It usually contains termcap strings to reset the
terminal.
PROMPT <S> <Z>
PROMPT2 <S> <Z>
PROMPT3 <S> <Z>
PROMPT4 <S> <Z>
Same as PS1, PS2, PS3 and PS4, respectively.

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prompt <S> <Z>

Same as PS1.
PROMPT_EOL_MARK
When the PROMPT_CR and PROMPT_SP options are set, the PROMPT_EOL_MARK pa-
rameter can be used to customize how the end of partial lines are shown. This parameter under-
goes prompt expansion, with the PROMPT_PERCENT option set. If not set, the default behav-
ior is equivalent to the value ‘%B%S%#%s%b’.
PS1 <S>
The primary prompt string, printed before a command is read. It undergoes a special form of ex-
pansion before being displayed; see EXPANSION OF PROMPT SEQUENCES in zshmisc(1).
The default is ‘%m%# ’.
PS2 <S>
The secondary prompt, printed when the shell needs more information to complete a command. It
is expanded in the same way as PS1. The default is ‘%_> ’, which displays any shell constructs or
quotation marks which are currently being processed.
PS3 <S>
Selection prompt used within a select loop. It is expanded in the same way as PS1. The default is
‘?# ’.
PS4 <S>
The execution trace prompt. Default is ‘+%N:%i> ’, which displays the name of the current shell
structure and the line number within it. In sh or ksh emulation, the default is ‘+ ’.
psvar <S> <Z> (PSVAR <S>)
An array (colon-separated list) whose elements can be used in PROMPT strings. Setting psvar
also sets PSVAR, and vice versa.
READNULLCMD <S>
The command name to assume if a single input redirection is specified with no command. De-
faults to more.
REPORTMEMORY
If nonnegative, commands whose maximum resident set size (roughly speaking, main memory us-
age) in kilobytes is greater than this value have timing statistics reported. The format used to out-
put statistics is the value of the TIMEFMT parameter, which is the same as for the REPORT-
TIME variable and the time builtin; note that by default this does not output memory usage. Ap-
pending " max RSS %M" to the value of TIMEFMT causes it to output the value that triggered
the report. If REPORTTIME is also in use, at most a single report is printed for both triggers.
This feature requires the getrusage() system call, commonly supported by modern Unix-like sys-
tems.
REPORTTIME
If nonnegative, commands whose combined user and system execution times (measured in sec-
onds) are greater than this value have timing statistics printed for them. Output is suppressed for
commands executed within the line editor, including completion; commands explicitly marked
with the time keyword still cause the summary to be printed in this case.
REPLY
This parameter is reserved by convention to pass string values between shell scripts and shell
builtins in situations where a function call or redirection are impossible or undesirable. The read
builtin and the select complex command may set REPLY, and filename generation both sets and
examines its value when evaluating certain expressions. Some modules also employ REPLY for
similar purposes.
reply As REPLY, but for array values rather than strings.

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RPROMPT <S>
RPS1 <S>
This prompt is displayed on the right-hand side of the screen when the primary prompt is being
displayed on the left. This does not work if the SINGLE_LINE_ZLE option is set. It is ex-
panded in the same way as PS1.
RPROMPT2 <S>
RPS2 <S>
This prompt is displayed on the right-hand side of the screen when the secondary prompt is being
displayed on the left. This does not work if the SINGLE_LINE_ZLE option is set. It is ex-
panded in the same way as PS2.
SAVEHIST
The maximum number of history events to save in the history file.
If this is made local, it is not implicitly set to 0, but may be explicitly set locally.
SPROMPT <S>
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 es-
capes are also allowed.
The actions available at the prompt are [nyae]:
n (‘no’) (default)
Discard the correction and run the command.
y (‘yes’)
Make the correction and run the command.
a (‘abort’)
Discard the entire command line without running it.
e (‘edit’)
Resume editing the command line.
STTY If this parameter is set in a command’s environment, the shell runs the stty command with the
value of this parameter as arguments in order to set up the terminal before executing the command.
The modes apply only to the command, and are reset when it finishes or is suspended. If the com-
mand 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 con-
tinued via ‘kill -CONT’. STTY is ignored if the command is run in the background, or if it is in
the environment of the shell but not explicitly assigned to in the input line. This avoids running
stty at every external command by accidentally exporting it. Also note that STTY should not be
used for window size specifications; these will not be local to the command.
TERM <S>
The type of terminal in use. This is used when looking up termcap sequences. An assignment to
TERM causes zsh to re-initialize the terminal, even if the value does not change (e.g.,
‘TERM=$TERM’). It is necessary to make such an assignment upon any change to the terminal
definition database or terminal type in order for the new settings to take effect.
TERMINFO <S>
A reference to your terminfo database, used by the ‘terminfo’ library when the system has it; see
terminfo(5). If set, this causes the shell to reinitialise the terminal, making the workaround
‘TERM=$TERM’ unnecessary.
TERMINFO_DIRS <S>
A colon-seprarated list of terminfo databases, used by the ‘terminfo’ library when the system has
it; see terminfo(5). This variable is only used by certain terminal libraries, in particular ncurses;
see terminfo(5) to check support on your system. If set, this causes the shell to reinitialise the ter-
minal, making the workaround ‘TERM=$TERM’ unnecessary. Note that unlike other
colon-separated arrays this is not tied to a zsh array.

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TIMEFMT
The format of process time reports with the time keyword. The default is ‘%J %U user %S sys-
tem %P cpu %*E total’. Recognizes the following escape sequences, although not all may be
available on all systems, and some that are available may not be useful:
%% A ‘%’.
%U CPU seconds spent in user mode.
%S CPU seconds spent in kernel mode.
%E Elapsed time in seconds.
%P The CPU percentage, computed as 100*(%U+%S)/%E.
%W Number of times the process was swapped.
%X The average amount in (shared) text space used in kilobytes.
%D The average amount in (unshared) data/stack space used in kilobytes.
%K The total space used (%X+%D) in kilobytes.
%M The maximum memory the process had in use at any time in kilobytes.
%F The number of major page faults (page needed to be brought from disk).
%R The number of minor page faults.
%I The number of input operations.
%O The number of output operations.
%r The number of socket messages received.
%s The number of socket messages sent.
%k The number of signals received.
%w Number of voluntary context switches (waits).
%c Number of involuntary context switches.
%J The name of this job.
A star may be inserted between the percent sign and flags printing time (e.g., ‘%*E’); this causes
the time to be printed in ‘hh:mm:ss.ttt’ format (hours and minutes are only printed if they are not
zero). Alternatively, ‘m’ or ‘u’ may be used (e.g., ‘%mE’) to produce time output in milliseconds
or microseconds, respectively.
TMOUT
If this parameter is nonzero, the shell will receive an ALRM signal if a command is not entered
within the specified number of seconds after issuing a prompt. If there is a trap on SIGALRM, it
will be executed and a new alarm is scheduled using the value of the TMOUT parameter after ex-
ecuting 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 af-
ter the last keypress.
TMPPREFIX
A pathname prefix which the shell will use for all temporary files. Note that this should include an
initial part for the file name as well as any directory names. The default is ‘/tmp/zsh’.
TMPSUFFIX
A filename suffix which the shell will use for temporary files created by process substitutions (e.g.,
‘=(list)’). Note that the value should include a leading dot ‘.’ if intended to be interpreted as a file
extension. The default is not to append any suffix, thus this parameter should be assigned only
when needed and then unset again.
watch <S> <Z> (WATCH <S>)
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 sin-
gle 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 ‘%’
followed by a line (tty). Any of these may be a pattern (be sure to quote this during the assign-
ment to watch so that it does not immediately perform file generation); the setting of the EX-
TENDED_GLOB option is respected. Any or all of these components may be present in an

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entry; if a login/logout event matches all of them, it is reported.

For example, with the EXTENDED_GLOB option set, the following:
watch=(’ˆ(pws|barts)’)
causes reports for activity associated with any user other than pws or barts.
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 con-
tains the name of an X-windows display, 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.
%D{string}
The date formatted as string using the strftime function, with zsh extensions as described
by EXPANSION OF PROMPT SEQUENCES in zshmisc(1).
%(x:true-text:false-text)
Specifies a ternary expression. The character following the x is arbitrary; the same char-
acter 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 expres-
sions 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.

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WORDCHARS <S>
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 zshmodules(1), that will be output to the terminal in-
stead of beeping. This may have a visible instead of an audible effect; for example, the string
‘\e[?5h\e[?5l’ on a vt100 or xterm will have the effect of flashing reverse video on and off (if you
usually use reverse video, you should use the string ‘\e[?5l\e[?5h’ instead). This takes precedence
over the NOBEEP option.
ZDOTDIR
The directory to search for shell startup files (.zshrc, etc), if not $HOME.
zle_bracketed_paste
Many terminal emulators have a feature that allows applications to identify when text is pasted
into the terminal rather than being typed normally. For ZLE, this means that special characters
such as tabs and newlines can be inserted instead of invoking editor commands. Furthermore,
pasted text forms a single undo event and if the region is active, pasted text will replace the region.
This two-element array contains the terminal escape sequences for enabling and disabling the fea-
ture. These escape sequences are used to enable bracketed paste when ZLE is active and disable it
at other times. Unsetting the parameter has the effect of ensuring that bracketed paste remains dis-
abled.
zle_highlight
An array describing contexts in which ZLE should highlight the input text. See Character High-
lighting in zshzle(1).
ZLE_LINE_ABORTED
This parameter is set by the line editor when an error occurs. It contains the line that was being
edited at the point of the error. ‘print -zr -- $ZLE_LINE_ABORTED’ can be used to recover
the line. Only the most recent line of this kind is remembered.
ZLE_REMOVE_SUFFIX_CHARS
ZLE_SPACE_SUFFIX_CHARS
These parameters are used by the line editor. In certain circumstances suffixes (typically space or
slash) added by the completion system will be removed automatically, either because the next edit-
ing command was not an insertable character, or because the character was marked as requiring
the suffix to be removed.
These variables can contain the sets of characters that will cause the suffix to be removed. If
ZLE_REMOVE_SUFFIX_CHARS is set, those characters will cause the suffix to be removed; if
ZLE_SPACE_SUFFIX_CHARS is set, those characters will cause the suffix to be removed and
replaced by a space.
If ZLE_REMOVE_SUFFIX_CHARS is not set, the default behaviour is equivalent to:
ZLE_REMOVE_SUFFIX_CHARS=$’ \t\n;&|’
If ZLE_REMOVE_SUFFIX_CHARS is set but is empty, no characters have this behaviour.
ZLE_SPACE_SUFFIX_CHARS takes precedence, so that the following:
ZLE_SPACE_SUFFIX_CHARS=$’&|’
causes the characters ‘&’ and ‘|’ to remove the suffix but to replace it with a space.
To illustrate the difference, suppose that the option AUTO_REMOVE_SLASH is in effect and
the directory DIR has just been completed, with an appended /, following which the user types
‘&’. The default result is ‘DIR&’. With ZLE_REMOVE_SUFFIX_CHARS set but without in-
cluding ‘&’ the result is ‘DIR/&’. With ZLE_SPACE_SUFFIX_CHARS set to include ‘&’ the
result is ‘DIR &’.

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Note that certain completions may provide their own suffix removal or replacement behaviour
which overrides the values described here. See the completion system documentation in zshcomp-
sys(1).
ZLE_RPROMPT_INDENT <S>
If set, used to give the indentation between the right hand side of the right prompt in the line editor
as given by RPS1 or RPROMPT and the right hand side of the screen. If not set, the value 1 is
used.
Typically this will be used to set the value to 0 so that the prompt appears flush with the right hand
side of the screen. This is not the default as many terminals do not handle this correctly, in partic-
ular when the prompt appears at the extreme bottom right of the screen. Recent virtual terminals
are more likely to handle this case correctly. Some experimentation is necessary.

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ZSHOPTIONS(1) General Commands Manual ZSHOPTIONS(1)

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 ‘unsetopt beep’. This inversion can only be done once, so ‘nonobeep’ is not a synonym for ‘beep’.
Similarly, ‘tify’ is not a synonym for ‘nonotify’ (the inversion of ‘notify’).
Some options also have one or more single letter names. There are two sets of single letter options: one
used by default, and another used to emulate sh/ksh (used when the SH_OPTION_LETTERS option is
set). The single letter options can be used on the shell command line, or with the set, setopt and unsetopt
builtins, as normal Unix options preceded by ‘-’.
The sense of the single letter options may be inverted by using ‘+’ instead of ‘-’. Some of the single letter
option names refer to an option being off, in which case the inversion of that name refers to the option be-
ing 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 ex-
ample the string ‘-f ’ will be treated just as ‘-f’, but the string ‘-f i’ is an error. This is because many
systems which implement the ‘#!’ mechanism for calling scripts do not strip trailing whitespace.
DESCRIPTION OF OPTIONS
In the following list, options set by default in all emulations are marked <D>; those set by default only in
csh, ksh, sh, or zsh emulations are marked <C>, <K>, <S>, <Z> as appropriate. When listing options (by
‘setopt’, ‘unsetopt’, ‘set -o’ or ‘set +o’), those turned on by default appear in the list prefixed with ‘no’.
Hence (unless KSH_OPTION_PRINT is set), ‘setopt’ shows all options whose settings are changed from
the default.
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 directory. This option is only applicable if
the option SHIN_STDIN is set, i.e. if commands are being read from standard input. The option
is designed for interactive use; it is recommended that cd be used explicitly in scripts to avoid am-
biguity.
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 direc-
tory, and does not begin with a slash, try to expand the expression as if it were preceded by a ‘˜’
(see the section ‘Filename Expansion’).
CD_SILENT
Never print the working directory after a cd (whether explicit or implied with the AUTO_CD op-
tion set). cd normally prints the working directory when the argument given to it was -, a stack en-
try, or the name of a directory found under CDPATH. Note that this is distinct from pushd’s
stack-printing behaviour, which is controlled by PUSHD_SILENT. This option overrides the
printing-related effects of POSIX_CD.
CHASE_DOTS
When changing to a directory containing a path segment ‘..’ which would otherwise be treated as
canceling the previous segment in the path (in other words, ‘foo/..’ would be removed from the
path, or if ‘..’ is the first part of the path, the last part of the current working directory would be re-
moved), 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

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/foo/bar/..’ changes to /foo; with it set, it changes to /alt. The same applies if the current directory
is /foo/bar and ‘cd ..’ is used. Note that all other symbolic links in the path will also be resolved.
CHASE_LINKS (-w)
Resolve symbolic links to their true values when changing directory. This also has the effect of
CHASE_DOTS, i.e. a ‘..’ path segment will be treated as referring to the physical parent, even if
the preceding path segment is a symbolic link.
POSIX_CD <K> <S>
Modifies the behaviour of cd, chdir and pushd commands to make them more compatible with
the POSIX standard. The behaviour with the option unset is described in the documentation for the
cd builtin in zshbuiltins(1). If the option is set, the shell does not test for directories beneath the
local directory (‘.’) until after all directories in cdpath have been tested, and the cd and chdir
commands do not recognise arguments of the form ‘{+|-}n’ as directory stack entries.
Also, if the option is set, the conditions under which the shell prints the new directory after chang-
ing to it are modified. It is no longer restricted to interactive shells (although printing of the direc-
tory stack with pushd is still limited to interactive shells); and any use of a component of CD-
PATH, including a ‘.’ but excluding an empty component that is otherwise treated as ‘.’, causes
the directory to be printed.
PUSHD_IGNORE_DUPS
Don’t push multiple copies of the same directory onto the directory stack.
PUSHD_MINUS
Exchanges the meanings of ‘+’ and ‘-’ when used with a number to specify a directory in the
stack.
PUSHD_SILENT (-E)
Do not print the directory stack after pushd or popd.
PUSHD_TO_HOME (-D)
Have pushd with no arguments act like ‘pushd $HOME’.
Completion
ALWAYS_LAST_PROMPT <D>
If unset, key functions that list completions try to return to the last prompt if given a numeric argu-
ment. If set these functions try to return to the last prompt if given no numeric argument.
ALWAYS_TO_END
If a completion is performed with the cursor within a word, and a full completion is inserted, the
cursor is moved to the end of the word. That is, the cursor is moved to the end of the word if ei-
ther a single match is inserted or menu completion is performed.
AUTO_LIST (-9) <D>
Automatically list choices on an ambiguous completion.
AUTO_MENU <D>
Automatically use menu completion after the second consecutive request for completion, for ex-
ample 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 <D>
If a parameter name was completed and a following character (normally a space) automatically in-
serted, 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 imme-
diately after the parameter name. Completion in a brace expansion is affected similarly: the added

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character is a ‘,’, which will be removed if ‘}’ is typed next.

AUTO_PARAM_SLASH <D>
If a parameter is completed whose content is the name of a directory, then add a trailing slash in-
stead of a space.
AUTO_REMOVE_SLASH <D>
When the last character resulting from a completion is a slash and the next character typed is a
word delimiter, a slash, or a character that ends a command (such as a semicolon or an amper-
sand), 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_AMBIGU-
OUS 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 at-
tempted. The effect is to make the alias a distinct command for completion purposes.
COMPLETE_IN_WORD
If unset, the cursor is set to the end of the word if completion is started. Otherwise it stays there
and completion is done from both ends.
GLOB_COMPLETE
When the current word has a glob pattern, do not insert all the words resulting from the expansion
but generate matches as for completion and cycle through them like MENU_COMPLETE. The
matches are generated as if a ‘*’ was added to the end of the word, or inserted at the cursor when
COMPLETE_IN_WORD is set. This actually uses pattern matching, not globbing, so it works
not only for files but for any completion, such as options, user names, etc.
Note that when the pattern matcher is used, matching control (for example, case-insensitive or an-
chored matching) cannot be used. This limitation only applies when the current word contains a
pattern; simply turning on the GLOB_COMPLETE option does not have this effect.
HASH_LIST_ALL <D>
Whenever a command completion or spelling correction is attempted, make sure the entire com-
mand path is hashed first. This makes the first completion slower but avoids false reports of spell-
ing errors.
LIST_AMBIGUOUS <D>
This option works when AUTO_LIST or BASH_AUTO_LIST is also set. If there is an unam-
biguous prefix to insert on the command line, that is done without a completion list being dis-
played; in other words, auto-listing behaviour only takes place when nothing would be inserted.
In the case of BASH_AUTO_LIST, this means that the list will be delayed to the third call of the
function.
LIST_BEEP <D>
Beep on an ambiguous completion. More accurately, this forces the completion widgets to return
status 1 on an ambiguous completion, which causes the shell to beep if the option BEEP is also
set; this may be modified if completion is called from a user-defined widget.
LIST_PACKED
Try to make the completion list smaller (occupying less lines) by printing the matches in columns
with different widths.
LIST_ROWS_FIRST
Lay out the matches in completion lists sorted horizontally, that is, the second match is to the right
of the first one, not under it as usual.

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LIST_TYPES (-X) <D>

When listing files that are possible completions, show the type of each file with a trailing identify-
ing mark.
MENU_COMPLETE (-Y)
On an ambiguous completion, instead of listing possibilities or beeping, insert the first match im-
mediately. 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-com-
plete may be used to loop through the list in the other direction. This option overrides
AUTO_MENU.
REC_EXACT (-S)
If the string on the command line exactly matches one of the possible completions, it is accepted,
even if there is another completion (i.e. that string with something else added) that also matches.
Expansion and Globbing
BAD_PATTERN (+2) <C> <Z>
If a pattern for filename generation is badly formed, print an error message. (If this option is un-
set, the pattern will be left unchanged.)
BARE_GLOB_QUAL <Z>
In a glob pattern, treat a trailing set of parentheses as a qualifier list, if it contains no ‘|’, ‘(’ or (if
special) ‘˜’ characters. See the section ‘Filename Generation’.
BRACE_CCL
Expand expressions in braces which would not otherwise undergo brace expansion to a lexically
ordered list of all the characters. See the section ‘Brace Expansion’.
CASE_GLOB <D>
Make globbing (filename generation) sensitive to case. Note that other uses of patterns are always
sensitive to case. If the option is unset, the presence of any character which is special to filename
generation will cause case-insensitive matching. For example, cvs(/) can match the directory
CVS owing to the presence of the globbing flag (unless the option BARE_GLOB_QUAL is un-
set).
CASE_MATCH <D>
Make regular expressions using the zsh/regex module (including matches with =˜) sensitive to
case.
CSH_NULL_GLOB <C>
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 <Z>
Perform = filename expansion. (See the section ‘Filename Expansion’.)
EXTENDED_GLOB
Treat the ‘#’, ‘˜’ and ‘ˆ’ characters as part of patterns for filename generation, etc. (An initial un-
quoted ‘˜’ always produces named directory expansion.)
FORCE_FLOAT
Constants in arithmetic evaluation will be treated as floating point even without the use of a deci-
mal point; the values of integer variables will be converted to floating point when used in arith-
metic expressions. Integers in any base will be converted.
GLOB (+F, ksh: +f) <D>
Perform filename generation (globbing). (See the section ‘Filename Generation’.)
GLOB_ASSIGN <C>
If this option is set, filename generation (globbing) is performed on the right hand side of scalar
parameter assignments of the form ‘name=pattern (e.g. ‘foo=*’). If the result has more than one
word the parameter will become an array with those words as arguments. This option is provided

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for backwards compatibility only: globbing is always performed on the right hand side of array as-
signments of the form ‘name=(value)’ (e.g. ‘foo=(*)’) and this form is recommended for clarity;
with this option set, it is not possible to predict whether the result will be an array or a scalar.
GLOB_DOTS (-4)
Do not require a leading ‘.’ in a filename to be matched explicitly.
GLOB_STAR_SHORT
When this option is set and the default zsh-style globbing is in effect, the pattern ‘**/*’ can be ab-
breviated to ‘**’ and the pattern ‘***/*’ can be abbreviated to ***. Hence ‘**.c’ finds a file end-
ing in .c in any subdirectory, and ‘***.c’ does the same while also following symbolic links. A /
immediately after the ‘**’ or ‘***’ forces the pattern to be treated as the unabbreviated form.
GLOB_SUBST <C> <K> <S>
Treat any characters resulting from parameter expansion as being eligible for filename expansion
and filename generation, and any characters resulting from command substitution as being eligible
for filename generation. Braces (and commas in between) do not become eligible for expansion.
HIST_SUBST_PATTERN
Substitutions using the :s and :& history modifiers are performed with pattern matching instead of
string matching. This occurs wherever history modifiers are valid, including glob qualifiers and
parameters. See the section Modifiers in zshexpn(1).
IGNORE_BRACES (-I) <S>
Do not perform brace expansion. For historical reasons this also includes the effect of the IG-
NORE_CLOSE_BRACES option.
IGNORE_CLOSE_BRACES
When neither this option nor IGNORE_BRACES is set, a sole close brace character ‘}’ is syntac-
tically significant at any point on a command line. This has the effect that no semicolon or new-
line is necessary before the brace terminating a function or current shell construct. When either
option is set, a closing brace is syntactically significant only in command position. Unlike IG-
NORE_BRACES, this option does not disable brace expansion.
For example, with both options unset a function may be defined in the following fashion:
args() { echo $# }
while if either option is set, this does not work and something equivalent to the following is re-
quired:
args() { echo $#; }
KSH_GLOB <K>
In pattern matching, the interpretation of parentheses is affected by a preceding ‘@’, ‘*’, ‘+’, ‘?’
or ‘!’. See the section ‘Filename Generation’.
MAGIC_EQUAL_SUBST
All unquoted arguments of the form ‘anything=expression’ appearing after the command name
have filename expansion (that is, where expression has a leading ‘˜’ or ‘=’) performed on expres-
sion 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 hap-
pens anyway with typeset and similar statements.
This option respects the setting of the KSH_TYPESET option. In other words, if both options
are in effect, arguments looking like assignments will not undergo word splitting.
MARK_DIRS (-8, ksh: -X)
Append a trailing ‘/’ to all directory names resulting from filename generation (globbing).

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MULTIBYTE <D>
Respect multibyte characters when found in strings. When this option is set, strings are examined
using the system library to determine how many bytes form a character, depending on the current
locale. This affects the way characters are counted in pattern matching, parameter values and vari-
ous delimiters.
The option is on by default if the shell was compiled with MULTIBYTE_SUPPORT; otherwise
it is off by default and has no effect if turned on.
If the option is off a single byte is always treated as a single character. This setting is designed
purely for examining strings known to contain raw bytes or other values that may not be characters
in the current locale. It is not necessary to unset the option merely because the character set for
the current locale does not contain multibyte characters.
The option does not affect the shell’s editor, which always uses the locale to determine multibyte
characters. This is because the character set displayed by the terminal emulator is independent of
shell settings.
NOMATCH (+3) <C> <Z>
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 in-
stead of reporting an error. Overrides NOMATCH.
NUMERIC_GLOB_SORT
If numeric filenames are matched by a filename generation pattern, sort the filenames numerically
rather than lexicographically.
RC_EXPAND_PARAM (-P)
Array expansions of the form ‘foo${xx}bar’, where the parameter xx is set to (a b c), are substi-
tuted with ‘fooabar foobbar foocbar’ instead of the default ‘fooa b cbar’. Note that an empty ar-
ray will therefore cause all arguments to be removed.
REMATCH_PCRE
If set, regular expression matching with the =˜ operator will use Perl-Compatible Regular Expres-
sions from the PCRE library. (The zsh/pcre module must be available.) If not set, regular expres-
sions will use the extended regexp syntax provided by the system libraries.
SH_GLOB <K> <S>
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. If SH_GLOB is set
but KSH_GLOB is not, the shell allows the interpretation of subshell expressions enclosed in
parentheses in some cases where there is no space before the opening parenthesis, e.g. !(true) is
interpreted as if there were a space after the !. This option is set by default if zsh is invoked as sh
or ksh.
UNSET (+u, ksh: +u) <K> <S> <Z>
Treat unset parameters as if they were empty when substituting, and as if they were zero when
reading their values in arithmetic expansion and arithmetic commands. Otherwise they are treated
as an error.
WARN_CREATE_GLOBAL
Print a warning message when a global parameter is created in a function by an assignment or in
math context. This often indicates that a parameter has not been declared local when it should
have been. Parameters explicitly declared global from within a function using typeset -g do not
cause a warning. Note that there is no warning when a local parameter is assigned to in a nested
function, which may also indicate an error.

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WARN_NESTED_VAR
Print a warning message when an existing parameter from an enclosing function scope, or global,
is set in a function by an assignment or in math context. Assignment to shell special parameters
does not cause a warning. This is the companion to WARN_CREATE_GLOBAL as in this case
the warning is only printed when a parameter is not created. Where possible, use of typeset -g to
set the parameter suppresses the error, but note that this needs to be used every time the parameter
is set. To restrict the effect of this option to a single function scope, use ‘functions -W’.
For example, the following code produces a warning for the assignment inside the function nested
as that overrides the value within toplevel
toplevel() {
local foo="in fn"
nested
}
nested() {
foo="in nested"
}
setopt warn_nested_var
toplevel
History
APPEND_HISTORY <D>
If this is set, zsh sessions will append their history list to the history file, rather than replace it.
Thus, multiple parallel zsh sessions will all have the new entries from their history lists added to
the history file, in the order that they exit. The file will still be periodically re-written to trim it
when the number of lines grows 20% beyond the value specified by $SAVEHIST (see also the
HIST_SAVE_BY_COPY option).
BANG_HIST (+K) <C> <Z>
Perform textual history expansion, csh-style, treating the character ‘!’ specially.
EXTENDED_HISTORY <C>
Save each command’s beginning timestamp (in seconds since the epoch) and the duration (in sec-
onds) to the history file. The format of this prefixed data is:
‘: <beginning time>:<elapsed seconds>;<command>’.
HIST_ALLOW_CLOBBER
Add ‘|’ to output redirections in the history. This allows history references to clobber files even
when CLOBBER is unset.
HIST_BEEP <D>
Beep in ZLE when a widget attempts to access a history entry which isn’t there.
HIST_EXPIRE_DUPS_FIRST
If the internal history needs to be trimmed to add the current command line, setting this option will
cause the oldest history event that has a duplicate to be lost before losing a unique event from the
list. You should be sure to set the value of HISTSIZE to a larger number than SAVEHIST in or-
der to give you some room for the duplicated events, otherwise this option will behave just like
HIST_IGNORE_ALL_DUPS once the history fills up with unique events.
HIST_FCNTL_LOCK
When writing out the history file, by default zsh uses ad-hoc file locking to avoid known problems
with locking on some operating systems. With this option locking is done by means of the sys-
tem’s fcntl call, where this method is available. On recent operating systems this may provide bet-
ter performance, in particular avoiding history corruption when files are stored on NFS.
HIST_FIND_NO_DUPS
When searching for history entries in the line editor, do not display duplicates of a line previously
found, even if the duplicates are not contiguous.

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HIST_IGNORE_ALL_DUPS
If a new command line being added to the history list duplicates an older one, the older command
is removed from the list (even if it is not the previous event).
HIST_IGNORE_DUPS (-h)
Do not enter command lines into the history list if they are duplicates of the previous event.
HIST_IGNORE_SPACE (-g)
Remove command lines from the history list when the first character on the line is a space, or
when one of the expanded aliases contains a leading space. Only normal aliases (not global or suf-
fix aliases) have this behaviour. Note that the command lingers in the internal history until the
next command is entered before it vanishes, allowing you to briefly reuse or edit the line. If you
want to make it vanish right away without entering another command, type a space and press re-
turn.
HIST_LEX_WORDS
By default, shell history that is read in from files is split into words on all white space. This means
that arguments with quoted whitespace are not correctly handled, with the consequence that refer-
ences to words in history lines that have been read from a file may be inaccurate. When this op-
tion is set, words read in from a history file are divided up in a similar fashion to normal shell
command line handling. Although this produces more accurately delimited words, if the size of
the history file is large this can be slow. Trial and error is necessary to decide.
HIST_NO_FUNCTIONS
Remove function definitions from the history list. Note that the function lingers in the internal 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_BY_COPY <D>
When the history file is re-written, we normally write out a copy of the file named $HIST-
FILE.new and then rename it over the old one. However, if this option is unset, we instead trun-
cate the old history file and write out the new version in-place. If one of the history-appending
options is enabled, this option only has an effect when the enlarged history file needs to be
re-written to trim it down to size. Disable this only if you have special needs, as doing so makes
it possible to lose history entries if zsh gets interrupted during the save.
When writing out a copy of the history file, zsh preserves the old file’s permissions and group in-
formation, but will refuse to write out a new file if it would change the history file’s owner.
HIST_SAVE_NO_DUPS
When writing out the history file, older commands that duplicate newer ones are omitted.
HIST_VERIFY
Whenever the user enters a line with history expansion, don’t execute the line directly; instead,
perform history expansion and reload the line into the editing buffer.
INC_APPEND_HISTORY
This option works like APPEND_HISTORY except that new history lines are added to the
$HISTFILE incrementally (as soon as they are entered), rather than waiting until the shell exits.
The file will still be periodically re-written to trim it when the number of lines grows 20% beyond
the value specified by $SAVEHIST (see also the HIST_SAVE_BY_COPY option).

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INC_APPEND_HISTORY_TIME
This option is a variant of INC_APPEND_HISTORY in which, where possible, the history entry
is written out to the file after the command is finished, so that the time taken by the command is
recorded correctly in the history file in EXTENDED_HISTORY format. This means that the his-
tory entry will not be available immediately from other instances of the shell that are using the
same history file.
This option is only useful if INC_APPEND_HISTORY and SHARE_HISTORY are turned off.
The three options should be considered mutually exclusive.
SHARE_HISTORY <K>
This option both imports new commands from the history file, and also causes your typed com-
mands to be appended to the history file (the latter is like specifying INC_APPEND_HISTORY,
which should be turned off if this option is in effect). The history lines are also output with time-
stamps ala EXTENDED_HISTORY (which makes it easier to find the spot where we left off
reading the file after it gets re-written).
By default, history movement commands visit the imported lines as well as the local lines, but you
can toggle this on and off with the set-local-history zle binding. It is also possible to create a zle
widget that will make some commands ignore imported commands, and some include them.
If you find that you want more control over when commands get imported, you may wish to turn
SHARE_HISTORY off, INC_APPEND_HISTORY or INC_APPEND_HISTORY_TIME
(see above) on, and then manually import commands whenever you need them using ‘fc -RI’.
Initialisation
ALL_EXPORT (-a, ksh: -a)
All parameters subsequently defined are automatically exported.
GLOBAL_EXPORT <Z>
If this option is set, passing the -x flag to the builtins declare, float, integer, readonly and type-
set (but not local) will also set the -g flag; hence parameters exported to the environment will not
be made local to the enclosing function, unless they were already or the flag +g is given explicitly.
If the option is unset, exported parameters will be made local in just the same way as any other pa-
rameter.
This option is set by default for backward compatibility; it is not recommended that its behaviour
be relied upon. Note that the builtin export always sets both the -x and -g flags, and hence its ef-
fect extends beyond the scope of the enclosing function; this is the most portable way to achieve
this behaviour.
GLOBAL_RCS (-d) <D>
If this option is unset, the startup files /etc/zsh/zprofile, /etc/zsh/zshrc, /etc/zsh/zlogin and
/etc/zsh/zlogout will not be run. It can be disabled and re-enabled at any time, including inside
local startup files (.zshrc, etc.).
RCS (+f) <D>
After /etc/zsh/zshenv is sourced on startup, source the .zshenv, /etc/zsh/zprofile, .zprofile,
/etc/zsh/zshrc, .zshrc, /etc/zsh/zlogin, .zlogin, and .zlogout files, as described in the section
‘Files’. If this option is unset, the /etc/zsh/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 <D>
Expand aliases.
CLOBBER (+C, ksh: +C) <D>
Allows ‘>’ redirection to truncate existing files. Otherwise ‘>!’ or ‘>|’ must be used to truncate a
file.

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If the option is not set, and the option APPEND_CREATE is also not set, ‘>>!’ or ‘>>|’ must be
used to create a file. If either option is set, ‘>>’ may be used.
CORRECT (-0)
Try to correct the spelling of commands. Note that, when the HASH_LIST_ALL option is not
set or when some directories in the path are not readable, this may falsely report spelling errors the
first time some commands are used.
The shell variable CORRECT_IGNORE may be set to a pattern to match words that will never
be offered as corrections.
CORRECT_ALL (-O)
Try to correct the spelling of all arguments in a line.
The shell variable CORRECT_IGNORE_FILE may be set to a pattern to match file names that
will never be offered as corrections.
DVORAK
Use the Dvorak keyboard instead of the standard qwerty keyboard as a basis for examining spell-
ing mistakes for the CORRECT and CORRECT_ALL options and the spell-word editor com-
mand.
FLOW_CONTROL <D>
If this option is unset, output flow control via start/stop characters (usually assigned to ˆS/ˆQ) is
disabled in the shell’s editor.
IGNORE_EOF (-7)
Do not exit on end-of-file. Require the use of exit or logout instead. However, ten consecutive
EOFs will cause the shell to exit anyway, to avoid the shell hanging if its tty goes away.
Also, if this option is set and the Zsh Line Editor is used, widgets implemented by shell functions
can be bound to EOF (normally Control-D) without printing the normal warning message. This
works only for normal widgets, not for completion widgets.
INTERACTIVE_COMMENTS (-k) <K> <S>
Allow comments even in interactive shells.
HASH_CMDS <D>
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 er-
rors.
HASH_DIRS <D>
Whenever a command name is hashed, hash the directory containing it, as well as all directories
that occur earlier in the path. Has no effect if neither HASH_CMDS nor CORRECT is set.
HASH_EXECUTABLES_ONLY
When hashing commands because of HASH_CMDS, check that the file to be hashed is actually
an executable. This option is unset by default as if the path contains a large number of commands,
or consists of many remote files, the additional tests can take a long time. Trial and error is needed
to show if this option is beneficial.
MAIL_WARNING (-U)
Print a warning message if a mail file has been accessed since the shell last checked.
PATH_DIRS (-Q)
Perform a path search even on command names with slashes in them. Thus if ‘/usr/local/bin’ is in
the user’s path, and he or she types ‘X11/xinit’, the command ‘/usr/local/bin/X11/xinit’ will be
executed (assuming it exists). Commands explicitly beginning with ‘/’, ‘./’ or ‘../’ are not subject
to the path search. This also applies to the ‘.’ and source builtins.

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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.
PATH_SCRIPT <K> <S>
If this option is not set, a script passed as the first non-option argument to the shell must contain
the name of the file to open. If this option is set, and the script does not specify a directory path,
the script is looked for first in the current directory, then in the command path. See the section IN-
VOCATION in zsh(1).
PRINT_EIGHT_BIT
Print eight bit characters literally in completion lists, etc. This option is not necessary if your sys-
tem correctly returns the printability of eight bit characters (see ctype(3)).
PRINT_EXIT_VALUE (-1)
Print the exit value of programs with non-zero exit status. This is only available at the command
line in interactive shells.
RC_QUOTES
Allow the character sequence ‘’’’ to signify a single quote within singly quoted strings. Note this
does not apply in quoted strings using the format $’...’, where a backslashed single quote can be
used.
RM_STAR_SILENT (-H) <K> <S>
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 any-
thing 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 <C> <Z>
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 keyboards where the return key is too small, and the
backquote key lies annoyingly close to it. As an alternative the variable KEYBOARD_HACK
lets you choose the character to be removed.
Job Control
AUTO_CONTINUE
With this option set, stopped jobs that are removed from the job table with the disown builtin com-
mand are automatically sent a CONT signal to make them running.
AUTO_RESUME (-W)
Treat single word simple commands without redirection as candidates for resumption of an exist-
ing job.
BG_NICE (-6) <C> <Z>
Run all background jobs at a lower priority. This option is set by default.
CHECK_JOBS <Z>
Report the status of background and suspended jobs before exiting a shell with job control; a sec-
ond 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’ com-
mand, since it is assumed the user is aware that there are background or suspended jobs. A ‘jobs’
command run from one of the hook functions defined in the section SPECIAL FUNCTIONS in
zshmisc(1) is not counted for this purpose.

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CHECK_RUNNING_JOBS <Z>
Check for both running and suspended jobs when CHECK_JOBS is enabled. When this option is
disabled, zsh checks only for suspended jobs, which matches the default behavior of bash.
This option has no effect unless CHECK_JOBS is set.
HUP <Z>
Send the HUP signal to running jobs when the shell exits.
LONG_LIST_JOBS (-R)
Print job notifications in the long format by default.
MONITOR (-m, ksh: -m)
Allow job control. Set by default in interactive shells.
NOTIFY (-5, ksh: -b) <Z>
Report the status of background jobs immediately, rather than waiting until just before printing a
prompt.
POSIX_JOBS <K> <S>
This option makes job control more compliant with the POSIX standard.
When the option is not set, the MONITOR option is unset on entry to subshells, so that job con-
trol is no longer active. When the option is set, the MONITOR option and job control remain ac-
tive in the subshell, but note that the subshell has no access to jobs in the parent shell.
When the option is not set, jobs put in the background or foreground with bg or fg are displayed
with the same information that would be reported by jobs. When the option is set, only the text is
printed. The output from jobs itself is not affected by the option.
When the option is not set, job information from the parent shell is saved for output within a sub-
shell (for example, within a pipeline). When the option is set, the output of jobs is empty until a
job is started within the subshell.
In previous versions of the shell, it was necessary to enable POSIX_JOBS in order for the builtin
command wait to return the status of background jobs that had already exited. This is no longer
the case.
Prompting
PROMPT_BANG <K>
If set, ‘!’ is treated specially in prompt expansion. See EXPANSION OF PROMPT SEQUENCES
in zshmisc(1).
PROMPT_CR (+V) <D>
Print a carriage return just before printing a prompt in the line editor. This is on by default as
multi-line editing is only possible if the editor knows where the start of the line appears.
PROMPT_SP <D>
Attempt to preserve a partial line (i.e. a line that did not end with a newline) that would otherwise
be covered up by the command prompt due to the PROMPT_CR option. This works by out-
putting some cursor-control characters, including a series of spaces, that should make the terminal
wrap to the next line when a partial line is present (note that this is only successful if your terminal
has automatic margins, which is typical).
When a partial line is preserved, by default you will see an inverse+bold character at the end of the
partial line: a ‘%’ for a normal user or a ‘#’ for root. If set, the shell parameter
PROMPT_EOL_MARK can be used to customize how the end of partial lines are shown.
NOTE: if the PROMPT_CR option is not set, enabling this option will have no effect. This op-
tion is on by default.
PROMPT_PERCENT <C> <Z>
If set, ‘%’ is treated specially in prompt expansion. See EXPANSION OF PROMPT SE-
QUENCES in zshmisc(1).

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PROMPT_SUBST <K> <S>

If set, parameter expansion, command substitution and arithmetic expansion are performed in
prompts. Substitutions within prompts do not affect the command status.
TRANSIENT_RPROMPT
Remove any right prompt from display when accepting a command line. This may be useful with
terminals with other cut/paste methods.
Scripts and Functions
ALIAS_FUNC_DEF <S>
By default, zsh does not allow the definition of functions using the ‘name ()’ syntax if name was
expanded as an alias: this causes an error. This is usually the desired behaviour, as otherwise the
combination of an alias and a function based on the same definition can easily cause problems.
When this option is set, aliases can be used for defining functions.
For example, consider the following definitions as they might occur in a startup file.
alias foo=bar
foo() {
print This probably does not do what you expect.
}
Here, foo is expanded as an alias to bar before the () is encountered, so the function defined would
be named bar. By default this is instead an error in native mode. Note that quoting any part of the
function name, or using the keyword function, avoids the problem, so is recommended when the
function name can also be an alias.
C_BASES
Output hexadecimal numbers in the standard C format, for example ‘0xFF’ instead of the usual
‘16#FF’. If the option OCTAL_ZEROES is also set (it is not by default), octal numbers will be
treated similarly and hence appear as ‘077’ instead of ‘8#77’. This option has no effect on the
choice of the output base, nor on the output of bases other than hexadecimal and octal. Note that
these formats will be understood on input irrespective of the setting of C_BASES.
C_PRECEDENCES
This alters the precedence of arithmetic operators to be more like C and other programming lan-
guages; the section ARITHMETIC EVALUATION in zshmisc(1) has an explicit list.
DEBUG_BEFORE_CMD <D>
Run the DEBUG trap before each command; otherwise it is run after each command. Setting this
option mimics the behaviour of ksh 93; with the option unset the behaviour is that of ksh 88.
ERR_EXIT (-e, ksh: -e)
If a command has a non-zero exit status, execute the ZERR trap, if set, and exit. This is disabled
while running initialization scripts.
The behaviour is also disabled inside DEBUG traps. In this case the option is handled specially: it
is unset on entry to the trap. If the option DEBUG_BEFORE_CMD is set, as it is by default, and
the option ERR_EXIT is found to have been set on exit, then the command for which the DE-
BUG trap is being executed is skipped. The option is restored after the trap exits.
Non-zero status in a command list containing && or || is ignored for commands not at the end of
the list. Hence
false && true
does not trigger exit.
Exiting due to ERR_EXIT has certain interactions with asynchronous jobs noted in the section
JOBS in zshmisc(1).

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ERR_RETURN
If a command has a non-zero exit status, return immediately from the enclosing function. The
logic is similar to that for ERR_EXIT, except that an implicit return statement is executed in-
stead of an exit. This will trigger an exit at the outermost level of a non-interactive script.
Normally this option inherits the behaviour of ERR_EXIT that code followed by ‘&&’ ‘||’ does
not trigger a return. Hence in the following:
summit || true
no return is forced as the combined effect always has a zero return status.
Note. however, that if summit in the above example is itself a function, code inside it is consid-
ered separately: it may force a return from summit (assuming the option remains set within sum-
mit), but not from the enclosing context. This behaviour is different from ERR_EXIT which is
unaffected by function scope.
EVAL_LINENO <Z>
If set, line numbers of expressions evaluated using the builtin eval are tracked separately of the en-
closing 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) <D>
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 sup-
plied to the shell at startup.
FUNCTION_ARGZERO <C> <Z>
When executing a shell function or sourcing a script, set $0 temporarily to the name of the func-
tion/script. Note that toggling FUNCTION_ARGZERO from on to off (or off to on) does not
change the current value of $0. Only the state upon entry to the function or script has an effect.
Compare POSIX_ARGZERO.
LOCAL_LOOPS
When this option is not set, the effect of break and continue commands may propagate outside
function scope, affecting loops in calling functions. When the option is set in a calling function, a
break or a continue that is not caught within a called function (regardless of the setting of the op-
tion within that function) produces a warning and the effect is cancelled.
LOCAL_OPTIONS <K>
If this option is set at the point of return from a shell function, most options (including this one)
which were in force upon entry to the function are restored; options that are not restored are
PRIVILEGED and RESTRICTED. Otherwise, only this option, and the LOCAL_LOOPS,
XTRACE and PRINT_EXIT_VALUE options are restored. Hence if this is explicitly unset by a
shell function the other options in force at the point of return will remain so. A shell function can
also guarantee itself a known shell configuration with a formulation like ‘emulate -L zsh’; the -L
activates LOCAL_OPTIONS.
LOCAL_PATTERNS
If this option is set at the point of return from a shell function, the state of pattern disables, as set
with the builtin command ‘disable -p’, is restored to what it was when the function was entered.
The behaviour of this option is similar to the effect of LOCAL_OPTIONS on options; hence
‘emulate -L sh’ (or indeed any other emulation with the -L option) activates LOCAL_PAT-
TERNS.
LOCAL_TRAPS <K>
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

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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 cor-
rectly restored by a function. For example,
unsetopt localtraps
trap - INT
fn() { setopt localtraps; trap ’’ INT; sleep 3; }
will restore normal handling of SIGINT after the function exits.
MULTI_FUNC_DEF <Z>
Allow definitions of multiple functions at once in the form ‘fn1 fn2...()’; if the option is not set,
this causes a parse error. Definition of multiple functions with the function keyword is always al-
lowed. Multiple function definitions are not often used and can cause obscure errors.
MULTIOS <Z>
Perform implicit tees or cats when multiple redirections are attempted (see the section ‘Redirect-
ion’).
OCTAL_ZEROES <S>
Interpret any integer constant beginning with a 0 as octal, per IEEE Std 1003.2-1992 (ISO
9945-2:1993). This is not enabled by default as it causes problems with parsing of, for example,
date and time strings with leading zeroes.
Sequences of digits indicating a numeric base such as the ‘08’ component in ‘08#77’ are always
interpreted as decimal, regardless of leading zeroes.
PIPE_FAIL
By default, when a pipeline exits the exit status recorded by the shell and returned by the shell
variable $? reflects that of the rightmost element of a pipeline. If this option is set, the exit status
instead reflects the status of the rightmost element of the pipeline that was non-zero, or zero if all
elements exited with zero status.
SOURCE_TRACE
If set, zsh will print an informational message announcing the name of each file it loads. The for-
mat of the output is similar to that for the XTRACE option, with the message <sourcetrace>. A
file may be loaded by the shell itself when it starts up and shuts down (Startup/Shutdown Files)
or by the use of the ‘source’ and ‘dot’ builtin commands.
TYPESET_SILENT
If this is unset, executing any of the ‘typeset’ family of commands with no options and a list of
parameters that have no values to be assigned but already exist will display the value of the param-
eter. If the option is set, they will only be shown when parameters are selected with the ‘-m’ op-
tion. 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 executed. The output is preceded by the value of
$PS4, formatted as described in the section EXPANSION OF PROMPT SEQUENCES in zsh-
misc(1).
Shell Emulation
APPEND_CREATE <K> <S>
This option only applies when NO_CLOBBER (-C) is in effect.
If this option is not set, the shell will report an error when a append redirection (>>) is used on a
file that does not already exists (the traditional zsh behaviour of NO_CLOBBER). If the option is
set, no error is reported (POSIX behaviour).

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BASH_REMATCH
When set, matches performed with the =˜ operator will set the BASH_REMATCH array variable,
instead of the default MATCH and match variables. The first element of the BASH_REMATCH
array will contain the entire matched text and subsequent elements will contain extracted sub-
strings. This option makes more sense when KSH_ARRAYS is also set, so that the entire
matched portion is stored at index 0 and the first substring is at index 1. Without this option, the
MATCH variable contains the entire matched text and the match array variable contains sub-
strings.
BSD_ECHO <S>
Make the echo builtin compatible with the BSD echo(1) command. This disables backslashed es-
cape sequences in echo strings unless the -e option is specified.
CONTINUE_ON_ERROR
If a fatal error is encountered (see the section ERRORS in zshmisc(1)), and the code is running in a
script, the shell will resume execution at the next statement in the script at the top level, in other
words outside all functions or shell constructs such as loops and conditions. This mimics the be-
haviour of interactive shells, where the shell returns to the line editor to read a new command; it
was the normal behaviour in versions of zsh before 5.0.1.
CSH_JUNKIE_HISTORY <C>
A history reference without an event specifier will always refer to the previous command. Without
this option, such a history reference refers to the same event as the previous history reference on
the current command line, defaulting to the previous command.
CSH_JUNKIE_LOOPS <C>
Allow loop bodies to take the form ‘list; end’ instead of ‘do list; done’.
CSH_JUNKIE_QUOTES <C>
Changes the rules for single- and double-quoted text to match that of csh. These require that em-
bedded newlines be preceded by a backslash; unescaped newlines will cause an error message. In
double-quoted strings, it is made impossible to escape ‘$’, ‘‘’ or ‘"’ (and ‘\’ itself no longer needs
escaping). Command substitutions are only expanded once, and cannot be nested.
CSH_NULLCMD <C>
Do not use the values of NULLCMD and READNULLCMD when running redirections with no
command. This make such redirections fail (see the section ‘Redirection’).
KSH_ARRAYS <K> <S>
Emulate ksh array handling as closely as possible. If this option is set, array elements are num-
bered from zero, an array parameter without subscript refers to the first element instead of the
whole array, and braces are required to delimit a subscript (‘${path[2]}’ rather than just
‘$path[2]’) or to apply modifiers to any parameter (‘${PWD:h}’ rather than ‘$PWD:h’).
KSH_AUTOLOAD <K> <S>
Emulate ksh function autoloading. This means that when a function is autoloaded, the corre-
sponding file is merely executed, and must define the function itself. (By default, the function is
defined to the contents of the file. However, the most common ksh-style case - of the file con-
taining only a simple definition of the function - is always handled in the ksh-compatible man-
ner.)
KSH_OPTION_PRINT <K>
Alters the way options settings are printed: instead of separate lists of set and unset options, all op-
tions are shown, marked ‘on’ if they are in the non-default state, ‘off’ otherwise.
KSH_TYPESET
This option is now obsolete: a better appropximation to the behaviour of other shells is obtained
with the reserved word interface to declare, export, float, integer, local, readonly and typeset.
Note that the option is only applied when the reserved word interface is not in use.
Alters the way arguments to the typeset family of commands, including declare, export, float,

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integer, local and readonly, are processed. Without this option, zsh will perform normal word
splitting after command and parameter expansion in arguments of an assignment; with it, word
splitting does not take place in those cases.
KSH_ZERO_SUBSCRIPT
Treat use of a subscript of value zero in array or string expressions as a reference to the first ele-
ment, i.e. the element that usually has the subscript 1. Ignored if KSH_ARRAYS is also set.
If neither this option nor KSH_ARRAYS is set, accesses to an element of an array or string with
subscript zero return an empty element or string, while attempts to set element zero of an array or
string are treated as an error. However, attempts to set an otherwise valid subscript range that in-
cludes zero will succeed. For example, if KSH_ZERO_SUBSCRIPT is not set,
array[0]=(element)
is an error, while
array[0,1]=(element)
is not and will replace the first element of the array.
This option is for compatibility with older versions of the shell and is not recommended in new
code.
POSIX_ALIASES <K> <S>
When this option is set, reserved words are not candidates for alias expansion: it is still possible to
declare any of them as an alias, but the alias will never be expanded. Reserved words are de-
scribed in the section RESERVED WORDS in zshmisc(1).
Alias expansion takes place while text is being read; hence when this option is set it does not take
effect until the end of any function or other piece of shell code parsed as one unit. Note this may
cause differences from other shells even when the option is in effect. For example, when running
a command with ‘zsh -c’, or even ‘zsh -o posixaliases -c’, the entire command argument is
parsed as one unit, so aliases defined within the argument are not available even in later lines. If in
doubt, avoid use of aliases in non-interactive code.
POSIX_ARGZERO
This option may be used to temporarily disable FUNCTION_ARGZERO and thereby restore the
value of $0 to the name used to invoke the shell (or as set by the -c command line option). For
compatibility with previous versions of the shell, emulations use NO_FUNCTION_ARGZERO
instead of POSIX_ARGZERO, which may result in unexpected scoping of $0 if the emulation
mode is changed inside a function or script. To avoid this, explicitly enable POSIX_ARGZERO
in the emulate command:
emulate sh -o POSIX_ARGZERO
Note that NO_POSIX_ARGZERO has no effect unless FUNCTION_ARGZERO was already
enabled upon entry to the function or script.
POSIX_BUILTINS <K> <S>
When this option is set the command builtin can be used to execute shell builtin commands. Pa-
rameter assignments specified before shell functions and special builtins are kept after the com-
mand completes unless the special builtin is prefixed with the command builtin. Special builtins
are ., :, break, continue, declare, eval, exit, export, integer, local, readonly, return, set, shift,
source, times, trap and unset.
In addition, various error conditions associated with the above builtins or exec cause a non-inter-
active shell to exit and an interactive shell to return to its top-level processing.
Furthermore, functions and shell builtins are not executed after an exec prefix; the command to be
executed must be an external command found in the path.
Furthermore, the getopts builtin behaves in a POSIX-compatible fashion in that the associated
variable OPTIND is not made local to functions.

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Moreover, the warning and special exit code from [[ -o non_existent_option ]] are suppressed.
POSIX_IDENTIFIERS <K> <S>
When this option is set, only the ASCII characters a to z, A to Z, 0 to 9 and _ may be used in iden-
tifiers (names of shell parameters and modules).
In addition, setting this option limits the effect of parameter substitution with no braces, so that the
expression $# is treated as the parameter $# even if followed by a valid parameter name. When it
is unset, zsh allows expressions of the form $#name to refer to the length of $name, even for spe-
cial variables, for example in expressions such as $#- and $#*.
Another difference is that with the option set assignment to an unset variable in arithmetic context
causes the variable to be created as a scalar rather than a numeric type. So after ‘unset t; (( t = 3
))’. without POSIX_IDENTIFIERS set t has integer type, while with it set it has scalar type.
When the option is unset and multibyte character support is enabled (i.e. it is compiled in and the
option MULTIBYTE is set), then additionally any alphanumeric characters in the local character
set may be used in identifiers. Note that scripts and functions written with this feature are not por-
table, and also that both options must be set before the script or function is parsed; setting them
during execution is not sufficient as the syntax variable=value has already been parsed as a com-
mand rather than an assignment.
If multibyte character support is not compiled into the shell this option is ignored; all octets with
the top bit set may be used in identifiers. This is non-standard but is the traditional zsh behaviour.
POSIX_STRINGS <K> <S>
This option affects processing of quoted strings. Currently it only affects the behaviour of null
characters, i.e. character 0 in the portable character set corresponding to US ASCII.
When this option is not set, null characters embedded within strings of the form $’...’ are treated as
ordinary characters. The entire string is maintained within the shell and output to files where nec-
essary, although owing to restrictions of the library interface the string is truncated at the null char-
acter in file names, environment variables, or in arguments to external programs.
When this option is set, the $’...’ expression is truncated at the null character. Note that remaining
parts of the same string beyond the termination of the quotes are not truncated.
For example, the command line argument a$’b\0c’d is treated with the option off as the characters
a, b, null, c, d, and with the option on as the characters a, b, d.
POSIX_TRAPS <K> <S>
When this option is set, the usual zsh behaviour of executing traps for EXIT on exit from shell
functions is suppressed. In that case, manipulating EXIT traps always alters the global trap for
exiting the shell; the LOCAL_TRAPS option is ignored for the EXIT trap. Furthermore, a re-
turn statement executed in a trap with no argument passes back from the function the value from
the surrounding context, not from code executed within the trap.
SH_FILE_EXPANSION <K> <S>
Perform filename expansion (e.g., ˜ expansion) before parameter expansion, command substitu-
tion, arithmetic expansion and brace expansion. If this option is unset, it is performed after brace
expansion, so things like ‘˜$USERNAME’ and ‘˜{pfalstad,rc}’ will work.
SH_NULLCMD <K> <S>
Do not use the values of NULLCMD and READNULLCMD when doing redirections, use ‘:’ in-
stead (see the section ‘Redirection’).
SH_OPTION_LETTERS <K> <S>
If this option is set the shell tries to interpret single letter options (which are used with set and se-
topt) like ksh does. This also affects the value of the - special parameter.
SH_WORD_SPLIT (-y) <K> <S>
Causes field splitting to be performed on unquoted parameter expansions. Note that this option
has nothing to do with word splitting. (See zshexpn(1).)

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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 can only be changed via flags supplied at invocation of the shell. It cannot be
changed once zsh is running.
LOGIN (-l, ksh: -l)
This is a login shell. If this option is not explicitly set, the shell becomes a login shell if the first
character of the argv[0] passed to the shell is a ‘-’.
PRIVILEGED (-p, ksh: -p)
Turn on privileged mode. Typically this is used when script is to be run with elevated privileges.
This should be done as follows directly with the -p option to zsh so that it takes effect during
startup.
#!/bin/zsh -p
The option is enabled automatically on startup if the effective user (group) ID is not equal to the
real user (group) ID. In this case, turning the option off causes the effective user and group IDs to
be set to the real user and group IDs. Be aware that if that fails the shell may be running with dif-
ferent IDs than was intended so a script should check for failure and act accordingly, for example:
unsetopt privileged || exit
The PRIVILEGED option disables sourcing user startup files. If zsh is invoked as ‘sh’ or ‘ksh’
with this option set, /etc/suid_profile is sourced (after /etc/profile on interactive shells). Sourcing
˜/.profile is disabled and the contents of the ENV variable is ignored. This option cannot be
changed using the -m option of setopt and unsetopt, and changing it inside a function always
changes it globally regardless of the LOCAL_OPTIONS option.
RESTRICTED (-r)
Enables restricted mode. This option cannot be changed using unsetopt, and setting it inside a
function always changes it globally regardless of the LOCAL_OPTIONS option. See 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 ex-
plicitly on the command line, any argument that would otherwise have been taken as a file to run
will instead be treated as a normal positional parameter. Note that setting or unsetting this option
on the command line does not necessarily affect the state the option will have while the shell is
running - that is purely an indicator of whether or not commands are actually being read from
standard input. The value of this option can only be changed via flags supplied at invocation of
the shell. It cannot be changed once zsh is running.
SINGLE_COMMAND (-t, ksh: -t)
If the shell is reading from standard input, it exits after a single command has been executed. This
also makes the shell non-interactive, unless the INTERACTIVE option is explicitly set on the
command line. The value of this option can only be changed via flags supplied at invocation of
the shell. It cannot be changed once zsh is running.
Zle

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BEEP (+B) <D>

Beep on error in ZLE.
COMBINING_CHARS
Assume that the terminal displays combining characters correctly. Specifically, if a base alphanu-
meric character is followed by one or more zero-width punctuation characters, assume that the
zero-width characters will be displayed as modifications to the base character within the same
width. Not all terminals handle this. If this option is not set, zero-width characters are displayed
separately with special mark-up.
If this option is set, the pattern test [[:WORD:]] matches a zero-width punctuation character on
the assumption that it will be used as part of a word in combination with a word character. Other-
wise the base shell does not handle combining characters specially.
EMACS
If ZLE is loaded, turning on this option has the equivalent effect of ‘bindkey -e’. In addition, the
VI option is unset. Turning it off has no effect. The option setting is not guaranteed to reflect the
current keymap. This option is provided for compatibility; bindkey is the recommended interface.
OVERSTRIKE
Start up the line editor in overstrike mode.
SINGLE_LINE_ZLE (-M) <K>
Use single-line command line editing instead of multi-line.
Note that although this is on by default in ksh emulation it only provides superficial compatibility
with the ksh line editor and reduces the effectiveness of the zsh line editor. As it has no effect on
shell syntax, many users may wish to disable this option when using ksh emulation interactively.
VI If ZLE is loaded, turning on this option has the equivalent effect of ‘bindkey -v’. In addition, the
EMACS option is unset. Turning it off has no effect. The option setting is not guaranteed to re-
flect the current keymap. This option is provided for compatibility; bindkey is the recommended
interface.
ZLE (-Z)
Use the zsh line editor. Set by default in interactive shells connected to a terminal.
OPTION ALIASES
Some options have alternative names. These aliases are never used for output, but can be used just like nor-
mal 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)

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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

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-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 command
-m Used by setopt for pattern-matching option setting
-o Used in all places to allow use of long option names
-s Used by set to sort positional parameters

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NAME
zshbuiltins - zsh built-in commands
SHELL BUILTIN COMMANDS
Some shell builtin commands take options as described in individual entries; these are often referred to in
the list below as ‘flags’ to avoid confusion with shell options, which may also have an effect on the behav-
iour of builtin commands. In this introductory section, ‘option’ always has the meaning of an option to a
command that should be familiar to most command line users.
Typically, options are single letters preceded by a hyphen (-). Options that take an argument accept it ei-
ther immediately following the option letter or after white space, for example ‘print -C3 {1..9}’ or ‘print
-C 3 {1..9}’ are equivalent. Arguments to options are not the same as arguments to the command; the doc-
umentation indicates which is which. Options that do not take an argument may be combined in a single
word, for example ‘print -rca -- *’ and ‘print -r -c -a -- *’ are equivalent.
Some shell builtin commands also take options that begin with ‘+’ instead of ‘-’. The list below makes
clear which commands these are.
Options (together with their individual arguments, if any) must appear in a group before any non-option ar-
guments; once the first non-option argument has been found, option processing is terminated.
All builtin commands other than ‘echo’ and precommand modifiers, even those that have no options, can be
given the argument ‘--’ to terminate option processing. This indicates that the following words are
non-option arguments, but is otherwise ignored. This is useful in cases where arguments to the command
may begin with ‘-’. For historical reasons, most builtin commands (including ‘echo’) also recognize a sin-
gle ‘-’ in a separate word for this purpose; note that this is less standard and use of ‘--’ is recommended.
- simple command
See the section ‘Precommand Modifiers’ in zshmisc(1).
. 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 ‘.’ ap-
pears somewhere in $path. If a file named ‘file.zwc’ is found, is newer than file, and is the com-
piled form (created with the zcompile builtin) of file, then commands are read from that file in-
stead 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. However, if no arguments are given, the posi-
tional parameters remain those of the calling context, and no restoring is done.
If file was not found the return status is 127; if file was found but contained a syntax error the re-
turn status is 126; else the return status is the exit status of the last command executed.
: [ arg ... ]
This command does nothing, although normal argument expansions is performed which may have
effects on shell parameters. A zero exit status is returned.
alias [ {+|-}gmrsL ] [ name[=value] ... ]
For each name with a corresponding value, define an alias with that value. A trailing space in
value causes the next word to be checked for alias expansion. If the -g flag is present, define a
global alias; global aliases are expanded even if they do not occur in command position.
If the -s flag is present, define a suffix alias: if the command word on a command line is in the
form ‘text.name’, where text is any non-empty string, it is replaced by the text ‘value text.name’.
Note that name is treated as a literal string, not a pattern. A trailing space in value is not special in
this case. For example,
alias -s ps=’gv --’
will cause the command ‘*.ps’ to be expanded to ‘gv -- *.ps’. As alias expansion is carried out

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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 com-
mand 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, regular or suffix aliases, respectively; a regular alias is one
which is neither a global nor a suffix alias. Using ‘+’ instead of ‘-’, or ending the option list with
a single ‘+’, prevents the values of the aliases from being printed.
If the -L flag is present, then print each 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.
For more on aliases, include common problems, see the section ALIASING in zshmisc(1).
autoload [ {+|-}RTUXdkmrtWz ] [ -w ] [ name ... ]
See the section ‘Autoloading Functions’ in zshmisc(1) for full details. The fpath parameter will be
searched to find the function definition when the function is first referenced.
If name consists of an absolute path, the function is defined to load from the file given (searching
as usual for dump files in the given location). The name of the function is the basename (non-di-
rectory part) of the file. It is normally an error if the function is not found in the given location;
however, if the option -d is given, searching for the function defaults to $fpath. If a function is
loaded by absolute path, any functions loaded from it that are marked for autoload without an ab-
solute path have the load path of the parent function temporarily prepended to $fpath.
If the option -r or -R is given, the function is searched for immediately and the location is
recorded internally for use when the function is executed; a relative path is expanded using the
value of $PWD. This protects against a change to $fpath after the call to autoload. With -r, if
the function is not found, it is silently left unresolved until execution; with -R, an error message is
printed and command processing aborted immediately the search fails, i.e. at the autoload com-
mand rather than at function execution..
The flag -X may be used only inside a shell function. It causes the calling function to be marked
for autoloading and then immediately loaded and executed, with the current array of positional pa-
rameters as arguments. This replaces the previous definition of the function. If no function defini-
tion is found, an error is printed and the function remains undefined and marked for autoloading.
If an argument is given, it is used as a directory (i.e. it does not include the name of the function)
in which the function is to be found; this may be combined with the -d option to allow the func-
tion search to default to $fpath if it is not in the given location.
The flag +X attempts to load each name as an autoloaded function, but does not execute it. The
exit status is zero (success) if the function was not previously defined and a definition for it was
found. This does not replace any existing definition of the function. The exit status is nonzero
(failure) if the function was already defined or when no definition was found. In the latter case the
function remains undefined and marked for autoloading. If ksh-style autoloading is enabled, the
function created will contain the contents of the file plus a call to the function itself appended to it,
thus giving normal ksh autoloading behaviour on the first call to the function. If the -m flag is
also given each name is treated as a pattern and all functions already marked for autoload that
match the pattern are loaded.
With the -t flag, turn on execution tracing; with -T, turn on execution tracing only for the current
function, turning it off on entry to any called functions that do not also have tracing enabled.
With the -U flag, alias expansion is suppressed when the function is loaded.
With the -w flag, the names are taken as names of files compiled with the zcompile builtin, and all
functions defined in them are marked for autoloading.
The flags -z and -k mark the function to be autoloaded using the zsh or ksh style, as if the option

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KSH_AUTOLOAD were unset or were set, respectively. The flags override the setting of the op-
tion at the time the function is loaded.
Note that the autoload command makes no attempt to ensure the shell options set during the load-
ing or execution of the file have any particular value. For this, the emulate command can be used:
emulate zsh -c ’autoload -Uz func’
arranges that when func is loaded the shell is in native zsh emulation, and this emulation is also
applied when func is run.
Some of the functions of autoload are also provided by functions -u or functions -U, but au-
toload is a more comprehensive interface.
bg [ job ... ]
job ... &
Put each specified job in the background, or the current job if none is specified.
bindkey
See the section ‘Zle Builtins’ in zshzle(1).
break [ n ]
Exit from an enclosing for, while, until, select or repeat loop. If an arithmetic expression n is
specified, then break n levels instead of just one.
builtin name [ args ... ]
Executes the builtin name, with the given args.
bye Same as exit.
cap See the section ‘The zsh/cap Module’ in zshmodules(1).
cd [ -qsLP ] [ arg ]
cd [ -qsLP ] old new
cd [ -qsLP ] {+|-}n
Change the current directory. In the first form, change the current directory to arg, or to the value
of $HOME if arg is not specified. If arg is ‘-’, change to the previous directory.
Otherwise, if arg begins with a slash, attempt to change to the directory given by arg.
If arg does not begin with a slash, the behaviour depends on whether the current directory ‘.’ oc-
curs in the list of directories contained in the shell parameter cdpath. If it does not, first attempt to
change to the directory arg under the current directory, and if that fails but cdpath is set and con-
tains at least one element attempt to change to the directory arg under each component of cdpath
in turn until successful. If ‘.’ occurs in cdpath, then cdpath is searched strictly in order so that ‘.’
is only tried at the appropriate point.
The order of testing cdpath is modified if the option POSIX_CD is set, as described in the docu-
mentation for the option.
If no directory is found, the option CDABLE_VARS is set, and a parameter named arg exists
whose value begins with a slash, treat its value as the directory. In that case, the parameter is
added to the named directory hash table.
The second form of cd substitutes the string new for the string old in the name of the current direc-
tory, and tries to change to this new directory.
The third form of cd extracts an entry from the directory stack, and changes to that directory. An
argument of the form ‘+n’ identifies a stack entry by counting from the left of the list shown by the
dirs command, starting with zero. An argument of the form ‘-n’ counts from the right. If the
PUSHD_MINUS option is set, the meanings of ‘+’ and ‘-’ in this context are swapped. If the
POSIX_CD option is set, this form of cd is not recognised and will be interpreted as the first
form.
If the -q (quiet) option is specified, the hook function chpwd and the functions in the array

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chpwd_functions are not called. This is useful for calls to cd that do not change the environment
seen by an interactive user.
If the -s option is specified, cd refuses to change the current directory if the given pathname 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 retained in the directory
(and not resolved) regardless of the state of the CHASE_LINKS option.
chdir Same as cd.
clone See the section ‘The zsh/clone Module’ in zshmodules(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’ in zshmisc(1).
comparguments
See the section ‘The zsh/computil Module’ in zshmodules(1).
compcall
See the section ‘The zsh/compctl Module’ in zshmodules(1).
compctl
See the section ‘The zsh/compctl Module’ in zshmodules(1).
compdescribe
See the section ‘The zsh/computil Module’ in zshmodules(1).
compfiles
See the section ‘The zsh/computil Module’ in zshmodules(1).
compgroups
See the section ‘The zsh/computil Module’ in zshmodules(1).
compquote
See the section ‘The zsh/computil Module’ in zshmodules(1).
comptags
See the section ‘The zsh/computil Module’ in zshmodules(1).
comptry
See the section ‘The zsh/computil Module’ in zshmodules(1).
compvalues
See the section ‘The zsh/computil Module’ in zshmodules(1).
continue [ n ]
Resume the next iteration of the enclosing for, while, until, select or repeat loop. If an arithmetic
expression n is specified, break out of n-1 loops and resume at the nth enclosing loop.
declare Same as typeset.
dirs [ -c ] [ arg ... ]
dirs [ -lpv ]
With no arguments, print the contents of the directory stack. Directories are added to this stack
with the pushd command, and removed with the cd or popd commands. If arguments are speci-
fied, load them onto the directory stack, replacing anything that was there, and push the current di-
rectory onto the stack.
-c clear the directory stack.

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-l print directory names in full instead of using of using ˜ expressions (see Dynamic and
Static named directories in zshexpn(1)).
-p print directory entries one per line.
-v number the directories in the stack when printing.
disable [ -afmprs ] name ...
Temporarily disable the named hash table elements or patterns. The default is to disable builtin
commands. This allows you to use an external command with the same name as a builtin com-
mand. The -a option causes disable to act on regular or global aliases. The -s option causes dis-
able to act on suffix aliases. The -f option causes disable to act on shell functions. The -r op-
tions 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 pat-
terns (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.
With the option -p, name ... refer to elements of the shell’s pattern syntax as described in the sec-
tion ‘Filename Generation’. Certain elements can be disabled separately, as given below.
Note that patterns not allowed by the current settings for the options EXTENDED_GLOB,
KSH_GLOB and SH_GLOB are never enabled, regardless of the setting here. For example, if
EXTENDED_GLOB is not active, the pattern ˆ is ineffective even if ‘disable -p "ˆ"’ has not
been issued. The list below indicates any option settings that restrict the use of the pattern. It
should be noted that setting SH_GLOB has a wider effect than merely disabling patterns as cer-
tain expressions, in particular those involving parentheses, are parsed differently.
The following patterns may be disabled; all the strings need quoting on the command line to pre-
vent them from being interpreted immediately as patterns and the patterns are shown below in sin-
gle quotes as a reminder.
’?’ The pattern character ? wherever it occurs, including when preceding a parenthesis with
KSH_GLOB.
’*’ The pattern character * wherever it occurs, including recursive globbing and when pre-
ceding a parenthesis with KSH_GLOB.
’[’ Character classes.
’<’ (NO_SH_GLOB)
Numeric ranges.
’|’ (NO_SH_GLOB)
Alternation in grouped patterns, case statements, or KSH_GLOB parenthesised expres-
sions.
’(’ (NO_SH_GLOB)
Grouping using single parentheses. Disabling this does not disable the use of parentheses
for KSH_GLOB where they are introduced by a special character, nor for glob qualifiers
(use ‘setopt NO_BARE_GLOB_QUAL’ to disable glob qualifiers that use parentheses
only).
’˜’ (EXTENDED_GLOB)
Exclusion in the form A˜B.
’ˆ’ (EXTENDED_GLOB)
Exclusion in the form AˆB.
’#’ (EXTENDED_GLOB)
The pattern character # wherever it occurs, both for repetition of a previous pattern and
for indicating globbing flags.

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’?(’ (KSH_GLOB)
The grouping form ?(...). Note this is also disabled if ’?’ is disabled.
’*(’ (KSH_GLOB)
The grouping form *(...). Note this is also disabled if ’*’ is disabled.
’+(’ (KSH_GLOB)
The grouping form +(...).
’!(’ (KSH_GLOB)
The grouping form !(...).
’@(’ (KSH_GLOB)
The grouping form @(...).
disown [ job ... ]
job ... &|
job ... &!
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 speci-
fied, disown the current job.
If the jobs are currently stopped and the AUTO_CONTINUE option is not set, a warning is
printed containing information about how to make them running after they have been disowned. If
one of the latter two forms is used, the jobs will automatically be made running, independent of
the setting of the AUTO_CONTINUE option.
echo [ -neE ] [ arg ... ]
Write each arg on the standard output, with a space separating each one. If the -n flag is not
present, print a newline at the end. echo recognizes the following escape sequences:
\a bell character
\b backspace
\c suppress subsequent characters and final newline
\e escape
\f form feed
\n linefeed (newline)
\r carriage return
\t horizontal tab
\v vertical tab
\\ backslash
\0NNN character code in octal
\xNN character code in hexadecimal
\uNNNN
unicode character code in hexadecimal
\UNNNNNNNN
unicode character code in hexadecimal
The -E flag, or the BSD_ECHO option, can be used to disable these escape sequences. In the lat-
ter case, -e flag can be used to enable them.
Note that for standards compliance a double dash does not terminate option processing; instead, it
is printed directly. However, a single dash does terminate option processing, so the first dash, pos-
sibly following options, is not printed, but everything following it is printed as an argument. The
single dash behaviour is different from other shells. For a more portable way of printing text, see
printf, and for a more controllable way of printing text within zsh, see print.
echotc See the section ‘The zsh/termcap Module’ in zshmodules(1).
echoti See the section ‘The zsh/terminfo Module’ in zshmodules(1).

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emulate [ -lLR ] [ {zsh|sh|ksh|csh} [ flags ... ] ]

Without any argument print current emulation mode.
With single argument set up zsh options to emulate the specified shell as much as possible. csh
will never be fully emulated. If the argument is not one of the shells listed above, zsh will be used
as a default; more precisely, the tests performed on the argument are the same as those used to de-
termine the emulation at startup based on the shell name, see the section COMPATIBILITY in
zsh(1) . In addition to setting shell options, the command also restores the pristine state of pattern
enables, as if all patterns had been enabled using enable -p.
If the emulate command occurs inside a function that has been marked for execution tracing with
functions -t then the xtrace option will be turned on regardless of emulation mode or other op-
tions. Note that code executed inside the function by the ., source, or eval commands is not con-
sidered to be running directly from the function, hence does not provoke this behaviour.
If the -R switch is given, all settable options are reset to their default value corresponding to the
specified emulation mode, except for certain options describing the interactive environment; other-
wise, only those options likely to cause portability problems in scripts and functions are altered. If
the -L switch is given, the options LOCAL_OPTIONS, LOCAL_PATTERNS and LO-
CAL_TRAPS will be set as well, causing the effects of the emulate command and any setopt,
disable -p or enable -p, and trap commands to be local to the immediately surrounding shell
function, if any; normally these options are turned off in all emulation modes except ksh. The -L
switch is mutually exclusive with the use of -c in flags.
If there is a single argument and the -l switch is given, the options that would be set or unset (the
latter indicated with the prefix ‘no’) are listed. -l can be combined with -L or -R and the list will
be modified in the appropriate way. Note the list does not depend on the current setting of options,
i.e. it includes all options that may in principle change, not just those that would actually change.
The flags may be any of the invocation-time flags described in the section INVOCATION in
zsh(1), except that ‘-o EMACS’ and ‘-o VI’ may not be used. Flags such as ‘+r’/‘+o RE-
STRICTED’ may be prohibited in some circumstances.
If -c arg appears in flags, arg is evaluated while the requested emulation is temporarily in effect.
In this case the emulation mode and all options are restored to their previous values before emu-
late returns. The -R switch may precede the name of the shell to emulate; note this has a meaning
distinct from including -R in flags.
Use of -c enables ‘sticky’ emulation mode for functions defined within the evaluated expression:
the emulation mode is associated thereafter with the function so that whenever the function is exe-
cuted the emulation (respecting the -R switch, if present) and all options are set (and pattern dis-
ables cleared) before entry to the function, and the state is restored after exit. If the function is
called when the sticky emulation is already in effect, either within an ‘emulate shell -c’ expres-
sion or within another function with the same sticky emulation, entry and exit from the function do
not cause options to be altered (except due to standard processing such as the LOCAL_OP-
TIONS option). This also applies to functions marked for autoload within the sticky emulation;
the appropriate set of options will be applied at the point the function is loaded as well as when it
is run.
For example:
emulate sh -c ’fni() { setopt cshnullglob; }
fno() { fni; }’
fno
The two functions fni and fno are defined with sticky sh emulation. fno is then executed, causing
options associated with emulations to be set to their values in sh. fno then calls fni; because fni is
also marked for sticky sh emulation, no option changes take place on entry to or exit from it.
Hence the option cshnullglob, turned off by sh emulation, will be turned on within fni and remain
on return to fno. On exit from fno, the emulation mode and all options will be restored to the state

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ZSHBUILTINS(1) General Commands Manual ZSHBUILTINS(1)

they were in before entry to the temporary emulation.

The documentation above is typically sufficient for the intended purpose of executing code de-
signed for other shells in a suitable environment. More detailed rules follow.
1. The sticky emulation environment provided by ‘emulate shell -c’ is identical to that pro-
vided by entry to a function marked for sticky emulation as a consequence of being de-
fined in such an environment. Hence, for example, the sticky emulation is inherited by
subfunctions defined within functions with sticky emulation.
2. No change of options takes place on entry to or exit from functions that are not marked
for sticky emulation, other than those that would normally take place, even if those func-
tions are called within sticky emulation.
3. No special handling is provided for functions marked for autoload nor for functions
present in wordcode created by the zcompile command.
4. The presence or absence of the -R switch to emulate corresponds to different sticky em-
ulation modes, so for example ‘emulate sh -c’, ‘emulate -R sh -c’ and ‘emulate csh
-c’ are treated as three distinct sticky emulations.
5. Difference in shell options supplied in addition to the basic emulation also mean the
sticky emulations are different, so for example ‘emulate zsh -c’ and ‘emulate zsh -o
cbases -c’ are treated as distinct sticky emulations.
enable [ -afmprs ] name ...
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 func-
tions. 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.
enable -p reenables patterns disabled with disable -p. Note that it does not override globbing
options; for example, ‘enable -p "˜"’ does not cause the pattern character ˜ to be active unless the
EXTENDED_GLOB option is also set. To enable all possible patterns (so that they may be indi-
vidually disabled with disable -p), use ‘setopt EXTENDED_GLOB KSH_GLOB
NO_SH_GLOB’.
eval [ arg ... ]
Read the arguments as input to the shell and execute the resulting command(s) in the current shell
process. The return status is the same as if the commands had been executed directly by the shell;
if there are no args or they contain no commands (i.e. are an empty string or whitespace) the re-
turn status is zero.
exec [ -cl ] [ -a argv0 ] [ command [ arg ... ] ]
Replace the current shell with command rather than forking. If command is a shell builtin com-
mand or a shell function, the shell executes it, and exits when the command is complete.
With -c clear the environment; with -l prepend - to the argv[0] string of the command executed
(to simulate a login shell); with -a argv0 set the argv[0] string of the command executed. See the
section ‘Precommand Modifiers’ in zshmisc(1).
If the option POSIX_BUILTINS is set, command is never interpreted as a shell builtin command
or shell function. This means further precommand modifiers such as builtin and noglob are also
not interpreted within the shell. Hence command is always found by searching the command path.
If command is omitted but any redirections are specified, then the redirections will take effect in
the current shell.
exit [ n ]
Exit the shell with the exit status specified by an arithmetic expression n; if none is specified, use
the exit status from the last command executed. An EOF condition will also cause the shell to

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exit, unless the IGNORE_EOF option is set.

See notes at the end of the section JOBS in zshmisc(1) for some possibly unexpected interactions
of the exit command with jobs.
export [ name[=value] ... ]
The specified names are marked for automatic export to the environment of subsequently executed
commands. Equivalent to typeset -gx. If a parameter specified does not already exist, it is cre-
ated in the global scope.
false [ arg ... ]
Do nothing and return an exit status of 1.

fc [ -e ename ] [ -LI ] [ -m match ] [ old=new ... ] [ first [ last ] ]

fc -l [ -LI ] [ -nrdfEiD ] [ -t timefmt ] [ -m match ]
[ old=new ... ] [ first [ last ] ]
fc -p [ -a ] [ filename [ histsize [ savehistsize ] ] ]
fc -P
fc -ARWI [ filename ]
The fc command controls the interactive history mechanism. Note that reading and writing of his-
tory options is only performed if the shell is interactive. Usually this is detected automatically, but
it can be forced by setting the interactive option when starting the shell.
The first two forms of this command select a range of events from first to last from the history list.
The arguments first and last may be specified as a number or as a string. A negative number is
used as an offset to the current history event number. A string specifies the most recent event be-
ginning with the given string. All substitutions old=new, if any, are then performed on the text of
the events.
In addition to the number range,
-I restricts to only internal events (not from $HISTFILE)
-L restricts to only local events (not from other shells, see SHARE_HISTORY in zshop-
tions(1) -- note that $HISTFILE is considered local when read at startup)
-m takes the first argument as a pattern (should be quoted) and only the history events match-
ing this pattern are considered
If first is not specified, it will be set to -1 (the most recent event), or to -16 if the -l flag is given.
If last is not specified, it will be set to first, or to -1 if the -l flag is given. However, if the current
event has added entries to the history with ‘print -s’ or ‘fc -R’, then the default last for -l in-
cludes all new history entries since the current event began.
When the -l flag is given, the resulting events are listed on standard output. Otherwise the editor
program specified by -e ename is invoked on a file containing these history events. If -e is not
given, the value of the parameter FCEDIT is used; if that is not set the value of the parameter ED-
ITOR is used; if that is not set a builtin default, usually ‘vi’ is used. If ename is ‘-’, no editor is
invoked. When editing is complete, the edited command is executed.
The flag -r reverses the order of the events and the flag -n suppresses event numbers when listing.
Also when listing,
-d prints timestamps for each event
-f prints full time-date stamps in the US ‘MM/DD/YY hh:mm’ format
-E prints full time-date stamps in the European ‘dd.mm.yyyy hh:mm’ format
-i prints full time-date stamps in ISO8601 ‘yyyy-mm-dd hh:mm’ format
-t fmt prints time and date stamps in the given format; fmt is formatted with the strftime func-
tion with the zsh extensions described for the %D{string} prompt format in the section
EXPANSION OF PROMPT SEQUENCES in zshmisc(1). The resulting formatted string
must be no more than 256 characters or will not be printed

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-D prints elapsed times; may be combined with one of the options above
‘fc -p’ pushes the current history list onto a stack and switches to a new history list. If the -a op-
tion is also specified, this history list will be automatically popped when the current function scope
is exited, which is a much better solution than creating a trap function to call ‘fc -P’ manually. If
no arguments are specified, the history list is left empty, $HISTFILE is unset, and $HISTSIZE &
$SAVEHIST are set to their default values. If one argument is given, $HISTFILE is set to that
filename, $HISTSIZE & $SAVEHIST are left unchanged, and the history file is read in (if it ex-
ists) 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, $SAVE-
HIST is set to a separate value from $HISTSIZE. You are free to change these environment val-
ues 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 appro-
priately, 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 func-
tions that use ‘fc -p’. The one other guaranteed-safe combination is declaring these variables to
be local at the top of your function and using the automatic option (-a) with ‘fc -p’. Finally, note
that it is legal to manually pop a push marked for automatic popping if you need to do so before
the function exits.
‘fc -R’ reads the history from the given file, ‘fc -W’ writes the history out to the given file, and
‘fc -A’ appends the history out to the given file. If no filename is specified, the $HISTFILE is
assumed. If the -I option is added to -R, only those events that are not already contained within
the internal history list are added. If the -I option is added to -A or -W, only those events that
are new since last incremental append/write to the history file are appended/written. In any case,
the created file will have no more than $SAVEHIST entries.
fg [ job ... ]
job ... Bring each specified job in turn to the foreground. If no job is specified, resume the current job.
float [ {+|-}Hghlprtux ] [ {+|-}EFLRZ [ n ] ] [ name[=value] ... ]
Equivalent to typeset -E, except that options irrelevant to floating point numbers are not permit-
ted.
functions [ {+|-}UkmtTuWz ] [ -x num ] [ name ... ]
functions -c oldfn newfn
functions -M [-s] mathfn [ min [ max [ shellfn ] ] ]
functions -M [ -m pattern ... ]
functions +M [ -m ] mathfn ...
Equivalent to typeset -f, with the exception of the -c, -x, -M and -W options. For functions -u
and functions -U, see autoload, which provides additional options.
The -x option indicates that any functions output will have each leading tab for indentation, added
by the shell to show syntactic structure, expanded to the given number num of spaces. num can
also be 0 to suppress all indentation.
The -W option turns on the option WARN_NESTED_VAR for the named function or functions
only. The option is turned off at the start of nested functions (apart from anonoymous functions)
unless the called function also has the -W attribute.
The -c option causes oldfn to be copied to newfn. The copy is efficiently handled internally by
reference counting. If oldfn was marked for autoload it is first loaded and if this fails the copy
fails. Either function may subsequently be redefined without affecting the other. A typical idiom
is that oldfn is the name of a library shell function which is then redefined to call newfn, thereby
installing a modified version of the function.
Use of the -M option may not be combined with any of the options handled by typeset -f.

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functions -M mathfn defines mathfn as the name of a mathematical function recognised in all
forms of arithmetical expressions; see the section ‘Arithmetic Evaluation’ in zshmisc(1). By de-
fault mathfn may take any number of comma-separated arguments. If min is given, it must have
exactly min args; if min and max are both given, it must have at least min and at most max args.
max may be -1 to indicate that there is no upper limit.
By default the function is implemented by a shell function of the same name; if shellfn is specified
it gives the name of the corresponding shell function while mathfn remains the name used in arith-
metical expressions. The name of the function in $0 is mathfn (not shellfn as would usually be the
case), provided the option FUNCTION_ARGZERO is in effect. The positional parameters in the
shell function correspond to the arguments of the mathematical function call. The result of the last
arithmetical expression evaluated inside the shell function (even if it is a form that normally only
returns a status) gives the result of the mathematical function.
If the additional option -s is given to functions -M, the argument to the function is a single
string: anything between the opening and matching closing parenthesis is passed to the function as
a single argument, even if it includes commas or white space. The minimum and maximum argu-
ment specifiers must therefore be 1 if given. An empty argument list is passed as a zero-length
string.
functions -M with no arguments lists all such user-defined functions in the same form as a defi-
nition. With the additional option -m and a list of arguments, all functions whose mathfn matches
one of the pattern arguments are listed.
function +M removes the list of mathematical functions; with the additional option -m the argu-
ments are treated as patterns and all functions whose mathfn matches the pattern are removed.
Note that the shell function implementing the behaviour is not removed (regardless of whether its
name coincides with mathfn).
For example, the following prints the cube of 3:
zmath_cube() { (( $1 * $1 * $1 )) }
functions -M cube 1 1 zmath_cube
print $(( cube(3) ))
The following string function takes a single argument, including the commas, so prints 11:
stringfn() { (( $#1 )) }
functions -Ms stringfn
print $(( stringfn(foo,bar,rod) ))
getcap See the section ‘The zsh/cap Module’ in zshmodules(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 single ‘-’ is not considered a valid option argument.
optstring contains the letters that getopts recognizes. If a letter is followed by a ‘:’, that option re-
quires an argument. The options can be separated from the argument by blanks.
Each time it is invoked, getopts places the option letter it finds in the shell parameter name,
prepended with a ‘+’ when arg begins with a ‘+’. The index of the next arg is stored in OPTIND.
The option argument, if any, is stored in OPTARG.
The first option to be examined may be changed by explicitly assigning to OPTIND. OPTIND
has an initial value of 1, and is normally set to 1 upon entry to a shell function and restored upon
exit (this is disabled by the POSIX_BUILTINS option). OPTARG is not reset and retains its
value from the most recent call to getopts. If either of OPTIND or OPTARG is explicitly unset,

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it remains unset, and the index or option argument is not stored. The option itself is still stored in
name in this case.
A leading ‘:’ in optstring causes getopts to store the letter of any invalid option in OPTARG, and
to set name to ‘?’ for an unknown option and to ‘:’ when a required argument is missing. Other-
wise, getopts sets name to ‘?’ and prints an error message when an option is invalid. The exit sta-
tus 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 direc-
tory hash table. Normally one would modify these tables by modifying one’s PATH (for the com-
mand 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 com-
mand hash table is used, and with the option the named directory hash table is used.
A command name starting with a / is never hashed, whether by explicit use of the hash command
or otherwise. Such a command is always found by direct look up in the file system.
Given no arguments, and neither the -r or -f options, 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 di-
rectory hash table this adds all users’ home directories. 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 ele-
ments of the hash table matching those patterns are printed. This is the only way to display a lim-
ited 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 direc-
tory 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 [ {+|-}Hghlprtux ] [ {+|-}LRZi [ n ] ] [ name[=value] ... ]
Equivalent to typeset -i, except that options irrelevant to integers are not permitted.
jobs [ -dlprs ] [ job ... ]
jobs -Z string
Lists information about each given job, or all jobs if job is omitted. The -l flag lists process IDs,
and the -p flag lists process groups. If the -r flag is specified only running jobs will be listed and
if the -s flag is given only stopped jobs are shown. If the -d flag is given, the directory from
which the job was started (which may not be the current directory of the job) will also be shown.
The -Z option replaces the shell’s argument and environment space with the given string, trun-
cated if necessary to fit. This will normally be visible in ps (ps(1)) listings. This feature is typi-
cally used by daemons, to indicate their state.
kill [ -s signal_name | -n signal_number | -sig ] job ...

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kill -l [ sig ... ]

Sends either SIGTERM or the specified signal to the given jobs or processes. Signals are given
by number or by names, with or without the ‘SIG’ prefix. If the signal being sent is not ‘KILL’
or ‘CONT’, then the job will be sent a ‘CONT’ signal if it is stopped. The argument job can be
the process ID of a job not in the job list. In the second form, kill -l, if sig is not specified the sig-
nal names are listed. Otherwise, for each sig that is a name, the corresponding signal number is
listed. For each sig that is a signal number or a number representing the exit status of a process
which was terminated or stopped by a signal the name of the signal is printed.
On some systems, alternative signal names are allowed for a few signals. Typical examples are
SIGCHLD and SIGCLD or SIGPOLL and SIGIO, assuming they correspond to the same signal
number. kill -l will only list the preferred form, however kill -l alt will show if the alternative
form corresponds to a signal number. For example, under Linux kill -l IO and kill -l POLL both
output 29, hence kill -IO and kill -POLL have the same effect.
Many systems will allow process IDs to be negative to kill a process group or zero to kill the cur-
rent process group.
let arg ...
Evaluate each arg as an arithmetic expression. See the section ‘Arithmetic Evaluation’ in zsh-
misc(1) for a description of arithmetic expressions. The exit status is 0 if the value of the last ex-
pression is nonzero, 1 if it is zero, and 2 if an error occurred.
limit [ -hs ] [ resource [ limit ] ] ...
Set or display resource limits. Unless the -s flag is given, the limit applies only the children of the
shell. If -s is given without other arguments, the resource limits of the current shell is set to the
previously set resource limits of the children.
If limit is not specified, print the current limit placed on resource, otherwise set the limit to the
specified value. If the -h flag is given, use hard limits instead of soft limits. If no resource is
given, print all limits.
When looping over multiple resources, the shell will abort immediately if it detects a badly formed
argument. However, if it fails to set a limit for some other reason it will continue trying to set the
remaining limits.
resource can be one of:
addressspace
Maximum amount of address space used.
aiomemorylocked
Maximum amount of memory locked in RAM for AIO operations.
aiooperations
Maximum number of AIO operations.
cachedthreads
Maximum number of cached threads.
coredumpsize
Maximum size of a core dump.
cputime
Maximum CPU seconds per process.
datasize
Maximum data size (including stack) for each process.
descriptors
Maximum value for a file descriptor.
filesize Largest single file allowed.
kqueues
Maximum number of kqueues allocated.

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maxproc
Maximum number of processes.
maxpthreads
Maximum number of threads per process.
memorylocked
Maximum amount of memory locked in RAM.
memoryuse
Maximum resident set size.
msgqueue
Maximum number of bytes in POSIX message queues.
posixlocks
Maximum number of POSIX locks per user.
pseudoterminals
Maximum number of pseudo-terminals.
resident
Maximum resident set size.
sigpending
Maximum number of pending signals.
sockbufsize
Maximum size of all socket buffers.
stacksize
Maximum stack size for each process.
swapsize
Maximum amount of swap used.
vmemorysize
Maximum amount of virtual memory.
Which of these resource limits are available depends on the system. resource can be abbreviated
to any unambiguous prefix. It can also be an integer, which corresponds to the integer defined for
the resource by the operating system.
If argument corresponds to a number which is out of the range of the resources configured into the
shell, the shell will try to read or write the limit anyway, and will report an error if this fails. As
the shell does not store such resources internally, an attempt to set the limit will fail unless the -s
option is present.
limit is a number, with an optional scaling factor, as follows:
nh hours
nk kilobytes (default)
nm megabytes or minutes
ng gigabytes
[mm:]ss
minutes and seconds
The limit command is not made available by default when the shell starts in a mode emulating an-
other shell. It can be made available with the command ‘zmodload -F zsh/rlimits b:limit’.
local [ {+|-}AHUahlprtux ] [ {+|-}EFLRZi [ n ] ] [ name[=value] ... ]
Same as typeset, except that the options -g, and -f are not permitted. In this case the -x option
does not force the use of -g, i.e. exported variables will be local to functions.
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’ in zshmisc(1).

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popd [ -q ] [ {+|-}n ]
Remove an entry from the directory stack, and perform a cd to the new top directory. With no ar-
gument, the current top entry is removed. An argument of the form ‘+n’ identifies a stack entry by
counting from the left of the list shown by the dirs command, starting with zero. An argument of
the form -n counts from the right. If the PUSHD_MINUS option is set, the meanings of ‘+’ and
‘-’ in this context are swapped.
If the -q (quiet) option is specified, the hook function chpwd and the functions in the array $ch-
pwd_functions are not called, and the new directory stack is not printed. This is useful for calls to
popd that do not change the environment seen by an interactive user.
print [ -abcDilmnNoOpPrsSz ] [ -u n ] [ -f format ] [ -C cols ]
[ -v name ] [ -xX tabstop ] [ -R [ -en ]] [ arg ... ]
With the ‘-f’ option the arguments are printed as described by printf. With no flags or with the
flag ‘-’, the arguments are printed on the standard output as described by echo, with the following
differences: the escape sequence ‘\M-x’ (or ‘\Mx’) metafies the character x (sets the highest bit),
‘\C-x’ (or ‘\Cx’) produces a control character (‘\C-@’ and ‘\C-?’ give the characters NULL and
delete), a character code in octal is represented by ‘\NNN’ (instead of ‘\0NNN’), and ‘\E’ is a syn-
onym for ‘\e’. Finally, if not in an escape sequence, ‘\’ escapes the following character and is not
printed.
-a Print arguments with the column incrementing first. Only useful with the -c and -C op-
tions.
-b Recognize all the escape sequences defined for the bindkey command, see the section
‘Zle Builtins’ in zshzle(1).
-c Print the arguments in columns. Unless -a is also given, arguments are printed with the
row incrementing first.
-C cols
Print the arguments in cols columns. Unless -a is also given, arguments are printed with
the row incrementing first.
-D Treat the arguments as paths, replacing directory prefixes with ˜ expressions correspond-
ing to directory names, as appropriate.
-i If given together with -o or -O, sorting is performed case-independently.
-l Print the arguments separated by newlines instead of spaces. Note: if the list of argu-
ments is empty, print -l will still output one empty line. To print a possibly-empty list of
arguments one per line, use print -C1, as in ‘print -rC1 -- "$list[@]"’.
-m Take the first argument as a pattern (should be quoted), and remove it from the argument
list together with subsequent arguments that do not match this pattern.
-n Do not add a newline to the output.
-N Print the arguments separated and terminated by nulls. Again, print -rNC1 --
"$list[@]" is a canonical way to print an arbitrary list as null-delimited records.
-o Print the arguments sorted in ascending order.
-O Print the arguments sorted in descending order.
-p Print the arguments to the input of the coprocess.
-P Perform prompt expansion (see EXPANSION OF PROMPT SEQUENCES in zsh-
misc(1)). In combination with ‘-f’, prompt escape sequences are parsed only within in-
terpolated arguments, not within the format string.
-r Ignore the escape conventions of echo.
-R Emulate the BSD echo command, which does not process escape sequences unless the -e
flag is given. The -n flag suppresses the trailing newline. Only the -e and -n flags are

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recognized after -R; all other arguments and options are printed.
-s Place the results in the history list instead of on the standard output. Each argument to
the print command is treated as a single word in the history, regardless of its content.
-S Place the results in the history list instead of on the standard output. In this case only a
single argument is allowed; it will be split into words as if it were a full shell command
line. The effect is similar to reading the line from a history file with the
HIST_LEX_WORDS option active.
-u n Print the arguments to file descriptor n.
-v name
Store the printed arguments as the value of the parameter name.
-x tab-stop
Expand leading tabs on each line of output in the printed string assuming a tab stop every
tab-stop characters. This is appropriate for formatting code that may be indented with
tabs. Note that leading tabs of any argument to print, not just the first, are expanded, even
if print is using spaces to separate arguments (the column count is maintained across ar-
guments but may be incorrect on output owing to previous unexpanded tabs).
The start of the output of each print command is assumed to be aligned with a tab stop.
Widths of multibyte characters are handled if the option MULTIBYTE is in effect. This
option is ignored if other formatting options are in effect, namely column alignment or
printf style, or if output is to a special location such as shell history or the command line
editor.
-X tab-stop
This is similar to -x, except that all tabs in the printed string are expanded. This is appro-
priate if tabs in the arguments are being used to produce a table format.
-z Push the arguments onto the editing buffer stack, separated by spaces.
If any of ‘-m’, ‘-o’ or ‘-O’ are used in combination with ‘-f’ and there are no arguments (after
the removal process in the case of ‘-m’) then nothing is printed.
printf [ -v name ] format [ arg ... ]
Print the arguments according to the format specification. Formatting rules are the same as used in
C. The same escape sequences as for echo are recognised in the format. All C conversion specifi-
cations ending in one of csdiouxXeEfgGn are handled. In addition to this, ‘%b’ can be used in-
stead 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 for-
mat specifiers, if the corresponding argument starts with a quote character, the numeric value of
the following character is used as the number to print; otherwise the argument is evaluated as an
arithmetic expression. See the section ‘Arithmetic Evaluation’ in zshmisc(1) for a description of
arithmetic expressions. With ‘%n’, the corresponding argument is taken as an identifier which is
created as an integer parameter.
Normally, conversion specifications are applied to each argument in order but they can explicitly
specify the nth argument is to be used by replacing ‘%’ by ‘%n$’ and ‘*’ by ‘*n$’. It is recom-
mended 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 ar-
guments are required by the format than have been specified, the behaviour is as if zero or an
empty string had been specified as the argument.
The -v option causes the output to be stored as the value of the parameter name, instead of
printed. If name is an array and the format string is reused when consuming arguments then one
array element will be used for each use of the format string.

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pushd [ -qsLP ] [ arg ]

pushd [ -qsLP ] old new
pushd [ -qsLP ] {+|-}n
Change the current directory, and push the old current directory onto the directory stack. In the
first form, change the current directory to arg. If arg is not specified, change to the second direc-
tory 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 in-
terpreted as it would be by cd. The meaning of old and new in the second form is also the same as
for cd.
The third form of pushd changes directory by rotating the directory list. An argument of the form
‘+n’ identifies a stack entry by counting from the left of the list shown by the dirs command, start-
ing with zero. An argument of the form ‘-n’ counts from the right. If the PUSHD_MINUS op-
tion is set, the meanings of ‘+’ and ‘-’ in this context are swapped.
If the -q (quiet) option is specified, the hook function chpwd and the functions in the array $ch-
pwd_functions are not called, and the new directory stack is not printed. This is useful for calls to
pushd that do not change the environment seen by an interactive user.
If the option -q is not specified and the shell option PUSHD_SILENT is not set, the directory
stack will be printed after a pushd is performed.
The options -s, -L and -P have the same meanings as for the cd builtin.
pushln [ arg ... ]
Equivalent to print -nz.
pwd [ -rLP ]
Print the absolute pathname of the current working directory. If the -r or the -P flag is specified,
or the CHASE_LINKS option is set and the -L flag is not given, the printed path will not contain
symbolic links.
r Same as fc -e -.

read [ -rszpqAclneE ] [ -t [ num ] ] [ -k [ num ] ] [ -d delim ]

[ -u n ] [ name[?prompt] ] [ name ... ]
Read one line and break it into fields using the characters in $IFS as separators, except as noted
below. The first field is assigned to the first name, the second field to the second name, etc., with
leftover fields assigned to the last name. If name is omitted then REPLY is used for scalars and
reply for arrays.
-r Raw mode: a ‘\’ at the end of a line does not signify line continuation and backslashes in
the line don’t quote the following character and are not removed.
-s Don’t echo back characters if reading from the terminal.
-q Read only one character from the terminal and set name to ‘y’ if this character was ‘y’ or
‘Y’ and to ‘n’ otherwise. With this flag set the return status is zero only if the character
was ‘y’ or ‘Y’. This option may be used with a timeout (see -t); if the read times out, or
encounters end of file, status 2 is returned. Input is read from the terminal unless one of
-u or -p is present. This option may also be used within zle widgets.
-k [ num ]
Read only one (or num) characters. All are assigned to the first name, without word split-
ting. This flag is ignored when -q is present. Input is read from the terminal unless one
of -u or -p is present. This option may also be used within zle widgets.
Note that despite the mnemonic ‘key’ this option does read full characters, which may
consist of multiple bytes if the option MULTIBYTE is set.
-z Read one entry from the editor buffer stack and assign it to the first name, without word
splitting. Text is pushed onto the stack with ‘print -z’ or with push-line from the line

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editor (see zshzle(1)). This flag is ignored when the -k or -q flags are present.
-e
-E The input read is printed (echoed) to the standard output. If the -e flag is used, no input
is assigned to the parameters.
-A The first name is taken as the name of an array and all words are assigned to it.
-c
-l These flags are allowed only if called inside a function used for completion (specified
with the -K flag to compctl). If the -c flag is given, the words of the current command
are read. If the -l flag is given, the whole line is assigned as a scalar. If both flags are
present, -l is used and -c is ignored.
-n Together with -c, the number of the word the cursor is on is read. With -l, the index of
the character the cursor is on is read. Note that the command name is word number 1, not
word 0, and that when the cursor is at the end of the line, its character index is the length
of the line plus one.
-u n Input is read from file descriptor n.
-p Input is read from the coprocess.
-d delim
Input is terminated by the first character of delim instead of by newline.
-t [ num ]
Test if input is available before attempting to read. If num is present, it must begin with a
digit and will be evaluated to give a number of seconds, which may be a floating point
number; in this case the read times out if input is not available within this time. If num is
not present, it is taken to be zero, so that read returns immediately if no input is available.
If no input is available, return status 1 and do not set any variables.

This option is not available when reading from the editor buffer with -z, when called
from within completion with -c or -l, with -q which clears the input queue before 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 er-
ror when the shell is interactive.
The value (exit status) of read is 1 when an end-of-file is encountered, or when -c or -l is
present and the command is not called from a compctl function, or as described for -q. Otherwise
the value is 0.
The behavior of some combinations of the -k, -p, -q, -u and -z flags is undefined. Presently -q
cancels all the others, -p cancels -u, -k cancels -z, and otherwise -z cancels both -p and -u.
The -c or -l flags cancel any and all of -kpquz.
readonly
Same as typeset -r. With the POSIX_BUILTINS option set, same as typeset -gr.
rehash Same as hash -r.

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return [ n ]
Causes a shell function or ‘.’ script to return to the invoking script with the return status specified
by an arithmetic expression n. If n is omitted, the return status is that of the last command exe-
cuted.
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 zshmodules(1).

set [ {+|-}options | {+|-}o [ option_name ] ] ... [ {+|-}A [ name ] ]

[ arg ... ]
Set the options for the shell and/or set the positional parameters, or declare and set an array. If the
-s option is given, it causes the specified arguments to be sorted before assigning them to the posi-
tional parameters (or to the array name if -A is used). With +s sort arguments in descending or-
der. 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: see the
description of setopt below for more information on the format. With +o they are printed in a
form that can be used as input to the shell.
If the -A flag is specified, name is set to an array containing the given args; if no name is speci-
fied, all arrays are printed together with their values.
If +A is used and name is an array, the given arguments will replace the initial elements of that ar-
ray; 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_AR-
RAYS is set. If it is not set, all arguments following name are treated as values for the array, re-
gardless of their form. If the option is set, normal option processing continues at that point; only
regular arguments are treated as values for the array. This means that
set -A array -x -- foo
sets array to ‘-x -- foo’ if KSH_ARRAYS is not set, but sets the array to foo and turns on the
option ‘-x’ if it is set.
If the -A flag is not present, but there are arguments beyond the options, the positional parameters
are set. If the option list (if any) is terminated by ‘--’, and there are no further arguments, the po-
sitional parameters will be unset.
If no arguments and no ‘--’ are given, then the names and values of all parameters are printed on
the standard output. If the only argument is ‘+’, the names of all parameters are printed.
For historical reasons, ‘set -’ is treated as ‘set +xv’ and ‘set - args’ as ‘set +xv -- args’ when in
any other emulation mode than zsh’s native mode.
setcap See the section ‘The zsh/cap Module’ in zshmodules(1).
setopt [ {+|-}options | {+|-}o option_name ] [ -m ] [ name ... ]
Set the options for the shell. All options specified either with flags or by name are set.
If no arguments are supplied, the names of all options currently set are printed. The form is cho-
sen so as to minimize the differences from the default options for the current emulation (the de-
fault emulation being native zsh, shown as <Z> in zshoptions(1)). Options that are on by default
for the emulation are shown with the prefix no only if they are off, while other options are shown
without the prefix no and only if they are on. In addition to options changed from the default state
by the user, any options activated automatically by the shell (for example, SHIN_STDIN or IN-
TERACTIVE) will be shown in the list. The format is further modified by the option

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KSH_OPTION_PRINT, however the rationale for choosing options with or without the no prefix
remains the same in this case.
If the -m flag is given the arguments are taken as patterns (which should be quoted to protect them
from filename expansion), and all options with names matching these patterns are set.
Note that a bad option name does not cause execution of subsequent shell code to be aborted; this
is behaviour is different from that of ‘set -o’. This is because set is regarded as a special builtin
by the POSIX standard, but setopt is not.
shift [ -p ] [ n ] [ name ... ]
The positional parameters ${n+1} ... are renamed to $1 ..., where n is an arithmetic expression that
defaults to 1. If any names are given then the arrays with these names are shifted instead of the
positional parameters.
If the option -p is given arguments are instead removed (popped) from the end rather than the start
of the array.
source file [ arg ... ]
Same as ‘.’, except that the current directory is always searched and is always searched first, be-
fore directories in $path.
stat See the section ‘The zsh/stat Module’ in zshmodules(1).
suspend [ -f ]
Suspend the execution of the shell (send it a SIGTSTP) until it receives a SIGCONT. Unless the
-f option is given, this will refuse to suspend a login shell.
test [ arg ... ]
[ [ arg ... ] ]
Like the system version of test. Added for compatibility; use conditional expressions instead (see
the section ‘Conditional Expressions’). The main differences between the conditional expression
syntax and the test and [ builtins are: these commands are not handled syntactically, so for exam-
ple an empty variable expansion may cause an argument to be omitted; syntax errors cause status 2
to be returned instead of a shell error; and arithmetic operators expect integer arguments rather
than arithmetic expressions.
The command attempts to implement POSIX and its extensions where these are specified. Unfor-
tunately there are intrinsic ambiguities in the syntax; in particular there is no distinction between
test operators and strings that resemble them. The standard attempts to resolve these for small
numbers of arguments (up to four); for five or more arguments compatibility cannot be relied on.
Users are urged wherever possible to use the ‘[[’ test syntax which does not have these ambigui-
ties.
times Print the accumulated user and system times for the shell and for processes run from the shell.
trap [ arg ] [ sig ... ]
arg is a series of commands (usually quoted to protect it from immediate evaluation by the shell)
to be read and executed when the shell receives any of the signals specified by one or more sig
args. Each sig can be given as a number, or as the name of a signal either with or without the
string SIG in front (e.g. 1, HUP, and SIGHUP are all the same signal).
If arg is ‘-’, then the specified signals are reset to their defaults, or, if no sig args are present, all
traps are reset.
If arg is an empty string, then the specified signals are ignored by the shell (and by the commands
it invokes).
If arg is omitted but one or more sig args are provided (i.e. the first argument is a valid signal
number or name), the effect is the same as if arg had been specified as ‘-’.
The trap command with no arguments prints a list of commands associated with each signal.
If sig is ZERR then arg will be executed after each command with a nonzero exit status. ERR is

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an alias for ZERR on systems that have no SIGERR signal (this is the usual case).
If sig is DEBUG then arg will be executed before each command if the option DEBUG_BE-
FORE_CMD is set (as it is by default), else after each command. Here, a ‘command’ is what is
described as a ‘sublist’ in the shell grammar, see the section SIMPLE COMMANDS & PIPE-
LINES in zshmisc(1). If DEBUG_BEFORE_CMD is set various additional features are avail-
able. First, it is possible to skip the next command by setting the option ERR_EXIT; see the de-
scription of the ERR_EXIT option in zshoptions(1). Also, the shell parameter ZSH_DE-
BUG_CMD is set to the string corresponding to the command to be executed following the trap.
Note that this string is reconstructed from the internal format and may not be formatted the same
way as the original text. The parameter is unset after the trap is executed.
If sig is 0 or EXIT and the trap statement is executed inside the body of a function, then the com-
mand arg is executed after the function completes. The value of $? at the start of execution is the
exit status of the shell or the return status of the function exiting. If sig is 0 or EXIT and the trap
statement is not executed inside the body of a function, then the command arg is executed when
the shell terminates; the trap runs before any zshexit hook functions.
ZERR, DEBUG, and EXIT traps are not executed inside other traps. ZERR and DEBUG traps
are kept within subshells, while other traps are reset.
Note that traps defined with the trap builtin are slightly different from those defined as ‘TRAP-
NAL () { ... }’, 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 exam-
ple,
trap ’print $LINENO’ DEBUG
will print the line number of a command executed after it has run, while
TRAPDEBUG() { print $LINENO; }
will always print the number zero.
Alternative signal names are allowed as described under kill above. Defining a trap under either
name causes any trap under an alternative name to be removed. However, it is recommended that
for consistency users stick exclusively to one name or another.
true [ arg ... ]
Do nothing and return an exit status of 0.
ttyctl [ -fu ]
The -f option freezes the tty (i.e. terminal or terminal emulator), and -u unfreezes it. When the
tty is frozen, no changes made to the tty settings by external programs will be honored by the
shell, except for changes in the size of the screen; the shell will simply reset the settings to their
previous values as soon as each command exits or is suspended. Thus, stty and similar programs
have no effect when the tty is frozen. Freezing the tty does not cause the current state to be re-
membered: instead, it causes future changes to the state to be blocked.
Without options it reports whether the terminal is frozen or not.
Note that, regardless of whether the tty is frozen or not, the shell needs to change the settings when
the line editor starts, so unfreezing the tty does not guarantee settings made on the command line
are preserved. Strings of commands run between editing the command line will see a consistent
tty state. See also the shell variable STTY for a means of initialising the tty before running exter-
nal commands.
type [ -wfpamsS ] name ...
Equivalent to whence -v.

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typeset [ {+|-}AHUaghlmrtux ] [ {+|-}EFLRZip [ n ] ]

[ + ] [ name[=value] ... ]
typeset -T [ {+|-}Uglrux ] [ {+|-}LRZp [ n ] ]
[ + | SCALAR[=value] array[=(value ...)] [ sep ] ]
typeset -f [ {+|-}TUkmtuz ] [ + ] [ name ... ]
Set or display attributes and values for shell parameters.
Except as noted below for control flags that change the behavior, a parameter is created for each
name that does not already refer to one. When inside a function, a new parameter is created for
every name (even those that already exist), and is unset again when the function completes. See
‘Local Parameters’ in zshparam(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.
If the shell option TYPESET_SILENT is not set, for each remaining name that refers to a param-
eter that is already set, the name and value of the parameter are printed in the form of an assign-
ment. Nothing is printed for newly-created parameters, or when any attribute flags listed below
are given along with the name. Using ‘+’ instead of minus to introduce an attribute turns it off.
If no name is present, the names and values of all parameters are printed. In this case the attribute
flags restrict the display to only those parameters that have the specified attributes, and using ‘+’
rather than ‘-’ to introduce the flag suppresses printing of the values of parameters when there is
no parameter name.
All forms of the command handle scalar assignment. Array assignment is possible if any of the re-
served words declare, export, float, integer, local, readonly or typeset is matched when the line
is parsed (N.B. not when it is executed). In this case the arguments are parsed as assignments, ex-
cept that the ‘+=’ syntax and the GLOB_ASSIGN option are not supported, and scalar values af-
ter = are not split further into words, even if expanded (regardless of the setting of the
KSH_TYPESET option; this option is obsolete).
Examples of the differences between command and reserved word parsing:
# Reserved word parsing
typeset svar=$(echo one word) avar=(several words)
The above creates a scalar parameter svar and an array parameter avar as if the assignments had
been
svar="one word"
avar=(several words)
On the other hand:
# Normal builtin interface
builtin typeset svar=$(echo two words)
The builtin keyword causes the above to use the standard builtin interface to typeset in which ar-
gument parsing is performed in the same way as for other commands. This example creates a
scalar svar containing the value two and another scalar parameter words with no value. An array
value in this case would either cause an error or be treated as an obscure set of glob qualifiers.
Arbitrary arguments are allowed if they take the form of assignments after command line expan-
sion; however, these only perform scalar assignment:
var=’svar=val’
typeset $var
The above sets the scalar parameter svar to the value val. Parentheses around the value within var
would not cause array assignment as they will be treated as ordinary characters when $var is sub-
stituted. Any non-trivial expansion in the name part of the assignment causes the argument to be
treated in this fashion:

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typeset {var1,var2,var3}=name
The above syntax is valid, and has the expected effect of setting the three parameters to the same
value, but the command line is parsed as a set of three normal command line arguments to typeset
after expansion. Hence it is not possible to assign to multiple arrays by this means.
Note that each interface to any of the commands my be disabled separately. For example, ‘disable
-r typeset’ disables the reserved word interface to typeset, exposing the builtin interface, while
‘disable typeset’ disables the builtin. Note that disabling the reserved word interface for typeset
may cause problems with the output of ‘typeset -p’, which assumes the reserved word interface is
available in order to restore array and associative array values.
Unlike parameter assignment statements, typeset’s exit status on an assignment that involves a
command substitution does not reflect the exit status of the command substitution. Therefore, to
test for an error in a command substitution, separate the declaration of the parameter from its ini-
tialization:
# WRONG
typeset var1=$(exit 1) || echo "Trouble with var1"

# RIGHT
typeset var1 && var1=$(exit 1) || echo "Trouble with var1"
To initialize a parameter param to a command output and mark it readonly, use typeset -r param
or readonly param after the parameter assignment statement.
If no attribute flags are given, and either no name arguments are present or the flag +m is used,
then each parameter name printed is preceded by a list of the attributes of that parameter (array,
association, exported, float, integer, readonly, or undefined for autoloaded parameters not yet
loaded). If +m is used with attribute flags, and all those flags are introduced with +, the matching
parameter names are printed but their values are not.
The following control flags change the behavior of typeset:
+ If ‘+’ appears by itself in a separate word as the last option, then the names of all parame-
ters (functions with -f) are printed, but the values (function bodies) are not. No name ar-
guments may appear, and it is an error for any other options to follow ‘+’. The effect of
‘+’ is as if all attribute flags which precede it were given with a ‘+’ prefix. For example,
‘typeset -U +’ is equivalent to ‘typeset +U’ and displays the names of all arrays having
the uniqueness attribute, whereas ‘typeset -f -U +’ displays the names of all autoload-
able functions. If + is the only option, then type information (array, readonly, etc.) is also
printed for each parameter, in the same manner as ‘typeset +m "*"’.
-g The -g (global) means that any resulting parameter will not be restricted to local scope.
Note that this does not necessarily mean that the parameter will be global, as the flag will
apply to any existing parameter (even if unset) from an enclosing function. This flag does
not affect the parameter after creation, hence it has no effect when listing existing param-
eters, nor does the flag +g have any effect except in combination with -m (see below).
-m If the -m flag is given the name arguments are taken as patterns (use quoting to prevent
these from being interpreted as file patterns). With no attribute flags, all parameters (or
functions with the -f flag) with matching names are printed (the shell option TYPE-
SET_SILENT is not used in this case).
If the +g flag is combined with -m, a new local parameter is created for every matching
parameter that is not already local. Otherwise -m applies all other flags or assignments
to the existing parameters.
Except when assignments are made with name=value, using +m forces the matching pa-
rameters and their attributes to be printed, even inside a function. Note that -m is ig-
nored if no patterns are given, so ‘typeset -m’ displays attributes but ‘typeset -a +m’
does not.

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-p [ n ] If the -p option is given, parameters and values are printed in the form of a typeset com-
mand with an assignment, regardless of other flags and options. Note that the -H flag on
parameters is respected; no value will be shown for these parameters.
-p may be followed by an optional integer argument. Currently only the value 1 is sup-
ported. In this case arrays and associative arrays are printed with newlines between in-
dented elements for readability.
-T [ scalar[=value] array[=(value ...)] [ sep ] ]
This flag has a different meaning when used with -f; see below. Otherwise the -T option
requires zero, two, or three arguments to be present. With no arguments, the list of pa-
rameters created in this fashion is shown. With two or three arguments, the first two are
the name of a scalar and of an array parameter (in that order) that will be tied together in
the manner of $PATH and $path. The optional third argument is a single-character sep-
arator which will be used to join the elements of the array to form the scalar; if absent, a
colon is used, as with $PATH. Only the first character of the separator is significant; any
remaining characters are ignored. Multibyte characters are not yet supported.
Only one of the scalar and array parameters may be assigned an initial value (the restric-
tions on assignment forms described above also apply).
Both the scalar and the array may be manipulated as normal. If one is unset, the other
will automatically be unset too. There is no way of untying the variables without unset-
ting them, nor of converting the type of one of them with another typeset command; +T
does not work, assigning an array to scalar is an error, and assigning a scalar to array sets
it to be a single-element array.
Note that both ‘typeset -xT ...’ and ‘export -T ...’ work, but only the scalar will be
marked for export. Setting the value using the scalar version causes a split on all separa-
tors (which cannot be quoted). It is possible to apply -T to two previously tied variables
but with a different separator character, in which case the variables remain joined as be-
fore but the separator is changed.
When an existing scalar is tied to a new array, the value of the scalar is preserved but no
attribute other than export will be preserved.
Attribute flags that transform the final value (-L, -R, -Z, -l, -u) are only applied to the expanded
value at the point of a parameter expansion expression using ‘$’. They are not applied when a pa-
rameter is retrieved internally by the shell for any purpose.
The following attribute flags may be specified:
-A The names refer to associative array parameters; see ‘Array Parameters’ in zshparam(1).
-L [ n ]
Left justify and remove leading blanks from the value when the parameter is expanded.
If n is nonzero, it defines the width of the field. If n is zero, the width is determined by
the width of the value of the first assignment. In the case of numeric parameters, the
length of the complete value assigned to the parameter is used to determine the width, not
the value that would be output.
The width is the count of characters, which may be multibyte characters if the MULTI-
BYTE option is in effect. Note that the screen width of the character is not taken into ac-
count; if this is required, use padding with parameter expansion flags ${(ml...)...} as de-
scribed in ‘Parameter Expansion Flags’ in zshexpn(1).
When the parameter is expanded, it is filled on the right with blanks or truncated if neces-
sary to fit the field. Note truncation can lead to unexpected results with numeric parame-
ters. Leading zeros are removed if the -Z flag is also set.

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-R [ n ]
Similar to -L, except that right justification is used; when the parameter is expanded, the
field is left filled with blanks or truncated from the end. May not be combined with the
-Z flag.
-U For arrays (but not for associative arrays), keep only the first occurrence of each dupli-
cated value. This may also be set for tied parameters (see -T) or colon-separated special
parameters like PATH or FIGNORE, etc. Note the flag takes effect on assignment, and
the type of the variable being assigned to is determinative; for variables with shared val-
ues it is therefore recommended to set the flag for all interfaces, e.g. ‘typeset -U PATH
path’.
This flag has a different meaning when used with -f; see below.
-Z [ n ]
Specially handled if set along with the -L flag. Otherwise, similar to -R, except that
leading zeros are used for padding instead of blanks if the first non-blank character is a
digit. Numeric parameters are specially handled: they are always eligible for padding
with zeroes, and the zeroes are inserted at an appropriate place in the output.
-a The names refer to array parameters. An array parameter may be created this way, but it
may be assigned to in the typeset statement only if the reserved word form of typeset is
enabled (as it is by default). When displaying, both normal and associative arrays are
shown.
-f The names refer to functions rather than parameters. No assignments can be made, and
the only other valid flags are -t, -T, -k, -u, -U and -z. The flag -t turns on execution
tracing for this function; the flag -T does the same, but turns off tracing for any named
(not anonymous) function called from the present one, unless that function also has the -t
or -T flag. The -u and -U flags cause the function to be marked for autoloading; -U
also causes alias expansion to be suppressed when the function is loaded. See the de-
scription of the ‘autoload’ builtin for details.
Note that the builtin functions provides the same basic capabilities as typeset -f but
gives access to a few extra options; autoload gives further additional options for the case
typeset -fu and typeset -fU.
-h Hide: only useful for special parameters (those marked ‘<S>’ in the table in zsh-
param(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 special ef-
fect 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 func-
tion ‘typeset -h PATH’ creates an ordinary local parameter and the special PATH pa-
rameter is not altered in any way. It is also possible to create a local parameter using
‘typeset +h special’, where the local copy of special will retain its special properties re-
gardless of having the -h attribute. Global special parameters loaded from shell modules
(currently those in zsh/mapfile and zsh/parameter) are automatically given the -h attri-
bute 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 pa-
rameter 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 un-
like the -h flag this is also useful for non-special parameters.
-i [ n ] Use an internal integer representation. If n is nonzero it defines the output arithmetic
base, otherwise it is determined by the first assignment. Bases from 2 to 36 inclusive are
allowed.

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-E [ n ]
Use an internal double-precision floating point representation. On output the variable
will be converted to scientific notation. If n is nonzero it defines the number of signifi-
cant figures to display; the default is ten.
-F [ n ] Use an internal double-precision floating point representation. On output the variable
will be converted to fixed-point decimal notation. If n is nonzero it defines the number
of digits to display after the decimal point; the default is ten.
-l Convert the result to lower case whenever the parameter is expanded. The value is not
converted when assigned.
-r The given names are marked readonly. Note that if name is a special parameter, the read-
only attribute can be turned on, but cannot then be turned off.
If the POSIX_BUILTINS option is set, the readonly attribute is more restrictive: unset
variables can be marked readonly and cannot then be set; furthermore, the readonly attri-
bute cannot be removed from any variable.
It is still possible to change other attributes of the variable though, some of which like -U
or -Z would affect the value. More generally, the readonly attribute should not be relied
on as a security mechanism.
Note that in zsh (like in pdksh but unlike most other shells) it is still possible to create a
local variable of the same name as this is considered a different variable (though this vari-
able, too, can be marked readonly). Special variables that have been made readonly retain
their value and readonly attribute when made local.
-t Tags the named parameters. Tags have no special meaning to the shell. This flag has a
different meaning when used with -f; see above.
-u Convert the result to upper case whenever the parameter is expanded. The value is not
converted when assigned. This flag has a different meaning when used with -f; see
above.
-x Mark for automatic export to the environment of subsequently executed commands. If
the option GLOBAL_EXPORT is set, this implies the option -g, unless +g is also ex-
plicitly given; in other words the parameter is not made local to the enclosing function.
This is for compatibility with previous versions of zsh.
ulimit [ -HSa ] [ { -bcdfiklmnpqrsTtvwx | -N resource } [ limit ] ... ]
Set or display resource limits of the shell and the processes started by the shell. The value of limit
can be a number in the unit specified below or one of the values ‘unlimited’, which removes the
limit on the resource, or ‘hard’, which uses the current value of the hard limit on the resource.
By default, only soft limits are manipulated. If the -H flag is given use hard limits instead of soft
limits. If the -S flag is given together with the -H flag set both hard and soft limits.
If no options are used, the file size limit (-f) is assumed.
If limit is omitted the current value of the specified resources are printed. When more than one re-
source value is printed, the limit name and unit is printed before each value.
When looping over multiple resources, the shell will abort immediately if it detects a badly formed
argument. However, if it fails to set a limit for some other reason it will continue trying to set the
remaining limits.
Not all the following resources are supported on all systems. Running ulimit -a will show which
are supported.
-a Lists all of the current resource limits.
-b Socket buffer size in bytes (N.B. not kilobytes)
-c 512-byte blocks on the size of core dumps.

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-d Kilobytes on the size of the data segment.

-f 512-byte blocks on the size of files written.
-i The number of pending signals.
-k The number of kqueues allocated.
-l Kilobytes on the size of locked-in memory.
-m Kilobytes on the size of physical memory.
-n open file descriptors.
-p The number of pseudo-terminals.
-q Bytes in POSIX message queues.
-r Maximum real time priority. On some systems where this is not available, such as Net-
BSD, this has the same effect as -T for compatibility with sh.
-s Kilobytes on the size of the stack.
-T The number of simultaneous threads available to the user.
-t CPU seconds to be used.
-u The number of processes available to the user.
-v Kilobytes on the size of virtual memory. On some systems this refers to the limit called
‘address space’.
-w Kilobytes on the size of swapped out memory.
-x The number of locks on files.
A resource may also be specified by integer in the form ‘-N resource’, where resource corre-
sponds to the integer defined for the resource by the operating system. This may be used to set the
limits for resources known to the shell which do not correspond to option letters. Such limits will
be shown by number in the output of ‘ulimit -a’.
The number may alternatively be out of the range of limits compiled into the shell. The shell will
try to read or write the limit anyway, and will report an error if this fails.
umask [ -S ] [ mask ]
The umask is set to mask. mask can be either an octal number or a symbolic value as described in
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 [ -ams ] name ...
Removes aliases. This command works the same as unhash -a, except that the -a option re-
moves all regular or global aliases, or with -s all suffix aliases: in this case no name arguments
may appear. The options -m (remove by pattern) and -s without -a (remove listed suffix aliases)
behave as for unhash -a. Note that the meaning of -a is different between unalias and unhash.
unfunction
Same as unhash -f.
unhash [ -adfms ] name ...
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;
note when removing a global aliases that the argument must be quoted to prevent it from being ex-
panded before being passed to the command. The -s option causes unhash to remove suffix
aliases. The -f option causes unhash to remove shell functions. The -d options causes unhash
to remove named directories. If the -m flag is given the arguments are taken as patterns (should
be quoted) and all elements 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.
The unlimit command is not made available by default when the shell starts in a mode emulating

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another shell. It can be made available with the command ‘zmodload -F zsh/rlimits b:unlimit’.
unset [ -fmv ] name ...
Each named parameter is unset. Local parameters remain local even if unset; they appear unset
within scope, but the previous value will still reappear when the scope ends.
Individual elements of associative array parameters may be unset by using subscript syntax on
name, which should be quoted (or the entire command prefixed with noglob) to protect the sub-
script from filename generation.
If the -m flag is specified the arguments are taken as patterns (should be quoted) and all parame-
ters with matching names are unset. Note that this cannot be used when unsetting associative ar-
ray elements, as the subscript will be treated as part of the pattern.
The -v flag specifies that name refers to parameters. This is the default behaviour.
unset -f is equivalent to unfunction.
unsetopt [ {+|-}options | {+|-}o option_name ] [ name ... ]
Unset the options for the shell. All options specified either with flags or by name are unset. If no
arguments are supplied, the names of all options currently unset are printed. If the -m flag is
given the arguments are taken as patterns (which should be quoted to preserve them from being in-
terpreted 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 processes
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. If job represents an unknown job
or process ID, a warning is printed (unless the POSIX_BUILTINS option is set) and the exit sta-
tus is 127.
It is possible to wait for recent processes (specified by process ID, not by job) that were running in
the background even if the process has exited. Typically the process ID will be recorded by cap-
turing the value of the variable $! immediately after the process has been started. There is a limit
on the number of process IDs remembered by the shell; this is given by the value of the system
configuration parameter CHILD_MAX. When this limit is reached, older process IDs are dis-
carded, least recently started processes first.
Note there is no protection against the process ID wrapping, i.e. if the wait is not executed soon
enough there is a chance the process waited for is the wrong one. A conflict implies both process
IDs have been generated by the shell, as other processes are not recorded, and that the user is po-
tentially interested in both, so this problem is intrinsic to process IDs.
whence [ -vcwfpamsS ] [ -x num ] name ...
For each name, indicate how it would be interpreted if used as a command name.
If name is not an alias, built-in command, external command, shell function, hashed command, or
a reserved word, the exit status shall be non-zero, and -- if -v, -c, or -w was passed -- a mes-
sage will be written to standard output. (This is different from other shells that write that message
to standard error.)
whence is most useful when name is only the last path component of a command, i.e. does not in-
clude a ‘/’; in particular, pattern matching only succeeds if just the non-directory component of
the command is passed.
-v Produce a more verbose report.
-c Print the results in a csh-like format. This takes precedence over -v.
-w For each name, print ‘name: word’ where word is one of alias, builtin, command, func-
tion, 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

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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 (pattern characters should be quoted), and the infor-
mation is displayed for each command matching one of these patterns.
-s If a pathname contains symlinks, print the symlink-free pathname as well.
-S As -s, but if the pathname had to be resolved by following multiple symlinks, the inter-
mediate steps are printed, too. The symlink resolved at each step might be anywhere in
the path.
-x num Expand tabs when outputting shell functions using the -c option. This has the same ef-
fect as the -x option to the functions builtin.
where [ -wpmsS ] [ -x num ] name ...
Equivalent to whence -ca.
which [ -wpamsS ] [ -x num ] name ...
Equivalent to whence -c.
zcompile [ -U ] [ -z | -k ] [ -R | -M ] file [ name ... ]
zcompile -ca [ -m ] [ -R | -M ] file [ name ... ]
zcompile -t file [ name ... ]
This builtin command can be used to compile functions or scripts, storing the compiled form in a
file, and to examine files containing the compiled form. This allows faster autoloading of func-
tions and sourcing of scripts by avoiding parsing of the text when the files are read.
The first form (without the -c, -a or -t options) creates a compiled file. If only the file argument
is given, the output file has the name ‘file.zwc’ and will be placed in the same directory as the file.
The shell will load the compiled file instead of the normal function file when the function is au-
toloaded; see the section ‘Autoloading Functions’ in zshmisc(1) for a description of how au-
toloaded 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 ele-
ments of the FPATH/fpath special array.
The second form, with the -c or -a options, writes the compiled definitions for all the named
functions into file. For -c, the names must be functions currently defined in the shell, not those
marked for autoloading. Undefined functions that are marked for autoloading may be written by
using the -a option, in which case the fpath is searched and the contents of the definition files for
those functions, if found, are compiled into file. If both -c and -a are given, names of both de-
fined functions and functions marked for autoloading may be given. In either case, the functions
in files written with the -c or -a option will be autoloaded as if the KSH_AUTOLOAD option
were unset.
The reason for handling loaded and not-yet-loaded functions with different options is that some
definition files for autoloading define multiple functions, including the function with the same
name as the file, and, at the end, call that function. In such cases the output of ‘zcompile -c’ does
not include the additional functions defined in the file, and any other initialization code in the file
is lost. Using ‘zcompile -a’ captures all this extra information.
If the -m option is combined with -c or -a, the names are used as patterns and all functions
whose names match one of these patterns will be written. If no name is given, the definitions of all

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functions currently defined or marked as autoloaded will be written.

Note the second form cannot be used for compiling functions that include redirections as part of
the definition rather than within the body of the function; for example
fn1() { { ... } >˜/logfile }
can be compiled but
fn1() { ... } >˜/logfile
cannot. It is possible to use the first form of zcompile to compile autoloadable functions that in-
clude the full function definition instead of just the body of the function.
The third form, with the -t option, examines an existing compiled file. Without further arguments,
the names of the original files compiled into it are listed. The first line of output shows the version
of the shell which compiled the file and how the file will be used (i.e. by reading it directly or by
mapping it into memory). With arguments, nothing is output and the return status is set to zero if
definitions for all names were found in the compiled file, and non-zero if the definition for at least
one name was not found.
Other options:
-U Aliases are not expanded when compiling the named files.
-R When the compiled file is read, its contents are copied into the shell’s memory, rather
than memory-mapped (see -M). This happens automatically on systems that do not sup-
port memory mapping.
When compiling scripts instead of autoloadable functions, it is often desirable to use this
option; otherwise the whole file, including the code to define functions which have al-
ready 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 au-
toloaded. If -z is given, the function will be autoloaded as if the KSH_AUTOLOAD op-
tion is not set, even if it is set at the time the compiled file is read, while if the -k is
given, the function will be loaded as if KSH_AUTOLOAD is set. These options also
take precedence over any -k or -z options specified to the autoload builtin. If neither of
these options is given, the function will be loaded as determined by the setting of the
KSH_AUTOLOAD option at the time the compiled file is read.

These options may also appear as many times as necessary between the listed names to
specify the loading style of all following functions, up to the next -k or -z.

The created file always contains two versions of the compiled format, one for big-endian
machines and one for small-endian machines. The upshot of this is that the compiled file
is machine independent and if it is read or mapped, only one half of the file is actually
used (and mapped).
zformat
See the section ‘The zsh/zutil Module’ in zshmodules(1).
zftp See the section ‘The zsh/zftp Module’ in zshmodules(1).
zle See the section ‘Zle Builtins’ in zshzle(1).

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zmodload [ -dL ] [ -s ] [ ... ]

zmodload -F [ -alLme -P param ] module [ [+-]feature ... ]
zmodload -e [ -A ] [ ... ]
zmodload [ -a [ -bcpf [ -I ] ] ] [ -iL ] ...
zmodload -u [ -abcdpf [ -I ] ] [ -iL ] ...
zmodload -A [ -L ] [ modalias[=module] ... ]
zmodload -R modalias ...
Performs operations relating to zsh’s loadable modules. Loading of modules while the shell is
running (‘dynamical loading’) is not available on all operating systems, or on all installations on a
particular operating system, although the zmodload command itself is always available and can be
used to manipulate modules built into versions of the 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 [ -is ] name ...
zmodload -u [ -i ] name ...
In the simplest case, zmodload loads a binary module. The module must be in a file with
a name consisting of the specified name followed by a standard suffix, usually ‘.so’ (‘.sl’
on HPUX). If the module to be loaded is already loaded the duplicate module is ignored.
If zmodload detects an inconsistency, such as an invalid module name or circular depen-
dency list, the current code block is aborted. If it is available, the module is loaded if
necessary, while if it is not available, non-zero status is silently returned. The option -i
is accepted for compatibility but has no effect.
The named module is searched for in the same way a command is, using $module_path
instead of $path. However, the path search is performed even when the module name
contains a ‘/’, which it usually does. There is no way to prevent the path search.
If the module supports features (see below), zmodload tries to enable all features when
loading a module. If the module was successfully loaded but not all features could be en-
abled, zmodload returns status 2.
If the option -s is given, no error is printed if the module was not available (though other
errors indicating a problem with the module are printed). The return status indicates if
the module was loaded. This is appropriate if the caller considers the module optional.
With -u, zmodload unloads modules. The same name must be given that was given
when the module was loaded, but it is not necessary for the module to exist in the file sys-
tem. The -i option suppresses the error if the module is already unloaded (or was never
loaded).
Each module has a boot and a cleanup function. The module will not be loaded if its boot
function fails. Similarly a module can only be unloaded if its cleanup function runs suc-
cessfully.
zmodload -F [ -almLe -P param ] module [ [+-]feature ... ]
zmodload -F allows more selective control over the features provided by modules. With
no options apart from -F, the module named module is loaded, if it was not already
loaded, and the list of features is set to the required state. If no features are specified, the
module is loaded, if it was not already loaded, but the state of features is unchanged.
Each feature may be preceded by a + to turn the feature on, or - to turn it off; the + is as-
sumed if neither character is present. Any feature not explicitly mentioned is left in its
current state; if the module was not previously loaded this means any such features will
remain disabled. The return status is zero if all features were set, 1 if the module failed to
load, and 2 if some features could not be set (for example, a parameter couldn’t be added
because there was a different parameter of the same name) but the module was loaded.
The standard features are builtins, conditions, parameters and math functions; these are
indicated by the prefix ‘b:’, ‘c:’ (‘C:’ for an infix condition), ‘p:’ and ‘f:’, respectively,

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followed by the name that the corresponding feature would have in the shell. For exam-
ple, ‘b:strftime’ indicates a builtin named strftime and p:EPOCHSECONDS indicates
a parameter named EPOCHSECONDS. The module may provide other (‘abstract’) fea-
tures of its own as indicated by its documentation; these have no prefix.
With -l or -L, features provided by the module are listed. With -l alone, a list of fea-
tures together with their states is shown, one feature per line. With -L alone, a zmod-
load -F command that would cause enabled features of the module to be turned on is
shown. With -lL, a zmodload -F command that would cause all the features to be set to
their current state is shown. If one of these combinations is given with the option -P
param then the parameter param is set to an array of features, either features together
with their state or (if -L alone is given) enabled features.
With the option -L the module name may be omitted; then a list of all enabled features
for all modules providing features is printed in the form of zmodload -F commands. If
-l is also given, the state of both enabled and disabled features is output in that form.
A set of features may be provided together with -l or -L and a module name; in that case
only the state of those features is considered. Each feature may be preceded by + or - but
the character has no effect. If no set of features is provided, all features are considered.
With -e, the command first tests that the module is loaded; if it is not, status 1 is returned.
If the module is loaded, the list of features given as an argument is examined. Any fea-
ture given with no prefix is simply tested to see if the module provides it; any feature
given with a prefix + or - is tested to see if is provided and in the given state. If the tests
on all features in the list succeed, status 0 is returned, else status 1.
With -m, each entry in the given list of features is taken as a pattern to be matched
against the list of features provided by the module. An initial + or - must be given ex-
plicitly. This may not be combined with the -a option as autoloads must be specified ex-
plicitly.
With -a, the given list of features is marked for autoload from the specified module,
which may not yet be loaded. An optional + may appear before the feature name. If the
feature is prefixed with -, any existing autoload is removed. The options -l and -L may
be used to list autoloads. Autoloading is specific to individual features; when the module
is loaded only the requested feature is enabled. Autoload requests are preserved if the
module is subsequently unloaded until an explicit ‘zmodload -Fa module -feature’ is is-
sued. It is not an error to request an autoload for a feature of a module that is already
loaded.
When the module is loaded each autoload is checked against the features actually pro-
vided by the module; if the feature is not provided the autoload request is deleted. A
warning message is output; if the module is being loaded to provide a different feature,
and that autoload is successful, there is no effect on the status of the current command. If
the module is already loaded at the time when zmodload -Fa is run, an error message is
printed and status 1 returned.
zmodload -Fa can be used with the -l, -L, -e and -P options for listing and testing the
existence of autoloadable features. In this case -l is ignored if -L is specified. zmod-
load -FaL with no module name lists autoloads for all modules.
Note that only standard features as described above can be autoloaded; other features re-
quire the module to be loaded before enabling.
zmodload -d [ -L ] [ name ]
zmodload -d name dep ...
zmodload -ud name [ dep ... ]
The -d option can be used to specify module dependencies. The modules named in the
second and subsequent arguments will be loaded before the module named in the first

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argument.
With -d and one argument, all dependencies for that module are listed. With -d and no
arguments, all module dependencies are listed. This listing is by default in a Make-
file-like format. The -L option changes this format to a list of zmodload -d commands.
If -d and -u are both used, dependencies are removed. If only one argument is given, all
dependencies for that module are removed.
zmodload -ab [ -L ]
zmodload -ab [ -i ] name [ builtin ... ]
zmodload -ub [ -i ] builtin ...
The -ab option defines autoloaded builtins. It defines the specified builtins. When any
of those builtins is called, the module specified in the first argument is loaded and all its
features are enabled (for selective control of features use ‘zmodload -F -a’ as described
above). If only the name is given, one builtin is defined, with the same name as the mod-
ule. -i suppresses the error if the builtin is already defined or autoloaded, but not if an-
other builtin of the same name is already defined.
With -ab and no arguments, all autoloaded builtins are listed, with the module name (if
different) shown in parentheses after the builtin name. The -L option changes this for-
mat to a list of zmodload -a commands.
If -b is used together with the -u option, it removes builtins previously defined with -ab.
This is only possible if the builtin is not yet loaded. -i suppresses the error if the builtin
is already removed (or never existed).
Autoload requests are retained if the module is subsequently unloaded until an explicit
‘zmodload -ub builtin’ is issued.
zmodload -ac [ -IL ]
zmodload -ac [ -iI ] name [ cond ... ]
zmodload -uc [ -iI ] cond ...
The -ac option is used to define autoloaded condition codes. The cond strings give the
names of the conditions defined by the module. The optional -I option is used to define
infix condition names. Without this option prefix condition names are defined.
If given no condition names, all defined names are listed (as a series of zmodload com-
mands if the -L option is given).
The -uc option removes definitions for autoloaded conditions.
zmodload -ap [ -L ]
zmodload -ap [ -i ] name [ parameter ... ]
zmodload -up [ -i ] parameter ...
The -p option is like the -b and -c options, but makes zmodload work on autoloaded
parameters instead.
zmodload -af [ -L ]
zmodload -af [ -i ] name [ function ... ]
zmodload -uf [ -i ] function ...
The -f option is like the -b, -p, and -c options, but makes zmodload work on au-
toloaded math functions instead.
zmodload -a [ -L ]
zmodload -a [ -i ] name [ builtin ... ]
zmodload -ua [ -i ] builtin ...
Equivalent to -ab and -ub.
zmodload -e [ -A ] [ string ... ]
The -e option without arguments lists all loaded modules; if the -A option is also given,
module aliases corresponding to loaded modules are also shown. If arguments are

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provided, nothing is printed; the return status is set to zero if all strings given as argu-
ments are names of loaded modules and to one if at least on string is not the name of a
loaded module. This can be used to test for the availability of things implemented by
modules. In this case, any aliases are automatically resolved and the -A flag is not used.
zmodload -A [ -L ] [ modalias[=module] ... ]
For each argument, if both modalias and module are given, define modalias to be an alias
for the module module. If the module modalias is ever subsequently requested, either via
a call to zmodload or implicitly, the shell will attempt to load module instead. If module
is not given, show the definition of modalias. If no arguments are given, list all defined
module aliases. When listing, if the -L flag was also given, list the definition as a zmod-
load command to recreate the alias.
The existence of aliases for modules is completely independent of whether the name re-
solved is actually loaded as a module: while the alias exists, loading and unloading the
module under any alias has exactly the same effect as using the resolved name, and does
not affect the connection between the alias and the resolved name which can be removed
either by zmodload -R or by redefining the alias. Chains of aliases (i.e. where the first
resolved name is itself an alias) are valid so long as these are not circular. As the aliases
take the same format as module names, they may include path separators: in this case,
there is no requirement for any part of the path named to exist as the alias will be re-
solved 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 stan-
dard shell modules and which resolves to a different module. However, if a module has
dependencies, it will not be possible to use the module name as an alias as the module
will already be marked as a loadable module in its own right.
Apart from the above, aliases can be used in the zmodload command anywhere module
names are required. However, aliases will not be shown in lists of loaded modules with a
bare ‘zmodload’.
zmodload -R modalias ...
For each modalias argument that was previously defined as a module alias via zmodload
-A, delete the alias. If any was not defined, an error is caused and the remainder of the
line is ignored.
Note that zsh makes no distinction between modules that were linked into the shell and modules
that are loaded dynamically. In both cases this builtin command has to be used to make available
the builtins and other things defined by modules (unless the module is autoloaded on these 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 zshmodules(1).
zprof See the section ‘The zsh/zprof Module’ in zshmodules(1).
zpty See the section ‘The zsh/zpty Module’ in zshmodules(1).
zregexparse
See the section ‘The zsh/zutil Module’ in zshmodules(1).
zsocket See the section ‘The zsh/net/socket Module’ in zshmodules(1).
zstyle See the section ‘The zsh/zutil Module’ in zshmodules(1).
ztcp See the section ‘The zsh/net/tcp Module’ in zshmodules(1).

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NAME
zshzle - zsh command line editor
DESCRIPTION
If the ZLE option is set (which it is by default in interactive 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 parame-
ter is set to a valid terminal type that can move the cursor up. The second, single line mode, is used if
TERM is invalid or incapable of moving the cursor up, or if the SINGLE_LINE_ZLE option is set. This
mode is similar to ksh, and uses no termcap sequences. If TERM is "emacs", the ZLE option will be unset
by default.
The parameters BAUD, COLUMNS, and LINES are also used by the line editor. See Parameters Used By
The Shell in zshparam(1).
The parameter zle_highlight is also used by the line editor; see Character Highlighting below. Highlight-
ing of special characters and the region between the cursor and the mark (as set with set-mark-command
in Emacs mode, or by visual-mode in Vi mode) is enabled by default; consult this reference for more in-
formation. Irascible conservatives will wish to know that all highlighting may be disabled by the following
setting:
zle_highlight=(none)
In many places, references are made to the numeric argument. This can by default be entered in emacs
mode by holding the alt key and typing a number, or pressing escape before each digit, and in vi command
mode by typing the number before entering a command. Generally the numeric argument causes the next
command entered to be repeated the specified number of times, unless otherwise noted below; this is imple-
mented by the digit-argument widget. See also the Arguments subsection of the Widgets section for some
other ways the numeric argument can be modified.
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 manipulate keymap names.
Initially, there are eight keymaps:
emacs EMACS emulation
viins vi emulation - insert mode
vicmd vi emulation - command mode
viopp vi emulation - operator pending
visual vi emulation - selection active
isearch incremental search mode
command
read a command name
.safe fallback keymap
The ‘.safe’ keymap is special. It can never be altered, and the name can never be removed. However, it can
be linked to other names, which can be removed. In the future other special keymaps may be added; users
should avoid using names beginning with ‘.’ for their own keymaps.
In addition to these names, either ‘emacs’ or ‘viins’ is also linked to the name ‘main’. If one of the VIS-
UAL or EDITOR environment variables contain the string ‘vi’ when the shell starts up then it will be ‘vi-
ins’, otherwise it will be ‘emacs’. bindkey’s -e and -v options provide a convenient way to override this
default choice.
When the editor starts up, it will select the ‘main’ keymap. If that keymap doesn’t exist, it will use ‘.safe’
instead.
In the ‘.safe’ keymap, each single key is bound to self-insert, except for ˆJ (line feed) and ˆM (return)

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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 com-
mand and is also a prefix of a longer bound string. In this case ZLE will wait a certain time to see if more
characters are typed, and if not (or they don’t match any longer string) it will execute the binding. This
timeout is defined by the KEYTIMEOUT parameter; its default is 0.4 sec. There is no timeout if the pre-
fix string is not itself bound to a command.
The key timeout is also applied when ZLE is reading the bytes from a multibyte character string when it is
in the appropriate mode. (This requires that the shell was compiled with multibyte mode enabled; typically
also the locale has characters with the UTF-8 encoding, although any multibyte encoding known to the op-
erating system is supported.) If the second or a subsequent byte is not read within the timeout period, the
shell acts as if ? were typed and resets the input state.
As well as ZLE commands, key sequences can be bound to other strings, by using ‘bindkey -s’. When
such a sequence is read, the replacement string is pushed back as input, and the command reading process
starts again using these fake keystrokes. This input can itself invoke further replacement strings, but in or-
der to detect loops the process will be stopped if there are twenty such replacements without a real com-
mand being read.
A key sequence typed by the user can be turned into a command name for use in user-defined widgets with
the read-command widget, described in the subsection ‘Miscellaneous’ of the section ‘Standard Widgets’
below.
Local Keymaps
While for normal editing a single keymap is used exclusively, in many modes a local keymap allows for
some keys to be customised. For example, in an incremental search mode, a binding in the isearch keymap
will override a binding in the main keymap but all keys that are not overridden can still be used.
If a key sequence is defined in a local keymap, it will hide a key sequence in the global keymap that is a
prefix of that sequence. An example of this occurs with the binding of iw in viopp as this hides the binding
of i in vicmd. However, a longer sequence in the global keymap that shares the same prefix can still apply
so for example the binding of ˆXa in the global keymap will be unaffected by the binding of ˆXb in the lo-
cal keymap.
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.

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-v Selects keymap ‘viins’ for any operations by the current command, and also links ‘viins’
to ‘main’ so that it is selected by default the next time the editor starts.
-a Selects keymap ‘vicmd’ for any operations by the current command.
-M keymap
The keymap specifies a keymap name that is selected for any operations by the current
command.
If a keymap selection is required and none of the options above are used, the ‘main’ keymap is
used. Some operations do not permit a keymap to be selected, namely:
-l List all existing keymap names; if any arguments are given, list just those keymaps.
If the -L option is also used, list in the form of bindkey commands to create or link the
keymaps. ‘bindkey -lL main’ shows which keymap is linked to ‘main’, if any, and
hence if the standard emacs or vi emulation is in effect. This option does not show the
.safe keymap because it cannot be created in that fashion; however, neither is ‘bindkey
-lL .safe’ reported as an error, it simply outputs nothing.
-d Delete all existing keymaps and reset to the default state.
-D keymap ...
Delete the named keymaps.
-A old-keymap new-keymap
Make the new-keymap name an alias for old-keymap, so that both names refer to the
same keymap. The names have equal standing; if either is deleted, the other remains. If
there is already a keymap with the new-keymap name, it is deleted.
-N new-keymap [ old-keymap ]
Create a new keymap, named new-keymap. If a keymap already has that name, it is
deleted. If an old-keymap name is given, the new keymap is initialized to be a duplicate
of it, otherwise the new keymap will be empty.
To use a newly created keymap, it should be linked to main. Hence the sequence of commands to
create and use a new keymap ‘mymap’ initialized from the emacs keymap (which remains un-
changed) 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 un-
bound 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 re-
moved. For example,
bindkey -rpM viins ’ˆ[’
will remove all bindings in the vi-insert keymap beginning with an escape character
(probably cursor keys), but leave the binding for the escape character itself (probably
vi-cmd-mode). This is incompatible with the option -R.

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-s in-string out-string ...

Bind each in-string to each out-string. When in-string is typed, out-string will be
pushed back and treated as input to the line editor. When -R is also used, interpret the
in-strings as ranges.
Note that both in-string and out-string are subject to the same form of interpretation, as
described below.
in-string command ...
Bind each in-string to each command. When -R is used, interpret the in-strings as
ranges.
[ in-string ]
List key bindings. If an in-string is specified, the binding of that string in the selected
keymap is displayed. Otherwise, all key bindings in the selected keymap are displayed.
(As a special case, if the -e or -v option is used alone, the keymap is not displayed - the
implicit linking of keymaps is the only thing that happens.)
When the option -p is used, the in-string must be present. The listing shows all bind-
ings 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 op-
tional ‘-’ between them. All characters between the two specified, inclusive, are bound as speci-
fied.
For either in-string or out-string, the following escape sequences are recognised:
\a bell character
\b backspace
\e, \E escape
\f form feed
\n linefeed (newline)
\r carriage return
\t horizontal tab
\v vertical tab
\NNN character code in octal
\xNN character code in hexadecimal
\uNNNN
unicode character code in hexadecimal
\UNNNNNNNN
unicode character code in hexadecimal
\M[-]X character with meta bit set
\C[-]X control character
ˆX control character
In all other cases, ‘\’ escapes the following character. Delete is written as ‘ˆ?’. Note that ‘\Mˆ?’
and ‘ˆ\M?’ are not the same, and that (unlike emacs), the bindings ‘\M-X’ and ‘\eX’ are entirely
distinct, although they are initialized to the same bindings by ‘bindkey -m’.

vared [ -Aacghe ] [ -p prompt ] [ -r rprompt ]

[ -M main-keymap ] [ -m vicmd-keymap ]
[ -i init-widget ] [ -f finish-widget ]
[ -t tty ] name
The value of the parameter name is loaded into the edit buffer, and the line editor is invoked.
When the editor exits, name is set to the string value returned by the editor. When the -c flag is

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given, the parameter is created if it doesn’t already exist. The -a flag may be given with -c to cre-
ate an array parameter, or the -A flag to create an associative array. If the type of an existing pa-
rameter does not match the type to be created, the parameter is unset and recreated. The -g flag
may be given to suppress warnings from the WARN_CREATE_GLOBAL and
WARN_NESTED_VAR options.
If an array or array slice is being edited, separator characters as defined in $IFS will be shown
quoted with a backslash, as will backslashes themselves. Conversely, when the edited text is split
into an array, a backslash quotes an immediately following separator character or backslash; no
other special handling of backslashes, or any handling of quotes, is performed.
Individual elements of existing array or associative array parameters may be edited by using 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 spec-
ified, the history can be accessed from ZLE. If the -e flag is given, typing ˆD (Control-D) on an
empty line causes vared to exit immediately with a non-zero return value.
The -M option gives a keymap to link to the main keymap during editing, and the -m option
gives a keymap to link to the vicmd keymap during editing. For vi-style editing, this allows a pair
of keymaps to override viins and vicmd. For emacs-style editing, only -M is normally needed
but the -m option may still be used. On exit, the previous keymaps will be restored.
Vared calls the usual ‘zle-line-init’ and ‘zle-line-finish’ hooks before and after it takes control.
Using the -i and -f options, it is possible to replace these with other custom widgets.
If ‘-t tty’ is given, tty is the name of a terminal device to be used instead of the default /dev/tty. If
tty does not refer to a terminal an error is reported.
zle
zle -l [ -L | -a ] [ string ... ]
zle -D widget ...
zle -A old-widget new-widget
zle -N widget [ function ]
zle -f flag [ flag... ]
zle -C widget completion-widget function
zle -R [ -c ] [ display-string ] [ string ... ]
zle -M string
zle -U string
zle -K keymap
zle -F [ -L | -w ] [ fd [ handler ] ]
zle -I
zle -T [ tc function | -r tc | -L ]
zle widget [ -n num ] [ -Nw ] [ -K keymap ] args ...
The zle builtin performs a number of different actions concerning ZLE.
With no options and no arguments, only the return status will be set. It is zero if ZLE is currently
active and widgets could be invoked using this builtin command and non-zero otherwise. Note
that even if non-zero status is returned, zle may still be active as part of the completion system;
this does not allow direct calls to ZLE widgets.
Otherwise, which operation it performs depends on its options:
-l [ -L | -a ] [ string ]
List all existing user-defined widgets. If the -L option is used, list in the form of zle
commands to create the widgets.
When combined with the -a option, all widget names are listed, including the builtin
ones. In this case the -L option is ignored.
If at least one string is given, and -a is present or -L is not used, nothing will be printed.

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The return status will be zero if all strings are names of existing widgets and non-zero if
at least one string is not a name of a defined widget. If -a is also present, all widget
names are used for the comparison including builtin widgets, else only user-defined wid-
gets are used.
If at least one string is present and the -L option is used, user-defined widgets matching
any string are listed in the form of zle commands to create the widgets.
-D widget ...
Delete the named widgets.
-A old-widget new-widget
Make the new-widget name an alias for old-widget, so that both names refer to the same
widget. The names have equal standing; if either is deleted, the other remains. If there is
already a widget with the new-widget name, it is deleted.
-N widget [ function ]
Create a user-defined widget. If there is already a widget with the specified name, it is
overwritten. When the new widget is invoked from within the editor, the specified shell
function is called. If no function name is specified, it defaults to the same name as the
widget. For further information, see the section ‘Widgets’ below.
-f flag [ flag... ]
Set various flags on the running widget. Possible values for flag are:
yank for indicating that the widget has yanked text into the buffer. If the widget is wrap-
ping an existing internal widget, no further action is necessary, but if it has inserted the
text manually, then it should also take care to set YANK_START and YANK_END cor-
rectly. yankbefore does the same but is used when the yanked text appears after the cur-
sor.
kill for indicating that text has been killed into the cutbuffer. When repeatedly invoking a
kill widget, text is appended to the cutbuffer instead of replacing it, but when wrapping
such widgets, it is necessary to call ‘zle -f kill’ to retain this effect.
vichange for indicating that the widget represents a vi change that can be repeated as a
whole with ‘vi-repeat-change’. The flag should be set early in the function before in-
specting the value of NUMERIC or invoking other widgets. This has no effect for a wid-
get invoked from insert mode. If insert mode is active when the widget finishes, the
change extends until next returning to command mode.
-C widget completion-widget function
Create a user-defined completion widget named widget. The completion widget will be-
have 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 informa-
tion, see zshcompwid(1).
-R [ -c ] [ display-string ] [ string ... ]
Redisplay the command line; this is to be called from within a user-defined widget to al-
low 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 com-
pletion 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 dis-
play will be refreshed, while if zle is not active, the command has no effect. In this case
there will usually be no other arguments.

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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 nor-
mally below the prompt. This means that the string will still be displayed after the wid-
get returns (until it is overwritten by subsequent commands).
-U string
This pushes the characters in the string onto the input stack of ZLE. After the widget
currently executed finishes ZLE will behave as if the characters in the string were typed
by the user.
As ZLE uses a stack, if this option is used repeatedly the last string pushed onto the stack
will be processed first. However, the characters in each string will be processed in the or-
der 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 invo-
cation of ZLE. Any following invocation (e.g., the next command line) will start as usual
with the ‘main’ keymap selected.
-F [ -L | -w ] [ fd [ handler ] ]
Only available if your system supports one of the ‘poll’ or ‘select’ system calls; most
modern systems do.
Installs handler (the name of a shell function) to handle input from file descriptor fd. In-
stalling a handler for an fd which is already handled causes the existing handler to be re-
placed. Any number of handlers for any number of readable file descriptors may be in-
stalled. Note that zle makes no attempt to check whether this fd is actually readable when
installing the handler. The user must make their own arrangements for handling the file
descriptor when zle is not active.
When zle is attempting to read data, it will examine both the terminal and the list of han-
dled fd’s. If data becomes available on a handled fd, zle calls handler with the fd which
is ready for reading as the first argument. Under normal circumstances this is the only ar-
gument, but if an error was detected, a second argument provides details: ‘hup’ for a dis-
connect, ‘nval’ for a closed or otherwise invalid descriptor, or ‘err’ for any other condi-
tion. Systems that support only the ‘select’ system call always use ‘err’.
If the option -w is also given, the handler is instead a line editor widget, typically a shell
function made into a widget using ‘zle -N’. In that case handler can use all the facilities
of zle to update the current editing line. Note, however, that as handling fd takes place at
a low level changes to the display will not automatically appear; the widget should call
‘zle -R’ to force redisplay. As of this writing, widget handlers only support a single ar-
gument and thus are never passed a string for error state, so widgets must be prepared to
test the descriptor themselves.
If either type of handler produces output to the terminal, it should call ‘zle -I’ before do-
ing so (see below). Handlers should not attempt to read from the terminal.
If no handler is given, but an fd is present, any handler for that fd is removed. If there is
none, an error message is printed and status 1 is returned.
If no arguments are given, or the -L option is supplied, a list of handlers is printed in a
form which can be stored for later execution.
An fd (but not a handler) may optionally be given with the -L option; in this case, the
function will list the handler if any, else silently return status 1.

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Note that this feature should be used with care. Activity on one of the fd’s which is not
properly handled can cause the terminal to become unusable. Removing an fd handler
from within a signal trap may cause unpredictable behavior.
Here is a simple example of using this feature. A connection to a remote TCP port is cre-
ated using the ztcp command; see the description of the zsh/net/tcp module in zshmod-
ules(1). Then a handler is installed which simply prints out any data which arrives on this
connection. Note that ‘select’ will indicate that the file descriptor needs handling if the
remote side has closed the connection; we handle that by testing for a failed read.
if ztcp pwspc 2811; then
tcpfd=$REPLY
handler() {
zle -I
local line
if ! read -r line <&$1; then
# select marks this fd if we reach EOF,
# so handle this specially.
print "[Read on fd $1 failed, removing.]" >&2
zle -F $1
return 1
fi
print -r - $line
}
zle -F $tcpfd handler
fi
-I Unusually, this option is most useful outside ordinary widget functions, though it may be
used within if normal output to the terminal is required. It invalidates the current zle dis-
play in preparation for output; typically this will be from a trap function. It has no effect
if zle is not active. When a trap exits, the shell checks to see if the display needs restor-
ing, 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 dis-
play will only be invalidated the first time to minimise disruption.
Note that there are normally better ways of manipulating the display from within zle wid-
gets; see, for example, ‘zle -R’ above.
The returned status is zero if zle was invalidated, even though this may have been by a
previous call to ‘zle -I’ or by a system notification. To test if a zle widget may be called
at this point, execute zle with no arguments and examine the return status.
-T This is used to add, list or remove internal transformations on the processing performed
by the line editor. It is typically used only for debugging or testing and is therefore of lit-
tle interest to the general user.
‘zle -T transformation func’ specifies that the given transformation (see below) is

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effected by shell function func.

‘zle -Tr transformation’ removes the given transformation if it was present (it is not an
error if none was).
‘zle -TL’ can be used to list all transformations currently in operation.
Currently the only transformation is tc. This is used instead of outputting termcap codes
to the terminal. When the transformation is in operation the shell function is passed the
termcap code that would be output as its first argument; if the operation required a nu-
meric argument, that is passed as a second argument. The function should set the shell
variable REPLY to the transformed termcap code. Typically this is used to produce some
simply formatted version of the code and optional argument for debugging or testing.
Note that this transformation is not applied to other non-printing characters such as car-
riage returns and newlines.
widget [ -n num ] [ -Nw ] [ -K keymap ] args ...
Invoke the specified widget. This can only be done when ZLE is active; normally this
will be within a user-defined widget.
With the options -n and -N, the current numeric argument will be saved and then re-
stored after the call to widget; ‘-n num’ sets the numeric argument temporarily to num,
while ‘-N’ sets it to the default, i.e. as if there were none.
With the option -K, keymap will be used as the current keymap during the execution of
the widget. The previous keymap will be restored when the widget exits.
Normally, calling a widget in this way does not set the special parameter WIDGET and
related parameters, so that the environment appears as if the top-level widget called by
the user were still active. With the option -w, WIDGET and related parameters are set
to reflect the widget being executed by the zle call.
Any further arguments will be passed to the widget; note that as standard argument han-
dling is performed, any general argument list should be preceded by --. If it is a shell
function, these are passed down as positional parameters; for builtin widgets it is up to
the widget in question what it does with them. Currently arguments are only handled by
the incremental-search commands, the history-search-forward and -backward and
the corresponding functions prefixed by vi-, and by universal-argument. No error is
flagged if the command does not use the arguments, or only uses some of them.
The return status reflects the success or failure of the operation carried out by the widget,
or if it is a user-defined widget the return status of the shell function.
A non-zero return status causes the shell to beep when the widget exits, unless the BEEP
options was unset or the widget was called via the zle command. Thus if a user defined
widget requires an immediate beep, it should call the beep widget directly.
WIDGETS
All actions in the editor are performed by ‘widgets’. A widget’s job is simply to perform some small ac-
tion. The ZLE commands that key sequences in keymaps are bound to are in fact widgets. Widgets can be
user-defined or built in.
The standard widgets built into ZLE are listed in Standard Widgets below. Other built-in widgets can be
defined by other modules (see zshmodules(1)). Each built-in widget has two names: its normal canonical
name, and the same name preceded by a ‘.’. The ‘.’ name is special: it can’t be rebound to a different wid-
get. This makes the widget available even when its usual name has been redefined.
User-defined widgets are defined using ‘zle -N’, and implemented as shell functions. When the widget is
executed, the corresponding shell function is executed, and can perform editing (or other) actions. It is rec-
ommended 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 redirected from /dev/null to prevent external commands from unintentionally block-
ing ZLE by reading from the terminal, but read -k or read -q can be used to read characters. Finally, they
can examine and edit the ZLE buffer being edited by reading and setting the special parameters described
below.
These special parameters are always available in widget functions, but are not in any way special outside
ZLE. If they have some normal value outside ZLE, that value is temporarily inaccessible, but will return
when the widget function exits. These special parameters in fact have local scope, like parameters created
in a function using local.
Inside completion widgets and traps called while ZLE is active, these parameters are available read-only.
Note that the parameters appear as local to any ZLE widget in which they appear. Hence if it is desired to
override them this needs to be done within a nested function:
widget-function() {
# $WIDGET here refers to the special variable
# that is local inside widget-function
() {
# This anonymous nested function allows WIDGET
# to be used as a local variable. The -h
# removes the special status of the variable.
local -h WIDGET
}
}
BUFFER (scalar)
The entire contents of the edit buffer. If it is written to, the cursor remains at the same offset, un-
less that would put it outside the buffer.
BUFFERLINES (integer)
The number of screen lines needed for the edit buffer currently displayed on screen (i.e. without
any changes to the preceding parameters done after the last redisplay); read-only.
CONTEXT (scalar)
The context in which zle was called to read a line; read-only. One of the values:
start The start of a command line (at prompt PS1).
cont A continuation to a command line (at prompt PS2).
select In a select loop (at prompt PS3).
vared Editing a variable in vared.
CURSOR (integer)
The offset of the cursor, within the edit buffer. This is in the range 0 to $#BUFFER, and is by
definition equal to $#LBUFFER. Attempts to move the cursor outside the buffer will result in the
cursor being moved to the appropriate end of the buffer.
CUTBUFFER (scalar)
The last item cut using one of the ‘kill-’ commands; the string which the next yank would insert
in the line. Later entries in the kill ring are in the array killring. Note that the command ‘zle
copy-region-as-kill string’ can be used to set the text of the cut buffer from a shell function and
cycle the kill ring in the same way as interactively killing text.
HISTNO (integer)
The current history number. Setting this has the same effect as moving up or down in the history
to the corresponding history line. An attempt to set it is ignored if the line is not stored in the his-
tory. Note this is not the same as the parameter HISTCMD, which always gives the number of

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the history line being added to the main shell’s history. HISTNO refers to the line being retrieved
within zle.
ISEARCHMATCH_ACTIVE (integer)
ISEARCHMATCH_START (integer)
ISEARCHMATCH_END (integer)
ISEARCHMATCH_ACTIVE indicates whether a part of the BUFFER is currently matched by
an incremental search pattern. ISEARCHMATCH_START and ISEARCHMATCH_END give
the location of the matched part and are in the same units as CURSOR. They are only valid for
reading when ISEARCHMATCH_ACTIVE is non-zero.
All parameters are read-only.
KEYMAP (scalar)
The name of the currently selected keymap; read-only.
KEYS (scalar)
The keys typed to invoke this widget, as a literal string; read-only.
KEYS_QUEUED_COUNT (integer)
The number of bytes pushed back to the input queue and therefore available for reading immedi-
ately before any I/O is done; read-only. See also PENDING; the two values are distinct.
killring (array)
The array of previously killed items, with the most recently killed first. This gives the items that
would be retrieved by a yank-pop in the same order. Note, however, that the most recently killed
item is in $CUTBUFFER; $killring shows the array of previous entries.
The default size for the kill ring is eight, however the length may be changed by normal array op-
erations. Any empty string in the kill ring is ignored by the yank-pop command, hence the size
of the array effectively sets the maximum length of the kill ring, while the number of non-zero
strings gives the current length, both as seen by the user at the command line.
LASTABORTEDSEARCH (scalar)
The last search string used by an interactive search that was aborted by the user (status 3 returned
by the search widget).
LASTSEARCH (scalar)
The last search string used by an interactive search; read-only. This is set even if the search failed
(status 0, 1 or 2 returned by the search widget), but not if it was aborted by the user.
LASTWIDGET (scalar)
The name of the last widget that was executed; read-only.
LBUFFER (scalar)
The part of the buffer that lies to the left of the cursor position. If it is assigned to, only that part of
the buffer is replaced, and the cursor remains between the new $LBUFFER and the old
$RBUFFER.
MARK (integer)
Like CURSOR, but for the mark. With vi-mode operators that wait for a movement command to
select a region of text, setting MARK allows the selection to extend in both directions from the
initial cursor position.
NUMERIC (integer)
The numeric argument. If no numeric argument was given, this parameter is unset. When this is
set inside a widget function, builtin widgets called with the zle builtin command will use the value
assigned. If it is unset inside a widget function, builtin widgets called behave as if no numeric ar-
gument 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

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parameter will always have a value of zero. Read-only. See also KEYS_QUEUED_COUNT;
the two values are distinct.
PREBUFFER (scalar)
In a multi-line input at the secondary prompt, this read-only parameter contains the contents of
the lines before the one the cursor is currently in.
PREDISPLAY (scalar)
Text to be displayed before the start of the editable text buffer. This does not have to be a com-
plete line; to display a complete line, a newline must be appended explicitly. The text is reset on
each new invocation (but not recursive invocation) of zle.
POSTDISPLAY (scalar)
Text to be displayed after the end of the editable text buffer. This does not have to be a complete
line; to display a complete line, a newline must be prepended explicitly. The text is reset on each
new invocation (but not recursive invocation) of zle.
RBUFFER (scalar)
The part of the buffer that lies to the right of the cursor position. If it is assigned to, only that part
of the buffer is replaced, and the cursor remains between the old $LBUFFER and the new
$RBUFFER.
REGION_ACTIVE (integer)
Indicates if the region is currently active. It can be assigned 0 or 1 to deactivate and activate the
region respectively. A value of 2 activates the region in line-wise mode with the highlighted text
extending for whole lines only; see Character Highlighting below.
region_highlight (array)
Each element of this array may be set to a string that describes highlighting for an arbitrary region
of the command line that will take effect the next time the command line is redisplayed. High-
lighting of the non-editable parts of the command line in PREDISPLAY and POSTDISPLAY
are possible, but note that the P flag is needed for character indexing to include PREDISPLAY.
Each string consists of the following parts:
• Optionally, a ‘P’ to signify that the start and end offset that follow include any string set
by the PREDISPLAY special parameter; this is needed if the predisplay string itself is to
be highlighted. Whitespace may follow the ‘P’.
• A start offset in the same units as CURSOR, terminated by whitespace.
• An end offset in the same units as CURSOR, terminated by whitespace.
• A highlight specification in the same format as used for contexts in the parameter
zle_highlight, see the section ‘Character Highlighting’ below; for example, standout or
fg=red,bold
For example,
region_highlight=("P0 20 bold")
specifies that the first twenty characters of the text including any predisplay string should be high-
lighted in bold.
Note that the effect of region_highlight is not saved and disappears as soon as the line is accepted.
The final highlighting on the command line depends on both region_highlight and zle_highlight;
see the section CHARACTER HIGHLIGHTING below for details.
registers (associative array)
The contents of each of the vi register buffers. These are typically set using vi-set-buffer fol-
lowed by a delete, change or yank command.

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SUFFIX_ACTIVE (integer)
SUFFIX_START (integer)
SUFFIX_END (integer)
SUFFIX_ACTIVE indicates whether an auto-removable completion suffix is currently active.
SUFFIX_START and SUFFIX_END give the location of the suffix and are in the same units as
CURSOR. They are only valid for reading when SUFFIX_ACTIVE is non-zero.
All parameters are read-only.
UNDO_CHANGE_NO (integer)
A number representing the state of the undo history. The only use of this is passing as an argu-
ment to the undo widget in order to undo back to the recorded point. Read-only.
UNDO_LIMIT_NO (integer)
A number corresponding to an existing change in the undo history; compare
UNDO_CHANGE_NO. If this is set to a value greater than zero, the undo command will not al-
low the line to be undone beyond the given change number. It is still possible to use ‘zle undo
change’ in a widget to undo beyond that point; in that case, it will not be possible to undo at all
until UNDO_LIMIT_NO is reduced. Set to 0 to disable the limit.
A typical use of this variable in a widget function is as follows (note the additional function scope
is required):
() {
local UNDO_LIMIT_NO=$UNDO_CHANGE_NO
# Perform some form of recursive edit.
}
WIDGET (scalar)
The name of the widget currently being executed; read-only.
WIDGETFUNC (scalar)
The name of the shell function that implements a widget defined with either zle -N or zle -C. In
the former case, this is the second argument to the zle -N command that defined the widget, or the
first argument if there was no second argument. In the latter case this is the third argument to the
zle -C command that defined the widget. Read-only.
WIDGETSTYLE (scalar)
Describes the implementation behind the completion widget currently being executed; the second
argument that followed zle -C when the widget was defined. This is the name of a builtin comple-
tion widget. For widgets defined with zle -N this is set to the empty string. Read-only.
YANK_ACTIVE (integer)
YANK_START (integer)
YANK_END (integer)
YANK_ACTIVE indicates whether text has just been yanked (pasted) into the buffer.
YANK_START and YANK_END give the location of the pasted text and are in the same units as
CURSOR. They are only valid for reading when YANK_ACTIVE is non-zero. They can also
be assigned by widgets that insert text in a yank-like fashion, for example wrappers of brack-
eted-paste. See also zle -f.
YANK_ACTIVE is read-only.
ZLE_RECURSIVE (integer)
Usually zero, but incremented inside any instance of recursive-edit. Hence indicates the current
recursion level.
ZLE_RECURSIVE is read-only.
ZLE_STATE (scalar)
Contains a set of space-separated words that describe the current zle state.
Currently, the states shown are the insert mode as set by the overwrite-mode or vi-replace

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widgets and whether history commands will visit imported entries as controlled by the set-lo-
cal-history widget. The string contains ‘insert’ if characters to be inserted on the command line
move existing characters to the right or ‘overwrite’ if characters to be inserted overwrite existing
characters. It contains ‘localhistory’ if only local history commands will be visited or ‘globalhis-
tory’ 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 sub-
strings in a future-proof way, you can do match by doing:
if [[ $ZLE_STATE == *globalhistory*insert* ]]; 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,
zle-isearch-update() { zle -M "Line $HISTNO"; }
zle -N zle-isearch-update
Note the line output by ‘zle -M’ is not deleted on exit from incremental search. This can be done
from a zle-isearch-exit widget:
zle-isearch-exit() { zle -M ""; }
zle -N zle-isearch-exit
zle-line-pre-redraw
Executed whenever the input line is about to be redrawn, providing an opportunity to update the
region_highlight array.
zle-line-init
Executed every time the line editor is started to read a new line of input. The following example
puts the line editor into vi command mode when it starts up.
zle-line-init() { zle -K vicmd; }
zle -N zle-line-init
(The command inside the function sets the keymap directly; it is equivalent to zle vi-cmd-mode.)
zle-line-finish
This is similar to zle-line-init but is executed every time the line editor has finished reading a line
of input.
zle-history-line-set
Executed when the history line changes.
zle-keymap-select
Executed every time the keymap changes, i.e. the special parameter KEYMAP is set to a different
value, while the line editor is active. Initialising the keymap when the line editor starts does not
cause the widget to be called.
The value $KEYMAP within the function reflects the new keymap. The old keymap is passed as
the sole argument.
This can be used for detecting switches between the vi command (vicmd) and insert (usually
main) keymaps.

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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 se-
quences shown in the list are those based on the VT100, common on many modern terminals, but in fact
these are not necessarily bound. In the case of the viins keymap, the initial escape character of the se-
quences serves also to return to the vicmd keymap: whether this happens is determined by the KEYTIME-
OUT 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.
vi-backward-blank-word-end (unbound) (gE) (unbound)
Move to the end of the previous word, where a word is defined as a series of non-blank characters.
backward-char (ˆB ESC-[D) (unbound) (unbound)
Move backward one character.
vi-backward-char (unbound) (ˆH h ˆ?) (ESC-[D)
Move backward one character, without changing lines.
backward-word (ESC-B ESC-b) (unbound) (unbound)
Move to the beginning of the previous word.
emacs-backward-word
Move to the beginning of the previous word.
vi-backward-word (unbound) (b) (unbound)
Move to the beginning of the previous word, vi-style.
vi-backward-word-end (unbound) (ge) (unbound)
Move to the end of the previous word, vi-style.
beginning-of-line (ˆA) (unbound) (unbound)
Move to the beginning of the line. If already at the beginning of the line, move to the beginning of
the previous line, if any.
vi-beginning-of-line
Move to the beginning of the line, without changing lines.
down-line (unbound) (unbound) (unbound)
Move down a line in the buffer.
end-of-line (ˆE) (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 (ˆF ESC-[C) (unbound) (unbound)
Move forward one character.

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vi-forward-char (unbound) (space l) (ESC-[C)

Move forward one character.
vi-find-next-char (ˆXˆF) (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) (ˆ) (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 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 argument.
vi-goto-mark (unbound) (‘) (unbound)
Move to the specified mark.
vi-goto-mark-line (unbound) (’) (unbound)
Move to beginning of the line containing the specified mark.
vi-repeat-find (unbound) (;) (unbound)
Repeat the last vi-find command.
vi-rev-repeat-find (unbound) (,) (unbound)
Repeat the last vi-find command in the opposite direction.
up-line (unbound) (unbound) (unbound)
Move up a line in the buffer.
History Control
beginning-of-buffer-or-history (ESC-<) (gg) (unbound)
Move to the beginning of the buffer, or if already there, move to the first event in the history list.
beginning-of-line-hist
Move to the beginning of the line. If already at the beginning of the buffer, move to the previous
history line.
beginning-of-history
Move to the first event in the history list.
down-line-or-history (ˆN 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.

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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 character on the line.
down-line-or-search
Move down a line in the buffer, or if already at the bottom line, search forward in the history for a
line beginning with the first word in the buffer.
If called from a function by the zle command with arguments, the first argument is taken as the
string for which to search, rather than the first word in the buffer.
down-history (unbound) (ˆN) (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 (ˆR ˆXr) (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 ‘ˆ’ to anchor the search to the beginning of the line. When called from a user-defined func-
tion 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 spe-
cial isearch keymap, and if not found there in the main keymap (note that by default the isearch
keymap is empty). An interrupt signal, as defined by the stty setting, will stop the search and go
back to the original line. An undefined key will have the same effect. Note that the following al-
ways perform the same task within incremental searches and cannot be replaced by user defined
widgets, nor can the set of functions be extended. The supported functions are:
accept-and-hold
accept-and-infer-next-history
accept-line
accept-line-and-down-history
Perform the usual function after exiting incremental search. The command line displayed
is executed.
backward-delete-char
vi-backward-delete-char
Back up one place in the search history. If the search has been repeated this does not im-
mediately erase a character in the minibuffer.
accept-search
Exit incremental search, retaining the command line but performing no further action.
Note that this function is not bound by default and has no effect outside incremental
search.

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backward-delete-word
backward-kill-word
vi-backward-kill-word
Back up one character in the minibuffer; if multiple searches have been performed since
the character was inserted the search history is rewound to the point just before the char-
acter was entered. Hence this has the effect of repeating backward-delete-char.
clear-screen
Clear the screen, remaining in incremental search mode.
history-incremental-search-backward
Find the next occurrence of the contents of the mini-buffer. If the mini-buffer is empty,
the most recent previously used search string is reinstated.
history-incremental-search-forward
Invert the sense of the search.
magic-space
Inserts a non-magical space.
quoted-insert
vi-quoted-insert
Quote the character to insert into the minibuffer.
redisplay
Redisplay the command line, remaining in incremental search mode.
vi-cmd-mode
Select the ‘vicmd’ keymap; the ‘main’ keymap (insert mode) will be selected initially.
In addition, the modifications that were made while in vi insert mode are merged to form
a single undo event.
vi-repeat-search
vi-rev-repeat-search
Repeat the search. The direction of the search is indicated in the mini-buffer.
Any character that is not bound to one of the above functions, or self-insert or self-insert-un-
meta, will cause the mode to be exited. The character is then looked up and executed in the
keymap in effect at that point.
When called from a widget function by the zle command, the incremental search commands can
take a string argument. This will be treated as a string of keys, as for arguments to the bindkey
command, and used as initial input for the command. Any characters in the string which are un-
used 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 (ˆS ˆXs) (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 ‘ˆ’ to anchor the search to the beginning of the line. The functions available in the mini-buf-
fer are the same as for history-incremental-search-backward.
history-incremental-pattern-search-backward
history-incremental-pattern-search-forward
These widgets behave similarly to the corresponding widgets with no -pattern, but the search
string typed by the user is treated as a pattern, respecting the current settings of the various options
affecting pattern matching. See FILENAME GENERATION in zshexpn(1) for a description of
patterns. If no numeric argument was given lowercase letters in the search string may match up-
percase letters in the history. The string may begin with ‘ˆ’ to anchor the search to the beginning

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of the line.
The prompt changes to indicate an invalid pattern; this may simply indicate the pattern is not yet
complete.
Note that only non-overlapping matches are reported, so an expression with wildcards may return
fewer matches on a line than are visible by inspection.
history-search-backward (ESC-P ESC-p) (unbound) (unbound)
Search backward in the history for a line beginning with the first word in the buffer.
If called from a function by the zle command with arguments, the first argument is taken as the
string for which to search, rather than the first word in the buffer.
vi-history-search-backward (unbound) (/) (unbound)
Search backward in the history for a specified string. The string may begin with ‘ˆ’ 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: ac-
cept-line, backward-delete-char, vi-backward-delete-char, backward-kill-word,
vi-backward-kill-word, clear-screen, redisplay, quoted-insert and vi-quoted-insert.
vi-cmd-mode is treated the same as accept-line, and magic-space is treated as a space. Any
other character that is not bound to self-insert or self-insert-unmeta will beep and be ignored. If
the function is called from vi command mode, the bindings of the current insert mode will be used.
If called from a function by the zle command with arguments, the first argument is taken as the
string for which to search, rather than the first word in the buffer.
history-search-forward (ESC-N ESC-n) (unbound) (unbound)
Search forward in the history for a line beginning with the first word in the buffer.
If called from a function by the zle command with arguments, the first argument is taken as the
string for which to search, rather than the first word in the buffer.
vi-history-search-forward (unbound) (?) (unbound)
Search forward in the history for a specified string. The string may begin with ‘ˆ’ to anchor the
search to the beginning of the line. The functions available in the mini-buffer are the same as for
vi-history-search-backward. Argument handling is also the same as for that command.
infer-next-history (ˆXˆN) (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 ar-
gument 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). Repeat-
ing this command replaces the word just inserted with the last word from the history event prior to
the one just used; numeric arguments can be used in the same way to pick a word from that event.
When called from a shell function invoked from a user-defined widget, the command can take one
to three arguments. The first argument specifies a history offset which applies to successive calls
to this widget: if it is -1, the default behaviour is used, while if it is 1, successive calls will move
forwards through the history. The value 0 can be used to indicate that the history line examined by
the previous execution of the command will be reexamined. Note that negative numbers should be
preceded by a ‘--’ argument to avoid confusing them with options.
If two arguments are given, the second specifies the word on the command line in normal array in-
dex notation (as a more natural alternative to the numeric argument). Hence 1 is the first word,
and -1 (the default) is the last word.
If a third argument is given, its value is ignored, but it is used to signify that the history offset is
relative to the current history line, rather than the one remembered after the previous invocations

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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 (ˆP 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) (ˆP) (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 (ˆH ˆ?) (unbound) (unbound)
Delete the character behind the cursor.
vi-backward-delete-char (unbound) (X) (ˆH)
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.

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backward-kill-word (ˆW ESC-ˆH ESC-ˆ?) (unbound) (unbound)

Kill the word behind the cursor.
vi-backward-kill-word (unbound) (unbound) (ˆW)
Kill the word behind the cursor, without going past the point where insert mode was last entered.
capitalize-word (ESC-C ESC-c) (unbound) (unbound)
Capitalize the current word and move past it.
vi-change (unbound) (c) (unbound)
Read a movement command from the keyboard, and kill from the cursor position to the endpoint
of the movement. Then enter insert mode. If the command is vi-change, change the current line.
For compatibility with vi, if the command is vi-forward-word or vi-forward-blank-word, the
whitespace after the word is not included. If you prefer the more consistent behaviour with the
whitespace included use the following key binding:
bindkey -a -s cw dwi
vi-change-eol (unbound) (C) (unbound)
Kill to the end of the line and enter insert mode.
vi-change-whole-line (unbound) (S) (unbound)
Kill the current line and enter insert mode.
copy-region-as-kill (ESC-W ESC-w) (unbound) (unbound)
Copy the area from the cursor to the mark to the kill buffer.
If called from a ZLE widget function in the form ‘zle copy-region-as-kill string’ then string will
be taken as the text to copy to the kill buffer. The cursor, the mark and the text on the command
line are not used in this case.
copy-prev-word (ESC-ˆ_) (unbound) (unbound)
Duplicate the word to the left of the cursor.
copy-prev-shell-word
Like copy-prev-word, but the word is found by using shell parsing, whereas copy-prev-word
looks for blanks. This makes a difference when the word is quoted and contains spaces.
vi-delete (unbound) (d) (unbound)
Read a movement command from the keyboard, and kill from the cursor position to the endpoint
of the movement. If the command is vi-delete, kill the current line.
delete-char
Delete the character under the cursor.
vi-delete-char (unbound) (x) (unbound)
Delete the character under the cursor, without going past the end of the line.
delete-word
Delete the current word.
down-case-word (ESC-L ESC-l) (unbound) (unbound)
Convert the current word to all lowercase and move past it.
vi-down-case (unbound) (gu) (unbound)
Read a movement command from the keyboard, and convert all characters from the cursor position
to the endpoint of the movement to lowercase. If the movement command is vi-down-case, swap
the case of all characters on the current line.
kill-word (ESC-D ESC-d) (unbound) (unbound)
Kill the current word.
gosmacs-transpose-chars
Exchange the two characters behind the cursor.

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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 (ˆXˆJ) (J) (unbound)
Join the current line with the next one.
kill-line (ˆK) (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) (ˆU)
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 (ˆXˆK) (unbound) (unbound)
Kill the entire buffer.
kill-whole-line (ˆU) (unbound) (unbound)
Kill the current line.
vi-match-bracket (ˆXˆB) (%) (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 (unbound) (g˜) (unbound)
Read a movement command from the keyboard, and swap the case of all characters from the cur-
sor 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 (ˆXˆO) (unbound) (unbound)
Toggle between overwrite mode and insert mode.
vi-put-before (unbound) (P) (unbound)
Insert the contents of the kill buffer before the cursor. If the kill buffer contains a sequence of
lines (as opposed to characters), paste it above the current line.
vi-put-after (unbound) (p) (unbound)
Insert the contents of the kill buffer after the cursor. If the kill buffer contains a sequence of lines
(as opposed to characters), paste it below the current line.
put-replace-selection (unbound) (unbound) (unbound)
Replace the contents of the current region or selection with the contents of the kill buffer. If the
kill buffer contains a sequence of lines (as opposed to characters), the current line will be split by
the pasted lines.

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quoted-insert (ˆV) (unbound) (unbound)

Insert the next character typed into the buffer literally. An interrupt character will not be inserted.
vi-quoted-insert (unbound) (unbound) (ˆQ ˆV)
Display a ‘ˆ’ at the cursor position, and insert the next character typed into the buffer literally. An
interrupt character will not be inserted.
quote-line (ESC-’) (unbound) (unbound)
Quote the current line; that is, put a ‘’’ character at the beginning and the end, and convert all ‘’’
characters to ‘’\’’’.
quote-region (ESC-") (unbound) (unbound)
Quote the region from the cursor to the mark.
vi-replace (unbound) (R) (unbound)
Enter overwrite mode.
vi-repeat-change (unbound) (.) (unbound)
Repeat the last vi mode text modification. If a count was used with the modification, it is 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 character read from the keyboard.
self-insert (printable characters) (unbound) (printable characters and some control characters)
Insert a character into the buffer at the cursor position.
self-insert-unmeta (ESC-ˆI ESC-ˆJ ESC-ˆM) (unbound) (unbound)
Insert a character into the buffer after stripping the meta bit and converting ˆM to ˆJ.
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 (ˆT) (unbound) (unbound)
Exchange the two characters to the left of the cursor if at end of line, else exchange the character
under the cursor with the character to the left.
transpose-words (ESC-T ESC-t) (unbound) (unbound)
Exchange the current word with the one before it.
With a positive numeric argument N, the word around the cursor, or following it if the cursor is be-
tween words, is transposed with the preceding N words. The cursor is put at the end of the result-
ing group of words.
With a negative numeric argument -N, the effect is the same as using a positive argument N ex-
cept that the original cursor position is retained, regardless of how the words are rearranged.
vi-unindent (unbound) (<) (unbound)
Unindent a number of lines.
vi-up-case (unbound) (gU) (unbound)
Read a movement command from the keyboard, and convert all characters from the cursor position
to the endpoint of the movement to lowercase. If the movement command is vi-up-case, swap
the case of all characters on the current line.
up-case-word (ESC-U ESC-u) (unbound) (unbound)
Convert the current word to all caps and move past it.
yank (ˆY) (unbound) (unbound)
Insert the contents of the kill buffer at the cursor position.

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yank-pop (ESC-y) (unbound) (unbound)

Remove the text just yanked, rotate the kill-ring (the history of previously killed text) and yank
the new top. Only works following yank, vi-put-before, vi-put-after or yank-pop.
vi-yank (unbound) (y) (unbound)
Read a movement command from the keyboard, and copy the region from the cursor position to
the endpoint of the movement into the kill buffer. If the command is vi-yank, copy the current
line.
vi-yank-whole-line (unbound) (Y) (unbound)
Copy the current line into the kill buffer.
vi-yank-eol
Copy the region from the cursor position to the end of the line into the kill buffer. Arguably, this
is what Y should do in vi, but it isn’t what it actually does.
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-begin-
ning-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 can-
not be repeated using this command. For example, if this command occurs twice, followed imme-
diately by forward-char, move forward sixteen spaces; if instead it is followed by -2, then for-
ward-char, move backward two spaces.
Inside a widget function, if passed an argument, i.e. ‘zle universal-argument num’, the numeric
argument will be set to num; this is equivalent to ‘NUMERIC=num’.
argument-base
Use the existing numeric argument as a numeric base, which must be in the range 2 to 36 inclu-
sive. Subsequent use of digit-argument and universal-argument will input a new numeric ar-
gument in the given base. The usual hexadecimal convention is used: the letter a or A corresponds
to 10, and so on. Arguments in bases requiring digits from 10 upwards are more conveniently in-
put with universal-argument, since ESC-a etc. are not usually bound to digit-argument.
The function can be used with a command argument inside a user-defined widget. The following
code sets the base to 16 and lets the user input a hexadecimal argument until a key out of the digit
range is typed:
zle argument-base 16
zle universal-argument
Completion
accept-and-menu-complete
In a menu completion, insert the current completion into the buffer, and advance to the next possi-
ble completion.
complete-word
Attempt completion on the current word.
delete-char-or-list (ˆD) (unbound) (unbound)
Delete the character under the cursor. If the cursor is at the end of the line, list possible comple-
tions for the current word.

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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 (ˆX*) (unbound) (unbound)
Attempt shell expansion on the current word.
list-choices (ESC-ˆD) (ˆD =) (ˆD)
List possible completions for the current word.
list-expand (ˆXg ˆXG) (ˆG) (ˆG)
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 op-
tion.
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 (ˆJ ˆM) (ˆJ ˆM) (ˆJ ˆM)
Finish editing the buffer. Normally this causes the buffer to be executed as a shell command.
accept-line-and-down-history (ˆO) (unbound) (unbound)
Execute the current line, and push the next history event on the buffer stack.
auto-suffix-remove
If the previous action added a suffix (space, slash, etc.) to the word on the command line, remove
it. Otherwise do nothing. Removing the suffix ends any active menu completion or menu selec-
tion.
This widget is intended to be called from user-defined widgets to enforce a desired suffix-re-
moval 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

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menu selection.
This widget is intended to be called from user-defined widgets to enforce a desired suffix-preser-
vation behavior.
beep Beep, unless the BEEP option is unset.
bracketed-paste
This widget is invoked when text is pasted to the terminal emulator. It is not intended to be bound
to actual keys but instead to the special sequence generated by the terminal emulator when text is
pasted.
When invoked interactively, the pasted text is inserted to the buffer and placed in the cutbuffer. If
a numeric argument is given, shell quoting will be applied to the pasted text before it is inserted.
When a named buffer is specified with vi-set-buffer ("x), the pasted text is stored in that named
buffer but not inserted.
When called from a widget function as ‘bracketed-paste name‘, the pasted text is assigned to the
variable name and no other processing is done.
See also the zle_bracketed_paste parameter.
vi-cmd-mode (ˆXˆV) (unbound) (ˆ[)
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 (ˆL ESC-ˆL) (ˆL) (ˆL)
Clear the screen and redraw the prompt.
deactivate-region
Make the current region inactive. This disables vim-style visual selection mode if it is active.
describe-key-briefly
Reads a key sequence, then prints the function bound to that sequence.
exchange-point-and-mark (ˆXˆX) (unbound) (unbound)
Exchange the cursor position (point) with the position of the mark. Unless a negative numeric ar-
gument is given, the region between point and mark is activated so that it can be highlighted. If a
zero numeric argument is given, the region is activated but point and mark are not swapped.
execute-named-cmd (ESC-x) (:) (unbound)
Read the name of an editor command and execute it. Aliasing this widget with ‘zle -A’ or replac-
ing it with ‘zle -N’ has no effect when interpreting key bindings, but ‘zle execute-named-cmd’
will invoke such an alias or replacement.
A restricted set of editing functions is available in the mini-buffer. Keys are looked up in the spe-
cial command keymap, and if not found there in the main keymap. An interrupt signal, as defined
by the stty setting, will abort the function. Note that the following always perform the same task
within the executed-named-cmd environment and cannot be replaced by user defined widgets,
nor can the set of functions be extended. The allowed functions are: backward-delete-char,
vi-backward-delete-char, clear-screen, redisplay, quoted-insert, vi-quoted-insert, back-
ward-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 ex-
pand-or-complete-prefix.
kill-region kills the last word, and vi-cmd-mode is treated the same as accept-line. The space
and tab characters, if not bound to one of these functions, will complete the name and then list the
possibilities if the AUTO_LIST option is set. Any other character that is not bound to self-insert
or self-insert-unmeta will beep and be ignored. The bindings of the current insert mode will be

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used.
Currently this command may not be redefined or called by name.
execute-last-named-cmd (ESC-z) (unbound) (unbound)
Redo the last function executed with execute-named-cmd.
Like execute-named-cmd, this command may not be redefined, but it may be called by name.
get-line (ESC-G ESC-g) (unbound) (unbound)
Pop the top line off the buffer stack and insert it at the cursor position.
pound-insert (unbound) (#) (unbound)
If there is no # character at the beginning of the buffer, add one to the beginning of each line. If
there is one, remove a # from each line that has one. In either case, accept the current line. The
INTERACTIVE_COMMENTS option must be set for this to have any usefulness.
vi-pound-insert
If there is no # character at the beginning of the current line, add one. If there is one, remove it.
The INTERACTIVE_COMMENTS option must be set for this to have any usefulness.
push-input
Push the entire current multiline construct onto the buffer stack and return to the top-level (PS1)
prompt. If the current parser construct is only a single line, this is exactly like push-line. Next
time the editor starts up or is popped with get-line, the construct will be popped off the top of the
buffer stack and loaded into the editing buffer.
push-line (ˆQ 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 fol-
lowed by get-line.
read-command
Only useful from a user-defined widget. A keystroke is read just as in normal operation, but in-
stead 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 unde-
fined-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 com-
mand 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

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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 defi-
nition 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) (ˆR) (ˆR)
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 ex-
pansion of the values (for example, changes in time or directory, or changes to the value of vari-
ables referred to by the prompt).
Otherwise, the prompt is only expanded each time zle starts, and when the display has 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.
reset-prompt doesn’t alter the special parameter LASTWIDGET.
send-break (ˆG ESC-ˆG) (unbound) (unbound)
Abort the current editor function, e.g. execute-named-command, or the editor itself, e.g. if you
are in vared. Otherwise abort the parsing of the current line; in this case the aborted line is avail-
able in the shell variable ZLE_LINE_ABORTED. If the editor is aborted from within vared, the
variable ZLE_VARED_ABORTED is set.
run-help (ESC-H ESC-h) (unbound) (unbound)
Push the buffer onto the buffer stack, and execute the command ‘run-help cmd’, where cmd is the
current command. run-help is normally aliased to man.
vi-set-buffer (unbound) (") (unbound)
Specify a buffer to be used in the following command. There are 37 buffers that can be specified:
the 26 ‘named’ buffers "a to "z, the ‘yank’ buffer "0, the nine ‘queued’ buffers "1 to "9 and the
‘black hole’ buffer "_. The named buffers can also be specified as "A to "Z.
When a buffer is specified for a cut, change or yank command, the text concerned replaces the pre-
vious contents of the specified buffer. If a named buffer is specified using a capital, the newly cut
text is appended to the buffer instead of overwriting it. When using the "_ buffer, nothing happens.
This can be useful for deleting text without affecting any buffers.
If no buffer is specified for a cut or change command, "1 is used, and the contents of "1 to "8 are
each shifted along one buffer; the contents of "9 is lost. If no buffer is specified for a yank com-
mand, "0 is used. Finally, a paste command without a specified buffer will paste the text from the
most recent command regardless of any buffer that might have been used with that command.
When called from a widget function by the zle command, the buffer can optionally be specified
with an argument. For example,
zle vi-set-buffer A

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vi-set-mark (unbound) (m) (unbound)

Set the specified mark at the cursor position.
set-mark-command (ˆ@) (unbound) (unbound)
Set the mark at the cursor position. If called with a negative numeric argument, do not set the
mark but deactivate the region so that it is no longer highlighted (it is still usable for other pur-
poses). Otherwise the region is marked as active.
spell-word (ESC-$ ESC-S ESC-s) (unbound) (unbound)
Attempt spelling correction on the current word.
split-undo
Breaks the undo sequence at the current change. This is useful in vi mode as changes made in in-
sert mode are coalesced on entering command mode. Similarly, undo will normally revert as one
all the changes made by a user-defined widget.
undefined-key
This command is executed when a key sequence that is not bound to any command is typed. By
default it beeps.
undo (ˆ_ ˆXu ˆXˆU) (u) (unbound)
Incrementally undo the last text modification. When called from a user-defined widget, takes an
optional argument indicating a previous state of the undo history as returned by the
UNDO_CHANGE_NO variable; modifications are undone until that state is reached, subject to
any limit imposed by the UNDO_LIMIT_NO variable.
Note that when invoked from vi command mode, the full prior change made in insert mode is re-
verted, the changes having been merged when command mode was selected.
redo (unbound) (ˆR) (unbound)
Incrementally redo undone text modifications.
vi-undo-change (unbound) (unbound) (unbound)
Undo the last text modification. If repeated, redo the modification.
visual-mode (unbound) (v) (unbound)
Toggle vim-style visual selection mode. If line-wise visual mode is currently enabled then it is
changed to being character-wise. If used following an operator, it forces the subsequent movement
command to be treated as a character-wise movement.
visual-line-mode (unbound) (V) (unbound)
Toggle vim-style line-wise visual selection mode. If character-wise visual mode is currently en-
abled then it is changed to being line-wise. If used following an operator, it forces the subsequent
movement command to be treated as a line-wise movement.
what-cursor-position (ˆX=) (ga) (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 column of the cursor in the current line.
where-is
Read the name of an editor command and print the listing of key sequences that invoke the speci-
fied 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. Other-
wise, execute vi-beginning-of-line.

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Text Objects
Text objects are commands that can be used to select a block of text according to some criteria. They are a
feature of the vim text editor and so are primarily intended for use with vi operators or from visual selection
mode. However, they can also be used from vi-insert or emacs mode. Key bindings listed below apply to
the viopp and visual keymaps.
select-a-blank-word (aW)
Select a word including adjacent blanks, where a word is defined as a series of non-blank charac-
ters. With a numeric argument, multiple words will be selected.
select-a-shell-word (aa)
Select the current command argument applying the normal rules for quoting.
select-a-word (aw)
Select a word including adjacent blanks, using the normal vi-style word definition. With a nu-
meric argument, multiple words will be selected.
select-in-blank-word (iW)
Select a word, where a word is defined as a series of non-blank characters. With a numeric argu-
ment, multiple words will be selected.
select-in-shell-word (ia)
Select the current command argument applying the normal rules for quoting. If the argument be-
gins and ends with matching quote characters, these are not included in the selection.
select-in-word (iw)
Select a word, using the normal vi-style word definition. With a numeric argument, multiple
words will be selected.
CHARACTER HIGHLIGHTING
The line editor has the ability to highlight characters or regions of the line that have a particular signifi-
cance. This is controlled by the array parameter zle_highlight, if it has been set by the user.
If the parameter contains the single entry none all highlighting is turned off. Note the parameter is still ex-
pected to be an array.
Otherwise each entry of the array should consist of a word indicating a context for highlighting, then a
colon, then a comma-separated list of the types of highlighting to apply in that context.
The contexts available for highlighting are the following:
default Any text within the command line not affected by any other highlighting. Text outside the editable
area of the command line is not affected.
isearch When one of the incremental history search widgets is active, the area of the command line
matched by the search string or pattern.
region The currently selected text. In emacs terminology, this is referred to as the region and is bounded
by the cursor (point) and the mark. The region is only highlighted if it is active, which is the case
after the mark is modified with set-mark-command or exchange-point-and-mark. Note that
whether or not the region is active has no effect on its use within emacs style widgets, it simply de-
termines whether it is highlighted. In vi mode, the region corresponds to selected text in visual
mode.
special Individual characters that have no direct printable representation but are shown in a special manner
by the line editor. These characters are described below.
suffix This context is used in completion for characters that are marked as suffixes that will be removed
if the completion ends at that point, the most obvious example being a slash (/) after a directory
name. Note that suffix removal is configurable; the circumstances under which the suffix will be
removed may differ for different completions.
paste Following a command to paste text, the characters that were inserted.
When region_highlight is set, the contexts that describe a region -- isearch, region, suffix, and paste --

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are applied first, then region_highlight is applied, then the remaining zle_highlight contexts are applied.
If a particular character is affected by multiple specifications, the last specification wins.
zle_highlight may contain additional fields for controlling how terminal sequences to change colours are
output. Each of the following is followed by a colon and a string in the same form as for key bindings.
This will not be necessary for the vast majority of terminals as the defaults shown in parentheses are widely
used.
fg_start_code (\e[3)
The start of the escape sequence for the foreground colour. This is followed by one to three ASCII
digits representing the colour. Only used for palette colors, i.e. not 24-bit colors specified via a
color triplet.
fg_default_code (9)
The number to use instead of the colour to reset the default foreground colour.
fg_end_code (m)
The end of the escape sequence for the foreground colour.
bg_start_code (\e[4)
The start of the escape sequence for the background colour. See fg_start_code above.
bg_default_code (9)
The number to use instead of the colour to reset the default background colour.
bg_end_code (m)
The end of the escape sequence for the background colour.
The available types of highlighting are the following. Note that not all types of highlighting are available
on all terminals:
none No highlighting is applied to the given context. It is not useful for this to appear with other types
of highlighting; it is used to override a default.
fg=colour
The foreground colour should be set to colour, a decimal integer, the name of one of the eight
most widely-supported colours or as a ‘#’ followed by an RGB triplet in hexadecimal format.
Not all terminals support this and, of those that do, not all provide facilities to test the support,
hence the user should decide based on the terminal type. Most terminals support the colours
black, red, green, yellow, blue, magenta, cyan and white, which can be set by name. In addi-
tion. default may be used to set the terminal’s default foreground colour. Abbreviations are al-
lowed; b or bl selects black. Some terminals may generate additional colours if the bold attribute
is also present.
On recent terminals and on systems with an up-to-date terminal database the number of colours
supported may be tested by the command ‘echotc Co’; if this succeeds, it indicates a limit on the
number of colours which will be enforced by the line editor. The number of colours is in any case
limited to 256 (i.e. the range 0 to 255).
Some modern terminal emulators have support for 24-bit true colour (16 million colours). In this
case, the hex triplet format can be used. This consists of a ‘#’ followed by either a three or six digit
hexadecimal number describing the red, green and blue components of the colour. Hex triplets can
also be used with 88 and 256 colour terminals via the zsh/nearcolor module (see zshmodules(1)).
Colour is also known as color.
bg=colour
The background colour should be set to colour. This works similarly to the foreground colour, ex-
cept 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.

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standout
The characters in the given context are shown in the terminal’s standout mode. The actual effect is
specific to the terminal; on many terminals it is inverse video. On some such terminals, where the
cursor does not blink it appears with standout mode negated, making it less than clear where the
cursor actually is. On such terminals one of the other effects may be preferable for highlighting
the region and matched search string.
underline
The characters in the given context are shown underlined. Some terminals show the foreground in
a different colour instead; in this case whitespace will not be highlighted.
The characters described above as ‘special’ are as follows. The formatting described here is used irrespec-
tive of whether the characters are highlighted:
ASCII control characters
Control characters in the ASCII range are shown as ‘ˆ’ followed by the base character.
Unprintable multibyte characters
This item applies to control characters not in the ASCII range, plus other characters as follows. If
the MULTIBYTE option is in effect, multibyte characters not in the ASCII character set that are
reported as having zero width are treated as combining characters when the option COMBIN-
ING_CHARS is on. If the option is off, or if a character appears where a combining character is
not valid, the character is treated as unprintable.
Unprintable multibyte characters are shown as a hexadecimal number between angle brackets.
The number is the code point of the character in the wide character set; this may or may not be
Unicode, depending on the operating system.
Invalid multibyte characters
If the MULTIBYTE option is in effect, any sequence of one or more bytes that does not form a
valid character in the current character set is treated as a series of bytes each shown as a special
character. This case can be distinguished from other unprintable characters as the bytes are repre-
sented as two hexadecimal digits between angle brackets, as distinct from the four or eight digits
that are used for unprintable characters that are nonetheless valid in the current character set.
Not all systems support this: for it to work, the system’s representation of wide characters must be
code values from the Universal Character Set, as defined by IS0 10646 (also known as Unicode).
Wrapped double-width characters
When a double-width character appears in the final column of a line, it is instead shown on the
next line. The empty space left in the original position is highlighted as a special character.
If zle_highlight is not set or no value applies to a particular context, the defaults applied are equivalent to
zle_highlight=(region:standout special:standout
suffix:bold isearch:underline paste:standout)
i.e. both the region and special characters are shown in standout mode.
Within widgets, arbitrary regions may be highlighted by setting the special array parameter region_high-
light; see above.

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NAME
zshcompwid - zsh completion widgets
DESCRIPTION
The shell’s programmable completion mechanism can be manipulated in two ways; here the low-level fea-
tures supporting 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, po-
tentially, writing their own -- see dictionary entry for ‘hubris’) should skip the current section. The older
system based on the compctl builtin command is described in zshcompctl(1).
Completion widgets are defined by the -C option to the zle builtin command provided by the zsh/zle mod-
ule (see zshzle(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 completions: complete-word, expand-or-complete, expand-or-complete-prefix, menu-com-
plete, 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 re-
sponsible for generating the possible matches using the builtins described below. As with other ZLE wid-
gets, the function is called with its standard input closed.
Once the function returns, the completion code takes over control again and treats the matches in the same
manner as the specified builtin widget, in this case expand-or-complete.
COMPLETION SPECIAL PARAMETERS
The parameters ZLE_REMOVE_SUFFIX_CHARS and ZLE_SPACE_SUFFIX_CHARS are used by
the completion mechanism, but are not special. See Parameters Used By The Shell in zshparam(1).
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 in-
formation between the completion code and the completion widget. Some of the builtin commands and the
condition codes use or change the current values of these parameters. Any existing values will be hidden
during execution of completion widgets; except for compstate, the parameters are reset on each function
exit (including nested function calls from within the completion widget) to the values they had when the
function was entered.
CURRENT
This is the number of the current word, i.e. the word the cursor is currently on in the words array.
Note that this value is only correct if the ksharrays option is not set.
IPREFIX
Initially this will be set to the empty string. This parameter functions like PREFIX; it contains a
string which precedes the one in PREFIX and is not considered part of the list of matches. Typi-
cally, a string is transferred from the beginning of PREFIX 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
ISUFFIX string follows the SUFFIX string.
PREFIX
Initially this will be set to the part of the current word from the beginning of the word up to the po-
sition of the cursor; it may be altered to give a common prefix for all matches.

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QIPREFIX
This parameter is read-only and contains the quoted string up to the word being completed. E.g.
when completing ‘"foo’, this parameter contains the double quote. If the -q option of compset is
used (see below), and the original string was ‘"foo bar’ with the cursor on the ‘bar’, this parame-
ter contains ‘"foo ’.
QISUFFIX
Like QIPREFIX, but containing the suffix.
SUFFIX
Initially this will be set to the part of the current word from the cursor position to the end; it may
be altered to give a common suffix for all matches. It is most useful when the option COM-
PLETE_IN_WORD is set, as otherwise the whole word on the command line is treated as a pre-
fix.
compstate
This is an associative array with various keys and values that the completion code uses to ex-
change 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 com-
pleted, 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 dou-
ble quote for strings quoted with these characters, a dollars sign for strings quoted with
$’...’ and a backslash for strings not starting with a quote character. The first character in
the value always corresponds to the innermost quoting level.
context
This will be set by the completion code to the overall context in which completion is at-
tempted. Possible values are:
array_value
when completing inside the value of an array parameter assignment; in this case
the words array contains the words inside the parentheses.
brace_parameter
when completing the name of a parameter in a parameter expansion beginning
with ${. This context will also be set when completing parameter flags follow-
ing ${(; the full command line argument is presented and the handler must test
the value to be completed to ascertain that this is the case.
assign_parameter
when completing the name of a parameter in a parameter assignment.
command
when completing for a normal command (either in command position or for an
argument of the command).
condition
when completing inside a ‘[[...]]’ conditional expression; in this case the words
array contains only the words inside the conditional expression.
math when completing in a mathematical environment such as a ‘((...))’ construct.
parameter
when completing the name of a parameter in a parameter expansion beginning
with $ but not ${.

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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 command line is not to be changed; if set to unam-
biguous, any prefix common to all matches is to be inserted; if set to automenu-unam-
biguous, the common prefix is to be inserted and the next invocation of the completion
code may start menu completion (due to the AUTO_MENU option being set); if set to
menu or automenu menu completion will be started for the matches currently generated
(in the latter case this will happen because the AUTO_MENU is set). The value may also
contain the string ‘tab’ when the completion code would normally not really do comple-
tion, but only insert the TAB character.
On exit it may be set to any of the values above (where setting it to the empty string is the
same as unsetting it), or to a number, in which case the match whose number is given will
be inserted into the command line. Negative numbers count backward from the last
match (with ‘-1’ selecting the last match) and out-of-range values are wrapped around,
so that a value of zero selects the last match and a value one more than the maximum se-
lects the first. Unless the value of this key ends in a space, the match is inserted as in a
menu completion, i.e. without automatically appending a space.
Both menu and automenu may also specify the number of the match to insert, given af-
ter a colon. For example, ‘menu:2’ says to start menu completion, beginning with the
second match.
Note that a value containing the substring ‘tab’ makes the matches generated be ignored
and only the TAB be inserted.
Finally, it may also be set to all, which makes all matches generated be inserted into the
line.
insert_positions
When the completion system inserts an unambiguous string into the line, there may be
multiple places where characters are missing or where the character inserted differs from
at least one match. The value of this key contains a colon separated list of all these posi-
tions, as indexes into the command line.
last_prompt
If this is set to a non-empty string for every match added, the completion code will move
the cursor back to the previous prompt after the list of completions has been displayed.
Initially this is set or unset according to the ALWAYS_LAST_PROMPT option.
list This controls whether or how the list of matches will be displayed. If it is unset or empty
they will never be listed; if its value begins with list, they will always be listed; if it be-
gins with autolist or ambiguous, they will be listed when the AUTO_LIST or

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LIST_AMBIGUOUS options respectively would normally cause them to be.

If the substring force appears in the value, this makes the list be shown even if there is
only one match. Normally, the list would be shown only if there are at least two matches.
The value contains the substring packed if the LIST_PACKED option is set. If this 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 command line to this value, this is available as the value of the
BUFFERLINES special parameter.
list_max
Initially this is set to the value of the LISTMAX parameter. It may be set to any other
value; when the widget exits this value will be used in the same way as the value of
LISTMAX.
nmatches
The number of matches 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 comple-
tions that is currently inserted into the command line. If no match has been inserted, this
is unset.
As with old_list, the value of this key will only be used if it is the string keep. If it was
set to this value by the widget and there was an old match inserted into the command line,
this match will be kept and if the value of the insert key specifies that another match
should be inserted, this will be inserted after the old one.
old_list
This is set to yes if there is still a valid list of completions from a previous completion at
the time the widget is invoked. This will usually be the case if and only if the previous
editing operation was a completion widget or one of the builtin completion functions. If
there is a valid list and it is also currently shown on the screen, the value of this key is
shown.
After the widget has exited the value of this key is only used if it was set to keep. In this
case the completion code will continue to use this old list. If the widget generated new
matches, they will not be used.
parameter
The name of the parameter when completing in a subscript or in the value of a parameter
assignment.
pattern_insert
Normally this is set to menu, which specifies that menu completion will be used 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 completion is not selected by other option set-
tings, the code will instead insert any common prefix for the generated matches as with
normal completion.

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pattern_match
Locally controls the behaviour given by the GLOB_COMPLETE option. Initially it is
set to ‘*’ if and only if the option is set. The completion widget may set it to this value,
to an empty string (which has the same effect as unsetting it), or to any other non-empty
string. If it is non-empty, unquoted metacharacters on the command line will be treated
as patterns; if it is ‘*’, then additionally a wildcard ‘*’ is assumed at the cursor position;
if it is empty or unset, metacharacters will be treated literally.
Note that the 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 single
quote, a double quote, or a backtick). Otherwise it is unset.
quoting
When completing inside single quotes, this is set to the string single; inside double
quotes, the string double; inside backticks, the string backtick. Otherwise it is unset.
redirect
The redirection operator when completing in a redirection position, i.e. one of <, >, etc.
restore This is set to auto before a function is entered, which forces the special parameters men-
tioned 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 sin-
gle unambiguous match was inserted or match if it will happen any time a match is in-
serted (for example, by menu completion; this is likely to be the effect of the AL-
WAYS_TO_END option).
On exit, it may be set to single as above. It may also be set to always, or to the empty
string or unset; in those cases the cursor will be moved to the end of the string always or
never respectively. Any other string is treated as match.
unambiguous
This key is read-only and will always be set to the common (unambiguous) prefix the
completion code has generated for all matches added so far.
unambiguous_cursor
This gives the position the cursor would be placed at if the common prefix in the 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 command line currently being edited.
COMPLETION BUILTIN COMMANDS
compadd [ -akqQfenUl12C ] [ -F array ]
[-P prefix ] [ -S suffix ]
[-p hidden-prefix ] [ -s hidden-suffix ]

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[-i ignored-prefix ] [ -I ignored-suffix ]

[-W file-prefix ] [ -d array ]
[-J group-name ] [ -X explanation ] [ -x message ]
[-V group-name ] [ -o [ order ] ]
[-r remove-chars ] [ -R remove-func ]
[-D array ] [ -O array ] [ -A array ]
[-E number ]
[-M match-spec ] [ -- ] [ 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 status 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:
<ipre><apre><hpre><word><hsuf><asuf><isuf>
The first field is an ignored prefix taken from the command line, the contents of the IPREFIX pa-
rameter plus the string given with the -i option. With the -U option, only the string from the -i
option is used. The field <apre> is an optional prefix string given with the -P option. The
<hpre> field is a string that is considered part of the match but that should not be shown when list-
ing completions, given with the -p option; for example, functions that do filename generation
might specify a common path prefix this way. <word> is the part of the match that should appear
in the list of completions, i.e. one of the words given at the end of the compadd command line.
The suffixes <hsuf>, <asuf> and <isuf> correspond to the prefixes <hpre>, <apre> and <ipre>
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 consid-
ered 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 command line just before any string given with the
‘-P’ option. Without ‘-P’ the string is inserted before the string given with ‘-p’ or di-
rectly 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,

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and so on. The array may be given as the name of an array parameter or directly as a
space-separated list of words in parentheses.
If there are fewer display strings than words, the leftover words will be displayed un-
changed 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 dis-
play strings are listed one per line, not arrayed in columns.
-o [ order ]
This controls the order in which matches are sorted. order is a comma-separated list
comprising the following possible values. These values can be abbreviated to their initial
two or three characters. Note that the order forms part of the group name space so
matches with different orderings will not be in the same group.
match If given, the order of the output is determined by the match strings; otherwise it
is determined by the display strings (i.e. the strings given by the -d option). This
is the default if ‘-o’ is specified but the order argument is omitted.
nosort This specifies that the matches are pre-sorted and their order should be pre-
served. This value only makes sense alone and cannot be combined with any
others.
numeric
If the matches include numbers, sort them numerically rather than lexicographi-
cally.
reverse Arrange the matches backwards by reversing the sort ordering.
-J group-name
Gives the name of the group of matches the words should be stored in.
-V group-name
Like -J but naming an unsorted group. This option is identical to the combination of -J
and -o nosort.
-1 If given together with the -V option, makes only consecutive duplicates in the group be
removed. If combined with the -J option, this has no visible effect. Note that groups with
and without this flag are in different name spaces.
-2 If given together with the -J or -V option, makes all duplicates be kept. Again, groups
with and without this flag are in different name spaces.
-X explanation
The explanation string will be printed with the list of matches, above the group currently
selected.
Within the explanation, the following sequences may be used to specify output attributes
as described in the section EXPANSION OF PROMPT SEQUENCES in zshmisc(1):
‘%B’, ‘%S’, ‘%U’, ‘%F’, ‘%K’ and their lower case counterparts, as well as
‘%{...%}’. ‘%F’, ‘%K’ and ‘%{...%}’ take arguments in the same form as prompt ex-
pansion. (Note that the sequence ‘%G’ is not available; an argument to ‘%{’ should be
used instead.) The sequence ‘%%’ produces a literal ‘%’.
These sequences are most often employed by users when customising the format style
(see zshcompsys(1)), but they must also be taken into account when writing completion
functions, as passing descriptions with unescaped ‘%’ characters to utility functions such
as _arguments and _message may produce unexpected results. If arbitrary text is to be
passed in a description, it can be escaped using e.g. ${my_str//\%/%%}.

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-x message
Like -X, but the message will be printed even if there are no matches in the group.
-q The suffix given with -S will be automatically removed if the next character typed is a
blank or does not insert anything, or if the suffix consists of only one character and the
next character typed is the same character.
-r remove-chars
This is a more versatile form of the -q option. The suffix given with -S or the slash au-
tomatically 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 in-
serts a lower case character or a TAB, and ‘-r "ˆ0-9"’ removes the suffix if the next
character typed inserts anything but a digit. One extra backslash sequence is understood
in this string: ‘\-’ stands for all characters that insert nothing. Thus ‘-S "=" -q’ is the
same as ‘-S "=" -r "= \t\n\-"’.
This option may also be used without the -S option; then any automatically added space
will be removed when one of the characters in the list is typed.
-R remove-func
This is another form of the -r option. When a suffix has been inserted and the completion
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 avail-
able in ordinary (non-completion) zle widgets (see zshzle(1)) to analyse and modify 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 complete file-
name 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 parameter or a list of literal patterns enclosed in
parentheses and quoted, as in ‘-F "(*?.o *?.h)"’. If the name of an array is given, the el-
ements 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 ‘Completion
Matching Control’. This option may be given more than once. In this case all
match-specs given are concatenated with spaces between them to form the specification
string to use. Note that they will only be used if the -U option is not given.

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-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 themselves.
-O array
If this option is given, the words are not added to the set of possible completions. In-
stead, 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 example,
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 nth
word does not match, the nth 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 containing the strings that would be in-
serted for the other matches, truncated to the width of the screen.
-E number
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 completion
lists (since empty matches can be given display strings with the -d option). And because
all but one empty string would otherwise be removed, this option implies the -V and -2
options (even if an explicit -J option is given). This can be important to note as it affects
the name space into which matches are added.
-
-- 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 status allows tests
on them to be carried out.
The options are:

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-p number
If the value of the PREFIX parameter is at least number characters long, the first number
characters are removed from it and appended to the contents of the IPREFIX parameter.
-P [ number ] pattern
If the value of the PREFIX parameter begins with anything that matches the pattern, the
matched portion is removed from PREFIX and appended to IPREFIX.
Without the optional number, the longest match is taken, but if number is given, anything
up to the numberth match is moved. If the number is negative, the numberth longest
match is moved. For example, if PREFIX contains the string ‘a=b=c’, then compset -P
’*\=’ will move the string ‘a=b=’ into the IPREFIX parameter, but compset -P 1 ’*\=’
will move only the string ‘a=’.
-s number
As -p, but transfer the last number characters from the value of SUFFIX to the front of
the value of ISUFFIX.
-S [ number ] pattern
As -P, but match the last portion of SUFFIX and transfer the matched portion to the
front of the value of ISUFFIX.
-n begin [ end ]
If the current word position as specified by the parameter CURRENT is greater than or
equal to begin, anything up to the beginth word is removed from the words array and the
value of the parameter CURRENT is decremented by begin.
If the optional end is given, the modification is done only if the current word position is
also less than or equal to end. In this case, the words from position end onwards are also
removed from the words array.
Both begin and end may be negative to count backwards from the last element of the
words array.
-N beg-pat [ end-pat ]
If one of the elements of the words array before the one at the index given by the value of
the parameter CURRENT matches the pattern beg-pat, all elements up to and including
the matching one are removed from the words array and the value of CURRENT is
changed to point to the same word in the changed array.
If the optional pattern end-pat is also given, and there is an element in the words array
matching this pattern, the parameters are modified only if the index of this word is higher
than the one given by the CURRENT parameter (so that the matching word has to be af-
ter the cursor). In this case, the words starting with the one matching end-pat are also re-
moved from the words array. If words contains no word matching end-pat, the testing
and modification is performed as if it were not given.
-q The word currently being completed is split on spaces into separate words, respecting the
usual shell quoting conventions. The resulting words are stored in the words array, and
CURRENT, PREFIX, SUFFIX, QIPREFIX, and QISUFFIX are modified to reflect
the word part that is completed.
In all the above cases the return status is zero if the test succeeded and the parameters were modi-
fied 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 wid-
gets. The list of matches will be generated as if one of the non-widget completion functions
(complete-word, etc.) had been called, except that only compctls given for specific commands

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are used. To force the code to try completions defined with the -T option of compctl and/or the
default completion (whether defined by compctl -D or the builtin default) in the appropriate
places, the -T and/or -D flags can be passed to compcall.
The return status can be used to test if a matching compctl definition was found. It is non-zero if a
compctl was found and zero otherwise.
Note that this builtin is defined by the zsh/compctl module.
COMPLETION CONDITION CODES
The following additional condition codes for use within the [[ ... ]] construct are available in completion
widgets. These work on the special parameters. All of these tests can also be performed by the compset
builtin, but in the case of the condition codes the contents of the special parameters are not modified.
-prefix [ number ] pattern
true if the test for the -P option of compset would succeed.
-suffix [ number ] pattern
true if the test for the -S option of compset would succeed.
-after beg-pat
true if the test of the -N option with only the beg-pat given would succeed.
-between beg-pat end-pat
true if the test for the -N option with both patterns would succeed.
COMPLETION 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
produced by the completion code (referred to here as the trial completions). Note that this is not used if the
command line contains a glob pattern and the GLOB_COMPLETE option is set or the pattern_match of
the compstate special association is set to a non-empty string.
The match-spec given as the argument to the -M option (see ‘Completion Builtin Commands’ above) con-
sists of one or more matching descriptions separated by whitespace. Each description consists of a letter
followed by a colon and then the patterns 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 upper case initial char-
acter retains the string already typed on the command line as the final result of completion, while with a
lower case initial character 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 pre-
ceded 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 com-
mand line and trial completion strings.
If no lpat is given but a ranchor is, this matches the gap between substrings matched by lanchor

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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 begin-
ning of the word on the command line or trial completion, 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 command line and trial completion patterns are an-
chored on the right side. Here an empty ranchor and the e and E forms force the match to the end
of the command line or trial completion string.
x: This form is used to mark the end of matching specifications: subsequent specifications are ig-
nored. In a single standalone list of specifications this has no use but where matching specifica-
tions are accumulated, such as from nested function calls, it can allow one function to override an-
other.
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
patterns are not used. Literal characters match only themselves, 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 characters ! and ˆ have no special meaning di-
rectly after the opening brace. They indicate that a range of characters on the line match a range of charac-
ters in the trial completion, but (unlike ordinary character classes) paired according to the corresponding
position in the sequence. For example, to make any ASCII lower case letter on the line match the corre-
sponding upper case letter in the trial completion, you can use ‘m:{a-z}={A-Z}’ (however, see below for
the recommended form for this). More than one pair of classes can occur, in which case the first class be-
fore 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 standard ‘[:name:]’ forms described for standard shell patterns (see the section FILENAME GENER-
ATION in zshexpn(1)) may appear in correspondence classes as well as normal character classes. The only
special behaviour in correspondence classes is if the form on the left and the form on the right are each one
of [:upper:], [:lower:]. In these cases the character in the word and the character on the line must be the
same up to a difference in case. Hence to make any lower case character on the line match the correspond-
ing upper case character in the trial completion you can use ‘m:{[:lower:]}={[:upper:]}’. Although the
matching system does not yet handle multibyte characters, this is likely to be a future extension, at which
point this syntax will handle arbitrary alphabets; hence this form, rather than the use of explicit ranges, is
the recommended form. In other cases ‘[:name:]’ forms are allowed. If the two forms on the left and right
are the same, the characters must match exactly. In remaining cases, the corresponding tests are applied to
both characters, but they are not otherwise constrained; any matching character in one set goes with any
matching character in the other set: this is equivalent to the behaviour of ordinary 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 parameter module are the option names in
all-lower-case form, without underscores, and without the optional no at the beginning even though the
builtins setopt and unsetopt understand option names with upper case letters, underscores, and the optional

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no. The following alters the matching rules so that the prefix no and any underscore are ignored when try-
ing to match the trial completions generated and upper case letters on the line match the corresponding
lower case letters in the words:
compadd -M ’L:|[nN][oO]= M:_= M:{[:upper:]}={[:lower:]}’ - \
${(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 upper case letter on the line matches the corre-
sponding lower case letter in the word. The use of the upper case forms of the specification 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 com-
mand 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 com-
pletion, 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, ex-
cept here we wish to retain the characters in the list of completions:
compadd -M ’m:{[:lower:]}={[:upper:]}’ ...
This makes lower case letters match their upper case counterparts. To make upper case letters match the
lower case forms as well:
compadd -M ’m:{[:lower:][:upper:]}={[:upper:][:lower:]}’ ...
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 completion 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 completions that end with the string as typed so far, i.e. it will only insert new
characters at the cursor position rather than 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.

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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 veryverylongheader.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 separated 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 upper case letter) or maybe one has
to complete strings with trailing numbers. Here one could use the simple form with only one anchor as in:
compadd -M ’r:|[[:upper:]0-9]=* 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 upper case 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:|[[:upper:]0-9]=**’, but then ‘H’ completes to
both ‘LikeTHIS’ and ‘FooHoo’ and a ‘2’ matches the other strings because characters can be inserted be-
fore every upper case letter and digit. To avoid this one would use:
compadd -M ’r:[ˆ[:upper:]0-9]||[[:upper:]0-9]=** r:|=*’ \
LikeTHIS FooHoo foo123 bar234
By using these two anchors, a ‘H’ matches only upper case ‘H’s that are immediately preceded by some-
thing matching the left anchor ‘[ˆ[:upper:]0-9]’. 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 ’ˆX\t’ complete
After that the shell function complete-files will be invoked after typing control-X and TAB. The function
should then generate the matches, e.g.:
complete-files () { compadd - * }
This function will complete files in the current directory matching the current word.

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NAME
zshcompsys - zsh completion system
DESCRIPTION
This describes the shell code for the ‘new’ completion system, referred to as compsys. It is written in shell
functions based on the features described in zshcompwid(1).
The features are contextual, sensitive to the point at which completion is started. Many completions are al-
ready provided. For this reason, a user can perform a great many tasks without knowing any details beyond
how to initialize the system, which is described below in INITIALIZATION.
The context that decides what completion is to be performed may be
• an argument or option position: these describe the position on the command line at which comple-
tion is requested. For example ‘first argument to rmdir, the word being completed names a direc-
tory’;

• a special context, denoting an element in the shell’s syntax. For example ‘a word in command po-
sition’ or ‘an array subscript’.

A full context specification contains other elements, as we shall describe.

Besides commands names and contexts, the system employs two more concepts, styles and tags. These
provide ways for the user to configure the system’s behaviour.
Tags play a dual role. They serve as a classification system for the matches, typically indicating a class of
object that the user may need to distinguish. For example, when completing arguments of the ls command
the user may prefer to try files before directories, so both of these are tags. They also appear as the right-
most element in a context specification.
Styles modify various operations of the completion system, such as output formatting, but also what kinds
of completers are used (and in what order), or which tags are examined. Styles may accept arguments and
are manipulated using the zstyle command described in see zshmodules(1).
In summary, tags describe what the completion objects are, and style how they are to be completed. At var-
ious points of execution, the completion system checks what styles and/or tags are defined for the current
context, and uses that to modify its behavior. The full description of context handling, which determines
how tags and other elements of the context influence the behaviour of styles, is described below in COM-
PLETION SYSTEM CONFIGURATION.
When a completion is requested, a dispatcher function is called; see the description of _main_complete in
the list of control functions below. This dispatcher decides which function should be called to produce the
completions, and calls it. The result is passed to one or more completers, functions that implement individ-
ual completion strategies: simple completion, error correction, completion with error correction, menu se-
lection, etc.
More generally, the shell functions contained in the completion system are of two types:
• those beginning ‘comp’ are to be called directly; there are only a few of these;

• those beginning ‘_’ are called by the completion code. The shell functions of this set, which im-
plement completion behaviour and may be bound to keystrokes, are referred to as ‘widgets’.
These proliferate as new completions are required.

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

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actually run; you may, for example, need to move them to an earlier place in the file if .zshrc usually re-
turns early. So long as you keep them all together (including the comment lines at the start and finish), you
can rerun compinstall and it will correctly locate and modify these lines. Note, however, that any code you
add to this section by hand is likely to be lost if you rerun compinstall, although lines using the command
‘zstyle’ should be gracefully handled.
The new code will take effect next time you start the shell, or run .zshrc by hand; there is also an option to
make them take effect immediately. However, if compinstall has removed definitions, you will need to
restart the shell to see the changes.
To run compinstall you will need to make sure it is in a directory mentioned in your fpath parameter,
which should already be the case if zsh was properly configured as long as your startup files do not remove
the appropriate directories from fpath. Then it must be autoloaded (‘autoload -U compinstall’ is recom-
mended). You can abort the installation any time you are being prompted for information, and your .zshrc
will not be altered at all; changes only take place right at the end, where you are specifically asked for con-
firmation.
Use of compinit
This section describes the use of compinit to initialize completion for the current session when called di-
rectly; if you have run compinstall it will be called automatically from your .zshrc.
To initialize the system, the function compinit should be in a directory mentioned in the fpath parameter,
and should be autoloaded (‘autoload -U compinit’ is recommended), and then run simply as ‘compinit’.
This will define a few utility functions, arrange for all the necessary shell functions to be autoloaded, and
will then re-define all widgets that do completion to use the new system. If you use the menu-select wid-
get, 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 per-
form expansion as well as completion by default, and the TAB key is bound to expand-or-complete,
compinit will rebind it to complete-word; this is necessary to use the correct form of expansion.
Should you need to use the original completion commands, you can still bind keys to the old widgets by
putting a ‘.’ in front of the widget name, e.g. ‘.expand-or-complete’.
To speed up the running of compinit, it can be made to produce a dumped configuration that will be read in
on future invocations; this is the default, but can be turned off by calling compinit with the option -D. The
dumped file is .zcompdump in the same directory as the startup files (i.e. $ZDOTDIR or $HOME); alter-
natively, an explicit file name can be given by ‘compinit -d dumpfile’. The next invocation of compinit
will read the dumped file instead of performing a full initialization.
If the number of completion files changes, compinit will recognise this and produce a new dump file.
However, if the name of a function or the arguments in the first line of a #compdef function (as described
below) change, it is easiest to delete the dump file by hand so that compinit will re-create it the next time it
is run. The check performed to see if there are new functions can be omitted by giving the option -C. In
this case the dump file will only be created if there isn’t one already.
The dumping is actually done by another function, compdump, but you will only need to run this yourself
if you change the configuration (e.g. using compdef) and then want to dump the new one. The name of the
old dumped file will be remembered for this purpose.
If the parameter _compdir is set, compinit uses it as a directory where completion functions can be found;
this is only necessary if they are not already in the function search path.
For security reasons compinit also checks if the completion system would use files not owned by root or by
the current user, or files in 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 directories 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

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they do not persist. The directories to be checked may be passed as arguments; if none are given, compau-
dit uses fpath and _compdir to find completion system directories, adding missing ones to fpath as neces-
sary. To force a check of exactly the directories currently named in fpath, set _compdir to an empty string
before calling compaudit or compinit.
The function bashcompinit provides compatibility with bash’s programmable completion system. When
run it will define the functions, compgen and complete which correspond to the bash builtins with the same
names. It will then be possible to use completion specifications and functions written for bash.
Autoloaded files
The convention for autoloaded functions used in completion is that they start with an underscore; as already
mentioned, the fpath/FPATH parameter must contain the directory in which they are stored. If zsh was
properly installed on your system, then fpath/FPATH automatically contains the required directories for
the standard functions.
For incomplete installations, if compinit does not find enough files beginning with an underscore (fewer
than twenty) in the search path, it will try to find more by adding the directory _compdir to the search path.
If that directory has a subdirectory named Base, all subdirectories will be added to the path. Furthermore,
if the subdirectory Base has a subdirectory named Core, compinit will add all subdirectories of the subdi-
rectories to the path: this allows the functions to be in the same format as in the zsh source distribution.
When compinit is run, it searches all such files accessible via fpath/FPATH and reads the first line of each
of them. This line should contain one of the tags described below. Files whose first line does not start with
one of these tags are not considered to be part of the completion system and will not be treated specially.
The tags are:
#compdef name ... [ -{p|P} pattern ... [ -N name ... ] ]
The file will be made autoloadable and the function defined in it will be called when completing
names, each of which is either the name of a command whose arguments are to be completed or
one of a number of special contexts in the form -context- described below.
Each name may also be of the form ‘cmd=service’. When completing the command cmd, the
function typically behaves as if the command (or special context) service was being completed in-
stead. This provides a way of altering the behaviour of functions that can perform many different
completions. It is implemented by setting the parameter $service when calling the function; the
function may choose to interpret this how it wishes, and simpler functions will probably ignore it.
If the #compdef line contains one of the options -p or -P, the words following are taken to be
patterns. The function will be called when completion is attempted for a command or context that
matches one of the patterns. The options -p and -P are used to specify patterns to be tried before
or after other completions respectively. Hence -P may be used to specify default actions.
The option -N is used after a list following -p or -P; it specifies that remaining words no longer
define patterns. It is possible to toggle between the three options as many times as necessary.
#compdef -k style key-sequence ...
This option creates a widget behaving like the builtin widget style and binds it to the given key-se-
quences, if any. The style must be one of the builtin widgets that perform completion, namely
complete-word, delete-char-or-list, expand-or-complete, expand-or-complete-prefix,
list-choices, menu-complete, menu-expand-or-complete, or reverse-menu-complete. If the
zsh/complist module is loaded (see zshmodules(1)) the widget menu-select is also available.
When one of the key-sequences is typed, the function in the file will be invoked to generate the
matches. Note that a key will not be re-bound if it already was (that is, was bound to something
other than undefined-key). The widget created has the same name as the file and can be bound to
any other keys using bindkey as usual.
#compdef -K widget-name style key-sequence [ name style seq ... ]
This is similar to -k except that only one key-sequence argument may be given for each 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 widget-name must be distinct in each set. If it does

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not begin with ‘_’ this will be added. The widget-name should not clash with the name of any ex-
isting widget: names based on the name of the function are most useful. For example,
#compdef -K _foo_complete complete-word "ˆXˆC" \
_foo_list list-choices "ˆXˆD"
(all on one line) defines a widget _foo_complete for completion, bound to ‘ˆXˆC’, and a widget
_foo_list for listing, bound to ‘ˆXˆD’.
#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
function described below; the main difference is that the name of the function is supplied implicitly.
The special contexts for which completion functions can be defined are:
-array-value-
The right hand side of an array-assignment (‘name=(...)’)
-brace-parameter-
The name of a parameter expansion within braces (‘${...}’)
-assign-parameter-
The name of a parameter in an assignment, i.e. on the left hand side of an ‘=’
-command-
A word in command position
-condition-
A word inside a condition (‘[[...]]’)
-default-
Any word for which no other completion is defined
-equal-
A word beginning with an equals sign
-first- This is tried before any other completion function. The function called may set the _compskip
parameter to one of various values: all: no further completion is attempted; a string containing the
substring patterns: no pattern completion functions will be called; a string containing default: the
function for the ‘-default-’ context will not be called, but functions defined for commands will
be.
-math-
Inside mathematical contexts, such as ‘((...))’
-parameter-
The name of a parameter expansion (‘$...’)
-redirect-
The word after a redirection operator.
-subscript-
The contents of a parameter subscript.
-tilde- After an initial tilde (‘˜’), but before the first slash in the word.
-value-
On the right hand side of an assignment.
Default implementations are supplied for each of these contexts. In most cases the context -context- is im-
plemented by a corresponding function _context, for example the context ‘-tilde-’ and the function

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‘_tilde’).
The contexts -redirect- and -value- allow extra context-specific information. (Internally, this is handled
by the functions for each context calling the function _dispatch.) The extra information is added separated
by commas.
For the -redirect- context, the extra information is in the form ‘-redirect-,op,command’, where op is the
redirection operator and command is the name of the command on the line. If there is no command on the
line yet, the command field will be empty.
For the -value- context, the form is ‘-value-,name,command’, where name is the name of the parameter
on the left hand side of the assignment. In the case of elements of an associative array, for example ‘as-
soc=(key <TAB>’, 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 comple-
tions by progressively replacing the elements with ‘-default-’. For example, when completing after
‘foo=<TAB>’, _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 han-
dle the context.
As an example:
compdef ’_files -g "*.log"’ ’-redirect-,2>,-default-’
completes files matching ‘*.log’ after ‘2> <TAB>’ 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> <TAB>’ complete files matching ‘*.log’.
Functions
The following function is defined by compinit and may be called directly.
compdef [ -ane ] function name ... [ -{p|P} pattern ... [ -N name ...]]
compdef -d name ...
compdef -k [ -an ] function style key-sequence [ key-sequence ... ]
compdef -K [ -an ] function name style key-seq [ name style seq ... ]
The first form defines the function to call for completion in the given contexts as described for the
#compdef tag above.
Alternatively, all the arguments may have the form ‘cmd=service’. Here service should already
have been defined by ‘cmd1=service’ lines in #compdef files, as described above. The argument
for cmd will be completed in the same way as service.
The function argument may alternatively be a string containing almost any shell code. If the string
contains an equal sign, the above will take precedence. The option -e may be used to specify the
first argument is to be evaluated as shell code even if it contains an equal sign. The string will be
executed using the eval builtin command to generate completions. This provides a way of avoid-
ing having to define a new completion function. For example, to complete files ending in ‘.h’ as
arguments to the command foo:
compdef ’_files -g "*.h"’ foo
The option -n prevents any completions already defined for the command or context from being
overwritten.

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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 ef-
fect on the argument list is identical, switching between definitions of patterns tried initially, pat-
terns tried finally, and normal commands and contexts.
The parameter $_compskip may be set by any function defined for a pattern context. If it is set to
a value containing the substring ‘patterns’ none of the pattern-functions will be called; if it is set
to a value containing the substring ‘all’, no other function will be called. Setting $_compskip in
this manner is of particular utility when using the -p option, as otherwise the dispatcher will move
on to additional functions (likely the default one) after calling the pattern-context one, which can
mangle the display of completion possibilities if not handled properly.
The form with -k defines a widget with the same name as the function that will be called for each
of the key-sequences; this is like the #compdef -k tag. The function should generate the comple-
tions needed and will otherwise behave like the builtin widget whose name is given as the style ar-
gument. The widgets usable for this are: complete-word, delete-char-or-list, ex-
pand-or-complete, expand-or-complete-prefix, list-choices, menu-complete, menu-ex-
pand-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 some-
thing other than undefined-key.
The form with -K is similar and defines multiple widgets based on the same function, each of
which requires the set of three arguments name, style and key-sequence, where the latter two are
as for -k and the first must be a unique widget name beginning with an underscore.
Wherever applicable, the -a option makes the function autoloadable, equivalent to autoload -U
function.
The function compdef can be used to associate existing completion functions with new commands. For ex-
ample,
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 com-
mands that understand 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 configure how and when matches are generated.
Overview
When completion is attempted somewhere on the command line the completion system begins building the
context. The context represents everything that the shell knows about the meaning of the command line
and the significance of the cursor position. This takes account of a number of things including the com-
mand word (such as ‘grep’ or ‘zsh’) and options to which the current word may be an argument (such as
the ‘-o’ option to zsh which takes a shell option as an argument).
The context starts out very generic ("we are beginning a completion") and becomes more specific as more
is learned ("the current word is in a position that is usually a command name" or "the current word might be
a variable name" and so on). Therefore the context will vary during the same call to the completion system.
This context information is condensed into a string consisting of multiple fields separated by colons, re-
ferred to simply as ‘the context’ in the remainder of the documentation. Note that a user of the completion
system rarely needs to compose a context string, unless for example a new function is being written to per-
form completion for a new command. What a user may need to do is compose a style pattern, which is
matched against a context when needed to look up context-sensitive options that configure the completion
system.
The next few paragraphs explain how a context is composed within the completion function suite. Follow-
ing that is discussion of how styles are defined. Styles determine such things as how the matches are

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generated, similarly to shell options but with much more control. They are defined with the zstyle builtin
command (see zshmodules(1)).
The context string always consists of a fixed set of fields, separated by colons and with a leading colon be-
fore the first. Fields which are not yet known are left empty, but the surrounding colons appear anyway.
The fields are always in the order :completion:function:completer:command:argument:tag. These have
the following meaning:
• The literal string completion, saying that this style is used by the completion system. This distin-
guishes the context from those used by, for example, zle widgets and ZFTP functions.

• The function, if completion is called from a named widget rather than through the normal comple-
tion system. Typically this is blank, but it is set by special widgets such as predict-on and the
various functions in the Widget directory of the distribution to the name of that function, often in
an abbreviated form.

• The completer currently active, the name of the function without the leading underscore and with
other underscores converted to hyphens. A ‘completer’ is in overall control of how completion is
to be performed; ‘complete’ is the simplest, but other completers exist to perform related tasks
such as correction, or to modify the behaviour of a later completer. See the section ‘Control Func-
tions’ below for more information.

• The command or a special -context-, just at it appears following the #compdef tag or the com-
pdef function. Completion functions for commands that have sub-commands usually modify this
field to contain the name of the command followed by a minus sign and the sub-command. For
example, the completion function for the cvs command sets this field to cvs-add when completing
arguments to the add subcommand.

• The argument; this indicates which command line or option argument we are completing. For
command arguments this generally takes the form argument-n, where n is the number of the ar-
gument, and for arguments to options the form option-opt-n where n is the number of the argu-
ment to option opt. However, this is only the case if the command line is parsed with standard
UNIX-style options and arguments, so many completions do not set this.

• The tag. As described previously, tags are used to discriminate between the types of matches a
completion function can generate in a certain context. Any completion function may use any tag
name it likes, but a list of the more common ones is given below.

The context is gradually put together as the functions are executed, starting with the main entry point,
which adds :completion: and the function element if necessary. The completer then adds the completer el-
ement. The contextual completion adds the command and argument options. Finally, the tag is added
when the types of completion are known. For example, the context name
:completion::complete:dvips:option-o-1:files
says that normal completion was attempted as the first argument to the option -o of the command dvips:
dvips -o ...
and the completion function will generate filenames.
Usually completion will be tried for all possible tags in an order given by the completion function. How-
ever, 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 par-
ticular point. This provides an easy way of finding information for tag-order and other styles. It is

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described in the section ‘Bindable Commands’ below.

When looking up styles the completion system uses full context names, including the tag. Looking up the
value of a style therefore consists of two things: the context, which is matched to the most specific (best fit-
ting) style pattern, and the name of the style itself, which must be matched exactly. The following exam-
ples demonstrate that style patterns may be loosely defined for styles that apply broadly, or as tightly de-
fined as desired for styles that apply in narrower circumstances.
For example, many completion functions can generate matches in a simple and a verbose form and use the
verbose style to decide which form should be used. To make all such functions use the verbose form, put
zstyle ’:completion:*’ verbose yes
in a startup file (probably .zshrc). This gives the verbose style the value yes in every context inside the
completion system, unless that context has a more specific definition. It is best to avoid giving the 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 re-
quires some understanding of the internals of completion functions (see see zshcompwid(1))). For example,
zstyle -e ’:completion:*’ hosts ’reply=($myhosts)’
This forces the value of the hosts style to be read from the variable myhosts each time a host name is
needed; this is useful if the value of myhosts can change dynamically. For another useful example, see the
example in the description of the file-list style below. This form can be slow and should be avoided for
commonly examined styles such as menu and list-rows-first.
Note that the order in which styles are defined does not matter; the style mechanism uses the most specific
possible match for a particular style to determine the set of values. More precisely, strings are preferred
over patterns (for example, ‘:completion::complete:::foo’ is more specific than ‘:completion::com-
plete:::*’), and longer patterns are preferred over shorter patterns.
A good rule of thumb is that any completion style pattern that needs to include more than one wildcard (*)
and that does not end in a tag name, should include all six colons (:), possibly surrounding additional wild-
cards.
Style names like those of tags are arbitrary and depend on the completion function. However, the following
two sections list some of the most common tags and styles.
Standard Tags
Some of the following are only used when looking up particular styles and do not refer to a type of match.
accounts
used to look up the users-hosts style
all-expansions
used by the _expand completer when adding the single string containing all possible expansions
all-files
for the names of all files (as distinct from a particular subset, see the globbed-files tag).

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arguments
for arguments to a command
arrays for names of array parameters
association-keys
for keys of associative arrays; used when completing inside a subscript to a parameter of this type
bookmarks
when completing bookmarks (e.g. for URLs and the zftp function suite)
builtins
for names of builtin commands
characters
for single characters in arguments of commands such as stty. Also used when completing charac-
ter classes after an opening bracket
colormapids
for X colormap ids
colors for color names
commands
for names of external commands. Also used by complex commands such as cvs when completing
names subcommands.
contexts
for contexts in arguments to the zstyle builtin command
corrections
used by the _approximate and _correct completers for possible corrections
cursors
for cursor names used by X programs
default used in some contexts to provide a way of supplying a default when more specific tags are also
valid. Note that this tag is used when only the function field of the context name is set
descriptions
used when looking up the value of the format style to generate descriptions for types of matches
devices for names of device special files
directories
for names of directories -- local-directories is used instead when completing arguments of cd
and related builtin commands when the cdpath array is set
directory-stack
for entries in the directory stack
displays
for X display names
domains
for network domains
email-plugin
for email addresses from the ‘_email-plugin’ backend of _email_addresses
expansions
used by the _expand completer for individual words (as opposed to the complete set of expan-
sions) resulting from the expansion of a word on the command line
extensions
for X server extensions

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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
arguments of cd and related builtin commands (compare path-directories) -- when the cdpath
array is unset, directories is used instead
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

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named-directories
for named directories (you wouldn’t have guessed that, would you?)
names for all kinds of names
newsgroups
for USENET groups
nicknames
for nicknames of NIS maps
options
for command options
original
used by the _approximate, _correct and _expand completers when offering the original string as
a match
other-accounts
used to look up the users-hosts style
other-files
for the names of any non-directory files. This is used instead of all-files when the list-dirs-first
style is in effect.
packages
for packages (e.g. rpm or installed Debian packages)
parameters
for names of parameters
path-directories
for names of directories found by searching the cdpath array when completing arguments of cd
and related builtin commands (compare local-directories)
paths used to look up the values of the expand, ambiguous and special-dirs styles
pods for perl pods (documentation files)
ports for communication ports
prefixes
for prefixes (like those of a URL)
printers
for print queue names
processes
for process identifiers
processes-names
used to look up the command style when generating the names of processes for killall
sequences
for sequences (e.g. mh sequences)
sessions
for sessions in the zftp function suite
signals for signal names
strings for strings (e.g. the replacement strings for the cd builtin command)
styles for styles used by the zstyle builtin command
suffixes
for filename extensions

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tags for tags (e.g. rpm tags)

targets for makefile targets
time-zones
for time zones (e.g. when setting the TZ parameter)
types for types of whatever (e.g. address types for the xhost command)
urls used to look up the urls and local styles when completing URLs
users for usernames
values for one of a set of values in certain lists
variant
used by _pick_variant to look up the command to run when determining what program is in-
stalled 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 con-
trolling completion listing such as list-packed and last-prompt. When tested for the default tag, only the
function field of the context will be set so that a style using the default tag will normally be defined along
the lines of:
zstyle ’:completion:*:default’ menu ...
accept-exact
This is tested for the default tag in addition to the tags valid for the current context. If it is set to
‘true’ and any of the trial matches is the same as the string on the command line, this match will
immediately be accepted (even if it would otherwise be considered ambiguous).
When completing pathnames (where the tag used is ‘paths’) this style accepts any number of pat-
terns as the value in addition to the boolean values. Pathnames matching one of these patterns will
be accepted immediately even if the command line contains some more partially typed pathname
components and these match no file under the directory accepted.
This style is also used by the _expand completer to decide if words beginning with a tilde or pa-
rameter 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 sys-
tem will be allowed to complete $foo to $foobar. If the style is set to ‘continue’, _expand will
add the expansion as a match and the completion system will also be allowed to continue.
accept-exact-dirs
This is used by filename completion. Unlike accept-exact it is a boolean. By default, filename
completion examines all components of a path to see if there are completions of that component,

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even if the component matches an existing directory. For example, when completion after
/usr/bin/, the function examines possible completions to /usr.
When this style is ‘true’, any prefix of a path that matches an existing directory is accepted without
any attempt to complete it further. Hence, in the given example, the path /usr/bin/ is accepted im-
mediately and completion tried in that directory.
This style is also useful when completing after directories that magically appear when referenced,
such as ZFS .zfs directories or NetApp .snapshot directories. When the style is set the shell does
not check for the existence of the directory within the parent directory.
If you wish to inhibit this behaviour entirely, set the path-completion style (see below) to ‘false’.
add-space
This style is used by the _expand completer. If it is ‘true’ (the default), a space will be inserted
after all words resulting from the expansion, or a slash in the case of directory names. If the value
is ‘file’, the completer will only add a space to names of existing files. Either a boolean ‘true’ or
the value ‘file’ may be combined with ‘subst’, in which case the completer will not add a space to
words generated from the expansion of a substitution of the form ‘$(...)’ or ‘${...}’.
The _prefix completer uses this style as a simple boolean value to decide if a space should be in-
serted 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 sys-
tem normally completes only one filename. In some cases the value may be a list of filenames
separated by colons, as with PATH and similar parameters. This style can be set to a list of pat-
terns 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 use-
ful to set this style to something like ‘specify: %d’. Note that this may not work for some com-
mands.
avoid-completer
This is used by the _all_matches completer to decide if the string consisting of all matches should
be added to the list currently being generated. Its value is a list of names of completers. If any of
these is the name of the completer that generated the matches in this completion, the string will
not be added.
The default value for this style is ‘_expand _old_list _correct _approximate’, i.e. it contains the
completers for which a string with all matches will almost never be wanted.
cache-path
This style defines the path where any cache files containing dumped completion data are stored. It
defaults to ‘$ZDOTDIR/.zcompcache’, or ‘$HOME/.zcompcache’ if $ZDOTDIR is not de-
fined. 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.

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call-command
This style is used in the function for commands such as make and ant where calling the command
directly to generate matches suffers problems such as being slow or, as in the case of make can
potentially cause actions in the makefile to be executed. If it is set to ‘true’ the command is called
to generate matches. The default value of this style is ‘false’.
command
In many places, completion functions need to call external commands to generate the list of com-
pletions. This style can be used to override the command that is called in some such cases. The
elements of the value are joined with spaces to form a command line to execute. The value can
also start with a hyphen, in which case the usual command will be added to the end; this is most
useful for putting ‘builtin’ or ‘command’ in front to make sure the appropriate version of a com-
mand is called, for example to avoid calling a shell function with the same name as an external
command.
As an example, the completion function for process IDs uses this style with the processes tag to
generate the IDs to complete and the list of processes to display (if the verbose style is ‘true’).
The list produced by the command should look like the output of the ps command. The first line is
not displayed, but is searched for the string ‘PID’ (or ‘pid’) to find the position of the process IDs
in the following lines. If the line does not contain ‘PID’, the first numbers in each of the other
lines are taken as the process IDs to complete.
Note that the completion function generally has to call the specified command for each attempt to
generate the completion list. Hence care should be taken to specify only commands that take a
short time to run, and in particular to avoid any that may never terminate.
command-path
This is a list of directories to search for commands to complete. The default for this style is the
value of the special parameter path.
commands
This is used by the function completing sub-commands for the system initialisation scripts (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 completion function isn’t able to find them out au-
tomatically. The default for this style are the two strings ‘start’ and ‘stop’.
complete
This is used by the _expand_alias function when invoked as a bindable command. If set to ‘true’
and the word on the command line is not the name of an alias, matching alias names will be com-
pleted.
complete-options
This is used by the completer for cd, chdir and pushd. For these commands a - is used to intro-
duce a directory stack entry and completion of these is far more common than completing options.
Hence unless the value of this style is ‘true’ options will not be completed, even after an initial -.
If it is ‘true’, options will be completed after an initial - unless there is a preceding -- on the
command line.
completer
The strings given as the value of this style provide the names of the completer functions to use.
The available completer functions are described in the section ‘Control Functions’ below.
Each string may be either the name of a completer function or a string of the form ‘func-
tion:name’. In the first case the completer field of the context will contain the name of the com-
pleter without the leading underscore and with all other underscores replaced by hyphens. In the
second case the function is the name of the completer to call, but the context will contain the
user-defined name in the completer field of the context. If the name starts with a hyphen, the
string for the context will be build from the name of the completer function as in the first case with
the name appended to it. For example:

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zstyle ’:completion:*’ completer _complete _complete:-foo

Here, completion will call the _complete completer twice, once using ‘complete’ and once using
‘complete-foo’ in the completer field of the context. Normally, using the same completer more
than once only makes sense when used with the ‘functions:name’ form, because otherwise the
context name will be the same in all calls to the completer; possible exceptions to this rule are the
_ignored and _prefix completers.
The default value for this style is ‘_complete _ignored’: only completion will be done, first using
the ignored-patterns style and the $fignore array and then without ignoring matches.
condition
This style is used by the _list completer function to decide if insertion of matches should be de-
layed unconditionally. The default is ‘true’.
delimiters
This style is used when adding a delimiter for use with history modifiers or glob qualifiers that
have delimited arguments. It is an array of preferred delimiters to add. Non-special characters
are preferred as the completion system may otherwise become confused. The default list is :, +, /,
-, %. The list may be empty to force a delimiter to be typed.
disabled
If this is set to ‘true’, the _expand_alias completer and bindable command will try to expand dis-
abled aliases, too. The default is ‘false’.
domains
A list of names of network domains for completion. If this is not set, domain names will be taken
from the file /etc/resolv.conf.
environ
The environ style is used when completing for ‘sudo’. It is set to an array of ‘VAR=value’ assign-
ments to be exported into the local environment before the completion for the target command is
invoked.
zstyle ’:completion:*:sudo::’ environ \
PATH="/sbin:/usr/sbin:$PATH" HOME="/root"
expand
This style is used when completing strings consisting of multiple parts, such as path names.
If one of its values is the string ‘prefix’, the partially typed word from the line will be expanded as
far as possible even if trailing parts cannot be completed.
If one of its values is the string ‘suffix’, matching names for components after the first ambiguous
one will also be added. This means that the resulting string is the longest unambiguous string pos-
sible. 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 descrip-
tion may be omitted, but any literal colons in value must be quoted with a backslash. Any descrip-
tion 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 pa-
rameters.
fake-always
This works identically to the fake style except that the ignored-patterns style is not applied to it.
This makes it possible to override a set of matches completely by setting the ignored patterns to
‘*’.
The following shows a way of supplementing any tag with arbitrary data, but having it behave for
display purposes like a separate tag. In this example we use the features of the tag-order style to
divide the named-directories tag into two when performing completion with the standard

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completer complete for arguments of cd. The tag named-directories-normal behaves as nor-
mal, but the tag named-directories-mine contains a fixed set of directories. This has the effect
of adding the match group ‘extra directories’ with the given completions.
zstyle ’:completion::complete:cd:*’ tag-order \
’named-directories:-mine:extra\ directories
named-directories:-normal:named\ directories *’
zstyle ’:completion::complete:cd:*:named-directories-mine’ \
fake-always mydir1 mydir2
zstyle ’:completion::complete:cd:*:named-directories-mine’ \
ignored-patterns ’*’
fake-files
This style is used when completing files and looked up without a tag. Its values are of the form
‘dir:names...’. This will add the names (strings separated by spaces) as possible matches when
completing in the directory dir, even if no such files really exist. The dir may be a pattern; pattern
characters or colons in dir should be quoted with a backslash to be treated literally.
This can be useful on systems that support special file systems whose top-level pathnames can not
be listed or generated with glob patterns (but see accept-exact-dirs for a more general way of
dealing with this problem). It can also be used for directories for which one does not have read
permission.
The pattern form can be used to add a certain ‘magic’ entry to all directories on a particular file
system.
fake-parameters
This is used by the completion function for parameter names. Its values are names of parameters
that might not yet be set but should be completed nonetheless. Each name may also be followed
by a colon and a string specifying the type of the parameter (like ‘scalar’, ‘array’ or ‘integer’). If
the type is given, the name will only be completed if parameters of that type are required in the
particular context. Names for which no type is specified will always be completed.
file-list
This style controls whether files completed using the standard builtin mechanism are to be listed
with a long list similar to ls -l. Note that this feature uses the shell module zsh/stat for file infor-
mation; this loads the builtin stat which will replace any external stat executable. To avoid this
the following code can be included in an initialization file:
zmodload -i zsh/stat
disable stat
The style may either be set to a ‘true’ value (or ‘all’), or one of the values ‘insert’ or ‘list’, indi-
cating that files are to be listed in long format in all circumstances, or when attempting to insert a
file name, or when listing file names without attempting to insert one.
More generally, the value may be an array of any of the above values, optionally followed by
=num. If num is present it gives the maximum number of matches for which long listing style will
be used. For example,
zstyle ’:completion:*’ file-list list=20 insert=10
specifies that long format will be used when listing up to 20 files or inserting a file with up to 10
matches (assuming a listing is to be shown at all, for example on an ambiguous completion), else
short format will be used.
zstyle -e ’:completion:*’ file-list \
’(( ${+NUMERIC} )) && reply=(true)’
specifies that long format will be used any time a numeric argument is supplied, else short format.

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file-patterns
This is used by the standard function for completing filenames, _files. If the style is unset up to
three tags are offered, ‘globbed-files’,‘directories’ and ‘all-files’, depending on the types of files
expected by the caller of _files. The first two (‘globbed-files’ and ‘directories’) are normally of-
fered together to make it easier to complete files in sub-directories.
The file-patterns style provides alternatives to the default tags, which are not used. Its value con-
sists of elements of the form ‘pattern:tag’; each string may contain any number of such specifica-
tions separated by spaces.
The pattern is a pattern that is to be used to generate filenames. Any occurrence of the sequence
‘%p’ is replaced by any pattern(s) passed by the function calling _files. Colons in the pattern
must be preceded by a backslash to make them distinguishable from the colon before the tag. If
more than one pattern is needed, the patterns can be given inside braces, separated by commas.
The tags of all strings in the value will be offered by _files and used when looking up other styles.
Any tags in the same word will be offered at the same time and before later words. If no ‘:tag’ is
given the ‘files’ tag will be used.
The tag may also be followed by an optional second colon and a description, which will be used
for the ‘%d’ in the value of the format style (if that is set) instead of the default description sup-
plied by the completion function. If the description given here contains itself a ‘%d’, that is re-
placed with the description supplied by the completion function.
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 directo-
ries, 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
characters ‘#’, ‘˜’ and ‘ˆ’ have special meanings in the patterns.
file-sort
The standard filename completion function uses this style without a tag to determine in which or-
der the names should be listed; menu completion will cycle through them in the same order. The
possible values are: ‘size’ to sort by the size of the file; ‘links’ to sort by the number of links to the
file; ‘modification’ (or ‘time’ or ‘date’) to sort by the last modification time; ‘access’ to sort by
the last access time; and ‘inode’ (or ‘change’) to sort by the last inode change time. If the style is
set to any other value, or is unset, files will be sorted alphabetically by name. If the value contains
the string ‘reverse’, sorting is done in the opposite order. If the value contains the string ‘follow’,
timestamps are associated with the targets of symbolic links; the default is to use the timestamps
of the links themselves.
file-split-chars
A set of characters that will cause all file completions for the given context to be split at the point
where any of the characters occurs. A typical use is to set the style to :; then everything up to and
including the last : in the string so far is ignored when completing files. As this is quite
heavy-handed, it is usually preferable to update completion functions for contexts where this be-
haviour is useful.

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filter The ldap plugin of email address completion (see _email_addresses) uses this style to specify the
attributes to match against when filtering entries. So for example, if the style is set to ‘sn’, match-
ing is done against surnames. Standard LDAP filtering is used so normal completion matching is
bypassed. If this style is not set, the LDAP plugin is skipped. You may also need to set the com-
mand 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 com-
pletion lists. The sequence ‘%d’ in this string will be replaced with a short description of what
these matches are. This string may also contain the output attribute sequences understood by com-
padd -X (see zshcompwid(1)).
The style is tested with each tag valid for the current completion before it is tested for the descrip-
tions tag. Hence different format strings can be defined for different types of match.
Note also that some completer functions define additional ‘%’-sequences. These are described
for the completer functions that make use of them.
Some completion functions display messages that may be customised by setting this style for the
messages tag. Here, the ‘%d’ is replaced with a message given by the completion function.
Finally, the format string is looked up with the warnings tag, for use when no matches could be
generated at all. In this case the ‘%d’ is replaced with the descriptions for the matches that were
expected separated by spaces. The sequence ‘%D’ is replaced with the same descriptions sepa-
rated 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 at-
tempted 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 posi-
tion the completion system generates names of builtin and external commands, names of aliases,
shell functions and parameters and reserved words as possible completions. To have the external
commands and shell functions listed separately:
zstyle ’:completion:*:*:-command-:*:commands’ \
group-name commands
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:

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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 de-
fined by that style (compare tag-order, which determines which completions appear at all). The
groups named are shown in the given order; any other groups are shown in the order defined by the
completion function.
For example, to have names of builtin commands, shell functions and external commands appear
in that order when completing in command position:
zstyle ’:completion:*:*:-command-:*:*’ group-order \
builtins functions commands
groups A list of names of UNIX groups. If this is not set, group names are taken from the YP database or
the file ‘/etc/group’.
hidden If this is set to ‘true’, matches for the given context will not be listed, although any description for
the matches set with the format style will be shown. If it is set to ‘all’, not even the description
will be displayed.
Note that the matches will still be completed; they are just not shown in the list. To avoid having
matches considered as possible completions at all, the tag-order style can be modified as de-
scribed 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 host-
names; multiple ports for the same host may appear.
ignore-line
This is tested for each tag valid for the current completion. If it is set to ‘true’, none of the words
that are already on the line will be considered as possible completions. If it is set to ‘current’, the
word the cursor is on will not be considered as a possible completion. The value ‘cur-
rent-shown’ is similar but only applies if the list of completions is currently shown on the screen.
Finally, if the style is set to ‘other’, all words on the line except for the current one will be ex-
cluded from the possible completions.
The values ‘current’ and ‘current-shown’ are a bit like the opposite of the accept-exact style:
only strings with missing characters will be completed.
Note that you almost certainly don’t want to set this to ‘true’ or ‘other’ for a general context such
as ‘:completion:*’. This is because it would disallow completion of, for example, options 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 mentioned in the current word, or the name of
the current working directory. The value must include one or both of the following strings:
parent The name of any directory whose path is already contained in the word on the line is ig-
nored. For example, when completing after foo/../, the directory foo will not be consid-
ered 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:

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.. 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 re-
stored to consideration by the _ignored completer.
extra-verbose
If set, the completion listing is more verbose at the cost of a probable decrease in completion
speed. Completion performance will suffer if this style is set to ‘true’.
ignored-patterns
A list of patterns; any trial completion matching one of the patterns will be excluded from consid-
eration. The _ignored completer can appear in the list of completers to restore the ignored
matches. This is a more configurable version of the shell parameter $fignore.
Note that the EXTENDED_GLOB option is set during the execution of completion functions, so
the characters ‘#’, ‘˜’ and ‘ˆ’ have special meanings in the patterns.
insert This style is used by the _all_matches completer to decide whether to insert the list of all matches
unconditionally instead of adding the list as another match.
insert-ids
When completing process IDs, for example as arguments to the kill and wait builtins the name of
a command may be converted to the appropriate process ID. A problem arises when the process
name typed is not unique. By default (or if this style is set explicitly to ‘menu’) the name will be
converted immediately to a set of possible IDs, and menu completion will be started to cycle
through them.
If the value of the style is ‘single’, the shell will wait until the user has typed enough to make the
command unique before converting the name to an ID; attempts at completion will be unsuccess-
ful 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 completion when there is no non-blank character to the
left of the cursor. If it is set to ‘false’, completion will be done even there.
The value may also contain the substrings ‘pending’ or ‘pending=val’. In this case, the typed
character will be inserted instead of starting completion when there is unprocessed input pending.
If a val is given, completion will not be done if there are at least that many characters of unpro-
cessed input. This is often useful when pasting characters into a terminal. Note however, that it
relies on the $PENDING special parameter from the zsh/zle module being set properly which is
not guaranteed on all platforms.
The default value of this style is ‘true’ except for completion within vared builtin command where
it is ‘false’.
insert-unambiguous
This is used by the _match and _approximate completers. These completers are often used with
menu completion since the word typed may bear little resemblance to the final completion. How-
ever, if this style is ‘true’, the completer will start menu completion only if it could find no unam-
biguous initial string at least as long as the original string typed by the user.
In the case of the _approximate completer, the completer field in the context will already have
been set to one of correct-num or approximate-num, where num is the number of errors that
were accepted.
In the case of the _match completer, the style may also be set to the string ‘pattern’. Then the
pattern on the line is left unchanged if it does not match unambiguously.

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gain-privileges
If set to true, this style enables the use of commands like sudo or doas to gain extra privileges
when retrieving information for completion. This is only done when a command such as sudo ap-
pears on the command-line. To force the use of, e.g. sudo or to override any prefix that might be
added due to gain-privileges, the command style can be used with a value that begins with a hy-
phen.
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 ex-
panded 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 uncondi-
tionally.
The behaviour of _expand when this style is ‘true’ is to cause _expand to give up when a single
expansion with the restored prefix is the same as the original; hence any remaining completers
may be called.
last-prompt
This is a more flexible form of the ALWAYS_LAST_PROMPT option. If it is ‘true’, the comple-
tion system will try to return the cursor to the previous command line after displaying a comple-
tion list. It is tested for all tags valid for the current completion, then the default tag. The cursor
will be moved back to the previous line if this style is ‘true’ for all types of match. Note that un-
like the ALWAYS_LAST_PROMPT option this is independent of the numeric argument.
known-hosts-files
This style should contain a list of files to search for host names and (if the use-ip style is set) IP
addresses in a format compatible with ssh known_hosts files. If it is not set, the files
/etc/ssh/ssh_known_hosts and ˜/.ssh/known_hosts are used.
list This style is used by the _history_complete_word bindable command. If it is set to ‘true’ it has
no effect. If it is set to ‘false’ matches will not be listed. This overrides the setting of the options
controlling listing behaviour, in particular AUTO_LIST. The context always starts with ‘:com-
pletion:history-words’.
list-colors
If the zsh/complist module is loaded, this style can be used to set color specifications. This mech-
anism 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 explic-
itly by the group-name tag together with the ‘(group)’ syntax allowed by the ZLS_COLORS
and ZLS_COLOURS parameters and simply using the default tag.
It is possible to use any color specifications already set up for the GNU version of the ls command:
zstyle ’:completion:*:default’ list-colors \
${(s.:.)LS_COLORS}
The default colors are the same as for the GNU ls command and can be obtained by setting the
style to an empty string (i.e. ’’).
list-dirs-first
This is used by file completion. If set, directories to be completed are listed separately from and
before completion for other files, regardless of tag ordering. In addition, the tag other-files is
used in place of all-files for the remaining files, to indicate that no directories are presented with

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that tag.
list-grouped
If this style is ‘true’ (the default), the completion system will try to make certain completion list-
ings more compact by grouping matches. For example, options for commands that have the same
description (shown when the verbose style is set to ‘true’) will appear as a single entry. However,
menu selection can be used to cycle through all the matches.
list-packed
This is tested for each tag valid in the current context as well as the default tag. If it is set to
‘true’, the corresponding matches appear in listings as if the LIST_PACKED option were set. If
it is set to ‘false’, they are listed normally.
list-prompt
If this style is set for the default tag, completion lists that don’t fit on the screen can be scrolled
(see the description of the zsh/complist module in zshmodules(1)). The value, if not the empty
string, will be displayed after every screenful and the shell will prompt for a key press; if the style
is set to the empty string, a default prompt will be used.
The value may contain the escape sequences: ‘%l’ or ‘%L’, which will be replaced by the number
of the last line displayed and the total number of lines; ‘%m’ or ‘%M’, the number of the last
match shown and the total number of matches; and ‘%p’ and ‘%P’, ‘Top’ when at the beginning
of the list, ‘Bottom’ when at the end and the position shown as a percentage of the total length
otherwise. In each case the form with the uppercase letter will be replaced by a string of fixed
width, padded to the right with spaces, while the lowercase form will be replaced by a variable
width string. As in other prompt strings, the escape sequences ‘%S’, ‘%s’, ‘%B’, ‘%b’, ‘%U’,
‘%u’ for entering and leaving the display modes standout, bold and underline, and ‘%F’, ‘%f’,
‘%K’, ‘%k’ for changing the foreground background colour, are also available, as is the form
‘%{...%}’ for enclosing escape sequences which display with zero (or, with a numeric argument,
some other) width.
After deleting this prompt the variable LISTPROMPT should be unset for the removal to take ef-
fect.
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 at-
tempted on a string containing multiple partially typed pathname components, all ambiguous com-
ponents will be shown. Otherwise, completion stops at the first ambiguous component.
list-separator
The value of this style is used in completion listing to separate the string to complete from a de-
scription 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 file system. Its value should consist of three strings: a hostname, the path to the
default web pages for the server, and the directory name used by a user placing web pages within
their home area.
For example:
zstyle ’:completion:*’ local toast \
/var/http/public/toast public_html
Completion after ‘http://toast/stuff/’ will look for files in the directory /var/http/pub-
lic/toast/stuff, while completion after ‘http://toast/˜yousir/’ will look for files in the directory
˜yousir/public_html.

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mail-directory
If set, zsh will assume that mailbox files can be found in the directory specified. It defaults to
‘˜/Mail’.
match-original
This is used by the _match completer. If it is set to only, _match will try to generate matches
without inserting a ‘*’ at the cursor position. If set to any other non-empty value, it will first try
to generate matches without inserting the ‘*’ and if that yields no matches, it will try again with
the ‘*’ inserted. If it is unset or set to the empty string, matching will only be performed with the
‘*’ inserted.
matcher
This style is tested separately for each tag valid in the current context. Its value is placed before
any match specifications given by the matcher-list style so can override them via the use of an x:
specification. The value should be in the form described in the section ‘Completion Matching
Control’ in zshcompwid(1). For examples of this, see the description of the tag-order style.
For notes comparing the use of this and the matcher-list style, see under the description of the
tag-order style.
matcher-list
This style can be set to a list of match specifications that are to be applied everywhere. Match
specifications are described in the section ‘Completion Matching Control’ in zshcompwid(1). The
completion system will try them one after another for each completer selected. For example, to try
first simple completion and, if that generates no matches, case-insensitive completion:
zstyle ’:completion:*’ matcher-list ’’ ’m:{a-zA-Z}={A-Za-z}’
By default each specification replaces the previous one; however, if a specification is prefixed with
+, it is added to the existing list. Hence it is possible to create increasingly general specifications
without repetition:
zstyle ’:completion:*’ matcher-list \
’’ ’+m:{a-z}={A-Z}’ ’+m:{A-Z}={a-z}’
It is possible to create match specifications valid for particular completers by using the third field
of the context. This applies only to completers that override the global matcher-list, which as of
this writing includes only _prefix and _ignored. For example, to use the completers _complete
and _prefix but allow case-insensitive completion only with _complete:
zstyle ’:completion:*’ completer _complete _prefix
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 different match specifications each time. For exam-
ple, to try normal completion without a match specification, then normal completion with case-in-
sensitive 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 specification 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 be called once even if the matcher-list contains more than one element.
Where multiple specifications are useful, note that the entire completion is done for each element
of matcher-list, which can quickly reduce the shell’s performance. As a rough rule of thumb, one

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to three strings will give acceptable performance. On the other hand, putting multiple space-sepa-
rated values into the same string does not have an appreciable impact on performance.
If there is no current matcher or it is empty, and the option NO_CASE_GLOB is in effect, the
matching for files is performed case-insensitively in any case. However, any matcher must explic-
itly specify case-insensitive matching if that is required.
For notes comparing the use of this and the matcher style, see under the description of the
tag-order style.
max-errors
This is used by the _approximate and _correct completer functions to determine the maximum
number of errors to allow. The completer will try to generate completions by first allowing one er-
ror, then two errors, and so on, until either a match or matches were found or the maximum num-
ber 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 nu-
meric argument as the maximum number of errors allowed. For example, with
zstyle ’:completion:*:approximate:::’ max-errors 2 numeric
two errors are allowed if no numeric argument is given, but with a numeric argument of six (as in
‘ESC-6 TAB’), up to six errors are accepted. Hence with a value of ‘0 numeric’, no correcting
completion will be attempted unless a numeric argument is given.
If the value contains the string ‘not-numeric’, the completer will not try to generate corrected
completions when given a numeric argument, so in this case the number given should be greater
than zero. For example, ‘2 not-numeric’ specifies that correcting completion with two errors will
usually be performed, but if a numeric argument is given, correcting completion will not be per-
formed.
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 num-
ber 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 comple-
tion 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, over-
riding the MENU_COMPLETE option and other settings.
In the form ‘yes=num’, where ‘yes’ may be any of the ‘true’ values (‘yes’, ‘true’, ‘on’ and ‘1’),
menu completion will be turned on if there are at least num matches. In the form ‘yes=long’,
menu completion will be turned on if the list does not fit on the screen. This does not activate
menu completion if the widget normally only lists completions, but menu completion can be acti-
vated in that case with the value ‘yes=long-list’ (Typically, the value ‘select=long-list’ described
later is more useful as it provides control over scrolling.)
Similarly, with any of the ‘false’ values (as in ‘no=10’), menu completion will not be used if there
are num or more matches.
The value of this widget also controls menu selection, as implemented by the zsh/complist mod-
ule. 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.

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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 us-
ing the value ‘select=long’. To start menu selection even if the current widget only performs list-
ing, use the value ‘select=long-list’.
To turn on menu completion or menu selection when there are a certain number of matches or the
list of matches does not fit on the screen, both of ‘yes=’ and ‘select=’ may be given twice, once
with a number and once with ‘long’ or ‘long-list’.
Finally, it is possible to activate two special modes of menu selection. The word ‘interactive’ in
the value causes interactive mode to be entered immediately when menu selection is started; see
the description of the zsh/complist module in zshmodules(1) for a description of interactive mode.
Including the string ‘search’ does the same for incremental search mode. To select backward in-
cremental search, include the string ‘search-backward’.
muttrc If set, gives the location of the mutt configuration file. It defaults to ‘˜/.muttrc’.
numbers
This is used with the jobs tag. If it is ‘true’, the shell will complete job numbers instead of the
shortest unambiguous prefix of the job command text. If the value is a number, job numbers will
only be used if that many words from the job descriptions are required to resolve ambiguities. For
example, if the value is ‘1’, strings will only be used if all jobs differ in the first word on their
command lines.
old-list
This is used by the _oldlist completer. If it is set to ‘always’, then standard widgets which per-
form listing will retain the current list of matches, however they were generated; this can be turned
off explicitly with the value ‘never’, giving the behaviour without the _oldlist completer. If the
style is unset, or any other value, then the existing list of completions is displayed if it is not al-
ready; 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 ˆXc to use the _correct_word widget, which generates a list of
corrections for the word under the cursor. Usually, typing ˆD would generate a standard list of
completions for the word on the command line, and show that. With _oldlist, it will instead show
the list of corrections already generated.
As another example consider the _match completer: with the insert-unambiguous style set to
‘true’ it inserts only a common prefix string, if there is any. However, this may remove parts of
the original pattern, so that further completion could produce more matches than on the first at-
tempt. 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 cur-
rently being generated.
If this style is set it is generally unwise to call the _all_matches completer unconditionally. One
possible use is for either this style or the completer style to be defined with the -e option to zstyle
to make the style conditional.
old-menu
This is used by the _oldlist completer. It controls how menu completion behaves when a comple-
tion has already been inserted and the user types a standard completion key such as TAB. The

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default behaviour of _oldlist is that menu completion always continues with the existing list of
completions. If this style is set to ‘false’, however, a new completion is started if the old list was
generated by a different completion command; this is the behaviour without the _oldlist com-
pleter.
For example, suppose you type ˆXc to generate a list of corrections, and menu completion is
started in one of the usual ways. Usually, or with this style set to ‘false’, typing TAB at this point
would start trying to complete the line as it now appears. With _oldlist, it instead continues to cy-
cle through the list of corrections.
original
This is used by the _approximate and _correct completers to decide if the original string should
be added as a possible completion. Normally, this is done only if there are at least two possible
corrections, but if this style is set to ‘true’, it is always added. Note that the style will be examined
with the completer field in the context name set to correct-num or approximate-num, where num
is the number of errors that were accepted.
packageset
This style is used when completing arguments of the Debian ‘dpkg’ program. It contains an over-
ride 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 --sta-
tus’.
path The function that completes color names uses this style with the colors tag. The value should be
the pathname of a file containing color names in the format of an X11 rgb.txt file. If the style is
not set but this file is found in one of various standard locations it will be used as the default.
path-completion
This is used by filename completion. By default, filename completion examines all components of
a path to see if there are completions of that component. For example, /u/b/z can be completed to
/usr/bin/zsh. Explicitly setting this style to ‘false’ inhibits this behaviour for path components up
to the / before the cursor; this overrides the setting of accept-exact-dirs.
Even with the style set to ‘false’, it is still possible to complete multiple paths by setting the option
COMPLETE_IN_WORD and moving the cursor back to the first component in the path to be
completed. For example, /u/b/z can be completed to /usr/bin/zsh if the cursor is after the /u.
pine-directory
If set, specifies the directory containing PINE mailbox files. There is no default, since recursively
searching this directory is inconvenient for anyone who doesn’t use PINE.
ports A list of Internet service names (network ports) to complete. If this is not set, service names are
taken from the file ‘/etc/services’.
prefix-hidden
This is used for certain completions which share a common prefix, for example command options
beginning with dashes. If it is ‘true’, the prefix will not be shown in the list of matches.
The default value for this style is ‘false’.
prefix-needed
This style is also relevant for matches with a common prefix. If it is set to ‘true’ this common pre-
fix must be typed by the user to generate the matches.
The style is applicable to the options, signals, jobs, functions, and parameters completion tags.
For command options, this means that the initial ‘-’, ‘+’, or ‘--’ must be typed explicitly before
option names will be completed.
For signals, an initial ‘-’ is required before signal names will be completed.

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For jobs, an initial ‘%’ is required before job names will be completed.
For function and parameter names, an initial ‘_’ or ‘.’ is required before function or parameter
names starting with those characters will be completed.
The default value for this style is ‘false’ for function and parameter completions, and ‘true’ oth-
erwise.
preserve-prefix
This style is used when completing path names. Its value should be a pattern matching an initial
prefix of the word to complete that should be left unchanged under all circumstances. For exam-
ple, 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 al-
low completion after ‘a:/...’ and so on.
range This is used by the _history completer and the _history_complete_word bindable command to
decide which words should be completed.
If it is a single number, only the last N words from the history will be completed.
If it is a range of the form ‘max:slice’, the last slice words will be completed; then if that yields no
matches, the slice words before those will be tried and so on. This process stops either when at
least one match has been found, or max words have been tried.
The default is to complete all words from the history at once.
recursive-files
If this style is set, its value is an array of patterns to be tested against ‘$PWD/’: note the trailing
slash, which allows directories in the pattern to be delimited unambiguously by including slashes
on both sides. If an ordinary file completion fails and the word on the command line does not yet
have a directory part to its name, the style is retrieved using the same tag as for the completion just
attempted, then the elements tested against $PWD/ in turn. If one matches, then the shell reat-
tempts completion by prepending the word on the command line with each directory in the expan-
sion of **/*(/) in turn. Typically the elements of the style will be set to restrict the number of di-
rectories beneath the current one to a manageable number, for example ‘*/.git/*’.
For example,
zstyle ’:completion:*’ recursive-files ’*/zsh/*’
If the current directory is /home/pws/zsh/Src, then zle_trTAB can be completed to
Zle/zle_tricky.c.
regular
This style is used by the _expand_alias completer and bindable command. If set to ‘true’ (the de-
fault), regular aliases will be expanded but only in command position. If it is set to ‘false’, regular
aliases will never be expanded. If it is set to ‘always’, regular aliases will be expanded even if not
in command position.
rehash If this is set when completing external commands, the internal list (hash) of commands will be up-
dated for each search by issuing the rehash command. There is a speed penalty for this which is
only likely to be noticeable when directories in the path have slow file access.
remote-access
If set to ‘false’, certain commands will be prevented from making Internet connections to retrieve
remote information. This includes the completion for the CVS command.
It is not always possible to know if connections are in fact to a remote site, so some may be pre-
vented unnecessarily.
remove-all-dups
The _history_complete_word bindable command and the _history completer use this to decide if
all duplicate matches should be removed, rather than just consecutive duplicates.

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select-prompt
If this is set for the default tag, its value will be displayed during menu selection (see the menu
style above) when the completion list does not fit on the screen as a whole. The same escapes as
for the list-prompt style are understood, except that the numbers refer to the match or line the
mark is on. A default prompt is used when the value is the empty string.
select-scroll
This style is tested for the default tag and determines how a completion list is scrolled during a
menu selection (see the menu style above) when the completion list does not fit on the screen as a
whole. If the value is ‘0’ (zero), the list is scrolled by half-screenfuls; if it is a positive integer, the
list is scrolled by the given number of lines; if it is a negative number, the list is scrolled by a
screenful minus the absolute value of the given number of lines. The default is to scroll by single
lines.
separate-sections
This style is used with the manuals tag when completing names of manual pages. If it is ‘true’,
entries for different sections are added separately using tag names of the form ‘manual.X’, where
X is the section number. When the group-name style is also in effect, pages from different sec-
tions will appear separately. This style is also used similarly with the words style when complet-
ing words for the dict command. It allows words from different dictionary databases to be added
separately. The default for this style is ‘false’.
show-ambiguity
If the zsh/complist module is loaded, this style can be used to highlight the first ambiguous char-
acter in completion lists. The value is either a color indication such as those supported by the
list-colors style or, with a value of ‘true’, a default of underlining is selected. The highlighting is
only applied if the completion display strings correspond to the actual matches.
show-completer
Tested whenever a new completer is tried. If it is ‘true’, the completion system outputs a progress
message in the listing area showing what completer is being tried. The message will be overwrit-
ten 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 se-
lect either of them.
sort This allows the standard ordering of matches to be overridden.
If its value is ‘true’ or ‘false’, sorting is enabled or disabled. Additionally the values associated
with the ‘-o’ option to compadd can also be listed: match, nosort, numeric, reverse. If it is not
set for the context, the standard behaviour of the calling widget is used.
The style is tested first against the full context including the tag, and if that fails to produce a value
against the context without the tag.
In many cases where a calling widget explicitly selects a particular ordering in lieu of the default,
a value of ‘true’ is not honoured. An example of where this is not the case is for command history
where the default of sorting matches chronologically may be overridden by setting the style to
‘true’.
In the _expand completer, if it is set to ‘true’, the expansions generated will always be sorted. If it
is set to ‘menu’, then the expansions are only sorted when they are offered as single strings but not
in the string containing all possible expansions.
special-dirs
Normally, the completion code will not produce the directory names ‘.’ and ‘..’ as possible com-
pletions. If this style is set to ‘true’, it will add both ‘.’ and ‘..’ as possible completions; if it is set
to ‘..’, only ‘..’ will be added.

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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 \
’[[ $PREFIX = (../)#(|.|..) ]] && reply=(..)’
squeeze-slashes
If set to ‘true’, sequences of slashes in filename paths (for example in ‘foo//bar’) will be treated as
a single slash. This is the usual behaviour of UNIX paths. However, by default the file comple-
tion function behaves as if there were a ‘*’ between the slashes.
stop If set to ‘true’, the _history_complete_word bindable command will stop once when reaching the
beginning or end of the history. Invoking _history_complete_word will then wrap around to the
opposite end of the history. If this style is set to ‘false’ (the default), _history_complete_word
will loop immediately as in a menu completion.
strip-comments
If set to ‘true’, this style causes non-essential comment text to be removed from completion
matches. Currently it is only used when completing e-mail addresses where it removes any dis-
play name from the addresses, cutting them down to plain user@host form.
subst-globs-only
This is used by the _expand completer. If it is set to ‘true’, the expansion will only be used if it
resulted from globbing; hence, if expansions resulted from the use of the substitute style de-
scribed below, but these were not further changed by globbing, the expansions will be rejected.
The default for this style is ‘false’.
substitute
This boolean style controls whether the _expand completer will first try to expand all substitutions
in the string (such as ‘$(...)’ and ‘${...}’).
The default is ‘true’.
suffix This is used by the _expand completer if the word starts with a tilde or contains a parameter ex-
pansion. If it is set to ‘true’, the word will only be expanded if it doesn’t have a suffix, i.e. if it is
something like ‘˜foo’ or ‘$foo’ rather than ‘˜foo/’ or ‘$foo/bar’, unless that suffix itself contains
characters eligible for expansion. The default for this style is ‘true’.
tag-order
This provides a mechanism for sorting how the tags available in a particular context will be used.
The values for the style are sets of space-separated lists of tags. The tags in each value will be
tried at the same time; if no match is found, the next value is used. (See the file-patterns style for
an exception to this behavior.)
For example:
zstyle ’:completion:*:complete:-command-:*:*’ tag-order \
’commands functions’
specifies that completion in command position first offers external commands and shell functions.
Remaining tags will be tried if no completions are found.
In addition to tag names, each string in the value may take one of the following forms:
- If any value consists of only a hyphen, then only the tags specified in the other values are
generated. Normally all tags not explicitly selected are tried last if the specified tags fail
to generate any matches. This means that a single value consisting only of a single hy-
phen turns off completion.
! tags... A string starting with an exclamation mark specifies names of tags that are not to be used.
The effect is the same as if all other possible tags for the context had been listed.

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tag:label ...
Here, tag is one of the standard tags and label is an arbitrary name. Matches are gener-
ated as normal but the name label is used in contexts instead of tag. This is not useful in
words starting with !.
If the label starts with a hyphen, the tag is prepended to the label to form the name used
for lookup. This can be used to make the completion system try a certain tag more than
once, supplying different style settings for each attempt; see below for an example.
tag:label:description
As before, but description will replace the ‘%d’ in the value of the format style instead
of the default description supplied by the completion function. Spaces in the description
must be quoted with a backslash. A ‘%d’ appearing in description is replaced with the
description given by the completion function.
In any of the forms above the tag may be a pattern or several patterns in the form ‘{pat1,pat2...}’.
In this case all matching tags will be used except for any given explicitly in the same string.
One use of these features is to try one tag more than once, setting other styles differently on each
attempt, but still to use all the other tags without having to repeat them all. For example, to make
completion of function names in command position ignore all the completion functions starting
with an underscore the first time completion is tried:
zstyle ’:completion:*:*:-command-:*:*’ tag-order \
’functions:-non-comp *’ functions
zstyle ’:completion:*:functions-non-comp’ \
ignored-patterns ’_*’
On the first attempt, all tags will be offered but the functions tag will be replaced by func-
tions-non-comp. The ignored-patterns style is set for this tag to exclude functions starting
with an underscore. If there are no matches, the second value of the tag-order style is used which
completes functions using the default tag, this time presumably including all function names.
The matches for one tag can be split into different groups. For example:
zstyle ’:completion:*’ tag-order \
’options:-long:long\ options
options:-short:short\ options
options:-single-letter:single\ letter\ options’
zstyle ’:completion:*:options-long’ \
ignored-patterns ’[-+](|-|[ˆ-]*)’
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 different descriptions.
Another use of patterns is to try multiple match specifications one after another. The
matcher-list style offers something similar, but it is tested very early in the completion system
and hence can’t be set for single commands nor for more specific contexts. Here is how to try nor-
mal completion without any match specification and, if that generates no matches, try again with
case-insensitive matching, restricting the effect to arguments of the command foo:
zstyle ’:completion:*:*:foo:*:*’ tag-order ’*’ ’*:-case’
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

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the matcher style from the second call to zstyle in the example is used to make completion
case-insensitive.
It is possible to use the -e option of the zstyle builtin command to specify conditions for the use of
particular tags. For example:
zstyle -e ’*:-command-:*’ tag-order ’
if [[ -n $PREFIX$SUFFIX ]]; then
reply=( )
else
reply=( - )
fi’
Completion in command position will be attempted only if the string typed so far is not empty.
This is tested using the PREFIX special parameter; see zshcompwid for a description of parame-
ters which are special inside completion widgets. Setting reply to an empty array provides the de-
fault behaviour of trying all tags at once; setting it to an array containing only a hyphen disables
the use of all tags and hence of all completions.
If no tag-order style has been defined for a context, the strings ‘(|*-)argument-* (|*-)option-*
values’ and ‘options’ plus all tags offered by the completion function will be used to provide a
sensible default behavior that causes arguments (whether normal command arguments or argu-
ments of options) to be completed before option names for most commands.
urls This is used together with the urls tag by functions completing URLs.
If the value consists of more than one string, or if the only string does not name a file or directory,
the strings are used as the URLs to complete.
If the value contains only one string which is the name of a normal file the URLs are taken from
that file (where the URLs may be separated by white space or newlines).
Finally, if the only string in the value names a directory, the directory hierarchy rooted at this di-
rectory gives the completions. The top level directory should be the file access method, such as
‘http’, ‘ftp’, ‘bookmark’ and so on. In many cases the next level of directories will be a file-
name. The directory hierarchy can descend as deep as necessary.
For example,
zstyle ’:completion:*’ urls ˜/.urls
mkdir -p ˜/.urls/ftp/ftp.zsh.org/pub
allows completion of all the components of the URL ftp://ftp.zsh.org/pub after suitable com-
mands such as ‘netscape’ or ‘lynx’. Note, however, that access methods and files are completed
separately, so if the hosts style is set hosts can be completed without reference to the urls style.
See the description in the function _urls itself for more information (e.g. ‘more
$ˆfpath/_urls(N)’).
use-cache
If this is set, the completion caching layer is activated for any completions which use it (via the
_store_cache, _retrieve_cache, and _cache_invalid functions). The directory containing the
cache files can be changed with the cache-path style.
use-compctl
If this style is set to a string not equal to false, 0, no, and off, the completion system may use any
completion specifications defined with the compctl builtin command. If the style is unset, this is
done only if the zsh/compctl module is loaded. The string may also contain the substring ‘first’
to use completions defined with ‘compctl -T’, and the substring ‘default’ to use the completion
defined with ‘compctl -D’.
Note that this is only intended to smooth the transition from compctl to the new completion sys-
tem and may disappear in the future.

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Note also that the definitions from compctl will only be used if there is no specific completion
function for the command in question. For example, if there is a function _foo to complete argu-
ments to the command foo, compctl will never be invoked for foo. However, the compctl version
will be tried if foo only uses default completion.
use-ip By default, the function _hosts that completes host names strips IP addresses from entries read
from host databases such as NIS and ssh files. If this style is ‘true’, the corresponding IP ad-
dresses can be completed as well. This style is not use in any context where the hosts style is set;
note also it must be set before the cache of host names is generated (typically the first completion
attempt).
users This may be set to a list of usernames to be completed. If it is not set all usernames will be com-
pleted. Note that if it is set only that list of users will be completed; this is because on some sys-
tems querying all users can take a prohibitive amount of time.
users-hosts
The values of this style should be of the form ‘user@host’ or ‘user:host’. It is used for commands
that need pairs of user- and hostnames. These commands will complete usernames from this style
(only), and will restrict subsequent hostname completion to hosts paired with that user in one of
the values of the style.
It is possible to group values for sets of commands which allow a remote login, such as rlogin and
ssh, by using the my-accounts tag. Similarly, values for sets of commands which usually refer to
the accounts of other people, such as talk and finger, can be grouped by using the other-ac-
counts tag. More ambivalent commands may use the accounts tag.
users-hosts-ports
Like users-hosts but used for commands like telnet and containing strings of the form
‘user@host:port’.
verbose
If set, as it is by default, the completion listing is more verbose. In particular many commands
show descriptions for options if this style is ‘true’.
word This is used by the _list completer, which prevents the insertion of completions until a second
completion attempt when the line has not changed. The normal way of finding out if the line has
changed is to compare its entire contents between the two occasions. If this style is ‘true’, the
comparison is instead performed only on the current word. Hence if completion is performed on
another word with the same contents, completion will not be delayed.
CONTROL FUNCTIONS
The initialization script compinit redefines all the widgets which perform completion to call the supplied
widget function _main_complete. This function acts as a wrapper calling the so-called ‘completer’ func-
tions 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 gen-
erate any matches:
zstyle ’:completion:*’ completer _complete _correct
after calling compinit. The default value for this style is ‘_complete _ignored’, i.e. normally only ordinary
completion is tried, first with the effect of the ignored-patterns style and then without it. The
_main_complete function uses the return status of the completer functions to decide if other completers
should be called. If the return status is zero, no other completers are tried and the _main_complete func-
tion returns.
If the first argument to _main_complete is a single hyphen, the arguments will not be taken as names of
completers. Instead, the second argument gives a name to use in the completer field of the context and the
other arguments give a command name and arguments to call to generate the matches.
The following completer functions are contained in the distribution, although users may write their own.
Note that in contexts the leading underscore is stripped, for example basic completion is performed in the

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context ‘:completion::complete:...’.
_all_matches
This completer can be used to add a string consisting of all other matches. As it influences later
completers it must appear as the first completer in the list. The list of all matches is affected by
the avoid-completer and old-matches styles described above.
It may be useful to use the _generic function described below to bind _all_matches to its own
keystroke, for example:
zle -C all-matches complete-word _generic
bindkey ’ˆXa’ all-matches
zstyle ’:completion:all-matches:*’ old-matches only
zstyle ’:completion:all-matches::::’ completer _all_matches
Note that this does not generate completions by itself: first use any of the standard ways of gener-
ating a list of completions, then use ˆXa to show all matches. It is possible instead to add a stan-
dard completer to the list and request that the list of all matches should be directly inserted:
zstyle ’:completion:all-matches::::’ completer \
_all_matches _complete
zstyle ’:completion:all-matches:*’ insert true
In this case the old-matches style should not be set.
_approximate
This is similar to the basic _complete completer but allows the completions to undergo correc-
tions. The maximum number of errors can be specified by the max-errors style; see the descrip-
tion 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 comple-
tions. When corrected completions are found, the completer will normally start menu completion
allowing you to cycle through these strings.
This completer uses the tags corrections and original when generating the possible corrections
and the original string. The format style for the former may contain the additional sequences
‘%e’ and ‘%o’ which will be replaced by the number of errors accepted to generate the correc-
tions and the original string, respectively.
The completer progressively increases the number of errors allowed up to the limit by the max-er-
rors 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 ‘ap-
proximate-2’, and so on.
When _approximate is called from another function, the number of errors to accept may be
passed with the -a option. The argument is in the same format as the max-errors style, all in one
string.
Note that this completer (and the _correct completer mentioned below) can be quite expensive to
call, especially when a large number of errors are allowed. One way to avoid this is to set up the
completer style using the -e option to zstyle so that some completers are only used when comple-
tion 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)

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fi’
This uses the HISTNO parameter and the BUFFER and CURSOR special parameters that are
available inside zle and completion widgets to find out if the command line hasn’t changed since
the last time completion was tried. Only then are the _ignored, _correct and _approximate com-
pleters called.
_canonical_paths [ -A var ] [ -N ] [ -MJV12nfX ] tag descr [ paths ... ]
This completion function completes all paths given to it, and also tries to offer completions which
point to the same file as one of the paths given (relative path when an absolute path is given, and
vice versa; when ..’s are present in the word to be completed; and some paths got from symlinks).
-A, if specified, takes the paths from the array variable specified. Paths can also be specified on
the command line as shown above. -N, if specified, prevents canonicalizing the paths given be-
fore using them for completion, in case they are already so. The options -M, -J, -V, -1, -2, -n,
-F, -X are passed to compadd.
See _description for a description of tag and descr.
_cmdambivalent
Completes the remaining positional arguments as an external command. The external command
and its arguments are completed as separate arguments (in a manner appropriate for completing
/usr/bin/env) if there are two or more remaining positional arguments on the command line, and
as a quoted command string (in the manner of system(...)) otherwise. See also _cmdstring and
_precommand.
This function takes no arguments.
_cmdstring
Completes an external command as a single argument, as for system(...).
_complete
This completer generates all possible completions in a context-sensitive manner, i.e. using the set-
tings defined with the compdef function explained above and the current settings of all special pa-
rameters. This gives the normal completion behaviour.
To complete arguments of commands, _complete uses the utility function _normal, which is in
turn responsible for finding the particular function; it is described below. Various contexts of the
form -context- are handled specifically. These are all mentioned above as possible arguments to
the #compdef tag.
Before trying to find a function for a specific context, _complete checks if the parameter ‘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 completions
and the values (if non-empty) are used as descriptions for the matches. If ‘compcontext’ is set to
a string containing colons, it should be of the form ‘tag:descr:action’. In this case the tag and de-
scr give the tag and description to use and the action indicates what should be completed in one of
the forms accepted by the _arguments utility function described below.
Finally, if ‘compcontext’ is set to a string without colons, the value is taken as the name of the
context to use and the function defined for that context will be called. For this purpose, there is a
special context named -command-line- that completes whole command lines (commands and
their arguments). This is not used by the completion system itself but is nonetheless handled when
explicitly called.
_correct
Generate corrections, but not completions, for the current word; this is similar to _approximate
but will not allow any number of extra characters at the cursor as that completer does. The effect
is similar to spell-checking. It is based on _approximate, but the completer field in the context
name is correct.

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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 per-
formed, but correcting completion will be, and will accept as many errors as given by the numeric
argument. Without a numeric argument, first correction and then correcting completion will be
tried, with the first one accepting two errors and the second one accepting three errors.
When _correct is called as a function, the number of errors to accept may be given following the
-a option. The argument is in the same form a values to the accept style, all in one string.
This completer function is intended to be used without the _approximate completer or, as in the
example, just before it. Using it after the _approximate completer is useless since _approximate
will at least generate the corrected strings generated by the _correct completer -- and probably
more.
_expand
This completer function does not really perform completion, but instead checks if the word on the
command line is eligible for expansion and, if it is, gives detailed control over how this expansion
is done. For this to happen, the completion system needs to be invoked with complete-word, not
expand-or-complete (the default binding for TAB), as otherwise the string will be expanded by
the shell’s internal mechanism before the completion system is started. Note also this completer
should be called before the _complete completer function.
The tags used when generating expansions are all-expansions for the string containing all 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 expansions may contain the sequence ‘%o’ which
will be replaced by the original string from the line.
The kind of expansion to be tried is controlled by the substitute, glob and subst-globs-only
styles.
It is also possible to call _expand as a function, in which case the different modes may be selected
with options: -s for substitute, -g for glob and -o for subst-globs-only.
_expand_alias
If the word the cursor is on is an alias, it is expanded and no other completers are called. The
types of aliases which are to be expanded can be controlled with the styles regular, global and
disabled.
This function is also a bindable command, see the section ‘Bindable Commands’ below.
_extensions
If the cursor follows the string ‘*.’, filename extensions are completed. The extensions are taken
from files in current directory or a directory specified at the beginning of the current word. For ex-
act matches, completion continues to allow other completers such as _expand to expand the pat-
tern. The standard add-space and prefix-hidden styles are observed.
_external_pwds
Completes current directories of other zsh processes belonging to the current user.
This is intended to be used via _generic, bound to a custom key combination. Note that pattern
matching is enabled so matching is performed similar to how it works with the _match completer.

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_history
Complete words from the shell’s command history. This completer can be controlled by the re-
move-all-dups, and sort styles as for the _history_complete_word bindable command, see the
section ‘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
completions; matching ones are removed. With this completer those matches can be reinstated, as
if no ignored-patterns style were set. The completer actually generates its own list of matches;
which completers are invoked is determined in the same way as for the _prefix completer. The
single-ignored style is also available as described above.
_list This completer allows the insertion of matches to be delayed until completion is attempted a sec-
ond 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 Sys-
tem Configuration’ 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 ef-
fect of the GLOB_COMPLETE option.
Normally completion will be performed by taking the pattern from the line, inserting a ‘*’ at the
cursor position and comparing the resulting pattern with the possible completions generated. This
can be modified with the match-original style described above.
The generated matches will be offered in a menu completion unless the insert-unambiguous
style is set to ‘true’; see the description above for other options for this style.
Note that matcher specifications defined globally or used by the completion functions (the styles
matcher-list and matcher) will not be used.
_menu This completer was written as simple example function to show how menu completion can be en-
abled 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 completion widgets such as reverse-menu-complete, or accept-and-menu-com-
plete.
_oldlist
This completer controls how the standard completion widgets behave when there is an existing list
of completions which may have been generated by a special completion (i.e. a separately-bound
completion command). It allows the ordinary completion keys to continue to use the list of com-
pletions thus generated, instead of producing a new list of ordinary contextual completions. It
should appear in the list of completers before any of the widgets which generate matches. It uses
two styles: old-list and old-menu, see the section ‘Completion System Configuration’ above.
_precommand
Complete an external command in word-separated arguments, as for exec and /usr/bin/env.
_prefix This completer can be used to try completion with the suffix (everything after the cursor) ignored.
In other words, the suffix will not be considered to be part of the word to complete. The effect is
similar to the expand-or-complete-prefix command.
The completer style is used to decide which other completers are to be called to generate matches.
If this style is unset, the list of completers set for the current context is used -- except, of course,
the _prefix completer itself. Furthermore, if this completer appears more than once in the list of
completers only those completers not already tried by the last invocation of _prefix will be called.
For example, consider this global completer style:
zstyle ’:completion:*’ completer \

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_complete _prefix _correct _prefix:foo

Here, the _prefix completer tries normal completion but ignoring the suffix. If that doesn’t gener-
ate any matches, and neither does the call to the _correct completer after it, _prefix will be called
a second time and, now only trying correction with the suffix ignored. On the second invocation
the completer part of the context appears as ‘foo’.
To use _prefix as the last resort and try only normal completion when it is invoked:
zstyle ’:completion:*’ completer _complete ... _prefix
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 suffix.
Note that this completer is only useful if the COMPLETE_IN_WORD option is set; otherwise,
the cursor will be moved to the end of the current word before the completion code is called and
hence there will be no suffix.
_user_expand
This completer behaves similarly to the _expand completer but instead performs expansions de-
fined by users. The styles add-space and sort styles specific to the _expand completer are usable
with _user_expand in addition to other styles handled more generally by the completion system.
The tag all-expansions is also available.
The expansion depends on the array style user-expand being defined for the current context; re-
member that the context for completers is less specific than that for contextual completion as the
full context has not yet been determined. Elements of the array may have one of the following
forms:
$hash

hash is the name of an associative array. Note this is not a full parameter expression,
merely a $, suitably quoted to prevent immediate expansion, followed by the name of an
associative array. If the trial expansion word matches a key in hash, the resulting expan-
sion is the corresponding value.
_func

_func is the name of a shell function whose name must begin with _ but is not otherwise
special to the completion system. The function is called with the trial word as an argu-
ment. If the word is to be expanded, the function should set the array reply to a list of ex-
pansions. Optionally, it can set REPLY to a word that will be used as a description for
the set of expansions. The return status of the function is irrelevant.
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_complete-word and _bash_list-choices. It exists to
provide compatibility with completion bindings in bash. The last character of the binding deter-
mines what is completed: ‘!’, command names; ‘$’, environment variables; ‘@’, host names; ‘/’,
file names; ‘˜’ user names. In bash, the binding preceded by ‘\e’ gives completion, and preceded
by ‘ˆX’ lists options. As some of these bindings clash with standard zsh bindings, only ‘\e˜’ and
‘ˆX˜’ are bound by default. To add the rest, the following should be added to .zshrc after
compinit has been run:
for key in ’!’ ’$’ ’@’ ’/’ ’˜’; do
bindkey "\e$key" _bash_complete-word
bindkey "ˆX$key" _bash_list-choices

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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 (ˆXC)
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 (ˆXc)
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 (ˆXa)
This function can be used as a completer and as a bindable command. It expands the word the
cursor is on if it is an alias. The types of alias expanded can be controlled with the styles regular,
global and disabled.
When used as a bindable command there is one additional feature that can be selected by setting
the complete style to ‘true’. In this case, if the word is not the name of an alias, _expand_alias
tries to complete the word to a full alias name without expanding it. It leaves the cursor directly
after the completed word so that invoking _expand_alias once more will expand the now-com-
plete alias name.
_expand_word (ˆXe)
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 ‘ex-
pand-word’.
_generic
This function is not defined as a widget and not bound by default. However, it can be used to de-
fine a widget and will then store the name of the widget in the function field of the context and call
the completion system. This allows custom completion widgets with their own set of style settings
to be defined easily. For example, to define a widget that performs normal completion and starts
menu selection:
zle -C foo complete-word _generic
bindkey ’...’ foo
zstyle ’:completion:foo:*’ menu yes select=1
Note in particular that the completer style may be set for the context in order to change the set of
functions used to generate possible matches. If _generic is called with arguments, those are
passed through to _main_complete as the list of completers in place of those defined by the com-
pleter style.
_history_complete_word (\e/)
Complete words from the shell’s command history. This uses the list, remove-all-dups, sort, and
stop styles.
_most_recent_file (ˆXm)
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 (ˆXn)
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. Suc-
cessive invocations of the command cycle through all possible sets of tags.

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_read_comp (ˆXˆR)
Prompt the user for a string, and use that to perform completion on the current word. There are
two possibilities for the string. First, it can be a set of words beginning ‘_’, for example ‘_files -/’,
in which case the function with any arguments will be called to generate the completions. Unam-
biguous parts of the function name will be completed automatically (normal completion is not
available at this point) until a space is typed.
Second, any other string will be passed as a set of arguments to compadd and should hence be an
expression specifying what should be completed.
A very restricted set of editing commands is available when reading the string: ‘DEL’ and ‘ˆH’
delete the last character; ‘ˆU’ deletes the line, and ‘ˆC’ and ‘ˆG’ 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 (ˆX?)
This widget performs ordinary completion, but captures in a temporary file a trace of the shell
commands executed by the completion system. Each completion attempt gets its own file. A
command to view each of these files is pushed onto the editor buffer stack.
_complete_help (ˆXh)
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 ˆXh’), then the styles used and the contexts for which they are used will be shown, too.
Note that the information about styles may be incomplete; it depends on the information available
from the completion functions called, which in turn is determined by the user’s own styles and
other settings.
_complete_help_generic
Unlike other commands listed here, this must be created as a normal ZLE widget rather than a
completion widget (i.e. with zle -N). It is used for generating help with a widget bound to the
_generic widget that is described above.
If this widget is created using the name of the function, as it is by default, then when executed it
will read a key sequence. This is expected to be bound to a call to a completion function that uses
the _generic widget. That widget will be executed, and information provided in the same format
that the _complete_help widget displays for contextual completion.
If the widget’s name contains debug, for example if it is created as ‘zle -N _complete_de-
bug_generic _complete_help_generic’, it will read and execute the keystring for a generic widget
as before, but then generate debugging information as done by _complete_debug for contextual
completion.
If the widget’s name contains noread, it will not read a keystring but instead arrange that the next
use of a generic widget run in the same shell will have the effect as described above.
The widget works by setting the shell parameter ZSH_TRACE_GENERIC_WIDGET which is
read by _generic. Unsetting the parameter cancels any pending effect of the noread form.
For example, after executing the following:
zle -N _complete_debug_generic _complete_help_generic
bindkey ’ˆx:’ _complete_debug_generic
typing ‘C-x :’ followed by the key sequence for a generic widget will cause trace output for that
widget to be saved to a file.

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_complete_tag (ˆXt)
This widget completes symbol tags created by the etags or ctags programmes (note there is no
connection with the completion system’s tags) stored in a file TAGS, in the format used by etags,
or tags, in the format created by ctags. It will look back up the path hierarchy for the first occur-
rence of either file; if both exist, the file TAGS is preferred. You can specify the full path to a
TAGS or tags file by setting the parameter $TAGSFILE or $tagsfile respectively. The corre-
sponding completion tags used are etags and vtags, after emacs and vi respectively.
UTILITY FUNCTIONS
Descriptions follow for utility functions that may be useful when writing completion functions. If functions
are installed in subdirectories, most of these reside in the Base subdirectory. Like the example functions
for commands in the distribution, the utility functions generating matches all follow the convention of re-
turning status zero if they generated completions and non-zero if no matching completions could be added.
_absolute_command_paths
This function completes external commands as absolute paths (unlike _command_names -e
which completes their basenames). It takes no arguments.
_all_labels [ -x ] [ -12VJ ] tag name descr [ command arg ... ]
This is a convenient interface to the _next_label function below, implementing the loop shown in
the _next_label example. The command and its arguments are called to generate the matches.
The options stored in the parameter name will automatically be inserted into the args passed to the
command. Normally, they are put directly after the command, but if one of the args is a single hy-
phen, 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 parameter, using compadd with additional options
which will take precedence over those generated by _all_labels.
_alternative [ -O name ] [ -C name ] spec ...
This function is useful in simple cases where multiple tags are available. Essentially it implements
a loop like the one described for the _tags function below.
The tags to use and the action to perform if a tag is requested are described using the specs which
are of the form: ‘tag:descr:action’. The tags are offered using _tags and if the tag is requested,
the action is executed with the given description descr. The actions are those accepted by the _ar-
guments 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 func-
tions respectively.
Like _arguments, this function uses _all_labels to execute the actions, which will loop over all
sets of tags. Special handling is only required if there is an additional valid tag, for example inside
a function called from _alternative.

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The option ‘-O name’ is used in the same way as by the _arguments function. In other words,
the elements of the name array will be passed to compadd when executing an action.
Like _tags this function supports the -C option to give a different name for the argument context
field.

_arguments [ -nswWCRS ] [ -A pat ] [ -O name ] [ -M matchspec ]

[ : ] spec ...
_arguments [ opt ... ] -- [ -l ] [ -i pats ] [ -s pair ]
[ helpspec ...]
This function can be used to give a complete specification for completion for a command whose
arguments follow standard UNIX option and argument conventions.
Options Overview
Options to _arguments itself must be in separate words, i.e. -s -w, not -sw. The options are fol-
lowed by specs that describe options and arguments of the analyzed command. To avoid ambigu-
ity, all options to _arguments itself may be separated from the spec forms by a single colon.
The ‘--’ form is used to intuit spec forms from the help output of the command being analyzed,
and is described in detail below. The opts for the ‘--’ form are otherwise the same options as the
first form. Note that ‘-s’ following ‘--’ has a distinct meaning from ‘-s’ preceding ‘--’, and
both may appear.
The option switches -s, -S, -A, -w, and -W affect how _arguments parses the analyzed com-
mand line’s options. These switches are useful for commands with standard argument parsing.
The options of _arguments have the following meanings:
-n With this option, _arguments sets the parameter NORMARG to the position of the first
normal argument in the $words array, i.e. the position after the end of the options. If that
argument has not been reached, NORMARG is set to -1. The caller should declare ‘in-
teger NORMARG’ if the -n option is passed; otherwise the parameter is not used.
-s Enable option stacking for single-letter options, whereby multiple single-letter options
may be combined into a single word. For example, the two options ‘-x’ and ‘-y’ may be
combined into a single word ‘-xy’. By default, every word corresponds to a single op-
tion name (‘-xy’ is a single option named ‘xy’).
Options beginning with a single hyphen or plus sign are eligible for stacking; words be-
ginning with two hyphens are not.
Note that -s after -- has a different meaning, which is documented in the segment enti-
tled ‘Deriving spec forms from the help output’.
-w In combination with -s, allow option stacking even if one or more of the options take ar-
guments. For example, if -x takes an argument, with no -s, ‘-xy’ is considered as a sin-
gle (unhandled) option; with -s, -xy is an option with the argument ‘y’; with both -s and
-w, -xy is the option -x and the option -y with arguments to -x (and to -y, if it takes ar-
guments) still to come in subsequent words.
-W This option takes -w a stage further: it is possible to complete single-letter options even
after an argument that occurs in the same word. However, it depends on the action per-
formed whether options will really be completed at this point. For more control, use a
utility function like _guard as part of the action.
-C Modify the curcontext parameter for an action of the form ‘->state’. This is discussed
in detail below.
-R Return status 300 instead of zero when a $state is to be handled, in the ‘->string’ syntax.
-S Do not complete options after a ‘--’ appearing on the line, and ignore the ‘--’. For ex-
ample, with -S, in the line

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foobar -x -- -y
the ‘-x’ is considered an option, the ‘-y’ is considered an argument, and the ‘--’ is con-
sidered to be neither.
-A pat Do not complete options after the first non-option argument on the line. pat is a pattern
matching all strings which are not to be taken as arguments. For example, to make _ar-
guments stop completing options after the first normal argument, but ignoring all strings
starting with a hyphen even if they are not described by one of the optspecs, the form is
‘-A "-*"’.
-O name
Pass the elements of the array name as arguments to functions called to execute actions.
This is discussed in detail below.
-M matchspec
Use the match specification matchspec for completing option names and values. The de-
fault matchspec allows partial word completion after ‘_’ and ‘-’, such as completing
‘-f-b’ to ‘-foo-bar’. The default matchspec is:
r:|[_-]=* r:|=*
specs: overview
Each of the following forms is a spec describing individual sets of options or arguments on the
command line being analyzed.
n:message:action
n::message:action
This describes the n’th normal argument. The message will be printed above the matches
generated and the action indicates what can be completed in this position (see below). If
there are two colons before the message the argument is optional. If the message contains
only white space, nothing will be printed above the matches unless the action adds an ex-
planation string itself.
:message:action
::message:action
Similar, but describes the next argument, whatever number that happens to be. If all argu-
ments are specified in this form in the correct order the numbers are unnecessary.
*:message:action
*::message:action
*:::message:action
This describes how arguments (usually non-option arguments, those not beginning with
- or +) are to be completed when neither of the first two forms was provided. Any num-
ber of arguments can be completed in this fashion.
With two colons before the message, the words special array and the CURRENT special
parameter are modified to refer only to the normal arguments when the action is executed
or evaluated. With three colons before the message they are modified to refer only to the
normal arguments covered by this description.
optspec
optspec:...
This describes an option. The colon indicates handling for one or more arguments to the
option; if it is not present, the option is assumed to take no arguments.
The following forms are available for the initial optspec, whether or not the option has ar-
guments.
*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

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present on the command line to the left of the cursor it will not be offered again.
-optname
+optname
In the simplest form the optspec is just the option name beginning with a minus
or a plus sign, such as ‘-foo’. The first argument for the option (if any) must
follow as a separate word directly after the option.
Either of ‘-+optname’ and ‘+-optname’ can be used to specify that -optname
and +optname are both valid.
In all the remaining forms, the leading ‘-’ may be replaced by or paired with ‘+’
in this way.
-optname-
The first argument of the option must come directly after the option name in the
same word. For example, ‘-foo-:...’ specifies that the completed option and ar-
gument will look like ‘-fooarg’.
-optname+
The first argument may appear immediately after optname in the same word, or
may appear as a separate word after the option. For example, ‘-foo+:...’ speci-
fies that the completed option and argument will look like either ‘-fooarg’ or
‘-foo arg’.
-optname=
The argument may appear as the next word, or in same word as the option name
provided that it is separated from it by an equals sign, for example ‘-foo=arg’ or
‘-foo arg’.
-optname=-
The argument to the option must appear after an equals sign in the same word,
and may not be given in the next argument.
optspec[explanation]
An explanation string may be appended to any of the preceding forms of optspec
by enclosing it in brackets, as in ‘-q[query operation]’.
The verbose style is used to decide whether the explanation strings are dis-
played with the option in a completion listing.
If no bracketed explanation string is given but the auto-description style is set
and only one argument is described for this optspec, the value of the style is dis-
played, 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.

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:*pattern:message:action
:*pattern::message:action
:*pattern:::message:action
This describes multiple arguments. Only the last optarg for an option taking
multiple arguments may be given in this form. If the pattern is empty (i.e. :*:),
all the remaining words on the line are to be completed as described by the ac-
tion; otherwise, all the words up to and including a word matching the pattern
are to be completed using the action.
Multiple colons are treated as for the ‘*:...’ forms for ordinary arguments: when
the message is preceded by two colons, the words special array and the CUR-
RENT special parameter are modified during the execution or evaluation of the
action to refer only to the words after the option. When preceded by three
colons, they are modified to refer only to the words covered by this description.
Any literal colon in an optname, message, or action must be preceded by a backslash, ‘\:’.
Each of the forms above may be preceded by a list in parentheses of option names and argument
numbers. If the given option is on the command line, the options and arguments indicated in
parentheses will not be offered. For example, ‘(-two -three 1)-one:...’ completes the option
‘-one’; if this appears on the command line, the options -two and -three and the first ordinary ar-
gument 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 precede any of the forms above with ‘!’; then the
form will no longer be completed, although if the option or argument appears on the command
line they will be skipped as normal. The main use for this is when the arguments are given by an
array, and _arguments is called repeatedly for more specific contexts: on the first call ‘_argu-
ments $global_options’ is used, and on subsequent calls ‘_arguments !$ˆglobal_options’.
specs: actions
In each of the forms above the action determines how completions should be generated. Except
for the ‘->string’ form below, the action will be executed by calling the _all_labels function to
process all tag labels. No special handling of tags is needed unless a function call introduces a
new one.
The functions called to execute actions will be called with the elements of the array named by the
‘-O name’ option as arguments. This can be used, for example, to pass the same set of options for
the compadd builtin to all actions.
The forms for action are as follows.
(single unquoted space)
This is useful where an argument is required but it is not possible or desirable to generate
matches for it. The message will be displayed but no completions listed. Note that even
in this case the colon at the end of the message is needed; it may only be omitted when
neither a message nor an action is given.
(item1 item2 ...)
One of a list of possible matches, for example:
:foo:(foo bar baz)

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((item1\:desc1 ...))
Similar to the above, but with descriptions for each possible match. Note the backslash
before the colon. For example,
:foo:((a\:bar b\:baz))
The matches will be listed together with their descriptions if the description style is set
with the values tag in the context.
->string
In this form, _arguments processes the arguments and options and then returns control to
the calling function with parameters set to indicate the state of processing; the calling
function then makes its own arrangements for generating completions. For example,
functions that implement a state machine can use this type of action.
Where _arguments encounters action in the ‘->string’ format, it will strip all leading
and trailing whitespace from string and set the array state to the set of all strings for
which an action is to be performed. The elements of the array state_descr are assigned
the corresponding message field from each optarg containing such an action.
By default and in common with all other well behaved completion functions, _arguments
returns status zero if it was able to add matches and non-zero otherwise. However, if the
-R option is given, _arguments will instead return a status of 300 to indicate that $state
is to be handled.
In addition to $state and $state_descr, _arguments also sets the global parameters ‘con-
text’, ‘line’ and ‘opt_args’ as described below, and does not reset any changes made to
the special parameters such as PREFIX and words. This gives the calling function the
choice of resetting these parameters or propagating changes in them.
A function calling _arguments with at least one action containing a ‘->string’ must
therefore declare appropriate local parameters:
local context state state_descr line
typeset -A opt_args
to prevent _arguments from altering the global environment.
{eval-string}
A string in braces is evaluated as shell code to generate matches. If the eval-string itself
does not begin with an opening parenthesis or brace it is split into separate words before
execution.
= action
If the action starts with ‘= ’ (an equals sign followed by a space), _arguments will insert
the contents of the argument field of the current context as the new first element in the
words special array and increment the value of the CURRENT special parameter. This
has the effect of inserting a dummy word onto the completion command line while not
changing the point at which completion is taking place.
This is most useful with one of the specifiers that restrict the words on the command line
on which the action is to operate (the two- and three-colon forms above). One particular
use is when an action itself causes _arguments on a restricted range; it is necessary to
use this trick to insert an appropriate command name into the range for the second call to
_arguments to be able to parse the line.
word...
word... This covers all forms other than those above. If the action starts with a space, the remain-
ing list of words will be invoked unchanged.
Otherwise it will be invoked with some extra strings placed after the first word; these are
to be passed down as options to the compadd builtin. They ensure that the state specified
by _arguments, in particular the descriptions of options and arguments, is correctly

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passed to the completion command. These additional arguments are taken from the array
parameter ‘expl’; this will be set up before executing the action and hence may be re-
ferred to inside it, typically in an expansion of the form ‘$expl[@]’ which preserves
empty elements of the array.
During the performance of the action the array ‘line’ will be set to the normal arguments from the
command line, i.e. the words from the command line after the command name excluding all op-
tions 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 and backslashes in the original argu-
ments are preceded with backslashes.
The parameter ‘context’ is set when returning to the calling function to perform an action of the
form ‘->string’. It is set to an array of elements corresponding to the elements of $state. Each el-
ement is a suitable name for the argument field of the context: either a string of the form ‘op-
tion-opt-n’ for the n’th argument of the option -opt, or a string of the form ‘argument-n’ for
the n’th argument. For ‘rest’ arguments, that is those in the list at the end not handled by position,
n is the string ‘rest’. For example, when completing the argument of the -o option, the name is
‘option-o-1’, while for the second normal (non-option-) argument it is ‘argument-2’.
Furthermore, during the evaluation of the action the context name in the curcontext parameter is
altered to append the same string that is stored in the context parameter.
The option -C tells _arguments to modify the curcontext parameter for an action of the form
‘->state’. This is the standard parameter used to keep track of the current context. Here it (and
not the context array) should be made local to the calling function to avoid passing back the modi-
fied value and should be initialised to the current value at the start of the function:
local curcontext="$curcontext"
This is useful where it is not possible for multiple states to be valid together.
Grouping Options
Options can be grouped to simplify exclusion lists. A group is introduced with ‘+’ followed by a
name for the group in the subsequent word. Whole groups can then be referenced in an exclusion
list or a group name can be used to disambiguate between two forms of the same option. For ex-
ample:
_arguments \
’(group2--x)-a’ \
+ group1 \
-m \
’(group2)-n’ \
+ group2 \
-x -y
If the name of a group is specified in the form ‘(name)’ then only one value from that group will
ever be completed; more formally, all specifications are mutually exclusive to all other specifica-
tions in that group. This is useful for defining options that are aliases for each other. For example:
_arguments \
-a -b \
+ ’(operation)’ \
{-c,--compress}’[compress]’ \
{-d,--decompress}’[decompress]’ \
{-l,--list}’[list]’
If an option in a group appears on the command line, it is stored in the associative array
‘opt_args’ with ’group-option’ as a key. In the example above, a key ‘operation--c’ is used if
the option ‘-c’ is present on the command line.

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Specifying Multiple Sets of Arguments

It is possible to specify multiple sets of options and arguments with the sets separated by single
hyphens. This differs from groups in that sets are considered to be mutually exclusive of each
other.
Specifications before the first set and from any group are common to all sets. 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. However, after ‘-a’ both sets will still be considered valid.
As for groups, the name of a set may appear in exclusion lists, either alone or preceding a normal
option or argument specification.
The completion code has to parse the command line separately for each set. This can be slow so
sets 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 definitions.
Deriving spec forms from the help output
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 un-
specified.
In addition to options, ‘_arguments --’ will try to deduce the types of arguments available for op-
tions when the form ‘--opt=val’ is valid. It is also possible to provide hints by examining the
help text of the command and adding helpspec of the form ‘pattern:message:action’; note that
other _arguments spec forms are not used. The pattern is matched against the help text for an op-
tion, and if it matches the message and action are used as for other argument specifiers. The spe-
cial case of ‘*:’ means both message and action are empty, which has the effect of causing options
having no description in the help output to be ordered in listings ahead of options that have a de-
scription.
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 descrip-
tion; 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’.

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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 message.
If the pattern ends in ‘(-)’, this will be 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 ‘=-’.
By default, the command (with the option ‘--help’) is run after resetting all the locale categories
(except for LC_CTYPE) to ‘C’. If the localized help output is known to work, the option ‘-l’ can
be specified after the ‘_arguments --’ so that the command is run in the current locale.
The ‘_arguments --’ can be followed by the option ‘-i patterns’ 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-FEATURE’ 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.
The pair consists of a list of alternating patterns and corresponding replacements, enclosed in
parens and quoted so that it forms a single argument word in the _arguments call.
For example, some configure-script help output describes options only as ‘--enable-foo’, but
the script also accepts the negated form ‘--disable-foo’. To allow completion of the second
form:
_arguments -- -s "((#s)--enable- --disable-)"
Miscellaneous notes
Finally, note that _arguments generally expects to be the primary function handling any comple-
tion for which it is used. It may have side effects which change the treatment of any matches
added by other functions called after it. To combine _arguments with other functions, those func-
tions should be called either before _arguments, as an action within a spec, or in handlers for
‘->state’ actions.
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 ‘letter’ and ‘A4’ will be completed.
The ‘-copy’ option may appear more than once on the command 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 description ‘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 de-
scription gives all other arguments the description ‘page numbers’ but does not offer completions.

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_cache_invalid cache_identifier
This function returns status zero if the completions cache corresponding to the given cache identi-
fier needs rebuilding. It determines this by looking up the cache-policy style for the current con-
text. 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
local -a oldp
oldp=( "$1"(Nm+7) )
(( $#oldp ))
}
_call_function return name [ arg ... ]
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 should be stored; if return
is empty or a single hyphen it is ignored.
The return status of _call_function itself is zero if the function name exists and was called and
non-zero otherwise.
_call_program [ -l ] [ -p ] 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 com-
mand to execute. The strings from the call to _call_program, or from the style if set, are concate-
nated with spaces between them and the resulting string is evaluated. The return status is the re-
turn status of the command called.
By default, the command is run in an environment where all the locale categories (except for
LC_CTYPE) are reset to ‘C’ by calling the utility function _comp_locale (see below). If the op-
tion ‘-l’ is given, the command is run with the current locale.
If the option ‘-p’ is supplied it indicates that the command output is influenced by the permissions
it is run with. If the gain-privileges style is set to true, _call_program will make use of com-
mands such as sudo, if present on the command-line, to match the permissions to whatever the fi-
nal command is likely to run under. When looking up the gain-privileges and command styles,
the command component of the zstyle context will end with a slash (‘/’) followed by the command
that would be used to gain privileges.
_combination [ -s pattern ] tag style spec ... field opts ...
This function is used to complete combinations of values, for example pairs of hostnames and
usernames. 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 exam-
ple, 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 possi-
ble values for the combinations in the appropriate order (users, hosts, ports in the example above).
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 com-
pletions which apply to elements of the style with appropriately matching 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

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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.
_command_names [ -e | - ]
This function completes words that are valid at command position: names of aliases, builtins,
hashed commands, functions, and so on. With the -e flag, only hashed commands are completed.
The - flag is ignored.
_comp_locale
This function resets all the locale categories other than LC_CTYPE to ‘C’ so that the output from
external commands can be easily analyzed by the completion system. LC_CTYPE retains the cur-
rent value (taking LC_ALL and LANG into account), ensuring that non-ASCII characters in file
names are still handled properly.
This function should normally be run only in a subshell, because the new locale is exported to the
environment. Typical usage would be ‘$(_comp_locale; command ...)’.
_completers [ -p ]
This function completes names of completers.
-p Include the leading underscore (‘_’) in the matches.

_describe [-12JVx] [ -oO | -t tag ] descr name1 [ name2 ] [ opt ... ]

[ -- name1 [ name2 ] [ opt ... ] ... ]
This function associates completions with descriptions. Multiple groups separated by -- can be
supplied, 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 com-
padd. The array name1 contains the possible completions with their descriptions in the form
‘completion:description’. Any literal colons in completion must be quoted with a backslash. If a
name2 is given, it should have the same number of elements as name1; in this case the correspond-
ing elements are added as possible completions instead of the completion strings from name1.
The completion list will retain the descriptions from name1. Finally, a set of completion options
can appear.
If the option ‘-o’ appears before the first argument, 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, prefix-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, ‘op-
tions’.
The options -1, -2, -J, -V, -x are passed to _next_label.
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 in-
side a loop over tag labels.

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_description [ -x ] [ -12VJ ] tag name descr [ spec ... ]

This function is not to be confused with the previous 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, ignore-line, ignored-patterns, group-name
and sort. 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 re-
placed by the descr given as the third argument without any leading or trailing white space. If, af-
ter 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 contain 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 appear-
ance 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 pass-
ing 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 com-
padd within the completion system use a similar format; this ensures that user-specified styles are
correctly passed down to the builtins which implement the internals of completion.
_dir_list [ -s sep ] [ -S ]
Complete a list of directory names separated by colons (the same format as $PATH).
-s sep Use sep as separator between items. sep defaults to a colon (‘:’).
-S Add sep instead of slash (‘/’) as an autoremoveable suffix.
_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 special contexts (as described above for com-
pdef) given as strings. 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.

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_email_addresses [ -c ] [ -n plugin ]
Complete email addresses. Addresses are provided by plugins.
-c Complete bare [email protected] addresses, without a name part or a comment.
Without this option, RFC822 ‘Firstname Lastname <address>’ strings are completed.
-n plugin
Complete aliases from plugin.
The following plugins are available by default: _email-ldap (see the filter style), _email-local
(completes user@hostname Unix addresses), _email-mail (completes aliases from ˜/.mailrc),
_email-mush, _email-mutt, and _email-pine.
Addresses from the _email-foo plugin are added under the tag ‘email-foo’.
Writing plugins
Plugins are written as separate functions with names starting with ‘_email-’. They are invoked
with the -c option and compadd options. They should either do their own completion or set the
$reply array to a list of ‘alias:address’ elements and return 300. New plugins will be picked up
and run automatically.
_files The function _files is a wrapper around _path_files. It supports all of the same functionality, with
some enhancements -- notably, it respects the list-dirs-first style, and it allows users to override
the behaviour of the -g and -/ options with the file-patterns style. _files should therefore be pre-
ferred over _path_files in most cases.
This function accepts the full set of options allowed by _path_files, described below.
_gnu_generic
This function is a simple wrapper around the _arguments 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 displays descr if pattern matches the string to be completed. It is intended to be
used in the action for the specifications passed to _arguments and similar functions.
The return status is zero if the message was displayed and the word to complete is not empty, and
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 ig-
nored. This fits in conveniently with the argument-passing conventions of actions for _argu-
ments.
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<TAB>’. 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 followed by another character, only options are
completed.

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_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 completions can be generated.
The format style is examined with the messages tag to find a message; the usual tag, descrip-
tions, 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. Note that this option does not disable the ‘%’-sequence parsing done by
compadd.
The -12VJ options and the group are passed to compadd and hence determine the group the mes-
sage string is added to.
The second -e form gives a description for completions with the tag tag to be shown even if there
are no matches for that tag. This form is called by _arguments in the event that there is no action
for an option specification. 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. Note that if there
are no matches at the time this function is called, compstate[insert] is cleared, so additional
matches generated later are not inserted on the command line.
_multi_parts [ -i ] sep array
The argument sep is a separator character. The array may be either the name of an array parame-
ter or a literal array in the form ‘(foo bar)’, a parenthesised list of words separated by whitespace.
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 [ option ... ]
This function is used to implement the loop over different tag labels for a particular tag as de-
scribed above for the tag-order style. On each call it checks to see if there are any more tag la-
bels; if there is it returns status zero, otherwise 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 handles 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

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done
...
fi
return ret
_normal [ -P | -p precommand ]
This is the standard function called to handle completion 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
completion for the -default- context.
A second use is to reexamine the command line specified by the $words array and the $CUR-
RENT parameter after those have been modified. For example, the function _precommand,
which completes after precommand specifiers such as nohup, removes the first word from the
words array, decrements the CURRENT parameter, then calls ‘_normal -p $service’. The effect
is that ‘nohup cmd ...’ is treated in the same way as ‘cmd ...’.
-P Reset the list of precommands. This option should be used if completing a command line
which allows internal commands (e.g. builtins and functions) regardless of prior precom-
mands (e.g. ‘zsh -c’).
-p precommand
Append precommand to the list of precommands. This option should be used in nearly all
cases in which -P is not applicable.
If the command name matches one of the patterns given by one of the options -p or -P to com-
pdef, 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 ar-
guments 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 completion system.
_parameters
This is used to complete the names of shell parameters.
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 comple-
tion of partial paths. For example, the string ‘/u/i/s/sig’ may be completed to ‘/usr/in-
clude/sys/signal.h’.
The options accepted by both _path_files and _files are:
-f Complete all filenames. This is the default.

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-/ Specifies that only directories should be completed.

-g pattern
Specifies that only files matching the pattern 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 com-
pletion listings. Here, paths may be the name of an array parameter, a literal list of paths
enclosed in parentheses or an absolute pathname.
-F ignored-files
This behaves as for the corresponding option to the compadd builtin. It gives direct con-
trol over which filenames should be ignored. If the option is not present, the ig-
nored-patterns style is used.
Both _path_files and _files also accept the following 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 [ -b builtin-label ] [ -c command ] [ -r name ]

label=pattern ... label [ arg ... ]
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 variant or because there is a name clash be-
tween 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. Argu-
ments 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=pattern; if the output of ‘command arg ...’
contains pattern, then label is selected as the label for the command variant. If none of the pat-
terns match, the final command label is selected and status 1 is returned.
If the ‘-b builtin-label’ is given, the command is tested to see if it is provided as a shell builtin,
possibly autoloaded; if so, the label builtin-label is selected as the label for the variant.
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
command run.
_regex_arguments name spec ...
This function generates a completion function name which matches the specifications specs, a set
of regular expressions as described below. After running _regex_arguments, the function name
should be called as a normal completion function. The pattern to be matched is given by the con-
tents 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 arbitrary 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 gener-
ated). The completion target is restricted to the remaining word and any actions for the corre-
sponding patterns are executed. In this case, nothing is stripped from the command line string.

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The order of evaluation of the actions can be determined by the tag-order style; the various for-
mats 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 evalu-
ated 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 com-
mand line before the next pattern is examined.
The argument starting with : is used in the same manner as an argument to _alternative.
A component is used as follows: pattern is tested to see if the component already exists
on the command line. If it does, any following specifications are examined to find some-
thing to complete. If a component is reached but no such pattern exists yet on the com-
mand line, the string containing the action is used to generate matches to insert at that
point.
/pattern/+ [%lookahead%] [-guard] [:tag:descr:action]
This is similar to ‘/pattern/ ...’ but the left part of the command line string (i.e. the part al-
ready matched by previous patterns) is also considered part of the completion target.
/pattern/- [%lookahead%] [-guard] [:tag:descr:action]
This is similar to ‘/pattern/ ...’ but the actions of the current and previously matched pat-
terns 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.
The function _regex_words can be used as a helper function to generate matches for a set of alter-
native words possibly with their own arguments as a command line argument.
Examples:
_regex_arguments _tst /$’[ˆ\0]#\0’/ \
/$’[ˆ\0]#\0’/ :’compadd aaa’
This generates a function _tst that completes aaa as its only argument. The tag and description
for the action have been omitted for brevity (this works but is not recommended in normal use).
The first component matches the command word, which is arbitrary; the second matches any ar-
gument. As the argument is also arbitrary, any following component would not depend on aaa be-
ing present.
_regex_arguments _tst /$’[ˆ\0]#\0’/ \
/$’aaa\0’/ :’compadd aaa’
This is a more typical use; it is similar, but any following patterns would only match if aaa was
present as the first argument.
_regex_arguments _tst /$’[ˆ\0]#\0’/ \( \
/$’aaa\0’/ :’compadd aaa’ \
/$’bbb\0’/ :’compadd bbb’ \) \#

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In this example, an indefinite number of command arguments may be completed. Odd arguments
are completed as aaa and even arguments as bbb. Completion fails unless the set of aaa and bbb
arguments before the current one is matched correctly.
_regex_arguments _tst /$’[ˆ\0]#\0’/ \
\( /$’aaa\0’/ :’compadd aaa’ \| \
/$’bbb\0’/ :’compadd bbb’ \) \#
This is similar, but either aaa or bbb may be completed for any argument. In this case
_regex_words could be used to generate a suitable expression for the arguments.
_regex_words tag description spec ...
This function can be used to generate arguments for the _regex_arguments command which may
be inserted at any point where a set of rules is expected. The tag and description give a standard
tag and description pertaining to the current context. Each spec contains two or three arguments
separated by a colon: note that there is no leading colon in this case.
Each spec gives one of a set of words that may be completed at this point, together with argu-
ments. It is thus roughly equivalent to the _arguments function when used in normal (non-regex)
completion.
The part of the spec before the first colon is the word to be completed. This may contain a *; the
entire word, before and after the * is completed, but only the text before the * is required for the
context to be matched, so that further arguments may be completed after the abbreviated form.
The second part of spec is a description for the word being completed.
The optional third part of the spec describes how words following the one being completed are
themselves to be completed. It will be evaluated in order to avoid problems with quoting. This
means that typically it contains a reference to an array containing previously generated regex argu-
ments.
The option -t term specifies a terminator for the word instead of the usual space. This is handled
as an auto-removable suffix in the manner of the option -s sep to _values.
The result of the processing by _regex_words is placed in the array reply, which should be made
local to the calling function. If the set of words and arguments may be matched repeatedly, a #
should be appended to the generated array at that point.
For example:
local -a reply
_regex_words mydb-commands ’mydb commands’ \
’add:add an entry to mydb:$mydb_add_cmds’ \
’show:show entries in mydb’
_regex_arguments _mydb "$reply[@]"
_mydb "$@"
This shows a completion function for a command mydb which takes two command arguments,
add and show. show takes no arguments, while the arguments for add have already been pre-
pared in an array mydb_add_cmds, quite possibly by a previous call to _regex_words.
_requested [ -x ] [ -12VJ ] tag [ name descr [ command [ arg ... ] ]
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

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... # 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 generated 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 completed at
the same time.
If name and descr are given, _requested calls the _description function with these arguments to-
gether 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 status 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 separators 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 parentheses. 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 compadd builtin used to add the matches.
_sequence [ -s sep ] [ -n max ] [ -d ] function [ - ] ...
This function is a wrapper to other functions for completing items in a separated list. The same
function is used to complete each item in the list. The separator is specified with the -s option. If
-s is omitted it will use ‘,’. Duplicate values are not matched unless -d is specified. If there is a
fixed or maximum number of items in the list, this can be specified with the -n option.
Common compadd options are passed on to the function. It is possible to use compadd directly
with _sequence, though _values may be more appropriate in this situation.
_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 explic-
itly.

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_store_cache cache_identifier param ...

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
parameters; 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 status is zero if storage was successful. The function will only attempt storage 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.
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 ] tag ... ]
If called with arguments, these are taken to be the names of tags valid for completions in the cur-
rent 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 suc-
cessively selects the first, second, etc. set of tags requested by the user. The return status 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).
_tilde_files
Like _files, but resolve leading tildes according to the rules of filename expansion, so the sug-
gested completions don’t start with a ‘˜’ even if the filename on the command-line does.
_values [ -O name ] [ -s sep ] [ -S sep ] [ -wC ] desc spec ...
This is used to complete arbitrary keywords (values) 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 _argu-
ments 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 values 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 argu-
ments are examined as well.
The first non-option argument, desc, is used as a string to print as a description before listing the
values.
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 supported.

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The character separating a value from its argument can be set using the option -S (like -s, fol-
lowed 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 speci-
fied, 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 func-
tion will complete lists of these values separated by commas.
Like _arguments, this function temporarily adds another context name component to the argu-
ments 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 completed.
The style verbose is used to decide if the descriptions 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, state_descr, line, context and val_args:
local context state state_descr 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 completed. Note that for _values, the state and
state_descr are scalars rather than arrays. Only a single matching state is returned.
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 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 cur-
context should be made local instead of context (as described above).
_wanted [ -x ] [ -C name ] [ -12VJ ] tag name descr command [ arg ...]
In many contexts, completion can only generate one particular set of matches, usually correspond-
ing 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, in-
cluding the loop over both tags and tag labels and the generation of matches, is carried out auto-
matically by _wanted.
Hence to offer only one tag and immediately add the corresponding matches with the given de-
scription:
local expl
_wanted tag expl ’description’ \
compadd matches...

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Note that, as for _requested, the command must be able to accept options to be passed down to
compadd.
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.
_widgets [ -g pattern ]
This function completes names of zle widgets (see the section ‘Widgets’ in zshzle(1)). The pat-
tern, if present, is matched against values of the $widgets special parameter, documented in the
section ‘The zsh/zleparameter Module’ in zshmodules(1).
COMPLETION SYSTEM VARIABLES
There are some standard variables, initialised by the _main_complete function and then used from other
functions.
The standard variables are:
_comp_caller_options
The completion system uses setopt to set a number of options. This allows functions to be written
without concern for compatibility with every possible combination of user options. However,
sometimes completion needs to know what the user’s option preferences are. These are saved in
the _comp_caller_options associative array. Option names, spelled in lowercase without under-
scores, are mapped to one or other of the strings ‘on’ and ‘off’.
_comp_priv_prefix
Completion functions such as _sudo can set the _comp_priv_prefix array to a command
prefix that may then be used by _call_program to match the privileges when calling pro-
grams to generate matches.
Two more features are offered by the _main_complete function. The arrays compprefuncs and
comppostfuncs may contain 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.
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 cer-
tainly need most of these, though will probably not need to alter them. Many of these are docu-
mented 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 commands and suites of commands. They may
need modifying for your system, although in many cases some attempt is made to decide which
version of a command is present. For example, completion for the mount command tries to deter-
mine the system it is running on, while completion for many other utilities 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 available only on some systems. These are not ar-
ranged hierarchically, so, for example, both the Linux and Debian directories, as well as the X di-
rectory, may be useful on your system.

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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 com-
mands, 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 ˆD in EMACS editing mode, list
the possibilities; compctl controls what those possibilities are. They may for example 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 separately specified. These corre-
spond to the following flags and arguments, all of which (except for -L) may be combined with any combi-
nation of the options described subsequently in the section ‘Option Flags’:
command ...
controls completion for the named commands, which must be listed last on the command line. If
completion 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 =, completion 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 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 gener-
ate more matches for the specific command on the command line; this can be overridden by in-
cluding -tn in the flags for the pattern completion.
Note that aliases are expanded before the command name is determined unless the COM-
PLETE_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 com-
mand 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 arguments of commands not assigned any special be-
havior. 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 ex-
tended 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

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compctl -T -x ’s[˜] C[0,[ˆ/]#]’ -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 ex-
isting behavior is not changed. Any combination of the above forms, or the -M flag (which must
follow 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, completion 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 completion 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 gener-
ates 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 arguments to look for during completion. Any combi-
nation 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 file system paths.
-/ Just file system 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.

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-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 command 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
parentheses, 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 imme-
diate 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 glob-
bing. 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
mechanisms (see zshexpn(1)). The resulting words are taken as possible completions. The fig-
nore 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
completion per element); note that reply should not be made local to the function. From such a

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function the command line can be accessed with the -c and -l flags to the read builtin. For exam-
ple,
function whoson { reply=(‘users‘); }
compctl -K whoson talk
completes only logged-on users after ‘talk’. Note that ‘whoson’ must return an array, so ‘re-
ply=‘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 history 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 completed, but manipulate the options that do:
-Q This instructs the shell not to quote any metacharacters in the possible completions. Normally the
results of a completion are inserted into the command 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 completes 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 parenthesis. 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_RE-
MOVE_SLASH option. The option is most useful for list separators (comma, colon, etc.).
-l cmd This option restricts the range of command line words that are considered to be arguments. If
combined 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 ex-
ample,

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compctl -x ’r[-exec,;]’ -l ’’ -- find

completes arguments between ‘-exec’ and the following ‘;’ (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 sepa-
rately 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 completions seldom have interesting com-
mon prefixes and suffixes, menu completion is started immediately 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 listing
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 contains 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, including 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 correspond, 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 particular, 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 re-
placed 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.
Explanation 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 un-
derline), %F, %f, %K, %k specify foreground and background colours, 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 completions, 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

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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
separately; 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 encountered, a group with that name is created. Af-
ter 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 be-
fore 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 specifications 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. Completion 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.
Additional options are available that restrict completion to some part of the command line; this is referred
to as ‘extended completion’.
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 alternative completion using ‘+’. Each pattern is examined in turn; when a match is found, the corre-
sponding options, as described in the section ‘Option Flags’ above, are used to generate possible comple-
tions. 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.

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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-pat-
terns 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. Anything up to and including the indexth occurrence
of this string will not be considered part of the completion, but the rest will. index may be nega-
tive 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 commands 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 completion.
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’.

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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.

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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 dynamically linked while the shell is running if the installa-
tion supports this feature. Modules are linked at runtime with the zmodload command, see zshbuiltins(1).
The modules that are bundled with the zsh distribution are:
zsh/attr
Builtins for manipulating extended attributes (xattr).
zsh/cap
Builtins for manipulating POSIX.1e (POSIX.6) capability (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/curses
curses windowing commands
zsh/datetime
Some date/time commands and parameters.
zsh/db/gdbm
Builtins for managing associative array parameters tied to GDBM databases.
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/langinfo
Interface to locale information.
zsh/mapfile
Access to external files via a special associative array.
zsh/mathfunc
Standard scientific functions for use in mathematical evaluations.
zsh/nearcolor
Map colours to the nearest colour in the available palette.
zsh/newuser
Arrange for files for new users to be installed.
zsh/parameter
Access to internal hash tables via special associative arrays.

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zsh/pcre
Interface to the PCRE library.
zsh/param/private
Builtins for managing private-scoped parameters in function context.
zsh/regex
Interface to the POSIX regex 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-terminal.
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/ATTR MODULE
The zsh/attr module is used for manipulating extended attributes. The -h option causes all commands to
operate on symbolic links instead of their targets. The builtins in this module are:
zgetattr [ -h ] filename attribute [ parameter ]
Get the extended attribute attribute from the specified filename. If the optional argument parame-
ter is given, the attribute is set on that parameter instead of being printed to stdout.
zsetattr [ -h ] filename attribute value
Set the extended attribute attribute on the specified filename to value.
zdelattr [ -h ] filename attribute
Remove the extended attribute attribute from the specified filename.
zlistattr [ -h ] filename [ parameter ]
List the extended attributes currently set on the specified filename. If the optional argument param-
eter is given, the list of attributes is set on that parameter instead of being printed to stdout.

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zgetattr and zlistattr allocate memory dynamically. If the attribute or list of attributes grows between the
allocation and the call to get them, they return 2. On all other errors, 1 is returned. This allows the calling
function to check for this case and retry.
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 capabilities.
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 original shell.
The return status 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
terminal 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 al-
ready owning the terminal. Hence the cloned zsh cannot acquire the pseudo-terminal as a control-
ling 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, con-
trol-\ and control-Z) will not work.
This does not apply when cloning to an unused vc.
Cloning to a 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 commands. compctl, is the old, deprecated way to
control completions 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 widgets, see zshcompwid(1).

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THE ZSH/COMPLIST MODULE

The zsh/complist module offers three extensions to completion listings: the ability to highlight matches in
such a list, the ability to scroll through long lists and a different 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 au-
tomatically 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 for-
mat 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 following
strings, most of which specify file types for which the value will be used. The strings and their default val-
ues 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. If this has the special value target, symbolic links are dereferenced and the
target file used to determine the display format.
pi 31 for named pipes (FIFOs)
so 33 for sockets
bd 44;37
for block devices
cd 44;37
for character devices
or none
for a symlink to nonexistent file (default is the value defined for ln)
mi none
for a non-existent file (default is the value defined for fi); this code is currently not used
su 37;41
for files with setuid bit set
sg 30;43
for files with setgid bit set
tw 30;42
for world writable directories with sticky bit set
ow 34;43
for world writable directories without sticky bit set
sa none for files with an associated suffix alias; this is only tested after specific suffixes, as described below
st 37;44
for directories with sticky bit set but not world writable
ex 35 for executable files
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

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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 (‘=’) followed by a pattern; the EXTENDED_GLOB option will be turned on for evaluation of the
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 the form with the leading equal sign take precedence over
the values defined for file types, which in turn take precedence over the form with the leading asterisk (file
extensions).
The leading-equals 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 parentheses 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 parentheses. 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 ex-
ample, ‘(g*)m*=43’ highlights all matches beginning with ‘m’ in groups whose names begin with ‘g’ us-
ing 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. Patterns may be matched against completions, descriptions (possibly with
spaces appended for padding), or lines consisting of a completion followed by a description. For consistent
coloring it may be necessary to use more than one pattern or a pattern with backreferences.
When printing a match, the code prints the value of lc, the value for the file-type or the last matching speci-
fication 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 visible effect. The colors function from
the contribution can be used to get associative arrays containing the codes for ANSI terminals (see the sec-
tion ‘Other Functions’ in zshcontrib(1)). For example, after loading colors, one could use ‘$color[red]’ to
get the code for foreground color red and ‘$color[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 LISTPROMPT 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’, ‘%F’, ‘%f’, ‘%K’,
‘%k’ 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/to-
tal’; 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 per-
cent 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 lowercase form will not
be padded.
If the parameter LISTPROMPT is set, the completion code will not ask if the list should be shown. In-
stead 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 func-
tions have a special meaning while scrolling lists:

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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
accept-search
stop listing but take no other action
Every other character stops listing and immediately processes 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, LISTPROMPT 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 se-
lection, 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)).
Menu selection can be invoked directly by the widget menu-select defined by this module. This is a stan-
dard ZLE widget that can be bound to a key in the usual way as described in zshzle(1).
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 re-
quires 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 stand-
out 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
number of lines of the screen minus the (absolute) value.
As for the ZLS_COLORS, ZLS_COLOURS and LISTPROMPT parameters, neither MENUPROMPT
nor MENUSCROLL should be set directly when using the shell function based completion system. In-
stead, 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 dupli-
cate a string already in the list (because they differ only in things like prefixes or suffixes that are not

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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. Note that the fol-
lowing always perform the same task within the menu selection map and cannot be replaced by user defined
widgets, nor can the set of functions be extended:
accept-line, accept-search
accept the current match and leave menu selection (but do not cause the command line to be ac-
cepted)
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 in-
sert 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 immediately 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 otherwise
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

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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-in-
sert 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 con-
tain only the new matches; the completion widgets make the longest unambiguous string be in-
serted 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 selec-
tion and accepting the entire command line.
During this selection the widget uses the keymap menuselect. Any key that is not defined in this keymap
or that is bound to undefined-key is looked up in the keymap currently 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 without accepting
the match currently selected one could call
bindkey -M menuselect ’ˆM’ 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 func-
tions in the completion 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
compdescribe 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 sup-
plied as the first argument. In the first case, display strings without the descriptions will be

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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 four parameters as its arguments. This will step through the
different sets of matches and store the value of compstate[list] in the first scalar, the options for
compadd in the second array, the matches in the third array, and the strings to be displayed in the
completion listing in the fourth array. The arrays may then be directly given to compadd to regis-
ter the matches with the completion code.
compfiles
Used by the _path_files function to optimize complex 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 internals 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 con-
secutive duplicates).
compquote [ -p ] names ...
There may be reasons to write completion functions that have to add the matches using the -Q op-
tion 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 op-
tion 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 status is non-zero in case of an error and zero otherwise.
comptags
comptry
These implement the internals of the tags mechanism.
compvalues
Like comparguments, but for the _values function.
THE ZSH/CURSES MODULE
The zsh/curses module makes available one builtin command and various parameters.
Builtin
zcurses init
zcurses end
zcurses addwin targetwin nlines ncols begin_y begin_x [ parentwin ]
zcurses delwin targetwin
zcurses refresh [ targetwin ... ]
zcurses touch targetwin ...
zcurses move targetwin new_y new_x
zcurses clear targetwin [ redraw | eol | bot ]
zcurses position targetwin array
zcurses char targetwin character
zcurses string targetwin string

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zcurses border targetwin border

zcurses attr targetwin [ [+|-]attribute | fg_col/bg_col ] [...]
zcurses bg targetwin [ [+|-]attribute | fg_col/bg_col | @char ] [...]
zcurses scroll targetwin [ on | off | [+|-]lines ]
zcurses input targetwin [ param [ kparam [ mparam ] ] ]
zcurses mouse [ delay num | [+|-]motion ]
zcurses timeout targetwin intval
zcurses querychar targetwin [ param ]
zcurses resize height width [ endwin | nosave | endwin_nosave ]
Manipulate curses windows. All uses of this command should be bracketed by ‘zcurses init’ to
initialise use of curses, and ‘zcurses end’ to end it; omitting ‘zcurses end’ can cause the terminal
to be in an unwanted state.
The subcommand addwin creates a window with nlines lines and ncols columns. Its upper left
corner will be placed at row begin_y and column begin_x of the screen. targetwin is a string and
refers to the name of a window that is not currently assigned. Note in particular the curses con-
vention that vertical values appear before horizontal values.
If addwin is given an existing window as the final argument, the new window is created as a sub-
window of parentwin. This differs from an ordinary new window in that the memory of the win-
dow contents is shared with the parent’s memory. Subwindows must be deleted before their par-
ent. Note that the coordinates of subwindows are relative to the screen, not the parent, as with
other windows.
Use the subcommand delwin to delete a window created with addwin. Note that end does not im-
plicitly delete windows, and that delwin does not erase the screen image of the window.
The window corresponding to the full visible screen is called stdscr; it always exists after ‘zcurses
init’ and cannot be delete with delwin.
The subcommand refresh will refresh window targetwin; this is necessary to make any pending
changes (such as characters you have prepared for output with char) visible on the screen. re-
fresh without an argument causes the screen to be cleared and redrawn. If multiple windows are
given, the screen is updated once at the end.
The subcommand touch marks the targetwins listed as changed. This is necessary before refresh-
ing windows if a window that was in front of another window (which may be stdscr) is deleted.
The subcommand move moves the cursor position in targetwin to new coordinates new_y and
new_x. Note that the subcommand string (but not the subcommand char) advances the cursor po-
sition over the characters added.
The subcommand clear erases the contents of targetwin. One (and no more than one) of three op-
tions may be specified. With the option redraw, in addition the next refresh of targetwin will
cause the screen to be cleared and repainted. With the option eol, targetwin is only cleared to the
end of the current cursor line. With the option bot, targetwin is cleared to the end of the window,
i.e everything to the right and below the cursor is cleared.
The subcommand position writes various positions associated with targetwin into the array named
array. These are, in order:
- The y and x coordinates of the cursor relative to the top left of targetwin
- The y and x coordinates of the top left of targetwin on the screen
- The size of targetwin in y and x dimensions.
Outputting characters and strings are achieved by char and string respectively.
To draw a border around window targetwin, use border. Note that the border is not subsequently
handled specially: in other words, the border is simply a set of characters output at the edge of the
window. Hence it can be overwritten, can scroll off the window, etc.
The subcommand attr will set targetwin’s attributes or foreground/background color pair for any
successive character output. Each attribute given on the line may be prepended by a + to set or a -

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to unset that attribute; + is assumed if absent. The attributes supported are blink, bold, dim, re-
verse, standout, and underline.
Each fg_col/bg_col attribute (to be read as ‘fg_col on bg_col’) sets the foreground and background
color for character output. The color default is sometimes available (in particular if the library is
ncurses), specifying the foreground or background color with which the terminal started. The
color pair default/default is always available. To use more than the 8 named colors (red, green,
etc.) construct the fg_col/bg_col pairs where fg_col and bg_col are decimal integers, e.g 128/200.
The maximum color value is 254 if the terminal supports 256 colors.
bg overrides the color and other attributes of all characters in the window. Its usual use is to set
the background initially, but it will overwrite the attributes of any characters at the time when it is
called. In addition to the arguments allowed with attr, an argument @char specifies a character to
be shown in otherwise blank areas of the window. Owing to limitations of curses this cannot be a
multibyte character (use of ASCII characters only is recommended). As the specified set of at-
tributes override the existing background, turning attributes off in the arguments is not useful,
though this does not cause an error.
The subcommand scroll can be used with on or off to enabled or disable scrolling of a window
when the cursor would otherwise move below the window due to typing or output. It can also be
used with a positive or negative integer to scroll the window up or down the given number of lines
without changing the current cursor position (which therefore appears to move in the opposite di-
rection relative to the window). In the second case, if scrolling is off it is temporarily turned on to
allow the window to be scrolled.
The subcommand input reads a single character from the window without echoing it back. If
param is supplied the character is assigned to the parameter param, else it is assigned to the pa-
rameter REPLY.
If both param and kparam are supplied, the key is read in ‘keypad’ mode. In this mode special
keys such as function keys and arrow keys return the name of the key in the parameter kparam.
The key names are the macros defined in the curses.h or ncurses.h with the prefix ‘KEY_’ re-
moved; see also the description of the parameter zcurses_keycodes below. Other keys cause a
value to be set in param as before. On a successful return only one of param or kparam contains a
non-empty string; the other is set to an empty string.
If mparam is also supplied, input attempts to handle mouse input. This is only available with the
ncurses library; mouse handling can be detected by checking for the exit status of ‘zcurses mouse’
with no arguments. If a mouse button is clicked (or double- or triple-clicked, or pressed or re-
leased with a configurable delay from being clicked) then kparam is set to the string MOUSE,
and mparam is set to an array consisting of the following elements:
- An identifier to discriminate different input devices; this is only rarely useful.
- The x, y and z coordinates of the mouse click relative to the full screen, as three elements
in that order (i.e. the y coordinate is, unusually, after the x coordinate). The z coordinate
is only available for a few unusual input devices and is otherwise set to zero.
- Any events that occurred as separate items; usually there will be just one. An event con-
sists of PRESSED, RELEASED, CLICKED, DOUBLE_CLICKED or
TRIPLE_CLICKED followed immediately (in the same element) by the number of the
button.
- If the shift key was pressed, the string SHIFT.
- If the control key was pressed, the string CTRL.
- If the alt key was pressed, the string ALT.
Not all mouse events may be passed through to the terminal window; most terminal emulators
handle some mouse events themselves. Note that the ncurses manual implies that using input both
with and without mouse handling may cause the mouse cursor to appear and disappear.
The subcommand mouse can be used to configure the use of the mouse. There is no window argu-
ment; mouse options are global. ‘zcurses mouse’ with no arguments returns status 0 if mouse

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handling is possible, else status 1. Otherwise, the possible arguments (which may be combined on
the same command line) are as follows. delay num sets the maximum delay in milliseconds be-
tween press and release events to be considered as a click; the value 0 disables click resolution,
and the default is one sixth of a second. motion proceeded by an optional ‘+’ (the default) or -
turns on or off reporting of mouse motion in addition to clicks, presses and releases, which are al-
ways reported. However, it appears reports for mouse motion are not currently implemented.
The subcommand timeout specifies a timeout value for input from targetwin. If intval is negative,
‘zcurses input’ waits indefinitely for a character to be typed; this is the default. If intval is zero,
‘zcurses input’ returns immediately; if there is typeahead it is returned, else no input is done and
status 1 is returned. If intval is positive, ‘zcurses input’ waits intval milliseconds for input and if
there is none at the end of that period returns status 1.
The subcommand querychar queries the character at the current cursor position. The return val-
ues are stored in the array named param if supplied, else in the array reply. The first value is the
character (which may be a multibyte character if the system supports them); the second is the
color pair in the usual fg_col/bg_col notation, or 0 if color is not supported. Any attributes other
than color that apply to the character, as set with the subcommand attr, appear as additional ele-
ments.
The subcommand resize resizes stdscr and all windows to given dimensions (windows that stick
out from the new dimensions are resized down). The underlying curses extension (resize_term
call) can be unavailable. To verify, zeroes can be used for height and width. If the result of the sub-
command is 0, resize_term is available (2 otherwise). Tests show that resizing can be normally ac-
complished by calling zcurses end and zcurses refresh. The resize subcommand is provided for
versatility. Multiple system configurations have been checked and zcurses end and zcurses re-
fresh are still needed for correct terminal state after resize. To invoke them with resize, use endwin
argument. Using nosave argument will cause new terminal state to not be saved internally by
zcurses. This is also provided for versatility and should normally be not needed.
Parameters
ZCURSES_COLORS
Readonly integer. The maximum number of colors the terminal supports. This value is initialised
by the curses library and is not available until the first time zcurses init is run.
ZCURSES_COLOR_PAIRS
Readonly integer. The maximum number of color pairs fg_col/bg_col that may be defined in
‘zcurses attr’ commands; note this limit applies to all color pairs that have been used whether or
not they are currently active. This value is initialised by the curses library and is not available un-
til the first time zcurses init is run.
zcurses_attrs
Readonly array. The attributes supported by zsh/curses; available as soon as the module is
loaded.
zcurses_colors
Readonly array. The colors supported by zsh/curses; available as soon as the module is loaded.
zcurses_keycodes
Readonly array. The values that may be returned in the second parameter supplied to ‘zcurses in-
put’ in the order in which they are defined internally by curses. Not all function keys are listed,
only F0; curses reserves space for F0 up to F63.
zcurses_windows
Readonly array. The current list of windows, i.e. all windows that have been created with ‘zcurses
addwin’ and not removed with ‘zcurses delwin’.
THE ZSH/DATETIME MODULE
The zsh/datetime module makes available one builtin command:

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strftime [ -s scalar ] format [ epochtime [ nanoseconds ] ]

strftime -r [ -q ] [ -s scalar ] format timestring
Output the date in the format specified. With no epochtime, the current system date/time is used;
optionally, epochtime may be used to specify the number of seconds since the epoch, and nanosec-
onds may additionally be used to specify the number of nanoseconds past the second (otherwise
that number is assumed to be 0). See strftime(3) for details. The zsh extensions described in the
section EXPANSION OF PROMPT SEQUENCES in zshmisc(1) are also available.
-q Run quietly; suppress printing of all error messages described below. Errors for invalid
epochtime values are always printed.
-r With the option -r (reverse), use format to parse the input string timestring and output the
number of seconds since the epoch at which the time occurred. The parsing is imple-
mented by the system function strptime; see strptime(3). This means that zsh format ex-
tensions are not available, but for reverse lookup they are not required.
In most implementations of strftime any timezone in the timestring is ignored and the lo-
cal timezone declared by the TZ environment variable is used; other parameters are set to
zero if not present.
If timestring does not match format the command returns status 1 and prints an error mes-
sage. If timestring matches format but not all characters in timestring were used, the con-
version succeeds but also prints an error message.
If either of the system functions strptime or mktime is not available, status 2 is returned
and an error message is printed.
-s scalar
Assign the date string (or epoch time in seconds if -r is given) to scalar instead of print-
ing it.
Note that depending on the system’s declared integral time type, strftime may produce incorrect
results for epoch times greater than 2147483647 which corresponds to 2038-01-19 03:14:07
+0000.
The zsh/datetime module makes available several parameters; all are readonly:
EPOCHREALTIME
A floating point value representing the number of seconds since the epoch. The notional accuracy
is to nanoseconds if the clock_gettime call is available and to microseconds otherwise, but in
practice the range of double precision floating point and shell scheduling latencies may be signifi-
cant effects.
EPOCHSECONDS
An integer value representing the number of seconds since the epoch.
epochtime
An array value containing the number of seconds since the epoch in the first element and the re-
mainder of the time since the epoch in nanoseconds in the second element. To ensure the two ele-
ments are consistent the array should be copied or otherwise referenced as a single substitution be-
fore the values are used. The following idiom may be used:
for secs nsecs in $epochtime; do
...
done
THE ZSH/DB/GDBM MODULE
The zsh/db/gdbm module is used to create "tied" associative arrays that interface to database files. If the
GDBM interface is not available, the builtins defined by this module will report an error. This module is
also intended as a prototype for creating additional database interfaces, so the ztie builtin may move to a
more generic module in the future.
The builtins in this module are:

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ztie -d db/gdbm -f filename [ -r ] arrayname

Open the GDBM database identified by filename and, if successful, create the associative array ar-
rayname linked to the file. To create a local tied array, the parameter must first be declared, so
commands similar to the following would be executed inside a function scope:
local -A sampledb
ztie -d db/gdbm -f sample.gdbm sampledb
The -r option opens the database file for reading only, creating a parameter with the readonly at-
tribute. Without this option, using ‘ztie’ on a file for which the user does not have write permis-
sion is an error. If writable, the database is opened synchronously so fields changed in arrayname
are immediately written to filename.
Changes to the file modes filename after it has been opened do not alter the state of arrayname, but
‘typeset -r arrayname’ works as expected.
zuntie [ -u ] arrayname ...
Close the GDBM database associated with each arrayname and then unset the parameter. The -u
option forces an unset of parameters made readonly with ‘ztie -r’.
This happens automatically if the parameter is explicitly unset or its local scope (function) ends.
Note that a readonly parameter may not be explicitly unset, so the only way to unset a global pa-
rameter created with ‘ztie -r’ is to use ‘zuntie -u’.
zgdbmpath parametername
Put path to database file assigned to parametername into REPLY scalar.
zgdbm_tied
Array holding names of all tied parameters.
The fields of an associative array tied to GDBM are neither cached nor otherwise stored in memory, they
are read from or written to the database on each reference. Thus, for example, the values in a readonly ar-
ray may be changed by a second writer of the same database file.
THE ZSH/DELTOCHAR MODULE
The zsh/deltochar module makes available two ZLE functions:
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 command:
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 available some common commands for file manipulation as builtins; these
commands are probably not needed for many normal situations but can be useful in emergency recovery sit-
uations with constrained resources. The commands do not implement all features now required by relevant
standards committees.
For all commands, a variant beginning zf_ is also available and loaded automatically. Using the features
capability of zmodload will let you load only those names you want. Note that it’s possible to load only the
builtins with zsh-specific names using the following command:
zmodload -m -F zsh/files b:zf_\*

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The commands loaded by default are:

chgrp [ -hRs ] group filename ...
Changes group of files specified. This is equivalent to chown with a user-spec argument of
‘:group’.
chmod [ -Rs ] mode filename ...
Changes mode of files specified.
The specified mode must be in octal.
The -R option causes chmod to recursively descend into directories, changing the mode of all
files in the directory after changing the mode of the directory itself.
The -s option is a zsh extension to chmod functionality. It enables paranoid behaviour, intended
to avoid security problems involving a chmod being tricked into affecting files other than the ones
intended. It will refuse to follow symbolic links, so that (for example) ‘‘chmod 600
/tmp/foo/passwd’’ can’t accidentally chmod /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 chmod of a deep directory
tree can’t end up recursively chmoding /usr as a result of directories being moved up the tree.
chown [ -hRs ] 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 separator 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 precedence, if there is an all-numeric username
(or group name).
If the target is a symbolic link, the -h option causes chown to set the ownership of the link instead
of its target.
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 functionality. 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 [ -dfhins ] filename dest
ln [ -dfhins ] 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 us-
ing the -d option. Typically only the super-user can actually succeed in creating hard links to di-
rectories. 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

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about replacing existing files. The -f option causes existing files to be silently deleted, without
querying. -f takes precedence.
The -h and -n options are identical and both exist for compatibility; either one indicates that if the
target is a symlink then it should not be dereferenced. Typically this is used in combination with
-sf so that if an existing link points to a directory then it will be removed, instead of followed. If
this option is used with multiple filenames and the target is a symbolic link pointing to a directory
then the result is an error.
mkdir [ -p ] [ -m mode ] dir ...
Creates directories. With the -p option, non-existing parent directories are first created if neces-
sary, 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 permissions 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 di-
rectory that has the same last pathname component.
By default, the user will be queried before replacing 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 replacing
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 re-
naming 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 [ -dfiRrs ] filename ...
Removes files and directories specified.
Normally, rm will not remove directories (except with the -R or -r options). The -d option
causes rm to try removing directories with unlink (see unlink(2)), the same method used for files.
Typically only the super-user can actually succeed in unlinking directories in this way. -d takes
precedence over -R and -r.
By default, the user will be queried before removing 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 er-
ror indications. -f takes precedence.
The -R and -r options cause rm to recursively descend into directories, deleting all files in the di-
rectory before removing the directory with the rmdir system call (see rmdir(2)).
The -s option is a zsh extension to rm functionality. 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 direc-
tory 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 completed.
THE ZSH/LANGINFO MODULE
The zsh/langinfo module makes available one parameter:

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langinfo
An associative array that maps langinfo elements to their values.
Your implementation may support a number of the following keys:
CODESET, D_T_FMT, D_FMT, T_FMT, RADIXCHAR, THOUSEP, YESEXPR, NO-
EXPR, CRNCYSTR, ABDAY_{1..7}, DAY_{1..7}, ABMON_{1..12}, MON_{1..12},
T_FMT_AMPM, AM_STR, PM_STR, ERA, ERA_D_FMT, ERA_D_T_FMT,
ERA_T_FMT, ALT_DIGITS
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[my-
file]’ 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 ef-
fect as the glob operator *(D), since files beginning with a dot are not special. Care must be taken
with expressions such as rm ${(k)mapfile}, which will delete every file in the current directory
without the usual ‘rm *’ test.
The parameter mapfile may be made read-only; in that case, files referenced may not be written
or deleted.
A file may conveniently be read into an array as one line per element with the form ‘ar-
ray=("${(f@)mapfile[filename]}")’. The double quotes and the ‘@’ are necessary to prevent
empty lines from being removed. Note that if the file ends with a newline, the shell will split on
the final newline, generating an additional empty field; this can be suppressed by using ‘ar-
ray=("${(f@)${mapfile[filename]%$’\n’}}")’.
Limitations
Although reading and writing of the file in question is efficiently handled, zsh’s internal memory manage-
ment may be arbitrarily baroque; however, mapfile is usually very much more efficient than anything in-
volving a loop. Note in particular that the whole contents of the file will always reside physically in mem-
ory when accessed (possibly multiple times, due to standard parameter substitution operations). In particu-
lar, 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, unreadable, or unwritable files, as the parameter mecha-
nism is too low in the shell execution hierarchy to make this convenient.
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.

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The following functions take a single floating point argument: acos, acosh, asin, asinh, atan, atanh, cbrt,
ceil, cos, cosh, erf, erfc, exp, expm1, fabs, floor, gamma, j0, j1, lgamma, log, log10, log1p, log2, 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 function 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 expressions.
The functions min, max, and sum are defined not in this module but in the zmathfunc autoloadable func-
tion, described in the section ‘Mathematical Functions’ in zshcontrib(1).
The following functions take two floating point arguments: copysign, fmod, hypot, nextafter.
The following take an integer first argument and a floating 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
floating point number or an integer. The functions float and int convert their arguments into a floating
point or integer value (by truncation) respectively.
Note that the C pow function is available in ordinary math evaluation as the ‘**’ operator and is not pro-
vided here.
The function rand48 is available if your system’s mathematical library has the function erand48(3). It re-
turns 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 ar-
gument. Subsequent calls to rand48(param) will then maintain the seed in the parameter param as a string
of twelve hexadecimal digits, with no base signifier. The random number sequences for different parame-
ters are completely independent, and are also independent from that used by calls to rand48 with no argu-
ment.
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 interven-
ing rand48().
THE ZSH/NEARCOLOR MODULE
The zsh/nearcolor module replaces colours specified as hex triplets with the nearest colour in the 88 or 256
colour palettes that are widely used by terminal emulators. By default, 24-bit true colour escape codes are
generated when colours are specified using hex triplets. These are not supported by all terminals. The pur-
pose of this module is to make it easier to define colour preferences in a form that can work across a range
of terminal emulators.
Aside from the default colour, the ANSI standard for terminal escape codes provides for eight colours. The
bright attribute brings this to sixteen. These basic colours are commonly used in terminal applications due
to being widely supported. Expanded 88 and 256 colour palettes are also common and, while the first six-
teen colours vary somewhat between terminals and configurations, these add a generally consistent and

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predictable set of colours.

In order to use the zsh/nearcolor module, it only needs to be loaded. Thereafter, whenever a colour is spec-
ified using a hex triplet, it will be compared against each of the available colours and the closest will be se-
lected. The first sixteen colours are never matched in this process due to being unpredictable.
It isn’t possible to reliably detect support for true colour in the terminal emulator. It is therefore recom-
mended to be selective in loading the zsh/nearcolor module. For example, the following checks the COL-
ORTERM environment variable:
[[ $COLORTERM = *(24bit|truecolor)* ]] || zmodload zsh/nearcolor
Note that some terminals accept the true color escape codes but map them internally to a more limited pal-
ette in a similar manner to the zsh/nearcolor module.
THE ZSH/NEWUSER MODULE
The zsh/newuser module is loaded at boot if it is available, the RCS option is set, and the PRIVILEGED
option is not set (all three are true by default). This takes place immediately after commands in the global
zshenv file (typically /etc/zsh/zshenv), if any, have been executed. If the module is not available it is
silently ignored by the shell; the module may safely be removed from $MODULE_PATH by the adminis-
trator if it is not required.
On loading, the module tests if any of the start-up files .zshenv, .zprofile, .zshrc or .zlogin exist in the di-
rectory given by the environment variable ZDOTDIR, or the user’s home directory if that is not set. The
test is not performed and the module halts processing if the shell was in an emulation mode (i.e. had been
invoked as some other shell than zsh).
If none of the start-up files were found, the module then looks for the file newuser first in a sitewide direc-
tory, usually the parent directory of the site-functions directory, and if that is not found the module
searches in a version-specific directory, usually the parent of the functions directory containing ver-
sion-specific functions. (These directories can be configured when zsh is built using the --en-
able-site-scriptdir=dir and --enable-scriptdir=dir flags to configure, respectively; the defaults are pre-
fix/share/zsh and prefix/share/zsh/$ZSH_VERSION where the default prefix is /usr/local.)
If the file newuser is found, it is then sourced in the same manner as a start-up file. The file is expected to
contain code to install start-up files for the user, however any valid shell code will be executed.
The zsh/newuser module is then unconditionally unloaded.
Note that it is possible to achieve exactly the same effect as the zsh/newuser module by adding code to
/etc/zsh/zshenv. The module exists simply to allow the shell to make arrangements for new users without
the need for intervention by package maintainers and system administrators.
The script supplied with the module invokes the shell function zsh-newuser-install. This may be invoked
directly by the user even if the zsh/newuser module is disabled. Note, however, that if the module is not
installed the function will not be installed either. The function is documented in the section User Configu-
ration Functions in zshcontrib(1).
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 setting or un-
setting the option, respectively. Unsetting 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 in-
voked. 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

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the command hash table.

functions
This associative array maps names of enabled functions 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.
functions_source
This readonly associative array maps names of enabled functions to the name of the file containing
the source of the function.
For an autoloaded function that has already been loaded, or marked for autoload with an absolute
path, or that has had its path resolved with ‘functions -r’, this is the file found for autoloading, re-
solved to an absolute path.
For a function defined within the body of a script or sourced file, this is the name of that file. In
this case, this is the exact path originally used to that file, which may be a relative path.
For any other function, including any defined at an interactive prompt or an autoload function
whose path has not yet been resolved, this is the empty string. However, the hash element is re-
ported as defined just so long as the function is present: the keys to this hash are the same as those
to $functions.
dis_functions_source
Like functions_source 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.
patchars
This array contains the enabled pattern characters.
dis_patchars
Like patchars but for disabled pattern characters.
aliases This maps the names of the regular aliases currently 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.

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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 modules. 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 possible.
dirstack
A normal array holding the elements of the directory 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. Although it is pre-
sented as an associative array, the array of all values (${history[@]}) is guaranteed to be returned
in order from most recent to oldest history event, that is, by decreasing history event number.
historywords
A special array containing the words stored in the history. These also appear in most to least re-
cent order.
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).
The keys of the associative arrays are usually valid job numbers, and these are the values output
with, for example, ${(k)jobdirs}. Non-numeric job references may be used when looking up a
value; for example, ${jobdirs[%+]} refers to the current job.
jobtexts
This associative array maps job numbers to the texts of the command lines that were used to start
the jobs.
Handling of the keys of the associative array is as described for jobdirs above.
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.
Handling of the keys of the associative array is as described for jobdirs above.
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 pathnames of their home directories.
usergroups
This associative array maps names of system groups of which the current user is a member to the
corresponding group identifiers. The contents are the same as the groups output by the id com-
mand.

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funcfiletrace
This array contains the absolute line numbers and corresponding file names for the point where the
current function, sourced file, or (if EVAL_LINENO is set) eval command was called. The array
is of the same length as funcsourcetrace and functrace, but differs from funcsourcetrace in that
the line and file are the point of call, not the point of definition, and differs from functrace in that
all values are absolute line numbers in files, rather than relative to the start of a function, if any.
funcsourcetrace
This array contains the file names and line numbers of the points where the functions, sourced
files, and (if EVAL_LINENO is set) eval commands currently being executed were defined. The
line number is the line where the ‘function name’ or ‘name ()’ started. In the case of an au-
toloaded function the line number is reported as zero. The format of each element is file-
name:lineno.
For functions autoloaded from a file in native zsh format, where only the body of the function oc-
curs in the file, or for files that have been executed by the source or ‘.’ builtins, the trace informa-
tion is shown as filename:0, since the entire file is the definition. The source file name is resolved
to an absolute path when the function is loaded or the path to it otherwise resolved.
Most users will be interested in the information in the funcfiletrace array instead.
funcstack
This array contains the names of the functions, sourced files, and (if EVAL_LINENO is set) eval
commands. currently being executed. The first element is the name of the function using the pa-
rameter.
The standard shell array zsh_eval_context can be used to determine the type of shell construct be-
ing executed at each depth: note, however, that is in the opposite order, with the most recent item
last, and it is more detailed, for example including an entry for toplevel, the main shell code being
executed either interactively or from a script, which is not present in $funcstack.
functrace
This array contains the names and line numbers of the callers corresponding to the functions cur-
rently being executed. The format of each element is name:lineno. Callers are also shown for
sourced files; the caller is the point where the source or ‘.’ command was executed.
THE ZSH/PCRE MODULE
The zsh/pcre module makes some commands available as builtins:
pcre_compile [ -aimxs ] 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, ˆ and $ will match newlines within the pat-
tern. Option -x will compile an extended pattern, wherein whitespace and # comments are ig-
nored. Option -s makes the dot metacharacter match all characters, including those that indicate
newline.
pcre_study
Studies the previously-compiled PCRE which may result in faster matching.
pcre_match [ -v var ] [ -a arr ] [ -n offset ] [ -b ] string
Returns successfully if string matches the previously-compiled PCRE.
Upon successful match, if the expression captures substrings within parentheses, 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. Similarly, the variable MATCH will be set to the entire matched portion of the string,
unless the -v option is given, in which case the variable var will be set. No variables are altered if
there is no successful match. A -n option starts searching for a match from the byte offset posi-
tion in string. If the -b option is given, the variable ZPCRE_OP will be set to an offset pair
string, representing the byte offset positions of the entire matched portion within the string. For
example, a ZPCRE_OP set to "32 45" indicates that the matched portion began on byte offset 32

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and ended on byte offset 44. Here, byte offset position 45 is the position directly after the matched
portion. Keep in mind that the byte position isn’t necessarily the same as the character position
when UTF-8 characters are involved. Consequently, the byte offset positions are only to be relied
on in the context of using them for subsequent searches on string, using an offset position as an ar-
gument to the -n option. This is mostly used to implement the "find all non-overlapping
matches" functionality.
A simple example of "find all non-overlapping matches":
string="The following zip codes: 78884 90210 99513"
pcre_compile -m "\d{5}"
accum=()
pcre_match -b -- $string
while [[ $? -eq 0 ]] do
b=($=ZPCRE_OP)
accum+=$MATCH
pcre_match -b -n $b[2] -- $string
done
print -l $accum
The zsh/pcre module makes available the following test condition:
expr -pcre-match pcre
Matches a string against a perl-compatible regular expression.
For example,
[[ "$text" -pcre-match ˆd+$ ]] &&
print text variable contains only "d’s".
If the REMATCH_PCRE option is set, the =˜ operator is equivalent to -pcre-match, and the
NO_CASE_MATCH option may be used. Note that NO_CASE_MATCH never applies to the
pcre_match builtin, instead use the -i switch of pcre_compile.
THE ZSH/PARAM/PRIVATE MODULE
The zsh/param/private module is used to create parameters whose scope is limited to the current function
body, and not to other functions called by the current function.
This module provides a single autoloaded builtin:

private [ {+|-}AHUahlprtux ] [ {+|-}EFLRZi [ n ] ] [ name[=value] ... ]

The private builtin accepts all the same options and arguments as local (zshbuiltins(1)) except for
the ‘-T’ option. Tied parameters may not be made private.
If used at the top level (outside a function scope), private creates a normal parameter in the same
manner as declare or typeset. A warning about this is printed if WARN_CREATE_GLOBAL is
set (zshoptions(1)). Used inside a function scope, private creates a local parameter similar to one
declared with local, except having special properties noted below.
Special parameters which expose or manipulate internal shell state, such as ARGC, argv, COL-
UMNS, LINES, UID, EUID, IFS, PROMPT, RANDOM, SECONDS, etc., cannot be made pri-
vate unless the ‘-h’ option is used to hide the special meaning of the parameter. This may change
in the future.
As with other typeset equivalents, private is both a builtin and a reserved word, so arrays may be assigned
with parenthesized word list name=(value...) syntax. However, the reserved word ‘private’ is not available
until zsh/param/private is loaded, so care must be taken with order of execution and parsing for function
definitions which use private. To compensate for this, the module also adds the option ‘-P’ to the ‘local’
builtin to declare private parameters.
For example, this construction fails if zsh/param/private has not yet been loaded when ‘bad_declaration’
is defined:

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bad_declaration() {
zmodload zsh/param/private
private array=( one two three )
}
This construction works because local is already a keyword, and the module is loaded before the statement
is executed:
good_declaration() {
zmodload zsh/param/private
local -P array=( one two three )
}
The following is usable in scripts but may have trouble with autoload:
zmodload zsh/param/private
iffy_declaration() {
private array=( one two three )
}
The private builtin may always be used with scalar assignments and for declarations without assignments.
Parameters declared with private have the following properties:

• Within the function body where it is declared, the parameter behaves as a local, except as noted
above for tied or special parameters.
• The type of a parameter declared private cannot be changed in the scope where it was declared,
even if the parameter is unset. Thus an array cannot be assigned to a private scalar, etc.
• Within any other function called by the declaring function, the private parameter does NOT hide
other parameters of the same name, so for example a global parameter of the same name is visible
and may be assigned or unset. This includes calls to anonymous functions, although that may also
change in the future.
• An exported private remains in the environment of inner scopes but appears unset for the current
shell in those scopes. Generally, exporting private parameters should be avoided.
Note that this differs from the static scope defined by compiled languages derived from C, in that the a new
call to the same function creates a new scope, i.e., the parameter is still associated with the call stack rather
than with the function definition. It differs from ksh ‘typeset -S’ because the syntax used to define the
function has no bearing on whether the parameter scope is respected.
THE ZSH/REGEX MODULE
The zsh/regex module makes available the following test condition:
expr -regex-match regex
Matches a string against a POSIX extended regular expression. On successful match, matched
portion of the string will normally be placed in the MATCH variable. If there are any capturing
parentheses within the regex, then the match array variable will contain those. If the match is not
successful, then the variables will not be altered.
For example,
[[ alphabetical -regex-match ˆa([ˆa]+)a([ˆa]+)a ]] &&
print -l $MATCH X $match
If the option REMATCH_PCRE is not set, then the =˜ operator will automatically load this mod-
ule as needed and will invoke the -regex-match operator.
If BASH_REMATCH is set, then the array BASH_REMATCH will be set instead of MATCH
and match.

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THE ZSH/SCHED MODULE

The zsh/sched module makes available one builtin command and one parameter.
sched [-o] [+]hh:mm[:ss] command ...
sched [-o] [+]seconds command ...
sched [ -item ]
Make an entry in the scheduled list of commands to execute. The time may be specified in either
absolute or relative time, and either as hours, minutes and (optionally) seconds separated by a
colon, or seconds alone. An absolute number of seconds indicates the time since the epoch
(1970/01/01 00:00); this is useful in combination with the features in the zsh/datetime module,
see the zsh/datetime module entry in zshmodules(1).
With no arguments, prints the list of scheduled commands. If the scheduled command has the -o
flag set, this is shown at the start of the command.
With the argument ‘-item’, removes the given item from the list. The numbering of the list is con-
tinuous and entries are in time order, so the numbering can change when entries are added or
deleted.
Commands are executed either immediately before a prompt, or while the shell’s line editor is
waiting for input. In the latter case it is useful to be able to produce output that does not interfere
with the line being edited. Providing the option -o causes the shell to clear the command line be-
fore the event and redraw it afterwards. This should be used with any scheduled event that pro-
duces visible output to the terminal; it is not needed, for example, with output that updates a termi-
nal emulator’s title bar.
To effect changes to the editor buffer when an event executes, use the ‘zle’ command with no argu-
ments to test whether the editor is active, and if it is, then use ‘zle widget’ to access the editor via
the named widget.
The sched builtin is not made available by default when the shell starts in a mode emulating an-
other shell. It can be made available with the command ‘zmodload -F zsh/sched b:sched’.
zsh_scheduled_events
A readonly array corresponding to the events scheduled by the sched builtin. The indices of the
array correspond to the numbers shown when sched is run with no arguments (provided that the
KSH_ARRAYS option is not set). The value of the array consists of the scheduled time in sec-
onds since the epoch (see the section ‘The zsh/datetime Module’ for facilities for using this num-
ber), followed by a colon, followed by any options (which may be empty but will be preceded by a
‘-’ otherwise), followed by a colon, followed by the command to be executed.
The sched builtin should be used for manipulating the events. Note that this will have an immedi-
ate effect on the contents of the array, so that indices may become invalid.
THE ZSH/NET/SOCKET MODULE
The zsh/net/socket module makes available one builtin command:
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. Currently, 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.
File descriptors can be closed with normal shell syntax when no longer needed, for example:
exec {REPLY}>&-

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Inbound Connections
zsocket -l [ -v ] [ -d fd ] filename
zsocket -l will open a socket listening on filename. The shell parameter REPLY will be set to the
file descriptor associated with that listener. The file descriptor remains open in subshells and
forked external executables.
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. The
file descriptor remains open in subshells and forked external executables.
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 under two possible names:
zstat [ -gnNolLtTrs ] [ -f fd ] [ -H hash ] [ -A array ] [ -F fmt ]
[ +element ] [ file ... ]
stat ... The command acts as a front end to the stat system call (see stat(2)). The same command is pro-
vided with two names; as the name stat is often used by an external command it is recommended
that only the zstat form of the command is used. This can be arranged by loading the module with
the command ‘zmodload -F zsh/stat b:zstat’.
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 provided. 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 num-
ber 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.

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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 (‘‘zstat +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 shortened to any unique set of leading charac-
ters. Otherwise, all elements will be shown for all files.
Options:
-A array
Instead of displaying the results on standard 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
format string supports all of the zsh extensions described in the section EXPANSION OF
PROMPT SEQUENCES in zshmisc(1). 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 re-
turn immediately; arguments, and options other than -A, 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. It’s important to note that this is the exact op-
posite from ls(1), etc.
-n Always show the names of files. Usually these are only shown when output is to standard
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 consump-
tion 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) alongside string data (the -s format); the string data
appears in parentheses after the raw data.
-s Print mode, uid, gid and the three time elements 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 various builtin commands and parameters.

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Builtins
syserror [ -e errvar ] [ -p prefix ] [ errno | errname ]
This command prints out the error message associated with errno, a system error number, fol-
lowed 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 er-
rvar and nothing is output.
A return status of 0 indicates the message was successfully printed (although it may not be useful
if the error number was out of the system’s range), a return status of 1 indicates an error in the pa-
rameters, and a return status of 2 indicates the error name was not recognised (no message is
printed for this).

sysopen [ -arw ] [ -m permissions ] [ -o options ]

-u fd file
This command opens a file. The -r, -w and -a flags indicate whether the file should be opened for
reading, writing and appending, respectively. The -m option allows the initial permissions to use
when creating a file to be specified in octal form. The file descriptor is specified with -u. Either
an explicit file descriptor in the range 0 to 9 can be specified or a variable name can be given to
which the file descriptor number will be assigned.
The -o option allows various system specific options to be specified as a comma-separated list.
The following is a list of possible options. Note that, depending on the system, some may not be
available.
cloexec mark file to be closed when other programs are executed (else the file descriptor remains
open in subshells and forked external executables)
create
creat create file if it does not exist
excl create file, error if it already exists
noatime
suppress updating of the file atime
nofollow
fail if file is a symbolic link
sync request that writes wait until data has been physically written
truncate
trunc truncate file to size 0
To close the file, use one of the following:
exec {fd}<&-
exec {fd}>&-

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 seconds, which may be zero to poll the file descriptor.

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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 pa-
rameter 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 handled internally so that shell interrupts are trans-
parent to the caller. Any other error causes a return.
The possible return statuses 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 parameter
ERRNO gives the error.
4 The attempt to read timed out. Note this does not set ERRNO as this is not a system er-
ror.
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.
sysseek [ -u fd ] [ -w start|end|current ] offset
The current file position at which future reads and writes will take place is adjusted to the specified
byte offset. The offset is evaluated as a math expression. The -u option allows the file descriptor to
be specified. By default the offset is specified relative to the start or the file but, with the -w op-
tion, it is possible to specify that the offset should be relative to the current position or the end of
the file.
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 handled 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.
zsystem flock [ -t timeout ] [ -f var ] [-er] file
zsystem flock -u fd_expr
The builtin zsystem’s subcommand flock performs advisory file locking (via the fcntl(2) system
call) over the entire contents of the given file. This form of locking requires the processes access-
ing the file to cooperate; its most obvious use is between two instances of the shell itself.
In the first form the named file, which must already exist, is locked by opening a file descriptor to
the file and applying a lock to the file descriptor. The lock terminates when the shell process that
created the lock exits; it is therefore often convenient to create file locks within subshells, since the

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lock is automatically released when the subshell exits. Note that use of the print builtin with the
-u option will, as a side effect, release the lock, as will redirection to the file in the shell holding
the lock. To work around this use a subshell, e.g. ‘(print message) >> file’. Status 0 is returned if
the lock succeeds, else status 1.
In the second form the file descriptor given by the arithmetic expression fd_expr is closed, releas-
ing a lock. The file descriptor can be queried by using the ‘-f var’ form during the lock; on a suc-
cessful lock, the shell variable var is set to the file descriptor used for locking. The lock will be re-
leased if the file descriptor is closed by any other means, for example using ‘exec {var}>&-’;
however, the form described here performs a safety check that the file descriptor is in use for file
locking.
By default the shell waits indefinitely for the lock to succeed. The option -t timeout specifies a
timeout for the lock in seconds; currently this must be an integer. The shell will attempt to lock
the file once a second during this period. If the attempt times out, status 2 is returned.
If the option -e is given, the file descriptor for the lock is preserved when the shell uses exec to
start a new process; otherwise it is closed at that point and the lock released.
If the option -r is given, the lock is only for reading, otherwise it is for reading and writing. The
file descriptor is opened accordingly.
zsystem supports subcommand
The builtin zsystem’s subcommand supports tests whether a given subcommand is supported. It
returns status 0 if so, else status 1. It operates silently unless there was a syntax error (i.e. the
wrong number of arguments), in which case status 255 is returned. Status 1 can indicate one of
two things: subcommand is known but not supported by the current operating system, or subcom-
mand is not known (possibly because this is an older version of the shell before it was imple-
mented).
Math Functions
systell(fd)
The systell math function returns the current file position for the file descriptor passed as an argu-
ment.
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.
sysparams
A readonly associative array. The keys are:
pid Returns the process ID of the current process, even in subshells. Compare $$, which re-
turns the process ID of the main shell process.
ppid Returns the process ID of the parent of the current process, even in subshells. Compare
$PPID, which returns the process ID of the parent of the main shell process.
procsubstpid
Returns the process ID of the last process started for process substitution, i.e. the <(...)
and >(...) expansions.
THE ZSH/NET/TCP MODULE
The zsh/net/tcp module makes available one builtin command:
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.

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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 output the contents of the session table in a format suit-
able for automatic parsing. The option is ignored if given with a command to open or close a ses-
sion. The output consists of a set of lines, one per session, each containing the following elements
separated by spaces:
File descriptor
The file descriptor in use for the connection. 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 created:
Z A session created with the zftp command.
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 connection 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 de-
scriptor 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 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, ztcp will return if no incoming connection is pending. Otherwise it will wait for
one.
In order to elicit more verbose output, use -v.

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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 ta-
ble. If fd is not specified, ztcp will close everything in the session table.
Normally, sockets registered by zftp (see zshmodules(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, $fd contains a file descriptor for talking to the other. For example, on host1:
print This is a message >&$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 command:
echotc cap [ arg ... ]
Output the termcap value corresponding to the capability 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 command:
echoti cap [ arg ]
Output the terminfo value corresponding to the capability cap, instantiated with arg if applicable.
The zsh/terminfo module makes available one parameter:
terminfo
An associative array that maps terminfo capability names to their values.

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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 followed by the name of a subcommand. These
are listed below. The return status of each subcommand is supposed to reflect the success or fail-
ure of the remote operation. See a description of the variable ZFTP_VERBOSE for more infor-
mation 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 information.
If IPv6 addresses in colon format are used, the host should be surrounded by quoted square brack-
ets 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 subcommand. 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 omit-
ted, 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 status is one if no parame-
ters 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 punc-
tuation and whitespace should be included at the end of the prompt). The first letter of the param-
eter (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

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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 corre-
sponding 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 mecha-
nism, 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 [ arg ... ]
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 direc-
tory is listed to standard output.
ls [ arg ... ]
Give a (short) listing of the remote directory. With no arg, produces a raw list of the files in the
directory, one per line. Otherwise, up to vagaries of the server implementation, behaves similar 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 ma-
chine 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 file ...
local [ file ... ]
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 second 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

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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 informa-
tion 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 arg ...
Send a host-specific command to the server. You will probably only need this if instructed by the
server to use it.
quote arg ...
Send the raw FTP command sequence to the server. You should be familiar with the FTP com-
mand set as defined in RFC959 before doing this. Useful commands 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 connection, 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 subcommand. Changing to a previous session

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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 current session is deleted. If the current session is
deleted, the earliest existing session becomes the new current session, otherwise the current ses-
sion 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
commands which use zftp are still active.
Parameters
The following shell parameters are used by zftp. Currently 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 ap-
pears 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 com-
patibility 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 connec-
tion is closed, and is not changed when the current session changes.

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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 char-
acter. 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 send-
port 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 commands. 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, specifying 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 beginning with that digit will be printed to standard er-
ror. 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 processed format. By convention, servers use this mechanism
for sending information for the user to read. The appropriate reply code, if it matches the same re-
sponse, takes priority.
If ZFTP_VERBOSE is not set when zftp is loaded, it will be set to the default value 450, i.e.,
messages 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, includ-
ing when a user is logged in, or when a connection 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 terminal, not to standard
output.
When it is called with a transfer in progress, the following additional shell parameters are set:

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ZFTP_FILE
The name of the remote file being transferred 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 otherwise 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 necessary.
Problems
A connection may not be opened in the left hand side of a pipe as this occurs in a subshell and the file infor-
mation 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 subshells 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 sub-
shells, 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 zshzle(1).
THE ZSH/ZLEPARAMETER MODULE
The zsh/zleparameter module defines two special parameters that can be used to access internal informa-
tion of the Zsh Line Editor (see zshzle(1)).
keymaps
This array contains the names of the keymaps currently defined.
widgets
This associative array contains one entry per widget. 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 function implementing the widget,
a string of the form ‘completion:type:name’
for completion widgets,
or a null value if the widget is not yet fully defined. In the penultimate case, type is the name of
the builtin widget the completion widget imitates in its behavior and name is the name of the shell
function implementing the completion widget.

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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 comparable 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]’, then
the number of calls made to the function. The next three columns list the time in milliseconds
spent in the function and its descendants, the average time in milliseconds spent in the function
and its descendants per call and the percentage of time spent in all shell functions used in this
function and its descendants. The following three columns give the same information, but count-
ing only the time spent in the function itself. The final column 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 descendants. Each of these
entries consists of descriptions for the functions that called the function described, the function it-
self, 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
distinguish 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
running time lists the time spent in the described function and its descendants only for the times
when it was called from that particular calling function. Likewise, for a called function, this col-
umns lists the total time spent in the called function and its descendants 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, profiling will be done and multiple invocations of the
zprof builtin command will show the times and numbers 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 listing.
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 com-
mand, as if passed to the eval builtin. The command runs under a newly assigned pseudo-termi-
nal; this is useful for running commands non-interactively which expect an interactive environ-
ment. The name is not part of the command, but is used to refer to this command 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.
The shell parameter REPLY is set to the file descriptor assigned to the master side of the
pseudo-terminal. This allows the terminal to be monitored with ZLE descriptor handlers (see zsh-
zle(1)) or manipulated with sysread and syswrite (see THE ZSH/SYSTEM MODULE in zshmod-
ules(1)). Warning: Use of sysread and syswrite is not recommended; use zpty -r and zpty -w
unless you know exactly what you are doing.

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zpty -d [ name ... ]

The second form, with the -d option, is used to delete commands previously started, by supplying
a list of their names. If no name is given, all commands are deleted. Deleting a command causes
the HUP signal to be sent to the corresponding process.
zpty -w [ -n ] name [ string ... ]
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 string is 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. The exact input is always copied:
the -n option is not applied.
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 [ -mt ] name [ param [ pattern ] ]
The -r option can be used to read the output of the command name. With only a name argument,
the output read is copied to the standard output. Unless the pseudo-terminal is non-blocking,
copying continues until the command under the pseudo-terminal exits; when non-blocking, only
as much output as is immediately available is copied. The return status 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 sta-
tus 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 status is zero if the string read matches the pattern, or if the
command has exited but at least one character could still be read. If the option -m is present, the
return status is zero only if the pattern matches. 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 pattern, the
return status is non-zero.
In all cases, the return status is non-zero if nothing 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 trying
to read. If no output is available, zpty immediately returns the status 1. When used with a pat-
tern, the behaviour on a failed poll is similar to when the command has exited: the return value is
zero if at least one character could still be read even if the pattern failed to match.
zpty -t name
The -t option without the -r option can be used to test whether the command name is still run-
ning. It returns a zero status 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 command:
zselect [ -rwe ] [ -t timeout ] [ -a array ] [ -A assoc ] [ 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 descrip-
tors, which must be decimal integers. By default, file descriptors are to be tested for reading, i.e.

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zselect 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 arbitrary
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 implemen-
tations of the select system call. According to recent versions of the POSIX specification, it is re-
ally 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 hundredths 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’; note, 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 associative array assoc should be set to indicate the file
descriptor(s) which are ready. This option overrides 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 status 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
status 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 [ metapattern [ style ] ] ]
zstyle [ -e | - | -- ] pattern style string ...
zstyle -d [ pattern [ style ... ] ]
zstyle -g name [ pattern [ style ] ]
zstyle -{a|b|s} context style name [ sep ]
zstyle -{T|t} context style [ string ... ]
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 matched against the patterns. The
definition stored for the most specific pattern that matches will be returned.
A pattern is considered to be more specific than another if it contains more components (substrings
separated by colons) or if the patterns for the components are more specific, where simple strings
are considered to be more specific than patterns and complex patterns are considered to be more
specific than the pattern ‘*’. A ‘*’ in the pattern will match zero or more characters in the context;
colons are not treated specially in this regard. If two patterns are equally specific, the tie is broken
in favour of the pattern that was defined first.
Example
For example, to define your preferred form of precipitation depending on which city you’re in, you
might set the following in your zshrc:
zstyle ’:weather:europe:*’ preferred-precipitation rain

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zstyle ’:weather:europe:germany:* preferred-precipitation none

zstyle ’:weather:europe:germany:*:munich’ preferred-precipitation snow
Then, the fictional ‘weather’ plugin might run under the hood a command such as
zstyle -s ":weather:${continent}:${country}:${county}:${city}" preferred-precipitation REPLY
in order to retrieve your preference into the scalar variable $REPLY.
Usage
The forms that operate on patterns are the following.
zstyle [ -L [ metapattern [ style ] ] ]
Without arguments, lists style definitions. Styles are shown in alphabetic order and pat-
terns are shown in the order zstyle will test them.
If the -L option is given, listing is done in the form of calls to zstyle. The optional first
argument, metapattern, is a pattern which will be matched against the string supplied as
pattern when the style was defined. Note: this means, for example, ‘zstyle -L ":comple-
tion:*"’ will match any supplied pattern beginning ‘:completion:’, not just ":comple-
tion:*": use ’:completion:\*’ to match that. The optional second argument limits the
output to a specific style (not a pattern). -L is not compatible with any other options.
zstyle [ - | -- | -e ] pattern style string ...
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 re-
turned after the evaluation. Before evaluating the value, reply is unset, and if it is still
unset after the evaluation, the style is treated as if it were not set.
zstyle -d [ pattern [ style ... ] ]
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 pat-
tern 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 styles for a given context.
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 concatenated with spaces (or with the sep string if that is
given) between them.
Return 0 if the style is set, 1 otherwise.
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’.
Return 0 if name is set to ‘yes’, 1 otherwise.
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.
Return 0 if the style is set, 1 otherwise.

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zstyle -t context style [ string ... ]

zstyle -T context style [ string ... ]
Test the value of a style, i.e. the -t option only returns a status (sets $?). Without any
string 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 defined but doesn’t match, the return
status is 1. If the style is not defined, the status is 2.
The -T option tests the values of the style like -t, but it returns status 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 spec ...
zformat -a array sep spec ...
This builtin provides two different forms of formatting. The first form is selected with the -f op-
tion. In this case the format string will be modified 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 maximum field width specifications between
the ‘%’ and the ‘char’ in the form ‘%min.maxc’, i.e. the minimum 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 maxi-
mum 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 fol-
lowed by a ‘(’ and then an ordinary format specifier character as described above. There may be a
set of digits either before or after the ‘(’; these specify a test number, which defaults to zero. Neg-
ative numbers 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 speci-
fier in the char:string expressions is evaluated as a mathematical expression, and compared with
the test number. If they are the same, text1 is output, 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 replac-
ing 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. A colon in the left string can be escaped with a
backslash. The resulting strings are stored in the array.

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zregexparse
This implements some internals of the _regex_arguments function.
zparseopts [ -D -E -F -K -M ] [ -a array ] [ -A assoc ] [ - ] spec ...
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 parameters it is copied into the array specified with the
-a option; if the optional ‘=array’ is given, it is instead copied into that array, which should be de-
clared as a normal array and never as an associative 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 ‘--’. See also
-F.
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 indistinguishable). 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.
In all cases, option-arguments must appear either immediately following the option in the same
positional parameter or in the next one. Even an optional argument may appear in the next parame-
ter, unless it begins with a ‘-’. There is no special handling of ‘=’ as with GNU-style argument
parsers; given the spec ‘-foo:’, the positional parameter ‘--foo=bar’ is parsed as ‘--foo’ with an
argument of ‘=bar’.
When the names of two options that take no arguments overlap, the longest one wins, so that pars-
ing for the specs ‘-foo -foobar’ (for example) is unambiguous. However, due to the aforemen-
tioned handling of option-arguments, ambiguities may arise when at least one overlapping spec
takes an argument, as in ‘-foo: -foobar’. In that case, the last matching spec wins.
The options of zparseopts itself cannot be stacked because, for example, the stack ‘-DEK’ is in-
distinguishable from a spec for the GNU-style long option ‘--DEK’. The options of zparseopts
itself are:
-a array
As described above, this names the default array in which to store the recognised options.

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-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 calling shell or shell function, up to but not including any not described by the specs.
If the first such parameter is ‘-’ or ‘--’, it is removed as well. This is similar to using the
shift builtin.
-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
arguments, ignoring all other options and arguments that may be in the positional param-
eters. As indicated above, parsing still stops at the first ‘-’ or ‘--’ not described by a
spec, but it is not removed when used with -D.
-F If this option is given, zparseopts immediately stops at the first option-like parameter
not described by one of the specs, prints an error message, and returns status 1. Removal
(-D) and extraction (-E) are not performed, and option arrays are not updated. This pro-
vides basic validation for the given options.
Note that the appearance in the positional parameters of an option without its required ar-
gument always aborts parsing and returns an error as described above regardless of
whether this option is used.
-K With this option, the arrays specified with the -a option and with the ‘=array’ forms are
kept unchanged when none of the specs for them is used. Otherwise the entire array is re-
placed when any of the specs is used. Individual elements of associative arrays specified
with the -A option are preserved by -K. This allows assignment of default values to ar-
rays before calling zparseopts.
-M This changes the assignment rules to implement a map among equivalent option names.
If any spec uses the ‘=array’ form, the string array is interpreted as the name of another
spec, which is used to choose where to store the values. If no other spec is found, the val-
ues are stored as usual. This changes only the way the values are stored, not the way $*
is parsed, so results may be unpredictable if the ‘name+’ specifier is used inconsistently.
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 ar-
ray bar.
The -M option can be used like this:
set -- -a -bx -c y -cz baz -cend
zparseopts -A bar -M a=foo b+: c:=b

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ZSHMODULES(1) General Commands Manual ZSHMODULES(1)

to have the effect of

foo=(-a)
bar=(-a ’’ -b xyz)

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ZSHCALSYS(1) General Commands Manual ZSHCALSYS(1)

NAME
zshcalsys - zsh calendar system
DESCRIPTION
The shell is supplied with a series of functions to replace and enhance the traditional Unix calendar pro-
gramme, which warns the user of imminent or future events, details of which are stored in a text file (typi-
cally calendar in the user’s home directory). The version provided here includes a mechanism for alerting
the user when an event is due.
In addition functions age, before and after are provided that can be used in a glob qualifier; they allow files
to be selected based on their modification times.
The format of the calendar file and the dates used there in and in the age function are described first, then
the functions that can be called to examine and modify the calendar file.
The functions here depend on the availability of the zsh/datetime module which is usually installed with
the shell. The library function strptime() must be available; it is present on most recent operating systems.
FILE AND DATE FORMATS
Calendar File Format
The calendar file is by default ˜/calendar. This can be configured by the calendar-file style, see the sec-
tion STYLES below. The basic format consists of a series of separate lines, with no indentation, each in-
cluding a date and time specification followed by a description of the event.
Various enhancements to this format are supported, based on the syntax of Emacs calendar mode. An in-
dented line indicates a continuation line that continues the description of the event from the preceding line
(note the date may not be continued in this way). An initial ampersand (&) is ignored for compatibility.
An indented line on which the first non-whitespace character is # is not displayed with the calendar entry,
but is still scanned for information. This can be used to hide information useful to the calendar system but
not to the user, such as the unique identifier used by calendar_add.
The Emacs extension that a date with no description may refer to a number of succeeding events at different
times is not supported.
Unless the done-file style has been altered, any events which have been processed are appended to the file
with the same name as the calendar file with the suffix .done, hence ˜/calendar.done by default.
An example is shown below.
Date Format
The format of the date and time is designed to allow flexibility without admitting ambiguity. (The words
‘date’ and ‘time’ are both used in the documentation below; except where specifically noted this implies a
string that may include both a date and a time specification.) Note that there is no localization support;
month and day names must be in English and separator characters are fixed. Matching is case insensitive,
and only the first three letters of the names are significant, although as a special case a form beginning
"month" does not match "Monday". Furthermore, time zones are not handled; all times are assumed to be
local.
It is recommended that, rather than exploring the intricacies of the system, users find a date format that is
natural to them and stick to it. This will avoid unexpected effects. Various key facts should be noted.
• In particular, note the confusion between month/day/year and day/month/year when the month is
numeric; these formats should be avoided if at all possible. Many alternatives are available.
• The year must be given in full to avoid confusion, and only years from 1900 to 2099 inclusive are
matched.
The following give some obvious examples; users finding here a format they like and not subject to va-
garies of style may skip the full description. As dates and times are matched separately (even though the
time may be embedded in the date), any date format may be mixed with any format for the time of day pro-
vide the separators are clear (whitespace, colons, commas).
2007/04/03 13:13

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2007/04/03:13:13
2007/04/03 1:13 pm
3rd April 2007, 13:13
April 3rd 2007 1:13 p.m.
Apr 3, 2007 13:13
Tue Apr 03 13:13:00 2007
13:13 2007/apr/3
More detailed rules follow.
Times are parsed and extracted before dates. They must use colons to separate hours and minutes, though a
dot is allowed before seconds if they are present. This limits time formats to the following:
• HH:MM[:SS[.FFFFF]] [am|pm|a.m.|p.m.]
• HH:MM.SS[.FFFFF] [am|pm|a.m.|p.m.]
Here, square brackets indicate optional elements, possibly with alternatives. Fractions of a second are
recognised but ignored. For absolute times (the normal format require by the calendar file and the age, be-
fore and after functions) a date is mandatory but a time of day is not; the time returned is at the start of the
date. One variation is allowed: if a.m. or p.m. or one of their variants is present, an hour without a minute
is allowed, e.g. 3 p.m..
Time zones are not handled, though if one is matched following a time specification it will be removed to
allow a surrounding date to be parsed. This only happens if the format of the timezone is not too unusual.
The following are examples of forms that are understood:
+0100
GMT
GMT-7
CET+1CDT
Any part of the timezone that is not numeric must have exactly three capital letters in the name.
Dates suffer from the ambiguity between DD/MM/YYYY and MM/DD/YYYY. It is recommended this form
is avoided with purely numeric dates, but use of ordinals, eg. 3rd/04/2007, will resolve the ambiguity as the
ordinal is always parsed as the day of the month. Years must be four digits (and the first two must be 19 or
20); 03/04/08 is not recognised. Other numbers may have leading zeroes, but they are not required. The
following are handled:
• YYYY/MM/DD
• YYYY-MM-DD
• YYYY/MNM/DD
• YYYY-MNM-DD
• DD[th|st|rd] MNM[,] [ YYYY ]
• MNM DD[th|st|rd][,] [ YYYY ]
• DD[th|st|rd]/MM[,] YYYY
• DD[th|st|rd]/MM/YYYY
• MM/DD[th|st|rd][,] YYYY
• MM/DD[th|st|rd]/YYYY
Here, MNM is at least the first three letters of a month name, matched case-insensitively. The remainder of
the month name may appear but its contents are irrelevant, so janissary, febrile, martial, apricot, maybe,
junta, etc. are happily handled.
Where the year is shown as optional, the current year is assumed. There are only two such cases, the form
Jun 20 or 14 September (the only two commonly occurring forms, apart from a "the" in some forms of
English, which isn’t currently supported). Such dates will of course become ambiguous in the future, so

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ZSHCALSYS(1) General Commands Manual ZSHCALSYS(1)

should ideally be avoided.

Times may follow dates with a colon, e.g. 1965/07/12:09:45; this is in order to provide a format with no
whitespace. A comma and whitespace are allowed, e.g. 1965/07/12, 09:45. Currently the order of these
separators is not checked, so illogical formats such as 1965/07/12, : ,09:45 will also be matched. For sim-
plicity such variations are not shown in the list above. Otherwise, a time is only recognised as being associ-
ated with a date if there is only whitespace in between, or if the time was embedded in the date.
Days of the week are not normally scanned, but will be ignored if they occur at the start of the date pattern
only. However, in contexts where it is useful to specify dates relative to today, days of the week with no
other date specification may be given. The day is assumed to be either today or within the past week. Like-
wise, the words yesterday, today and tomorrow are handled. All matches are case-insensitive. Hence if
today is Monday, then Sunday is equivalent to yesterday, Monday is equivalent to today, but Tuesday
gives a date six days ago. This is not generally useful within the calendar file. Dates in this format may be
combined with a time specification; for example Tomorrow, 8 p.m..
For example, the standard date format:
Fri Aug 18 17:00:48 BST 2006
is handled by matching HH:MM:SS and removing it together with the matched (but unused) time zone.
This leaves the following:
Fri Aug 18 2006
Fri is ignored and the rest is matched according to the standard rules.
Relative Time Format
In certain places relative times are handled. Here, a date is not allowed; instead a combination of various
supported periods are allowed, together with an optional time. The periods must be in order from most to
least significant.
In some cases, a more accurate calculation is possible when there is an anchor date: offsets of months or
years pick the correct day, rather than being rounded, and it is possible to pick a particular day in a month
as ‘(1st Friday)’, etc., as described in more detail below.
Anchors are available in the following cases. If one or two times are passed to the function calendar, the
start time acts an anchor for the end time when the end time is relative (even if the start time is implicit).
When examining calendar files, the scheduled event being examined anchors the warning time when it is
given explicitly by means of the WARN keyword; likewise, the scheduled event anchors a repetition period
when given by the RPT keyword, so that specifications such as RPT 2 months, 3rd Thursday are handled
properly. Finally, the -R argument to calendar_scandate directly provides an anchor for relative calcula-
tions.
The periods handled, with possible abbreviations are:
Years years, yrs, ys, year, yr, y, yearly. A year is 365.25 days unless there is an anchor.
Months months, mons, mnths, mths, month, mon, mnth, mth, monthly. Note that m, ms, mn, mns are
ambiguous and are not handled. A month is a period of 30 days rather than a calendar month un-
less there is an anchor.
Weeks weeks, wks, ws, week, wk, w, weekly
Days days, dys, ds, day, dy, d, daily
Hours hours, hrs, hs, hour, hr, h, hourly
Minutes
minutes, mins, minute, min, but not m, ms, mn or mns
Seconds
seconds, secs, ss, second, sec, s
Spaces between the numbers are optional, but are required between items, although a comma may be used
(with or without spaces).

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The forms yearly to hourly allow the number to be omitted; it is assumed to be 1. For example, 1 d and
daily are equivalent. Note that using those forms with plurals is confusing; 2 yearly is the same as 2 years,
not twice yearly, so it is recommended they only be used without numbers.
When an anchor time is present, there is an extension to handle regular events in the form of the nth some-
day of the month. Such a specification must occur immediately after any year and month specification, but
before any time of day, and must be in the form n(th|st|rd) day, for example 1st Tuesday or 3rd Monday.
As in other places, days are matched case insensitively, must be in English, and only the first three letters
are significant except that a form beginning ‘month’ does not match ‘Monday’. No attempt is made to sani-
tize the resulting date; attempts to squeeze too many occurrences into a month will push the day into the
next month (but in the obvious fashion, retaining the correct day of the week).
Here are some examples:
30 years 3 months 4 days 3:42:41
14 days 5 hours
Monthly, 3rd Thursday
4d,10hr
Example
Here is an example calendar file. It uses a consistent date format, as recommended above.
Feb 1, 2006 14:30 Pointless bureaucratic meeting
Mar 27, 2006 11:00 Mutual recrimination and finger pointing
Bring water pistol and waterproofs
Mar 31, 2006 14:00 Very serious managerial pontification
# UID 12C7878A9A50
Apr 10, 2006 13:30 Even more pointless blame assignment exercise WARN 30 mins
May 18, 2006 16:00 Regular moaning session RPT monthly, 3rd Thursday
The second entry has a continuation line. The third entry has a continuation line that will not be shown
when the entry is displayed, but the unique identifier will be used by the calendar_add function when up-
dating the event. The fourth entry will produce a warning 30 minutes before the event (to allow you to
equip yourself appropriately). The fifth entry repeats after a month on the 3rd Thursday, i.e. June 15, 2006,
at the same time.
USER FUNCTIONS
This section describes functions that are designed to be called directly by the user. The first part describes
those functions associated with the user’s calendar; the second part describes the use in glob qualifiers.
Calendar system functions
calendar [ -abdDsv ] [ -C calfile ] [ -n num ] [ -S showprog ]
[ [ start ] end ]
calendar -r [ -abdDrsv ] [ -C calfile ] [ -n num ] [ -S showprog ]
[ start ]
Show events in the calendar.
With no arguments, show events from the start of today until the end of the next working day after
today. In other words, if today is Friday, Saturday, or Sunday, show up to the end of the following
Monday, otherwise show today and tomorrow.
If end is given, show events from the start of today up to the time and date given, which is in the
format described in the previous section. Note that if this is a date the time is assumed to be mid-
night at the start of the date, so that effectively this shows all events before the given date.
end may start with a +, in which case the remainder of the specification is a relative time format as
described in the previous section indicating the range of time from the start time that is to be in-
cluded.
If start is also given, show events starting from that time and date. The word now can be used to
indicate the current time.

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To implement an alert when events are due, include calendar -s in your ˜/.zshrc file.
Options:
-a Show all items in the calendar, regardless of the start and end.
-b Brief: don’t display continuation lines (i.e. indented lines following the line with the
date/time), just the first line.
-B lines
Brief: display at most the first lines lines of the calendar entry. ‘-B 1’ is equivalent to
‘-b’.
-C calfile
Explicitly specify a calendar file instead of the value of the calendar-file style or the de-
fault ˜/calendar.
-d Move any events that have passed from the calendar file to the "done" file, as given by the
done-file style or the default which is the calendar file with .done appended. This option
is implied by the -s option.
-D Turns off the option -d, even if the -s option is also present.
-n num, -num
Show at least num events, if present in the calendar file, regardless of the start and end.
-r Show all the remaining options in the calendar, ignoring the given end time. The start
time is respected; any argument given is treated as a start time.
-s Use the shell’s sched command to schedule a timed event that will warn the user when an
event is due. Note that the sched command only runs if the shell is at an interactive
prompt; a foreground task blocks the scheduled task from running until it is finished.
The timed event usually runs the programme calendar_show to show the event, as de-
scribed in the section UTILITY FUNCTIONS below.
By default, a warning of the event is shown five minutes before it is due. The warning
period can be configured by the style warn-time or for a single calendar entry by includ-
ing WARN reltime in the first line of the entry, where reltime is one of the usual relative
time formats.
A repeated event may be indicated by including RPT reldate in the first line of the entry.
After the scheduled event has been displayed it will be re-entered into the calendar file at
a time reldate after the existing event. Note that this is currently the only use made of the
repeat count, so that it is not possible to query the schedule for a recurrence of an event in
the calendar until the previous event has passed.
If RPT is used, it is also possible to specify that certain recurrences of an event are
rescheduled or cancelled. This is done with the OCCURRENCE keyword, followed by
whitespace and the date and time of the occurrence in the regular sequence, followed by
whitespace and either the date and time of the rescheduled event or the exact string CAN-
CELLED. In this case the date and time must be in exactly the "date with local time"
format used by the text/calendar MIME type (RFC 2445),
<YYYY><MM><DD>T<hh><mm><ss> (note the presence of the literal character T).
The first word (the regular recurrence) may be something other than a proper date/time to
indicate that the event is additional to the normal sequence; a convention that retains the
formatting appearance is XXXXXXXXTXXXXXX.
Furthermore, it is useful to record the next regular recurrence (as then the displayed date
may be for a rescheduled event so cannot be used for calculating the regular sequence).
This is specified by RECURRENCE and a time or date in the same format. calen-
dar_add adds such an indication when it encounters a recurring event that does not in-
clude one, based on the headline date/time.

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If calendar_add is used to update occurrences the UID keyword described there should
be present in both the existing entry and the added occurrence in order to identify recur-
ring event sequences.
For example,
Thu May 6, 2010 11:00 Informal chat RPT 1 week
# RECURRENCE 20100506T110000
# OCCURRENCE 20100513T110000 20100513T120000
# OCCURRENCE 20100520T110000 CANCELLED
The event that occurs at 11:00 on 13th May 2010 is rescheduled an hour later. The event
that occurs a week later is cancelled. The occurrences are given on a continuation line
starting with a # character so will not usually be displayed as part of the event. As else-
where, no account of time zones is taken with the times. After the next event occurs the
headline date/time will be ‘Thu May 13, 2010 12:00’ while the RECURRENCE
date/time will be ‘20100513T110000’ (note that cancelled and moved events are not
taken account of in the RECURRENCE, which records what the next regular recurrence
is, but they are accounted for in the headline date/time).
It is safe to run calendar -s to reschedule an existing event (if the calendar file has
changed, for example), and also to have it running in multiples instances of the shell since
the calendar file is locked when in use.
By default, expired events are moved to the "done" file; see the -d option. Use -D to
prevent this.
-S showprog
Explicitly specify a programme to be used for showing events instead of the value of the
show-prog style or the default calendar_show.
-v Verbose: show more information about stages of processing. This is useful for confirm-
ing that the function has successfully parsed the dates in the calendar file.
calendar_add [ -BL ] event ...
Adds a single event to the calendar in the appropriate location. The event can contain multiple
lines, as described in the section Calendar File Format above. Using this function ensures that the
calendar file is sorted in date and time order. It also makes special arrangements for locking the
file while it is altered. The old calendar is left in a file with the suffix .old.
The option -B indicates that backing up the calendar file will be handled by the caller and should
not be performed by calendar_add. The option -L indicates that calendar_add does not need to
lock the calendar file as it is already locked. These options will not usually be needed by users.
If the style reformat-date is true, the date and time of the new entry will be rewritten into the
standard date format: see the descriptions of this style and the style date-format.
The function can use a unique identifier stored with each event to ensure that updates to existing
events are treated correctly. The entry should contain the word UID, followed by whitespace, fol-
lowed by a word consisting entirely of hexadecimal digits of arbitrary length (all digits are signifi-
cant, including leading zeroes). As the UID is not directly useful to the user, it is convenient to
hide it on an indented continuation line starting with a #, for example:
Aug 31, 2007 09:30 Celebrate the end of the holidays
# UID 045B78A0
The second line will not be shown by the calendar function.
It is possible to specify the RPT keyword followed by CANCELLED instead of a relative time.
This causes any matched event or series of events to be cancelled (the original event does not have
to be marked as recurring in order to be cancelled by this method). A UID is required in order to
match an existing event in the calendar.

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calendar_add will attempt to manage recurrences and occurrences of repeating events as de-
scribed for event scheduling by calendar -s above. To reschedule or cancel a single event calen-
dar_add should be called with an entry that includes the correct UID but does not include the
RPT keyword as this is taken to mean the entry applies to a series of repeating events and hence
replaces all existing information. Each rescheduled or cancelled occurrence must have an OC-
CURRENCE keyword in the entry passed to calendar_add which will be merged into the calen-
dar file. Any existing reference to the occurrence is replaced. An occurrence that does not refer to
a valid existing event is added as a one-off occurrence to the same calendar entry.
calendar_edit
This calls the user’s editor to edit the calendar file. If there are arguments, they are taken as the
editor to use (the file name is appended to the commands); otherwise, the editor is given by the
variable VISUAL, if set, else the variable EDITOR.
If the calendar scheduler was running, then after editing the file calendar -s is called to update it.
This function locks out the calendar system during the edit. Hence it should be used to edit the
calendar file if there is any possibility of a calendar event occurring meanwhile. Note this can lead
to another shell with calendar functions enabled hanging waiting for a lock, so it is necessary to
quit the editor as soon as possible.
calendar_parse calendar-entry
This is the internal function that analyses the parts of a calendar entry, which is passed as the only
argument. The function returns status 1 if the argument could not be parsed as a calendar entry
and status 2 if the wrong number of arguments were passed; it also sets the parameter reply to an
empty associative array. Otherwise, it returns status 0 and sets elements of the associative array
reply as follows:
time The time as a string of digits in the same units as $EPOCHSECONDS
schedtime
The regularly scheduled time. This may differ from the actual event time time if this is a
recurring event and the next occurrence has been rescheduled. Then time gives the actual
time and schedtime the time of the regular recurrence before modification.
text1 The text from the line not including the date and time of the event, but including any
WARN or RPT keywords and values.
warntime
Any warning time given by the WARN keyword as a string of digits containing the time
at which to warn in the same units as $EPOCHSECONDS. (Note this is an absolute
time, not the relative time passed down.) Not set no WARN keyword and value were
matched.
warnstr
The raw string matched after the WARN keyword, else unset.
rpttime
Any recurrence time given by the RPT keyword as a string of digits containing the time
of the recurrence in the same units as $EPOCHSECONDS. (Note this is an absolute
time.) Not set if no RPT keyword and value were matched.
schedrpttime
The next regularly scheduled occurrence of a recurring event before modification. This
may differ from rpttime, which is the actual time of the event that may have been
rescheduled from the regular time.
rptstr The raw string matched after the RPT keyword, else unset.
text2 The text from the line after removal of the date and any keywords and values.
calendar_showdate [ -r ] [ -f fmt ] date-spec ...
The given date-spec is interpreted and the corresponding date and time printed. If the initial
date-spec begins with a + or - it is treated as relative to the current time; date-specs after the first
are treated as relative to the date calculated so far and a leading + is optional in that case. This al-
lows one to use the system as a date calculator. For example, calendar_showdate ’+1 month, 1st

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Friday’ shows the date of the first Friday of next month.

With the option -r nothing is printed but the value of the date and time in seconds since the epoch
is stored in the parameter REPLY.
With the option -f fmt the given date/time conversion format is passed to strftime; see notes on
the date-format style below.
In order to avoid ambiguity with negative relative date specifications, options must occur in sepa-
rate words; in other words, -r and -f should not be combined in the same word.
calendar_sort
Sorts the calendar file into date and time order. The old calendar is left in a file with the suffix
.old.
Glob qualifiers
age The function age can be autoloaded and use separately from the calendar system, although it uses
the function calendar_scandate for date formatting. It requires the zsh/stat builtin, but uses only
the builtin zstat.
age selects files having a given modification time for use as a glob qualifier. The format of the
date is the same as that understood by the calendar system, described in the section FILE AND
DATE FORMATS above.
The function can take one or two arguments, which can be supplied either directly as command or
arguments, or separately as shell parameters.
print *(e:age 2006/10/04 2006/10/09:)
The example above matches all files modified between the start of those dates. The second argu-
ment may alternatively be a relative time introduced by a +:
print *(e:age 2006/10/04 +5d:)
The example above is equivalent to the previous example.
In addition to the special use of days of the week, today and yesterday, times with no date may be
specified; these apply to today. Obviously such uses become problematic around midnight.
print *(e-age 12:00 13:30-)
The example above shows files modified between 12:00 and 13:00 today.
print *(e:age 2006/10/04:)
The example above matches all files modified on that date. If the second argument is omitted it is
taken to be exactly 24 hours after the first argument (even if the first argument contains a time).
print *(e-age 2006/10/04:10:15 2006/10/04:10:45-)
The example above supplies times. Note that whitespace within the time and date specification
must be quoted to ensure age receives the correct arguments, hence the use of the additional colon
to separate the date and time.
AGEREF=2006/10/04:10:15
AGEREF2=2006/10/04:10:45
print *(+age)
This shows the same example before using another form of argument passing. The dates and
times in the parameters AGEREF and AGEREF2 stay in effect until unset, but will be overridden
if any argument is passed as an explicit argument to age. Any explicit argument causes both pa-
rameters to be ignored.
Instead of an explicit date and time, it’s possible to use the modification time of a file as the date
and time for either argument by introducing the file name with a colon:
print *(e-age :file1-)

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matches all files created on the same day (24 hours starting from midnight) as file1.
print *(e-age :file1 :file2-)
matches all files modified no earlier than file1 and no later than file2; precision here is to the near-
est second.
after
before The functions after and before are simpler versions of age that take just one argument. The argu-
ment is parsed similarly to an argument of age; if it is not given the variable AGEREF is con-
sulted. As the names of the functions suggest, a file matches if its modification time is after or be-
fore the time and date specified. If a time only is given the date is today.
The two following examples are therefore equivalent:
print *(e-after 12:00-)
print *(e-after today:12:00-)
STYLES
The zsh style mechanism using the zstyle command is describe in zshmodules(1). This is the same mecha-
nism used in the completion system.
The styles below are all examined in the context :datetime:function:, for example :datetime:calendar:.
calendar-file
The location of the main calendar. The default is ˜/calendar.
date-format
A strftime format string (see strftime(3)) with the zsh extensions providing various numbers with
no leading zero or space if the number is a single digit as described for the %D{string} prompt
format in the section EXPANSION OF PROMPT SEQUENCES in zshmisc(1).
This is used for outputting dates in calendar, both to support the -v option and when adding re-
curring events back to the calendar file, and in calendar_showdate as the final output format.
If the style is not set, the default used is similar the standard system format as output by the date
command (also known as ‘ctime format’): ‘%a %b %d %H:%M:%S %Z %Y’.
done-file
The location of the file to which events which have passed are appended. The default is the calen-
dar file location with the suffix .done. The style may be set to an empty string in which case a
"done" file will not be maintained.
reformat-date
Boolean, used by calendar_add. If it is true, the date and time of new entries added to the calen-
dar will be reformatted to the format given by the style date-format or its default. Only the date
and time of the event itself is reformatted; any subsidiary dates and times such as those associated
with repeat and warning times are left alone.
show-prog
The programme run by calendar for showing events. It will be passed the start time and stop time
of the events requested in seconds since the epoch followed by the event text. Note that calendar
-s uses a start time and stop time equal to one another to indicate alerts for specific events.
The default is the function calendar_show.
warn-time
The time before an event at which a warning will be displayed, if the first line of the event does not
include the text EVENT reltime. The default is 5 minutes.
UTILITY FUNCTIONS
calendar_lockfiles
Attempt to lock the files given in the argument. To prevent problems with network file locking this
is done in an ad hoc fashion by attempting to create a symbolic link to the file with the name
file.lockfile. No other system level functions are used for locking, i.e. the file can be accessed and

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modified by any utility that does not use this mechanism. In particular, the user is not prevented
from editing the calendar file at the same time unless calendar_edit is used.
Three attempts are made to lock the file before giving up. If the module zsh/zselect is available,
the times of the attempts are jittered so that multiple instances of the calling function are unlikely
to retry at the same time.
The files locked are appended to the array lockfiles, which should be local to the caller.
If all files were successfully locked, status zero is returned, else status one.
This function may be used as a general file locking function, although this will only work if only
this mechanism is used to lock files.
calendar_read
This is a backend used by various other functions to parse the calendar file, which is passed as the
only argument. The array calendar_entries is set to the list of events in the file; no pruning is
done except that ampersands are removed from the start of the line. Each entry may contain multi-
ple lines.
calendar_scandate
This is a generic function to parse dates and times that may be used separately from the calendar
system. The argument is a date or time specification as described in the section FILE AND DATE
FORMATS above. The parameter REPLY is set to the number of seconds since the epoch corre-
sponding to that date or time. By default, the date and time may occur anywhere within the given
argument.
Returns status zero if the date and time were successfully parsed, else one.
Options:
-a The date and time are anchored to the start of the argument; they will not be matched if
there is preceding text.
-A The date and time are anchored to both the start and end of the argument; they will not be
matched if the is any other text in the argument.
-d Enable additional debugging output.
-m Minus. When -R anchor_time is also given the relative time is calculated backwards
from anchor_time.
-r The argument passed is to be parsed as a relative time.
-R anchor_time
The argument passed is to be parsed as a relative time. The time is relative to an-
chor_time, a time in seconds since the epoch, and the returned value is the absolute time
corresponding to advancing anchor_time by the relative time given. This allows lengths
of months to be correctly taken into account. If the final day does not exist in the given
month, the last day of the final month is given. For example, if the anchor time is during
31st January 2007 and the relative time is 1 month, the final time is the same time of day
during 28th February 2007.
-s In addition to setting REPLY, set REPLY2 to the remainder of the argument after the
date and time have been stripped. This is empty if the option -A was given.
-t Allow a time with no date specification. The date is assumed to be today. The behaviour
is unspecified if the iron tongue of midnight is tolling twelve.
calendar_show
The function used by default to display events. It accepts a start time and end time for events, both
in epoch seconds, and an event description.
The event is always printed to standard output. If the command line editor is active (which will
usually be the case) the command line will be redisplayed after the output.

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If the parameter DISPLAY is set and the start and end times are the same (indicating a scheduled
event), the function uses the command xmessage to display a window with the event details.
BUGS
As the system is based entirely on shell functions (with a little support from the zsh/datetime module) the
mechanisms used are not as robust as those provided by a dedicated calendar utility. Consequently the user
should not rely on the shell for vital alerts.
There is no calendar_delete function.
There is no localization support for dates and times, nor any support for the use of time zones.
Relative periods of months and years do not take into account the variable number of days.
The calendar_show function is currently hardwired to use xmessage for displaying alerts on X Window
System displays. This should be configurable and ideally integrate better with the desktop.
calendar_lockfiles hangs the shell while waiting for a lock on a file. If called from a scheduled task, it
should instead reschedule the event that caused it.

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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 de-
scription in zshmodules(1). This manual page describes a function suite based on the module. If the mod-
ule 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 mod-
ule is used to implement timeouts on read operations. For troubleshooting tips, consult the corresponding
advice for the zftp functions described in zshzftpsys(1).
There are functions corresponding to the basic I/O operations 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 facil-
ities available including 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 documented 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 session 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 ses-
sion names not include ‘funny’ characters, where funny characters are not well-defined but cer-
tainly do not include alphanumerics or underscores, 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 necessary. A failure to open any session causes tcp_open to abort. 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), separated by whitespace.
The third form allows passive and fake TCP connections. 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 indistinguishable from an active connec-
tion 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 ac-
tually 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 typically the case if the shell is interactive, tcp_open

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installs a handler inside zle which will check for new data at the same time as it checks for key-
board input. This is convenient as the shell consumes no CPU time while waiting; the test is per-
formed 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 de-
tail about the parameters used by the system.
The function tcp_on_open, if defined, is called when a session is opened. See the description be-
low.
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 consistency with tcp_open, although the latter
is redundant.
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 messages 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 re-
peated or mixed together. The -u option specifies 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 ses-
sions 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 standard 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 timeout, 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
process 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 in-
creased accuracy. With -t the timeout is applied before each line read. With -T, the timeout ap-
plies to the overall operation, possibly including multiple read operations if the option -d is
present; without 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.

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A return status of 2 indicates a timeout or no data to read. Any other non-zero return status indi-
cates some error condition.
See tcp_log for how to control where data is sent by tcp_read.
tcp_send [ -cnq ] [ -s sess | -l sess[,...] ] data ...
tcp_send [ -cnq ] -a data ...
Send the supplied data strings to all the specified sessions in turn. The underlying operation dif-
fers 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 -c causes tcp_send to behave like cat. It reads lines from standard input until end of
input and sends them in turn to the specified session(s) exactly as if they were given as data argu-
ments to individual tcp_send commands.
The option -n prevents tcp_send from putting a newline 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 truncated 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 discriminated 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 [ arg ... ] ] ]
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 convenient; see below.

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With a sess argument, set the current session to sess. This is equivalent to changing $TCP_SESS
directly.
With additional arguments, temporarily set the current session while executing ‘command arg ...’.
command is re-evaluated so as to expand aliases etc., but the remaining args are passed through as
that appear to tcp_sess. The original session is restored when tcp_sess exits.
Advanced I/O
tcp_command send-option ... send-argument ...
This is a convenient front-end to tcp_send. All arguments are passed to tcp_send, then the func-
tion 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 re-
turned.
This is generally only useful for interactive use, to prevent the display becoming fragmented by
output returned from the connection. Within a programme or function it is generally better to han-
dle reading data by a more explicit method.

tcp_expect [ -q ] [ -p var | -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 ig-
nored 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 generation. 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 de-
scribed in the base zsh documentation on pattern matching.
Unlike tcp_read, the default behaviour of tcp_expect is to block indefinitely until the required in-
put 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 float-
ing-point number. As tcp_read, the function returns status 2 if a timeout occurs.
The function returns as soon as any one of the patterns 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 parameter cannot begin with ‘_expect’. The index -1 is used if
there is a timeout and 0 if there is no match.
The option -P var works similarly to -p, but instead of numerical indexes the regular arguments
must begin with a prefix followed by a colon: that prefix is then used as a tag to which var is set
when the argument matches. The tag timeout is used if there is a timeout and the empty string if
there is no match. Note it is acceptable for different arguments to start with the same prefix if the
matches do not need to be distinguished.
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
redirected to the connection. Extreme caution should be taken as there is no security whatsoever

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and this can leave your computer open to the world. Ideally, it should only be used behind a fire-
wall.
The first argument is a TCP port on which the function will listen.
The remaining arguments give a command and its arguments to execute with standard input, stan-
dard 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 di-
rect 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 contin-
ues to accept new connections until interrupted.
tcp_spam [ -ertv ] [ -a | -s sess | -l sess[,...] ] cmd [ arg ... ]
Execute ‘cmd [ arg ... ]’ 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, otherwise 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 [ arg ... ]’ is executed using eval, otherwise it is
executed 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_SESS.
An escape string, $TCP_TALK_ESCAPE, default ‘:’, is used to allow access to normal shell op-
eration. If it is on its own at the start of the line, or followed only by whitespace, the line editor re-
turns 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 reason, many users will prefer to use some form of alternative approach for sending data eas-
ily to the current session. One simple approach is to alias some special character (such as ‘%’) to
‘tcp_command --’.
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 in-
stalled.
‘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 arriv-
ing at port and sends it to standard output; tcp_shoot connects to port on host and sends its stan-
dard input. Any unused port may be used; the standard mechanism for picking a port is to think of
a random four-digit number above 1024 until one works.

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To transfer a file from host woodcock to host springes, on springes:

tcp_point 8091 >output_file
and on woodcock:
tcp_shoot springes 8091 <input_file
As these two functions do not require tcp_open to set up a TCP connection first, they may need to
be autoloaded separately.
TCP USER-DEFINED FUNCTIONS
Certain functions, if defined by the user, will be called by the function system in certain contexts. This fa-
cility depends on the module zsh/parameter, which is usually available in interactive shells as the comple-
tion system depends on it. None of the functions need be defined; they simply provide convenient hooks
when necessary.
Typically, these are called after the requested action has been taken, so that the various parameters will re-
flect the new state.
tcp_on_alias alias fd
When an alias is defined, this function will be called with two arguments: the name of the alias,
and the file descriptor of the corresponding session.
tcp_on_awol sess fd
If the function tcp_fd_handler is handling input from the line editor and detects that the file de-
scriptor is no longer reusable, by default it removes it from the list of file descriptors handled by
this method and prints a message. If the function tcp_on_awol is defined it is called immediately
before this point. It may return status 100, which indicates that the normal handling should still be
performed; any other return status indicates that no further action should be taken and the
tcp_fd_handler should return immediately with the given status. Typically the action of
tcp_on_awol will be to close the session.
The variable TCP_INVALIDATE_ZLE will be a non-empty string if it is necessary to invalidate
the line editor display using ‘zle -I’ before printing output from the function.
(‘AWOL’ is military jargon for ‘absent without leave’ or some variation. It has no pre-existing
technical meaning known to the author.)
tcp_on_close sess fd
This is called with the name of a session being closed and the file descriptor which corresponded
to that session. Both will be invalid by the time the function is called.
tcp_on_open sess fd
This is called after a new session has been defined with the session name and file descriptor as ar-
guments. If it returns a non-zero status, opening the session is assumed to fail and the session is
closed again; however, tcp_open will continue to attempt to open any remaining sessions given on
the command line.
tcp_on_rename oldsess fd newsess
This is called after a session has been renamed with the three arguments old session name, file de-
scriptor, new session name.
tcp_on_spam sess command ...
This is called once for each session spammed, just before a command is executed for a session by
tcp_spam. The arguments are the session name followed by the command list to be executed. If
tcp_spam was called with the option -t, the first command will be tcp_send.
This function is called after $TCP_SESS is set to reflect the session to be spammed, but before
any use of it is made. Hence it is possible to alter the value of $TCP_SESS within this function.
For example, the session arguments to tcp_spam could include extra information to be stripped
off and processed in tcp_on_spam.
If the function sets the parameter $REPLY to ‘done’, the command line is not executed; in

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addition, no prompt is printed for the -v option to tcp_spam.

tcp_on_unalias alias fd
This is called with the name of an alias and the corresponding session’s file descriptor after an
alias has been deleted.
TCP UTILITY FUNCTIONS
The following functions are used by the TCP function system but will rarely if ever need to be called di-
rectly.
tcp_fd_handler
This is the function installed by tcp_open for handling input from within the line editor, if that is
required. It is in the format documented for the builtin ‘zle -F’ in 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 $TCP_OUTPUT is set) tcp_send.
The prompt to use is specified by -P; the default is the empty string. It can contain:
%c Expands to 1 if the session is the current session, otherwise 0. Used with ternary expres-
sions such as ‘%(c.-.+)’ to output ‘+’ for the current session and ‘-’ otherwise.
%f Replaced by the session’s file descriptor.
%s Replaced by the session name.
%% Replaced by a single ‘%’.
The option -q suppresses output to standard output, but not to any log files which are configured.
The -S and -F options are used to pass in the session name and file descriptor for possible re-
placement in the prompt.
TCP USER PARAMETERS
Parameters follow the usual convention that uppercase is used for scalars and integers, while lowercase is
used for normal and associative array. It is always safe for user code to read these parameters. Some pa-
rameters may also be set; these are noted explicitly. Others are included in this group as they are set by the
function system for the user’s benefit, i.e. setting them is typically not useful but is benign.
It is often also useful to make settable parameters local to a function. For example, ‘local
TCP_SILENT=1’ specifies that data read during the function call will not be printed to standard output,
regardless of the setting outside the function. Likewise, ‘local TCP_SESS=sess’ sets a session for the du-
ration of a function, and ‘local TCP_PROMPT=’ specifies that no prompt is used for input during the
function.
tcp_expect_lines
Array. The set of lines read during the last call to tcp_expect, including the last ($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 de-
scribed 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.

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TCP_LINE_FD
The file descriptor from which $TCP_LINE was read. ${tcp_by_fd[$TCP_LINE_FD]} will
give the corresponding 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 proceeded by the usual $TCP_PROMPT. If it is not
an absolute path name, it will follow the user’s current 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 gen-
erated 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 session’s underlying file descriptor, or a sin-
gle ‘%’, 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 ‘-’.
If the prompt starts with %P, this is stripped and the complete result of the previous stage is
passed through standard prompt %-style formatting before being output.
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
purposes. 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_SEC-
ONDS_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 $SECONDS and $TCP_SEC-
ONDS_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_SEC-
ONDS_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.

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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 system, 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 corresponding value is a shell pattern (using EX-
TENDED_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
command 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
particular 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 processing.
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 sessions 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 session.
tcp_by_name
Associative array. The keys are the names of sessions; 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
command 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 ses-
sion):
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

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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 ar-
riving without a terminating newline can cause the function to block indefinitely.
Though the function suite works well for interactive use and for data arriving in small amounts, the perfor-
mance when large amounts of data are being exchanged is likely to be extremely poor.

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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 completion, 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 interspersed 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 in-
valid. 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 Functions/Zftp directory of the source distribution are
available; 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 following 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 unnecessary 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 argument).
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
current 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 parameters. 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
parameters.

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If the command was successful, and the terminal is compatible with xterm or is sun-cmd, a sum-
mary 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 internally 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) understand URLs of the form ftp://host/path... as
meaning 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 pa-
rameter $EMAIL_ADDR which can alternatively be set manually 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 fea-
tures 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 be-
fore zfcd receives a string. For example, suppose the command is ‘zfcd ˜/foo’. The shell will ex-
pand this to a full path such as ‘zfcd /home/user2/pws/foo’. At this stage, zfcd recognises the ini-
tial path as corresponding 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 dependent, 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

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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 arguments, this will produce a simple list of file names for
the current remote directory. Any arguments 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 ar-
gument, 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 vari-
ables. 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: 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 dif-
ferent 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 partially 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 file-
name is used locally to find the file, but only the basename is used for the remote file name.

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With the option -r, if any of the files are directories they are sent recursively with all their subdi-
rectories, including files beginning with ‘.’. This requires that the remote machine understand
UNIX file semantics, since ‘/’ is used as a directory separator.
zfuput [ -vs ] file1 ...
As zfput, but only send files which are newer than their remote 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 arguments 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 directory. 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 directory’, 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 ses-
sion called ‘default’; by giving the command ‘zfsession sessname’ you can change to a new or ex-
isting session 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 sessions set up to connect to different hosts, each remembering the appro-
priate host, user and password.
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 session 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 current direc-
tories 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 sub-
shell, which is not the case under versions of some operating systems, presumably due to a system
bug.

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Bookmarks
The two functions zfmark and zfgoto allow you to ‘bookmark’ the present location (host, user and direc-
tory) 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 (usually ˜).
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 bookmarks 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 di-
rectly.
zfgoto [ -n ] bookmark
Return to the location given by bookmark, as previously 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 password 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 complete-
ness. 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 argument; -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 parame-
ters 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 widget-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.

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zfrtime lfile rfile [ time ]

Set the local file lfile to have the same modification time as the remote file rfile, or the explicit time
time in FTP format CCYYMMDDhhmmSS for the GMT timezone. This uses the shell’s
zsh/datetime module to perform the conversion from GMT to local time.
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-compatible 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 configured 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 con-
texts may be set; the most specific 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 modifications 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
parameter (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_TIMEOUT.

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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 ti-
tlebar 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 commands. 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 EX-
TENDED_GLOB) can be used. However, it means that the directory part of a filename will not be ex-
panded and must be given exactly. If the remote server does not support the UNIX directory semantics, di-
rectory handling is problematic and it is recommended that globbing only be used within the current direc-
tory. 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 typi-
cally 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 command). 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 connection was closed again becomes the current directory (unless, of course, the command given
changes it). Automatic 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 fin-
ished, 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 connection 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 connection again. On the other hand, zfcd .. will open the

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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
session is the one which will be reopened.
Completion
Completion of local and remote files, directories, sessions and bookmarks is supported. The older, com-
pctl-style completion is defined when zfinit is called; support for the new widget-based completion sys-
tem is provided in the function Completion/Zsh/Command/_zftp, which should be installed with the other
functions of the completion system and hence should automatically be available.

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NAME
zshcontrib - user contributions to zsh
DESCRIPTION
The Zsh source distribution includes a number of items contributed by the user community. These are not
inherently 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 contributed 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 function. By redefining the run-help alias, one can improve the on-line help pro-
vided by the shell.
The helpfiles utility, found in the Util directory of the distribution, is a Perl program that can be used to
process the zsh manual to produce a separate help file for each shell builtin and for many other shell fea-
tures as well. The autoloadable run-help function, found in Functions/Misc, searches for these helpfiles
and performs several other tests to produce the most complete help possible for the command.
Help files are installed by default to a subdirectory of /usr/share/zsh or /usr/local/share/zsh.
To create your own help files with helpfiles, choose or create a directory where the individual command
help files will reside. For example, you might choose ˜/zsh_help. If you unpacked the zsh distribution in
your home directory, you would use the commands:
mkdir ˜/zsh_help
perl ˜/zsh-5.8/Util/helpfiles ˜/zsh_help
The HELPDIR parameter tells run-help where to look for the help files. When unset, it uses the default
installation path. To use your own set of help files, set this to the appropriate path in one of your startup
files:
HELPDIR=˜/zsh_help
To use the run-help function, you need to add lines something like the following to your .zshrc or equiva-
lent startup file:
unalias run-help
autoload run-help
Note that in order for ‘autoload run-help’ to work, the run-help file must be in one of the directories
named in your fpath array (see zshparam(1)). This should already be the case if you have a standard zsh
installation; if it is not, copy Functions/Misc/run-help to an appropriate directory.
Recompiling Functions
If you frequently edit your zsh functions, or periodically update your zsh installation to track the latest de-
velopments, you may find that function digests compiled with the zcompile builtin are frequently out of
date with respect to the function source files. This is not usually a problem, because zsh always looks for
the newest file when loading a function, but it may cause slower shell startup and function loading. Also, if
a digest file is explicitly used as an element of fpath, zsh won’t check whether any of its source files has
changed.
The zrecompile autoloadable function, found in Functions/Misc, can be used to keep function digests up
to date.
zrecompile [ -qt ] [ name ... ]
zrecompile [ -qt ] -p arg ... [ -- arg ... ]
This tries to find *.zwc files and automatically re-compile them if at least one of the original files
is newer than the compiled file. This works only if the names stored in the compiled files are full
paths or are relative to the directory that contains the .zwc file.

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In the first form, each name is the name of a compiled file or a directory containing *.zwc files that
should be checked. If no arguments are given, the directories and *.zwc files in fpath are used.
When -t is given, no compilation is performed, but a return status of zero (true) is set if there are
files that need to be re-compiled and non-zero (false) otherwise. The -q option quiets the chatty
output that describes what zrecompile is doing.
Without the -t option, the return status is zero if all files that needed re-compilation could be
compiled and non-zero if compilation for at least one of the files failed.
If the -p option is given, the args are interpreted as one or more sets of arguments for zcompile,
separated 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 directories:
for ((i=1; i <= $#fpath; ++i)); do
dir=$fpath[i]
zwc=${dir:t}.zwc
if [[ $dir == (.|..) || $dir == (.|..)/* ]]; then
continue
fi
files=($dir/*(N-.))
if [[ -w $dir:h && -n $files ]]; then
files=(${${(M)files%/*/*}#/})
if ( cd $dir:h &&
zrecompile -p -U -z $zwc $files ); then
fpath[i]=$fpath[i].zwc
fi
fi
done
The -U and -z options are appropriate for functions in the default zsh installation fpath; you may need to
use different options for your personal function directories.
Once the digests have been created and your fpath modified to refer to them, you can keep them up to date
by running zrecompile with no arguments.
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 Functions/Misc, can help you quickly create key bindings for your configuration.
Run zkbd either as an autoloaded function, or as a shell script:
zsh -f ˜/zsh-5.8/Functions/Misc/zkbd
When you run zkbd, it first asks you to enter your terminal type; if the default it offers is correct, just press
return. It then asks you to press a number of different keys to determine characteristics of your keyboard
and terminal; zkbd warns you if it finds anything out of the ordinary, such as a Delete key that sends neither

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ˆH nor ˆ?.
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 refer-
ence 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 mailing lists (see zsh(1)), but sometimes one of the zsh developers will need to recreate your en-
vironment in order to track the problem down.
The script named reporter, found in the Util directory of the distribution, is provided for this purpose. (It
is also possible to autoload reporter, but reporter is not installed in fpath by default.) This script outputs
a detailed dump of the shell state, in the form of another script that can be read with ‘zsh -f’ to recreate that
state.
To use reporter, read the script into your shell with the ‘.’ command and redirect the output into a file:
. ˜/zsh-5.8/Util/reporter > zsh.report
You should check the zsh.report file for any sensitive information such as passwords and delete them by
hand before sending the script to the developers. Also, as the output can be voluminous, it’s best to wait for
the developers to ask for this information before sending it.
You can also use reporter to dump only a subset of the shell state. This is sometimes useful for creating
startup files for the first time. Most of the output from reporter is far more detailed than usually is neces-
sary 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 re-
move 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 zshcomp-
sys(1)).
reporter [ state ... ]
Print to standard output the indicated subset of the current shell state. The state arguments may be
one or more of:
all Output everything listed below.
aliases Output alias definitions.
bindings
Output ZLE key maps and bindings.
completion
Output old-style compctl commands. New completion is covered by functions and
zstyles.

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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 abbreviated by any prefix, even a single letter; thus a is the
same as aliases, z is the same as zstyles, etc.
Manipulating Hook Functions
add-zsh-hook [ -L | -dD ] [ -Uzk ] hook function
Several functions are special to the shell, as described in the section SPECIAL FUNCTIONS, see
zshmisc(1), in that they are automatically called at specific points during shell execution. Each has
an associated array consisting of names of functions to be called at the same point; these are
so-called ‘hook functions’. The shell function add-zsh-hook provides a simple way of adding or
removing functions from the array.
hook is one of chpwd, periodic, precmd, preexec, zshaddhistory, zshexit, or zsh_direc-
tory_name, the special functions in question. Note that zsh_directory_name is called in a differ-
ent way from the other functions, but may still be manipulated as a hook.
function is name of an ordinary shell function. If no options are given this will be added to the ar-
ray of functions to be executed in the given context. Functions are invoked in the order they were
added.
If the option -L is given, the current values for the hook arrays are listed with typeset.
If the option -d is given, the function is removed from the array of functions to be executed.
If the option -D is given, the function is treated as a pattern and any matching names of functions
are removed from the array of functions to be executed.
The options -U, -z and -k are passed as arguments to autoload for function. For functions con-
tributed with zsh, the options -Uz are appropriate.
add-zle-hook-widget [ -L | -dD ] [ -Uzk ] hook widgetname
Several widget names are special to the line editor, as described in the section Special Widgets, see
zshzle(1), in that they are automatically called at specific points during editing. Unlike function
hooks, these do not use a predefined array of other names to call at the same point; the shell func-
tion add-zle-hook-widget maintains a similar array and arranges for the special widget to invoke
those additional widgets.
hook is one of isearch-exit, isearch-update, line-pre-redraw, line-init, line-finish, his-
tory-line-set, or keymap-select, corresponding to each of the special widgets zle-isearch-exit,
etc. The special widget names are also accepted as the hook argument.
widgetname is the name of a ZLE widget. If no options are given this is added to the array of wid-
gets to be invoked in the given hook context. Widgets are invoked in the order they were added,
with
zle widgetname -Nw -- "$@"
Note that this means that the ‘WIDGET’ special parameter tracks the widgetname when the wid-
get function is called, rather than tracking the name of the corresponding special hook widget.
If the option -d is given, the widgetname is removed from the array of widgets to be executed.

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If the option -D is given, the widgetname is treated as a pattern and any matching names of wid-
gets are removed from the array.
If widgetname does not name an existing widget when added to the array, it is assumed that a shell
function also named widgetname is meant to provide the implementation of the widget. This name
is therefore marked for autoloading, and the options -U, -z and -k are passed as arguments to au-
toload as with add-zsh-hook. The widget is also created with ‘zle -N widgetname’ to cause the
corresponding function to be loaded the first time the hook is called.
The arrays of widgetname are currently maintained in zstyle contexts, one for each hook context,
with a style of ‘widgets’. If the -L option is given, this set of styles is listed with ‘zstyle -L’.
This implementation may change, and the special widgets that refer to the styles are created only if
add-zle-hook-widget is called to add at least one widget, so if this function is used for any
hooks, then all hooks should be managed only via this function.
REMEMBERING RECENT DIRECTORIES
The function cdr allows you to change the working directory to a previous working directory from a list
maintained automatically. It is similar in concept to the directory stack controlled by the pushd, popd and
dirs builtins, but is more configurable, and as it stores all entries in files it is maintained across sessions and
(by default) between terminal emulators in the current session. Duplicates are automatically removed, so
that the list reflects the single most recent use of each directory.
Note that the pushd directory stack is not actually modified or used by cdr unless you configure it to do so
as described in the configuration section below.
Installation
The system works by means of a hook function that is called every time the directory changes. To install
the system, autoload the required functions and use the add-zsh-hook function described above:
autoload -Uz chpwd_recent_dirs cdr add-zsh-hook
add-zsh-hook chpwd chpwd_recent_dirs
Now every time you change directly interactively, no matter which command you use, the directory to
which you change will be remembered in most-recent-first order.
Use
All direct user interaction is via the cdr function.
The argument to cdr is a number N corresponding to the Nth most recently changed-to directory. 1 is the
immediately preceding directory; the current directory is remembered but is not offered as a destination.
Note that if you have multiple windows open 1 may refer to a directory changed to in another window; you
can avoid this by having per-terminal files for storing directory as described for the recent-dirs-file style
below.
If you set the recent-dirs-default style described below cdr will behave the same as cd if given a non-nu-
meric argument, or more than one argument. The recent directory list is updated just the same however you
change directory.
If the argument is omitted, 1 is assumed. This is similar to pushd’s behaviour of swapping the two most re-
cent directories on the stack.
Completion for the argument to cdr is available if compinit has been run; menu selection is recommended,
using:
zstyle ’:completion:*:*:cdr:*:*’ menu selection
to allow you to cycle through recent directories; the order is preserved, so the first choice is the most recent
directory before the current one. The verbose style is also recommended to ensure the directory is shown;
this style is on by default so no action is required unless you have changed it.
Options
The behaviour of cdr may be modified by the following options.

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-l lists the numbers and the corresponding directories in abbreviated form (i.e. with ˜ substitution
reapplied), one per line. The directories here are not quoted (this would only be an issue if a direc-
tory name contained a newline). This is used by the completion system.
-r sets the variable reply to the current set of directories. Nothing is printed and the directory is not
changed.
-e allows you to edit the list of directories, one per line. The list can be edited to any extent you like;
no sanity checking is performed. Completion is available. No quoting is necessary (except for
newlines, where I have in any case no sympathy); directories are in unabbreviated from and con-
tain an absolute path, i.e. they start with /. Usually the first entry should be left as the current di-
rectory.
-p ’pattern’
Prunes any items in the directory list that match the given extended glob pattern; the pattern needs
to be quoted from immediate expansion on the command line. The pattern is matched against
each completely expanded file name in the list; the full string must match, so wildcards at the end
(e.g. ’*removeme*’) are needed to remove entries with a given substring.
If output is to a terminal, then the function will print the new list after pruning and prompt for con-
firmation by the user. This output and confirmation step can be skipped by using -P instead of
-p.
Configuration
Configuration is by means of the styles mechanism that should be familiar from completion; if not, see the
description of the zstyle command in see zshmodules(1). The context for setting styles should be ’:ch-
pwd:*’ in case the meaning of the context is extended in future, for example:
zstyle ’:chpwd:*’ recent-dirs-max 0
sets the value of the recent-dirs-max style to 0. In practice the style name is specific enough that a con-
text of ’*’ should be fine.
An exception is recent-dirs-insert, which is used exclusively by the completion system and so has the
usual completion system context (’:completion:*’ if nothing more specific is needed), though again ’*’
should be fine in practice.
recent-dirs-default
If true, and the command is expecting a recent directory index, and either there is more than one
argument or the argument is not an integer, then fall through to "cd". This allows the lazy to use
only one command for directory changing. Completion recognises this, too; see recent-dirs-in-
sert for how to control completion when this option is in use.
recent-dirs-file
The file where the list of directories is saved. The default is ${ZDOTDIR:-$HOME}/.ch-
pwd-recent-dirs, i.e. this is in your home directory unless you have set the variable ZDOTDIR
to point somewhere else. Directory names are saved in $’...’ quoted form, so each line in the file
can be supplied directly to the shell as an argument.
The value of this style may be an array. In this case, the first file in the list will always be used for
saving directories while any other files are left untouched. When reading the recent directory list,
if there are fewer than the maximum number of entries in the first file, the contents of later files in
the array will be appended with duplicates removed from the list shown. The contents of the two
files are not sorted together, i.e. all the entries in the first file are shown first. The special value +
can appear in the list to indicate the default file should be read at that point. This allows effects
like the following:
zstyle ’:chpwd:*’ recent-dirs-file \
˜/.chpwd-recent-dirs-${TTY##*/} +
Recent directories are read from a file numbered according to the terminal. If there are insufficient
entries the list is supplemented from the default file.

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

zstyle -e ’:chpwd:*’ recent-dirs-file pick-recent-dirs-file
pick-recent-dirs-file() {
if [[ $PWD = ˜/text/writing(|/*) ]]; then
reply=(˜/.chpwd-recent-dirs-writing)
else
reply=(+)
fi
}
In this example, if the current directory is ˜/text/writing or a directory under it, then use a special
file for saving recent directories, else use the default.
recent-dirs-insert
Used by completion. If recent-dirs-default is true, then setting this to true causes the actual di-
rectory, rather than its index, to be inserted on the command line; this has the same effect as using
the corresponding index, but makes the history clearer and the line easier to edit. With this setting,
if part of an argument was already typed, normal directory completion rather than recent directory
completion is done; this is because recent directory completion is expected to be done by cycling
through entries menu fashion.
If the value of the style is always, then only recent directories will be completed; in that case, use
the cd command when you want to complete other directories.
If the value is fallback, recent directories will be tried first, then normal directory completion is
performed if recent directory completion failed to find a match.
Finally, if the value is both then both sets of completions are presented; the usual tag mechanism
can be used to distinguish results, with recent directories tagged as recent-dirs. Note that the re-
cent directories inserted are abbreviated with directory names where appropriate.
recent-dirs-max
The maximum number of directories to save to the file. If this is zero or negative there is no maxi-
mum. The default is 20. Note this includes the current directory, which isn’t offered, so the high-
est number of directories you will be offered is one less than the maximum.
recent-dirs-prune
This style is an array determining what directories should (or should not) be added to the recent
list. Elements of the array can include:
parent Prune parents (more accurately, ancestors) from the recent list. If present, changing di-
rectly down by any number of directories causes the current directory to be overwritten.
For example, changing from ˜pws to ˜pws/some/other/dir causes ˜pws not to be left on the
recent directory stack. This only applies to direct changes to descendant directories; ear-
lier directories on the list are not pruned. For example, changing from ˜pws/yet/another
to ˜pws/some/other/dir does not cause ˜pws to be pruned.
pattern:pattern
Gives a zsh pattern for directories that should not be added to the recent list (if not al-
ready there). This element can be repeated to add different patterns. For example, ’pat-
tern:/tmp(|/*)’ stops /tmp or its descendants from being added. The EX-
TENDED_GLOB option is always turned on for these patterns.
recent-dirs-pushd
If set to true, cdr will use pushd instead of cd to change the directory, so the directory is saved on
the directory stack. As the directory stack is completely separate from the list of files saved by the
mechanism used in this file there is no obvious reason to do this.
Use with dynamic directory naming
It is possible to refer to recent directories using the dynamic directory name syntax by using the supplied
function zsh_directory_name_cdr a hook:

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autoload -Uz add-zsh-hook

add-zsh-hook -Uz zsh_directory_name zsh_directory_name_cdr
When this is done, ˜[1] will refer to the most recent directory other than $PWD, and so on. Completion af-
ter ˜[... also works.
Details of directory handling
This section is for the curious or confused; most users will not need to know this information.
Recent directories are saved to a file immediately and hence are preserved across sessions. Note currently
no file locking is applied: the list is updated immediately on interactive commands and nowhere else (unlike
history), and it is assumed you are only going to change directory in one window at once. This is not safe
on shared accounts, but in any case the system has limited utility when someone else is changing to a differ-
ent set of directories behind your back.
To make this a little safer, only directory changes instituted from the command line, either directly or indi-
rectly through shell function calls (but not through subshells, evals, traps, completion functions and the
like) are saved. Shell functions should use cd -q or pushd -q to avoid side effects if the change to the di-
rectory is to be invisible at the command line. See the contents of the function chpwd_recent_dirs for
more details.
ABBREVIATED DYNAMIC REFERENCES TO DIRECTORIES
The dynamic directory naming system is described in the subsection Dynamic named directories of the sec-
tion Filename Expansion in expn(1). In this, a reference to ˜[...] is expanded by a function found by the
hooks mechanism.
The contributed function zsh_directory_name_generic provides a system allowing the user to refer to di-
rectories with only a limited amount of new code. It supports all three of the standard interfaces for direc-
tory naming: converting from a name to a directory, converting in the reverse direction to find a short name,
and completion of names.
The main feature of this function is a path-like syntax, combining abbreviations at multiple levels sepa-
rated by ":". As an example, ˜[g:p:s] might specify:
g The top level directory for your git area. This first component has to match, or the function will
return indicating another directory name hook function should be tried.
p The name of a project within your git area.
s The source area within that project. This allows you to collapse references to long hierarchies to a
very compact form, particularly if the hierarchies are similar across different areas of the disk.
Name components may be completed: if a description is shown at the top of the list of completions, it in-
cludes the path to which previous components expand, while the description for an individual completion
shows the path segment it would add. No additional configuration is needed for this as the completion sys-
tem is aware of the dynamic directory name mechanism.
Usage
To use the function, first define a wrapper function for your specific case. We’ll assume it’s to be au-
toloaded. This can have any name but we’ll refer to it as zdn_mywrapper. This wrapper function will de-
fine various variables and then call this function with the same arguments that the wrapper function gets.
This configuration is described below.
Then arrange for the wrapper to be run as a zsh_directory_name hook:
autoload -Uz add-zsh-hook zsh_diretory_name_generic zdn_mywrapper
add-zsh-hook -U zsh_directory_name zdn_mywrapper
Configuration
The wrapper function should define a local associative array zdn_top. Alternatively, this can be set with a
style called mapping. The context for the style is :zdn:wrapper-name where wrapper-name is the func-
tion calling zsh_directory_name_generic; for example:
zstyle :zdn:zdn_mywrapper: mapping zdn_mywrapper_top

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The keys in this associative array correspond to the first component of the name. The values are matching
directories. They may have an optional suffix with a slash followed by a colon and the name of a variable
in the same format to give the next component. (The slash before the colon is to disambiguate the case
where a colon is needed in the path for a drive. There is otherwise no syntax for escaping this, so path
components whose names start with a colon are not supported.) A special component :default: specifies a
variable in the form /:var (the path section is ignored and so is usually empty) that will be used for the next
component if no variable is given for the path. Variables referred to within zdn_top have the same format
as zdn_top itself, but contain relative paths.
For example,
local -A zdn_top=(
g ˜/git
ga ˜/alternate/git
gs /scratch/$USER/git/:second2
:default: /:second1
)
This specifies the behaviour of a directory referred to as ˜[g:...] or ˜[ga:...] or ˜[gs:...]. Later path compo-
nents are optional; in that case ˜[g] expands to ˜/git, and so on. gs expands to /scratch/$USER/git and uses
the associative array second2 to match the second component; g and ga use the associative array second1
to match the second component.
When expanding a name to a directory, if the first component is not g or ga or gs, it is not an error; the
function simply returns 1 so that a later hook function can be tried. However, matching the first component
commits the function, so if a later component does not match, an error is printed (though this still does not
stop later hooks from being executed).
For components after the first, a relative path is expected, but note that multiple levels may still appear.
Here is an example of second1:
local -A second1=(
p myproject
s somproject
os otherproject/subproject/:third
)
The path as found from zdn_top is extended with the matching directory, so ˜[g:p] becomes ˜/git/mypro-
ject. The slash between is added automatically (it’s not possible to have a later component modify the
name of a directory already matched). Only os specifies a variable for a third component, and there’s no
:default:, so it’s an error to use a name like ˜[g:p:x] or ˜[ga:s:y] because there’s nowhere to look up the x
or y.
The associative arrays need to be visible within this function; the generic function therefore uses internal
variable names beginning _zdn_ in order to avoid clashes. Note that the variable reply needs to be passed
back to the shell, so should not be local in the calling function.
The function does not test whether directories assembled by component actually exist; this allows the sys-
tem to work across automounted file systems. The error from the command trying to use a non-existent di-
rectory should be sufficient to indicate the problem.
Complete example
Here is a full fictitious but usable autoloadable definition of the example function defined by the code
above. So ˜[gs:p:s] expands to /scratch/$USER/git/myscratchproject/top/srcdir (with $USER also ex-
panded).
local -A zdn_top=(
g ˜/git
ga ˜/alternate/git
gs /scratch/$USER/git/:second2
:default: /:second1

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

local -A second2=(
p myscratchproject
s somescratchproject
)

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

# autoload not needed if you did this at initialisation...

autoload -Uz zsh_directory_name_generic
zsh_directory_name_generic "$@
It is also possible to use global associative arrays, suitably named, and set the style for the context of your
wrapper function to refer to this. Then your set up code would contain the following:
typeset -A zdn_mywrapper_top=(...)
# ... and so on for other associative arrays ...
zstyle ’:zdn:zdn_mywrapper:’ mapping zdn_mywrapper_top
autoload -Uz add-zsh-hook zsh_directory_name_generic zdn_mywrapper
add-zsh-hook -U zsh_directory_name zdn_mywrapper
and the function zdn_mywrapper would contain only the following:
zsh_directory_name_generic "$@"
GATHERING INFORMATION FROM VERSION CONTROL SYSTEMS
In a lot of cases, it is nice to automatically retrieve information from version control systems (VCSs), such
as subversion, CVS or git, to be able to provide it to the user; possibly in the user’s prompt. So that you can
instantly tell which branch you are currently on, for example.
In order to do that, you may use the vcs_info function.
The following VCSs are supported, showing the abbreviated name by which they are referred to within the
system:
Bazaar (bzr)
https://bazaar.canonical.com/
Codeville (cdv)
http://freecode.com/projects/codeville/
Concurrent Versioning System (cvs)
https://www.nongnu.org/cvs/
Darcs (darcs)
http://darcs.net/
Fossil (fossil)
https://fossil-scm.org/
Git (git)
https://git-scm.com/
GNU arch (tla)
https://www.gnu.org/software/gnu-arch/

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Mercurial (hg)
https://www.mercurial-scm.org/
Monotone (mtn)
https://monotone.ca/
Perforce (p4)
https://www.perforce.com/
Subversion (svn)
https://subversion.apache.org/
SVK (svk)
https://svk.bestpractical.com/
There is also support for the patch management system quilt (https://savan-
nah.nongnu.org/projects/quilt). See Quilt Support below for details.
To load vcs_info:
autoload -Uz vcs_info
It can be used in any existing prompt, because it does not require any specific $psvar entries to be avail-
able.
Quickstart
To get this feature working quickly (including colors), you can do the following (assuming, you loaded
vcs_info properly - see above):
zstyle ’:vcs_info:*’ actionformats \
’%F{5}(%f%s%F{5})%F{3}-%F{5}[%F{2}%b%F{3}|%F{1}%a%F{5}]%f ’
zstyle ’:vcs_info:*’ formats \
’%F{5}(%f%s%F{5})%F{3}-%F{5}[%F{2}%b%F{5}]%f ’
zstyle ’:vcs_info:(sv[nk]|bzr):*’ branchformat ’%b%F{1}:%F{3}%r’
precmd () { vcs_info }
PS1=’%F{5}[%F{2}%n%F{5}] %F{3}%3˜ ${vcs_info_msg_0_}%f%# ’
Obviously, the last two lines are there for demonstration. You need to call vcs_info from your precmd
function. Once that is done you need a single quoted ’${vcs_info_msg_0_}’ in your prompt.
To be able to use ’${vcs_info_msg_0_}’ directly in your prompt like this, you will need to have the
PROMPT_SUBST option enabled.
Now call the vcs_info_printsys utility from the command line:
% vcs_info_printsys
## list of supported version control backends:
## disabled systems are prefixed by a hash sign (#)
bzr
cdv
cvs
darcs
fossil
git
hg
mtn
p4
svk
svn
tla
## flavours (cannot be used in the enable or disable styles; they
## are enabled and disabled with their master [git-svn -> git])
## they *can* be used in contexts: ’:vcs_info:git-svn:*’.
git-p4

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git-svn
hg-git
hg-hgsubversion
hg-hgsvn
You may not want all of these because there is no point in running the code to detect systems you do not
use. So there is a way to disable some backends altogether:
zstyle ’:vcs_info:*’ disable bzr cdv darcs mtn svk tla
You may also pick a few from that list and enable only those:
zstyle ’:vcs_info:*’ enable git cvs svn
If you rerun vcs_info_printsys after one of these commands, you will see the backends listed in the disable
style (or backends not in the enable style - if you used that) marked as disabled by a hash sign. That
means the detection of these systems is skipped completely. No wasted time there.
Configuration
The vcs_info feature can be configured via zstyle.
First, the context in which we are working:
:vcs_info:vcs-string:user-context:repo-root-name
vcs-string
is one of: git, git-svn, git-p4, hg, hg-git, hg-hgsubversion, hg-hgsvn, darcs, bzr, cdv, mtn,
svn, cvs, svk, tla, p4 or fossil. This is followed by ‘.quilt-quilt-mode’ in Quilt mode (see Quilt
Support for details) and by ‘+hook-name’ while hooks are active (see Hooks in vcs_info for de-
tails).
Currently, hooks in quilt mode don’t add the ‘.quilt-quilt-mode’ information. This may change
in the future.
user-context
is a freely configurable string, assignable by the user as the first argument to vcs_info (see its de-
scription below).
repo-root-name
is the name of a repository in which you want a style to match. So, if you want a setting specific to
/usr/src/zsh, with that being a CVS checkout, you can set repo-root-name to zsh to make it so.
There are three special values for vcs-string: The first is named -init-, that is in effect as long as there was
no decision what VCS backend to use. The second is -preinit-; it is used before vcs_info is run, when ini-
tializing the data exporting variables. The third special value is formats and is used by the
vcs_info_lastmsg for looking up its styles.
The initial value of repo-root-name is -all- and it is replaced with the actual name, as soon as it is
known. Only use this part of the context for defining the formats, actionformats or branchformat styles,
as it is guaranteed that repo-root-name is set up correctly for these only. For all other styles, just use ’*’
instead.
There are two pre-defined values for user-context:
default the one used if none is specified
command
used by vcs_info_lastmsg to lookup its styles
You can of course use ’:vcs_info:*’ to match all VCSs in all user-contexts at once.
This is a description of all styles that are looked up.
formats
A list of formats, used when actionformats is not used (which is most of the time).

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actionformats
A list of formats, used if there is a special action going on in your current repository; like an inter-
active rebase or a merge conflict.
branchformat
Some backends replace %b in the formats and actionformats styles above, not only by a branch
name but also by a revision number. This style lets you modify how that string should look.
nvcsformats
These "formats" are set when we didn’t detect a version control system for the current directory or
vcs_info was disabled. This is useful if you want vcs_info to completely take over the generation
of your prompt. You would do something like PS1=’${vcs_info_msg_0_}’ to accomplish that.
hgrevformat
hg uses both a hash and a revision number to reference a specific changeset in a repository. With
this style you can format the revision string (see branchformat) to include either or both. It’s only
useful when get-revision is true. Note, the full 40-character revision id is not available (except
when using the use-simple option) because executing hg more than once per prompt is too slow;
you may customize this behavior using hooks.
max-exports
Defines the maximum number of vcs_info_msg_*_ variables vcs_info will set.
enable A list of backends you want to use. Checked in the -init- context. If this list contains an item
called NONE no backend is used at all and vcs_info will do nothing. If this list contains ALL,
vcs_info will use all known backends. Only with ALL in enable will the disable style have any
effect. ALL and NONE are case insensitive.
disable A list of VCSs you don’t want vcs_info to test for repositories (checked in the -init- context, too).
Only used if enable contains ALL.
disable-patterns
A list of patterns that are checked against $PWD. If a pattern matches, vcs_info will be disabled.
This style is checked in the :vcs_info:-init-:*:-all- context.
Say, ˜/.zsh is a directory under version control, in which you do not want vcs_info to be active, do:
zstyle ’:vcs_info:*’ disable-patterns "${(b)HOME}/.zsh(|/*)"
use-quilt
If enabled, the quilt support code is active in ‘addon’ mode. See Quilt Support for details.
quilt-standalone
If enabled, ‘standalone’ mode detection is attempted if no VCS is active in a given directory. See
Quilt Support for details.
quilt-patch-dir
Overwrite the value of the $QUILT_PATCHES environment variable. See Quilt Support for de-
tails.
quiltcommand
When quilt itself is called in quilt support, the value of this style is used as the command name.
check-for-changes
If enabled, this style causes the %c and %u format escapes to show when the working directory
has uncommitted changes. The strings displayed by these escapes can be controlled via the
stagedstr and unstagedstr styles. The only backends that currently support this option are git, hg,
and bzr (the latter two only support unstaged).
For this style to be evaluated with the hg backend, the get-revision style needs to be set and the
use-simple style needs to be unset. The latter is the default; the former is not.
With the bzr backend, lightweight checkouts only honor this style if the use-server style is set.
Note, the actions taken if this style is enabled are potentially expensive (read: they may be slow,

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depending on how big the current repository is). Therefore, it is disabled by default.
check-for-staged-changes
This style is like check-for-changes, but it never checks the worktree files, only the metadata in
the .${vcs} dir. Therefore, this style initializes only the %c escape (with stagedstr) but not the
%u escape. This style is faster than check-for-changes.
In the git backend, this style checks for changes in the index. Other backends do not currently im-
plement this style.
This style is disabled by default.
stagedstr
This string will be used in the %c escape if there are staged changes in the repository.
unstagedstr
This string will be used in the %u escape if there are unstaged changes in the repository.
command
This style causes vcs_info to use the supplied string as the command to use as the VCS’s binary.
Note, that setting this in ’:vcs_info:*’ is not a good idea.
If the value of this style is empty (which is the default), the used binary name is the name of the
backend in use (e.g. svn is used in an svn repository).
The repo-root-name part in the context is always the default -all- when this style is looked up.
For example, this style can be used to use binaries from non-default installation directories. As-
sume, git is installed in /usr/bin but your sysadmin installed a newer version in /usr/local/bin. In-
stead of changing the order of your $PATH parameter, you can do this:
zstyle ’:vcs_info:git:*:-all-’ command /usr/local/bin/git
use-server
This is used by the Perforce backend (p4) to decide if it should contact the Perforce server to find
out if a directory is managed by Perforce. This is the only reliable way of doing this, but runs the
risk of a delay if the server name cannot be found. If the server (more specifically, the host:port
pair describing the server) cannot be contacted, its name is put into the associative array
vcs_info_p4_dead_servers and is not contacted again during the session until it is removed by
hand. If you do not set this style, the p4 backend is only usable if you have set the environment
variable P4CONFIG to a file name and have corresponding files in the root directories of each
Perforce client. See comments in the function VCS_INFO_detect_p4 for more detail.
The Bazaar backend (bzr) uses this to permit contacting the server about lightweight checkouts,
see the check-for-changes style.
use-simple
If there are two different ways of gathering information, you can select the simpler one by setting
this style to true; the default is to use the not-that-simple code, which is potentially a lot slower
but might be more accurate in all possible cases. This style is used by the bzr and hg backends. In
the case of hg it will invoke the external hexdump program to parse the binary dirstate cache file;
this method will not return the local revision number.
get-revision
If set to true, vcs_info goes the extra mile to figure out the revision of a repository’s work tree
(currently for the git and hg backends, where this kind of information is not always vital). For git,
the hash value of the currently checked out commit is available via the %i expansion. With hg, the
local revision number and the corresponding global hash are available via %i.
get-mq
If set to true, the hg backend will look for a Mercurial Queue (mq) patch directory. Information
will be available via the ‘%m’ replacement.

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get-bookmarks
If set to true, the hg backend will try to get a list of current bookmarks. They will be available via
the ‘%m’ replacement.
The default is to generate a comma-separated list of all bookmark names that refer to the currently
checked out revision. If a bookmark is active, its name is suffixed an asterisk and placed first in
the list.
use-prompt-escapes
Determines if we assume that the assembled string from vcs_info includes prompt escapes. (Used
by vcs_info_lastmsg.)
debug Enable debugging output to track possible problems. Currently this style is only used by
vcs_info’s hooks system.
hooks A list style that defines hook-function names. See Hooks in vcs_info below for details.
patch-format
nopatch-format
This pair of styles format the patch information used by the %m expando in formats and action-
formats for the git and hg backends. The value is subject to certain %-expansions described be-
low. The expanded value is made available in the global backend_misc array as ${back-
end_misc[patches]} (also if a set-patch-format hook is used).
get-unapplied
This boolean style controls whether a backend should attempt to gather a list of unapplied patches
(for example with Mercurial Queue patches).
Used by the quilt and hg backends.
The default values for these styles in all contexts are:
formats
" (%s)-[%b]%u%c-"
actionformats
" (%s)-[%b|%a]%u%c-"
branchformat
"%b:%r" (for bzr, svn, svk and hg)
nvcsformats
""
hgrevformat
"%r:%h"
max-exports
2
enable ALL
disable (empty list)
disable-patterns
(empty list)
check-for-changes
false
check-for-staged-changes
false
stagedstr
(string: "S")
unstagedstr
(string: "U")
command
(empty string)

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use-server
false
use-simple
false
get-revision
false
get-mq
true
get-bookmarks
false
use-prompt-escapes
true
debug false
hooks (empty list)
use-quilt
false
quilt-standalone
false
quilt-patch-dir
empty - use $QUILT_PATCHES
quiltcommand
quilt
patch-format
backend dependent
nopatch-format
backend dependent
get-unapplied
false
In normal formats and actionformats the following replacements are done:
%s The VCS in use (git, hg, svn, etc.).
%b Information about the current branch.
%a An identifier that describes the action. Only makes sense in actionformats.
%i The current revision number or identifier. For hg the hgrevformat style may be used to customize
the output.
%c The string from the stagedstr style if there are staged changes in the repository.
%u The string from the unstagedstr style if there are unstaged changes in the repository.
%R The base directory of the repository.
%r The repository name. If %R is /foo/bar/repoXY, %r is repoXY.
%S A subdirectory within a repository. If $PWD is /foo/bar/repoXY/beer/tasty, %S is beer/tasty.
%m A "misc" replacement. It is at the discretion of the backend to decide what this replacement ex-
pands to.
The hg and git backends use this expando to display patch information. hg sources patch informa-
tion from the mq extensions; git from in-progress rebase and cherry-pick operations and from
the stgit extension. The patch-format and nopatch-format styles control the generated string.
The former is used when at least one patch from the patch queue has been applied, and the latter
otherwise.
The hg backend displays bookmark information in this expando (in addition to mq information).
See the get-mq and get-bookmarks styles. Both of these styles may be enabled at the same
time. If both are enabled, both resulting strings will be shown separated by a semicolon (that can-
not currently be customized).
The quilt ‘standalone’ backend sets this expando to the same value as the %Q expando.

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%Q Quilt series information. When quilt is used (either in ‘addon’ mode or as a ‘standalone’ back-
end), this expando is set to quilt series’ patch-format string. The set-patch-format hook and
nopatch-format style are honoured.
See Quilt Support below for details.
In branchformat these replacements are done:
%b The branch name.
%r The current revision number or the hgrevformat style for hg.
In hgrevformat these replacements are done:
%r The current local revision number.
%h The current global revision identifier.
In patch-format and nopatch-format these replacements are done:
%p The name of the top-most applied patch; may be overridden by the applied-string hook.
%u The number of unapplied patches; may be overridden by the unapplied-string hook.
%n The number of applied patches.
%c The number of unapplied patches.
%a The number of all patches (%a = %n + %c).
%g The names of active mq guards (hg backend).
%G The number of active mq guards (hg backend).
Not all VCS backends have to support all replacements. For nvcsformats no replacements are performed at
all, it is just a string.
Oddities
If you want to use the %b (bold off) prompt expansion in formats, which expands %b itself, use %%b.
That will cause the vcs_info expansion to replace %%b with %b, so that zsh’s prompt expansion mecha-
nism can handle it. Similarly, to hand down %b from branchformat, use %%%%b. Sorry for this incon-
venience, but it cannot be easily avoided. Luckily we do not clash with a lot of prompt expansions and this
only needs to be done for those.
When one of the gen-applied-string, gen-unapplied-string, and set-patch-format hooks is defined,
applying %-escaping (‘foo=${foo//’%’/%%}’) to the interpolated values for use in the prompt is the re-
sponsibility of those hooks (jointly); when neither of those hooks is defined, vcs_info handles escaping by
itself. We regret this coupling, but it was required for backwards compatibility.
Quilt Support
Quilt is not a version control system, therefore this is not implemented as a backend. It can help keeping
track of a series of patches. People use it to keep a set of changes they want to use on top of software pack-
ages (which is tightly integrated into the package build process - the Debian project does this for a large
number of packages). Quilt can also help individual developers keep track of their own patches on top of
real version control systems.
The vcs_info integration tries to support both ways of using quilt by having two slightly different modes of
operation: ‘addon’ mode and ‘standalone’ mode).
Quilt integration is off by default; to enable it, set the use-quilt style, and add %Q to your formats or ac-
tionformats style:
zstyle ’:vcs_info:*’ use-quilt true
Styles looked up from the Quilt support code include ‘.quilt-quilt-mode’ in the vcs-string part of the con-
text, where quilt-mode is either addon or standalone. Example: :vcs_info:git.quilt-addon:de-
fault:repo-root-name.
For ‘addon’ mode to become active vcs_info must have already detected a real version control system con-
trolling the directory. If that is the case, a directory that holds quilt’s patches needs to be found. That direc-
tory is configurable via the ‘QUILT_PATCHES’ environment variable. If that variable exists its value is
used, otherwise the value ‘patches’ is assumed. The value from $QUILT_PATCHES can be overwritten

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using the ‘quilt-patches’ style. (Note: you can use vcs_info to keep the value of $QUILT_PATCHES cor-
rect all the time via the post-quilt hook).
When the directory in question is found, quilt is assumed to be active. To gather more information, vcs_info
looks for a directory called ‘.pc’; Quilt uses that directory to track its current state. If this directory does not
exist we know that quilt has not done anything to the working directory (read: no patches have been applied
yet).
If patches are applied, vcs_info will try to find out which. If you want to know which patches of a series are
not yet applied, you need to activate the get-unapplied style in the appropriate context.
vcs_info allows for very detailed control over how the gathered information is presented (see the Configu-
ration and Hooks in vcs_info sections), all of which are documented below. Note there are a number of
other patch tracking systems that work on top of a certain version control system (like stgit for git, or mq
for hg); the configuration for systems like that are generally configured the same way as the quilt support.
If the quilt support is working in ‘addon’ mode, the produced string is available as a simple format replace-
ment (%Q to be precise), which can be used in formats and actionformats; see below for details).
If, on the other hand, the support code is working in ‘standalone’ mode, vcs_info will pretend as if quilt
were an actual version control system. That means that the version control system identifier (which other-
wise would be something like ‘svn’ or ‘cvs’) will be set to ‘-quilt-’. This has implications on the used
style context where this identifier is the second element. vcs_info will have filled in a proper value for the
"repository’s" root directory and the string containing the information about quilt’s state will be available as
the ‘misc’ replacement (and %Q for compatibility with ‘addon’ mode).
What is left to discuss is how ‘standalone’ mode is detected. The detection itself is a series of searches for
directories. You can have this detection enabled all the time in every directory that is not otherwise under
version control. If you know there is only a limited set of trees where you would like vcs_info to try and
look for Quilt in ‘standalone’ mode to minimise the amount of searching on every call to vcs_info, there are
a number of ways to do that:
Essentially, ‘standalone’ mode detection is controlled by a style called ‘quilt-standalone’. It is a string
style and its value can have different effects. The simplest values are: ‘always’ to run detection every time
vcs_info is run, and ‘never’ to turn the detection off entirely.
If the value of quilt-standalone is something else, it is interpreted differently. If the value is the name of a
scalar variable the value of that variable is checked and that value is used in the same ‘always’/‘never’ way
as described above.
If the value of quilt-standalone is an array, the elements of that array are used as directory names under
which you want the detection to be active.
If quilt-standalone is an associative array, the keys are taken as directory names under which you want the
detection to be active, but only if the corresponding value is the string ‘true’.
Last, but not least, if the value of quilt-standalone is the name of a function, the function is called without
arguments and the return value decides whether detection should be active. A ‘0’ return value is true; a
non-zero return value is interpreted as false.
Note, if there is both a function and a variable by the name of quilt-standalone, the function will take
precedence.
Function Descriptions (Public API)
vcs_info [user-context]
The main function, that runs all backends and assembles all data into ${vcs_info_msg_*_}. This is
the function you want to call from precmd if you want to include up-to-date information in your
prompt (see Variable Description below). If an argument is given, that string will be used instead
of default in the user-context field of the style context.
vcs_info_hookadd
Statically registers a number of functions to a given hook. The hook needs to be given as the first
argument; what follows is a list of hook-function names to register to the hook. The ‘+vi-’ prefix

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needs to be left out here. See Hooks in vcs_info below for details.
vcs_info_hookdel
Remove hook-functions from a given hook. The hook needs to be given as the first non-option ar-
gument; what follows is a list of hook-function names to un-register from the hook. If ‘-a’ is
used as the first argument, all occurrences of the functions are unregistered. Otherwise only the
last occurrence is removed (if a function was registered to a hook more than once). The ‘+vi-’ pre-
fix needs to be left out here. See Hooks in vcs_info below for details.
vcs_info_lastmsg
Outputs the last ${vcs_info_msg_*_} value. Takes into account the value of the use-prompt-es-
capes style in ’:vcs_info:formats:command:-all-’. It also only prints max-exports values.
vcs_info_printsys [user-context]
Prints a list of all supported version control systems. Useful to find out possible contexts (and
which of them are enabled) or values for the disable style.
vcs_info_setsys
Initializes vcs_info’s internal list of available backends. With this function, you can add support
for new VCSs without restarting the shell.
All functions named VCS_INFO_* are for internal use only.
Variable Description
${vcs_info_msg_N_} (Note the trailing underscore)
Where N is an integer, e.g., vcs_info_msg_0_. These variables are the storage for the informa-
tional message the last vcs_info call has assembled. These are strongly connected to the formats,
actionformats and nvcsformats styles described above. Those styles are lists. The first member of
that list gets expanded into ${vcs_info_msg_0_}, the second into ${vcs_info_msg_1_} and the
Nth into ${vcs_info_msg_N-1_}. (See the max-exports style above.)
All variables named VCS_INFO_* are for internal use only.
Hooks in vcs_info
Hooks are places in vcs_info where you can run your own code. That code can communicate with the code
that called it and through that, change the system’s behaviour.
For configuration, hooks change the style context:
:vcs_info:vcs-string+hook-name:user-context:repo-root-name
To register functions to a hook, you need to list them in the hooks style in the appropriate context.
Example:
zstyle ’:vcs_info:*+foo:*’ hooks bar baz
This registers functions to the hook ‘foo’ for all backends. In order to avoid namespace problems, all regis-
tered function names are prepended by a ‘+vi-’, so the actual functions called for the ‘foo’ hook are
‘+vi-bar’ and ‘+vi-baz’.
If you would like to register a function to a hook regardless of the current context, you may use the
vcs_info_hookadd function. To remove a function that was added like that, the vcs_info_hookdel function
can be used.
If something seems weird, you can enable the ‘debug’ boolean style in the proper context and the
hook-calling code will print what it tried to execute and whether the function in question existed.
When you register more than one function to a hook, all functions are executed one after another until one
function returns non-zero or until all functions have been called. Context-sensitive hook functions are exe-
cuted before statically registered ones (the ones added by vcs_info_hookadd).
You may pass data between functions via an associative array, user_data. For example:
+vi-git-myfirsthook(){
user_data[myval]=$myval
}

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+vi-git-mysecondhook(){
# do something with ${user_data[myval]}
}
There are a number of variables that are special in hook contexts:
ret The return value that the hooks system will return to the caller. The default is an integer ‘zero’. If
and how a changed ret value changes the execution of the caller depends on the specific hook. See
the hook documentation below for details.
hook_com
An associated array which is used for bidirectional communication from the caller to hook func-
tions. The used keys depend on the specific hook.
context
The active context of the hook. Functions that wish to change this variable should make it local
scope first.
vcs The current VCS after it was detected. The same values as in the enable/disable style are used.
Available in all hooks except start-up.
Finally, the full list of currently available hooks:
start-up
Called after starting vcs_info but before the VCS in this directory is determined. It can be used to
deactivate vcs_info temporarily if necessary. When ret is set to 1, vcs_info aborts and does noth-
ing; when set to 2, vcs_info sets up everything as if no version control were active and exits.
pre-get-data
Same as start-up but after the VCS was detected.
gen-hg-bookmark-string
Called in the Mercurial backend when a bookmark string is generated; the get-revision and
get-bookmarks styles must be true.
This hook gets the names of the Mercurial bookmarks that vcs_info collected from ‘hg’.
If a bookmark is active, the key ${hook_com[hg-active-bookmark]} is set to its name. The key
is otherwise unset.
When setting ret to non-zero, the string in ${hook_com[hg-bookmark-string]} will be used in
the %m escape in formats and actionformats and will be available in the global backend_misc
array as ${backend_misc[bookmarks]}.
gen-applied-string
Called in the git (with stgit or during rebase or merge), and hg (with mq) backends and in quilt
support when the applied-string is generated; the use-quilt zstyle must be true for quilt (the mq
and stgit backends are active by default).
This hook gets the names of all applied patches which vcs_info collected so far in the opposite or-
der, which means that the first argument is the top-most patch and so forth.
When setting ret to non-zero, the string in ${hook_com[applied-string]} will be available as
%p in the patch-format and nopatch-format styles. This hook is, in concert with
set-patch-format, responsible for %-escaping that value for use in the prompt. (See the Oddi-
ties section.)
gen-unapplied-string
Called in the git (with stgit or during rebase), and hg (with mq) backend and in quilt support
when the unapplied-string is generated; the get-unapplied style must be true.
This hook gets the names of all unapplied patches which vcs_info collected so far in order, which
means that the first argument is the patch next-in-line to be applied and so forth.
When setting ret to non-zero, the string in ${hook_com[unapplied-string]} will be available as

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%u in the patch-format and nopatch-format styles. This hook is, in concert with
set-patch-format, responsible for %-escaping that value for use in the prompt. (See the Oddi-
ties section.)
gen-mqguards-string
Called in the hg backend when guards-string is generated; the get-mq style must be true (de-
fault).
This hook gets the names of any active mq guards.
When setting ret to non-zero, the string in ${hook_com[guards-string]} will be used in the %g
escape in the patch-format and nopatch-format styles.
no-vcs This hooks is called when no version control system was detected.
The ‘hook_com’ parameter is not used.
post-backend
Called as soon as the backend has finished collecting information.
The ‘hook_com’ keys available are as for the set-message hook.
post-quilt
Called after the quilt support is done. The following information is passed as arguments to the
hook: 1. the quilt-support mode (‘addon’ or ‘standalone’); 2. the directory that contains the patch
series; 3. the directory that holds quilt’s status information (the ‘.pc’ directory) or the string
"-nopc-" if that directory wasn’t found.
The ‘hook_com’ parameter is not used.
set-branch-format
Called before ‘branchformat’ is set. The only argument to the hook is the format that is config-
ured at this point.
The ‘hook_com’ keys considered are ‘branch’ and ‘revision’. They are set to the values figured
out so far by vcs_info and any change will be used directly when the actual replacement is done.
If ret is set to non-zero, the string in ${hook_com[branch-replace]} will be used unchanged as
the ‘%b’ replacement in the variables set by vcs_info.
set-hgrev-format
Called before a ‘hgrevformat’ is set. The only argument to the hook is the format that is config-
ured at this point.
The ‘hook_com’ keys considered are ‘hash’ and ‘localrev’. They are set to the values figured out
so far by vcs_info and any change will be used directly when the actual replacement is done.
If ret is set to non-zero, the string in ${hook_com[rev-replace]} will be used unchanged as the
‘%i’ replacement in the variables set by vcs_info.
pre-addon-quilt
This hook is used when vcs_info’s quilt functionality is active in "addon" mode (quilt used on top
of a real version control system). It is activated right before any quilt specific action is taken.
Setting the ‘ret’ variable in this hook to a non-zero value avoids any quilt specific actions from
being run at all.
set-patch-format
This hook is used to control some of the possible expansions in patch-format and nopatch-for-
mat styles with patch queue systems such as quilt, mqueue and the like.
This hook is used in the git, hg and quilt backends.
The hook allows the control of the %p (${hook_com[applied]}) and %u (${hook_com[unap-
plied]}) expansion in all backends that use the hook. With the mercurial backend, the %g
(${hook_com[guards]}) expansion is controllable in addition to that.

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If ret is set to non-zero, the string in ${hook_com[patch-replace]} will be used unchanged in-
stead of an expanded format from patch-format or nopatch-format.
This hook is, in concert with the gen-applied-string or gen-unapplied-string hooks if they are
defined, responsible for %-escaping the final patch-format value for use in the prompt. (See the
Oddities section.)
set-message
Called each time before a ‘vcs_info_msg_N_’ message is set. It takes two arguments; the first be-
ing the ‘N’ in the message variable name, the second is the currently configured formats or ac-
tionformats.
There are a number of ‘hook_com’ keys, that are used here: ‘action’, ‘branch’, ‘base’,
‘base-name’, ‘subdir’, ‘staged’, ‘unstaged’, ‘revision’, ‘misc’, ‘vcs’ and one ‘miscN’ entry for
each backend-specific data field (N starting at zero). They are set to the values figured out so far
by vcs_info and any change will be used directly when the actual replacement is done.
Since this hook is triggered multiple times (once for each configured formats or actionformats),
each of the ‘hook_com’ keys mentioned above (except for the miscN entries) has an ‘_orig’ coun-
terpart, so even if you changed a value to your liking you can still get the original value in the next
run. Changing the ‘_orig’ values is probably not a good idea.
If ret is set to non-zero, the string in ${hook_com[message]} will be used unchanged as the mes-
sage by vcs_info.
If all of this sounds rather confusing, take a look at the Examples section below and also in the
Misc/vcs_info-examples file in the Zsh source. They contain some explanatory code.
Examples
Don’t use vcs_info at all (even though it’s in your prompt):
zstyle ’:vcs_info:*’ enable NONE
Disable the backends for bzr and svk:
zstyle ’:vcs_info:*’ disable bzr svk
Disable everything but bzr and svk:
zstyle ’:vcs_info:*’ enable bzr svk
Provide a special formats for git:
zstyle ’:vcs_info:git:*’ formats ’ GIT, BABY! [%b]’
zstyle ’:vcs_info:git:*’ actionformats ’ GIT ACTION! [%b|%a]’
All %x expansion in all sorts of formats (formats, actionformats, branchformat, you name it) are done
using the ‘zformat’ builtin from the ‘zsh/zutil’ module. That means you can do everything with these %x
items what zformat supports. In particular, if you want something that is really long to have a fixed width,
like a hash in a mercurial branchformat, you can do this: %12.12i. That’ll shrink the 40 character hash to
its 12 leading characters. The form is actually ‘%min.maxx’. More is possible. See the section ‘The
zsh/zutil Module’ in zshmodules(1) for details.
Use the quicker bzr backend
zstyle ’:vcs_info:bzr:*’ use-simple true
If you do use use-simple, please report if it does ‘the-right-thing[tm]’.
Display the revision number in yellow for bzr and svn:
zstyle ’:vcs_info:(svn|bzr):*’ \
branchformat ’%b%{’${fg[yellow]}’%}:%r’
If you want colors, make sure you enclose the color codes in %{...%} if you want to use the string provided
by vcs_info in prompts.
Here is how to print the VCS information as a command (not in a prompt):
alias vcsi=’vcs_info command; vcs_info_lastmsg’
This way, you can even define different formats for output via vcs_info_lastmsg in the

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’:vcs_info:*:command:*’ namespace.
Now as promised, some code that uses hooks: say, you’d like to replace the string ‘svn’ by ‘subversion’ in
vcs_info’s %s formats replacement.
First, we will tell vcs_info to call a function when populating the message variables with the gathered infor-
mation:
zstyle ’:vcs_info:*+set-message:*’ hooks svn2subversion
Nothing happens. Which is reasonable, since we didn’t define the actual function yet. To see what the
hooks subsystem is trying to do, enable the ‘debug’ style:
zstyle ’:vcs_info:*+*:*’ debug true
That should give you an idea what is going on. Specifically, the function that we are looking for is
‘+vi-svn2subversion’. Note, the ‘+vi-’ prefix. So, everything is in order, just as documented. When you
are done checking out the debugging output, disable it again:
zstyle ’:vcs_info:*+*:*’ debug false
Now, let’s define the function:
function +vi-svn2subversion() {
[[ ${hook_com[vcs_orig]} == svn ]] && hook_com[vcs]=subversion
}
Simple enough. And it could have even been simpler, if only we had registered our function in a less
generic context. If we do it only in the ‘svn’ backend’s context, we don’t need to test which the active back-
end is:
zstyle ’:vcs_info:svn+set-message:*’ hooks svn2subversion
function +vi-svn2subversion() {
hook_com[vcs]=subversion
}
And finally a little more elaborate example, that uses a hook to create a customised bookmark string for the
hg backend.
Again, we start off by registering a function:
zstyle ’:vcs_info:hg+gen-hg-bookmark-string:*’ hooks hgbookmarks
And then we define the ‘+vi-hgbookmarks’ function:
function +vi-hgbookmarks() {
# The default is to connect all bookmark names by
# commas. This mixes things up a little.
# Imagine, there’s one type of bookmarks that is
# special to you. Say, because it’s *your* work.
# Those bookmarks look always like this: "sh/*"
# (because your initials are sh, for example).
# This makes the bookmarks string use only those
# bookmarks. If there’s more than one, it
# concatenates them using commas.
# The bookmarks returned by ‘hg’ are available in
# the function’s positional parameters.
local s="${(Mj:,:)@:#sh/*}"
# Now, the communication with the code that calls
# the hook functions is done via the hook_com[]
# hash. The key at which the ‘gen-hg-bookmark-string’
# hook looks is ‘hg-bookmark-string’. So:
hook_com[hg-bookmark-string]=$s
# And to signal that we want to use the string we
# just generated, set the special variable ‘ret’ to
# something other than the default zero:
ret=1

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return 0
}
Some longer examples and code snippets which might be useful are available in the examples file located at
Misc/vcs_info-examples in the Zsh source directory.
This concludes our guided tour through zsh’s vcs_info.
PROMPT THEMES
Installation
You should make sure all the functions from the Functions/Prompts directory of the source distribution are
available; they all begin with the string ‘prompt_’ except for the special function‘promptinit’. You also
need the ‘colors’ and ‘add-zsh-hook’ functions from Functions/Misc. All these functions may already
be installed on your system; if not, you will need to find them and copy them. The directory should appear
as one of the elements of the fpath array (this should already be the case if they were installed), and at least
the function promptinit should be autoloaded; it will autoload the rest. Finally, to initialize the use of the
system you need to call the promptinit function. The following code in your .zshrc will arrange for this;
assume the functions are stored in the directory ˜/myfns:
fpath=(˜/myfns $fpath)
autoload -U promptinit
promptinit
Theme Selection
Use the prompt command to select your preferred theme. This command may be added to your .zshrc fol-
lowing 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 op-
tion to see a list. The special theme ‘random’ selects at random one of the available themes and
sets your prompt to that.
In some cases the theme may be modified by one or more arguments, which should be given after
the theme name. See the help for each theme for descriptions of these arguments.
Options are:
-c Show the currently selected theme and its parameters, if any.
-l List all available prompt themes.
-p Preview the theme named by theme, or all themes if no theme is given.
-h Show help for the theme named by theme, or for the prompt function if no theme is
given.
-s Set theme as the current theme and save state.
prompt_theme_setup
Each available theme has a setup function which is called by the prompt function to install that
theme. This function may define other functions as necessary to maintain the prompt, including
functions used to preview the prompt or provide help for its use. You should not normally call a
theme’s setup function directly.
Utility Themes
prompt off
The theme ‘off’ sets all the prompt variables to minimal values with no special effects.
prompt default
The theme ‘default’ sets all prompt variables to the same state as if an interactive zsh was started
with no initialization files.

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prompt restore
The special theme ‘restore’ erases all theme settings and sets prompt variables to their state before
the first time the ‘prompt’ function was run, provided each theme has properly defined its cleanup
(see below).
Note that you can undo ‘prompt off’ and ‘prompt default’ with ‘prompt restore’, but a second
restore does not undo the first.
Writing Themes
The first step for adding your own theme is to choose a name for it, and create a file ‘prompt_name_setup’
in a directory in your fpath, such as ˜/myfns in the example above. The file should at minimum contain as-
signments for the prompt variables that your theme wishes to modify. By convention, themes use PS1, PS2,
RPS1, etc., rather than the longer PROMPT and RPROMPT.
The file is autoloaded as a function in the current shell context, so it may contain any necessary commands
to customize your theme, including defining additional functions. To make some complex tasks easier,
your setup function may also do any of the following:
Assign prompt_opts
The array prompt_opts may be assigned any of "bang", "cr", "percent", "sp", and/or "subst"
as values. The corresponding setopts (promptbang, etc.) are turned on, all other prompt-related
options are turned off. The prompt_opts array preserves setopts even beyond the scope of
localoptions, should your function need that.
Modify precmd and preexec
Use of add-zsh-hook is recommended. The precmd and preexec hooks are automatically ad-
justed if the prompt theme changes or is disabled.
Declare cleanup
If your function makes any other changes that should be undone when the theme is disabled, your
setup function may call
prompt_cleanup command
where command should be suitably quoted. If your theme is ever disabled or replaced by another, com-
mand is executed with eval. You may declare more than one such cleanup hook.
Define preview
Define or autoload a function prompt_name_preview to display a simulated version of your
prompt. A simple default previewer is defined by promptinit for themes that do not define their
own. This preview function is called by ‘prompt -p’.
Provide help
Define or autoload a function prompt_name_help to display documentation or help text for your
theme. This help function is called by ‘prompt -h’.
ZLE FUNCTIONS
Widgets
These functions all implement user-defined ZLE widgets (see zshzle(1)) which can be bound to keystrokes
in interactive shells. To use them, your .zshrc should contain lines of the form
autoload function
zle -N function
followed by an appropriate bindkey command to associate the function with a key sequence. Suggested
bindings are described below.
bash-style word functions
If you are looking for functions to implement moving over and editing words in the manner of
bash, where only alphanumeric characters are considered word characters, you can use the func-
tions described in the next section. The following is sufficient:
autoload -U select-word-style
select-word-style bash

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forward-word-match, backward-word-match
kill-word-match, backward-kill-word-match
transpose-words-match, capitalize-word-match
up-case-word-match, down-case-word-match
delete-whole-word-match, select-word-match
select-word-style, match-word-context, match-words-by-style
The first eight ‘-match’ functions are drop-in replacements for the builtin widgets without the
suffix. By default they behave in a similar way. However, by the use of styles and the function se-
lect-word-style, the way words are matched can be altered. select-word-match is intended to
be used as a text object in vi mode but with custom word styles. For comparison, the widgets de-
scribed in zshzle(1) under Text Objects use fixed definitions of words, compatible with the vim ed-
itor.
The simplest way of configuring the functions is to use select-word-style, which can either be
called as a normal function with the appropriate argument, or invoked as a user-defined widget
that will prompt for the first character of the word style to be used. The first time it is invoked, the
first eight -match functions will automatically replace the builtin versions, so they do not need to
be loaded explicitly.
The word styles available are as follows. Only the first character is examined.
bash Word characters are alphanumeric characters only.
normal
As in normal shell operation: word characters are alphanumeric characters plus any char-
acters present in the string given by the parameter $WORDCHARS.
shell Words are complete shell command arguments, possibly including complete quoted
strings, or any tokens special to the shell.
whitespace
Words are any set of characters delimited by whitespace.
default Restore the default settings; this is usually the same as ‘normal’.
All but ‘default’ can be input as an upper case character, which has the same effect but with sub-
word matching turned on. In this case, words with upper case characters are treated specially:
each separate run of upper case characters, or an upper case character followed by any number of
other characters, is considered a word. The style subword-range can supply an alternative char-
acter range to the default ‘[:upper:]’; the value of the style is treated as the contents of a ‘[...]’ pat-
tern (note that the outer brackets should not be supplied, only those surrounding named ranges).
More control can be obtained using the zstyle command, as described in zshmodules(1). Each
style is looked up in the context :zle:widget where widget is the name of the user-defined widget,
not the name of the function implementing it, so in the case of the definitions supplied by se-
lect-word-style the appropriate contexts are :zle:forward-word, and so on. The function se-
lect-word-style itself always defines styles for the context ‘:zle:*’ which can be overridden by
more specific (longer) patterns as well as explicit contexts.
The style word-style specifies the rules to use. This may have the following values.
normal
Use the standard shell rules, i.e. alphanumerics and $WORDCHARS, unless overridden
by the styles word-chars or word-class.
specified
Similar to normal, but only the specified characters, and not also alphanumerics, are con-
sidered word characters.
unspecified
The negation of specified. The given characters are those which will not be considered
part of a word.

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shell Words are obtained by using the syntactic rules for generating shell command arguments.
In addition, special tokens which are never command arguments such as ‘()’ are also
treated as words.
whitespace
Words are whitespace-delimited strings of characters.
The first three of those rules usually use $WORDCHARS, but the value in the parameter can be
overridden by the style word-chars, which works in exactly the same way as $WORDCHARS.
In addition, the style word-class uses character class syntax to group characters and takes prece-
dence 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 al-
phanumerics plus the characters ‘-’ and ‘:’. Be careful including ‘]’, ‘ˆ’ and ‘-’ as these are spe-
cial inside character classes.
word-style may also have ‘-subword’ appended to its value to turn on subword matching, as de-
scribed above.
The style skip-chars is mostly useful for transpose-words and similar functions. If set, it gives
a count of characters starting at the cursor position which will not be considered part of the word
and are treated as space, regardless of what they actually are. For example, if
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.
Finer grained control can be obtained by setting the style word-context to an array of pairs of en-
tries. Each pair of entries consists of a pattern and a subcontext. The shell argument the cursor is
on is matched against each pattern in turn until one matches; if it does, the context is extended by
a colon and the corresponding subcontext. Note that the test is made against the original word on
the line, with no stripping of quotes. Special handling is done between words: the current context
is examined and if it contains the string between the word is set to a single space; else if it is con-
tains the string back, the word before the cursor is considered, else the word after cursor is consid-
ered. Some examples are given below.
The style skip-whitespace-first is only used with the forward-word widget. If it is set to true,
then forward-word skips any non-word-characters, followed by any non-word-characters: this
is similar to the behaviour of other word-orientated widgets, and also that used by other editors,
however it differs from the standard zsh behaviour. When using select-word-style the widget is
set in the context :zle:* to true if the word style is bash and false otherwise. It may be overridden
by setting it in the more specific context :zle:forward-word*.
It is possible to create widgets with specific behaviour by defining a new widget implemented by
the appropriate generic function, then setting a style for the context of the specific widget. For ex-
ample, the following defines a widget backward-kill-space-word using back-
ward-kill-word-match, the generic widget implementing backward-kill-word behaviour, and
ensures that the new widget always implements space-delimited behaviour.
zle -N backward-kill-space-word backward-kill-word-match
zstyle :zle:backward-kill-space-word word-style space
The widget backward-kill-space-word can now be bound to a key.
Here are some further examples of use of the styles, actually taken from the simplified interface in
select-word-style:
zstyle ’:zle:*’ word-style standard
zstyle ’:zle:*’ word-chars ’’
Implements bash-style word handling for all widgets, i.e. only alphanumerics are word characters;
equivalent to setting the parameter WORDCHARS empty for the given context.

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style ’:zle:*kill*’ word-style space

Uses space-delimited words for widgets with the word ‘kill’ in the name. Neither of the styles
word-chars nor word-class is used in this case.
Here are some examples of use of the word-context style to extend the context.
zstyle ’:zle:*’ word-context \
"*/*" filename "[[:space:]]" whitespace
zstyle ’:zle:transpose-words:whitespace’ word-style shell
zstyle ’:zle:transpose-words:filename’ word-style normal
zstyle ’:zle:transpose-words:filename’ word-chars ’’
This provides two different ways of using transpose-words depending on whether the cursor is
on whitespace between words or on a filename, here any word containing a /. On whitespace,
complete arguments as defined by standard shell rules will be transposed. In a filename, only al-
phanumerics will be transposed. Elsewhere, words will be transposed using the default style for
:zle:transpose-words.
The word matching and all the handling of zstyle settings is actually implemented by the function
match-words-by-style. This can be used to create new user-defined widgets. The calling func-
tion 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 be-
fore the cursor (3) any non-word characters between that word and the cursor (4) any non-word
character at the cursor position plus any remaining non-word characters before the next word, in-
cluding all characters specified by the skip-chars style, (5) the word at or following the cursor (6)
any non-word characters following that word (7) the remainder of the line. Any of the elements
may be an empty string; the calling function should test for this to decide whether it can perform
its function.
If the variable matched_words is defined by the caller to match-words-by-style as an associa-
tive array (local -A matched_words), then the seven values given above should be retrieved from
it as elements named start, word-before-cursor, ws-before-cursor, ws-after-cursor,
word-after-cursor, ws-after-word, and end. In addition the element is-word-start is 1 if the
cursor is on the start of a word or subword, or on white space before it (the cases can be distin-
guished by testing the ws-after-cursor element) and 0 otherwise. This form is recommended for
future compatibility.
It is possible to pass options with arguments to match-words-by-style to override the use of
styles. The options are:
-w word-style
-s skip-chars
-c word-class
-C word-chars
-r subword-range
For example, match-words-by-style -w shell -c 0 may be used to extract the command argu-
ment around the cursor.
The word-context style is implemented by the function match-word-context. This should not
usually need to be called directly.
bracketed-paste-magic
The bracketed-paste widget (see subsection Miscellaneous in zshzle(1)) inserts pasted text liter-
ally into the editor buffer rather than interpret it as keystrokes. This disables some common us-
ages where the self-insert widget is replaced in order to accomplish some extra processing. An
example is the contributed url-quote-magic widget described below.
The bracketed-paste-magic widget is meant to replace bracketed-paste with a wrapper that
re-enables these self-insert actions, and other actions as selected by zstyles. Therefore this

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widget is installed with

autoload -Uz bracketed-paste-magic

zle -N bracketed-paste bracketed-paste-magic
Other than enabling some widget processing, bracketed-paste-magic attempts to replicate
bracketed-paste as faithfully as possible.
The following zstyles may be set to control processing of pasted text. All are looked up in the
context ‘:bracketed-paste-magic’.
active-widgets
A list of patterns matching widget names that should be activated during the paste. All
other key sequences are processed as self-insert-unmeta. The default is ‘self-*’ so any
user-defined widgets named with that prefix are active along with the builtin self-insert.
If this style is not set (explicitly deleted) or set to an empty value, no widgets are active
and the pasted text is inserted literally. If the value includes ‘undefined-key’, any un-
known sequences are discarded from the pasted text.
inactive-keys
The inverse of active-widgets, a list of key sequences that always use self-insert-un-
meta even when bound to an active widget. Note that this is a list of literal key se-
quences, not patterns.
paste-init
A list of function names, called in widget context (but not as widgets). The functions are
called in order until one of them returns a non-zero status. The parameter ‘PASTED’
contains the initial state of the pasted text. All other ZLE parameters such as ‘BUFFER’
have their normal values and side-effects, and full history is available, so for example
paste-init functions may move words from BUFFER into PASTED to make those
words visible to the active-widgets.
A non-zero return from a paste-init function does not prevent the paste itself from pro-
ceeding.
Loading bracketed-paste-magic defines backward-extend-paste, a helper function
for use in paste-init.
zstyle :bracketed-paste-magic paste-init \
backward-extend-paste
When a paste would insert into the middle of a word or append text to a word already on
the line, backward-extend-paste moves the prefix from LBUFFER into PASTED so
that the active-widgets see the full word so far. This may be useful with
url-quote-magic.
paste-finish
Another list of function names called in order until one returns non-zero. These func-
tions are called after the pasted text has been processed by the active-widgets, but before
it is inserted into ‘BUFFER’. ZLE parameters have their normal values and side-effects.
A non-zero return from a paste-finish function does not prevent the paste itself from
proceeding.
Loading bracketed-paste-magic also defines quote-paste, a helper function for use in
paste-finish.
zstyle :bracketed-paste-magic paste-finish \
quote-paste
zstyle :bracketed-paste-magic:finish quote-style \
qqq

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When the pasted text is inserted into BUFFER, it is quoted per the quote-style value.
To forcibly turn off the built-in numeric prefix quoting of bracketed-paste, use:
zstyle :bracketed-paste-magic:finish quote-style \
none
Important: During active-widgets processing of the paste (after paste-init and before paste-fin-
ish), BUFFER starts empty and history is restricted, so cursor motions, etc., may not pass outside
of the pasted content. Text assigned to BUFFER by the active widgets is copied back into
PASTED before paste-finish.
copy-earlier-word
This widget works like a combination of insert-last-word and copy-prev-shell-word. Re-
peated 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 in-
vocations will replace that word with earlier words from the same line.
Otherwise, the widget applies to words on the line currently being edited. The widget style can be
set to the name of another widget that should be called to retrieve words. This widget must accept
the same three arguments as insert-last-word.
cycle-completion-positions
After inserting an unambiguous string into the command line, the new function based completion
system may know about multiple places in this string where characters are missing or differ from
at least one of the possible matches. It will then place the cursor on the position it considers to be
the most interesting one, i.e. the one where one can disambiguate between as many matches as
possible with as little typing as possible.
This widget allows the cursor to be easily moved to the other interesting spots. It can be invoked
repeatedly to cycle between all positions reported by the completion system.
delete-whole-word-match
This is another function which works like the -match functions described immediately above, i.e.
using styles to decide the word boundaries. However, it is not a replacement for any existing func-
tion.
The basic behaviour is to delete the word around the cursor. There is no numeric argument han-
dling; only the single word around the cursor is considered. If the widget contains the string kill,
the removed text will be placed in the cutbuffer for future yanking. This can be obtained by defin-
ing 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.
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-begin-
ning-search-backward and -forward, rather than the first word on the line.
edit-command-line
Edit the command line using your visual editor, as in ksh.
bindkey -M vicmd v edit-command-line
expand-absolute-path
Expand the file name under the cursor to an absolute path, resolving symbolic links. Where possi-
ble, the initial path segment is turned into a named directory or reference to a user’s home

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directory.
history-search-end
This function implements the widgets history-beginning-search-backward-end and his-
tory-beginning-search-forward-end. These commands work by first calling the corresponding
builtin widget (see ‘History Control’ in zshzle(1)) and then moving the cursor to the end of the
line. The original cursor position is remembered and restored before calling the builtin widget a
second time, so that the same search is repeated to look farther through the history.
Although you autoload only one function, the commands to use it are slightly different because it
implements two widgets.
zle -N history-beginning-search-backward-end \
history-search-end
zle -N history-beginning-search-forward-end \
history-search-end
bindkey ’\eˆP’ history-beginning-search-backward-end
bindkey ’\eˆN’ history-beginning-search-forward-end
history-beginning-search-menu
This function implements yet another form of history searching. The text before the cursor is used
to select lines from the history, as for history-beginning-search-backward except that all
matches are shown in a numbered menu. Typing the appropriate digits inserts the full history line.
Note that leading zeroes must be typed (they are only shown when necessary for removing ambi-
guity). The entire history is searched; there is no distinction between forwards and backwards.
With a numeric argument, the search is not anchored to the start of the line; the string typed by the
use may appear anywhere in the line in the history.
If the widget name contains ‘-end’ the cursor is moved to the end of the line inserted. If the wid-
get name contains ‘-space’ any space in the text typed is treated as a wildcard and can match any-
thing (hence a leading space is equivalent to giving a numeric argument). Both forms can be com-
bined, for example:
zle -N history-beginning-search-menu-space-end \
history-beginning-search-menu
history-pattern-search
The function history-pattern-search implements widgets which prompt for a pattern with which
to search the history backwards or forwards. The pattern is in the usual zsh format, however the
first character may be ˆ to anchor the search to the start of the line, and the last character may be $
to anchor the search to the end of the line. If the search was not anchored to the end of the line the
cursor is positioned just after the pattern found.
The commands to create bindable widgets are similar to those in the example immediately above:
autoload -U history-pattern-search
zle -N history-pattern-search-backward history-pattern-search
zle -N history-pattern-search-forward history-pattern-search
incarg Typing the keystrokes for this widget with the cursor placed on or to the left of an integer causes
that integer to be incremented by one. With a numeric argument, the number is incremented by
the amount of the argument (decremented if the numeric argument is negative). The shell parame-
ter incarg may be set to change the default increment to something other than one.
bindkey ’ˆX+’ 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 ˆH or DEL.
Pressing return accepts the completion so far and returns you to normal editing (that is, the com-
mand line is not immediately executed). You can hit TAB to do normal completion, ˆG to abort

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back to the state when you started, and ˆD to list the matches.
This works only with the new function based completion system.
bindkey ’ˆXi’ incremental-complete-word
insert-composed-char
This function allows you to compose characters that don’t appear on the keyboard to be inserted
into the command line. The command is followed by two keys corresponding to ASCII characters
(there is no prompt). For accented characters, the two keys are a base character followed by a
code for the accent, while for other special characters the two characters together form a mne-
monic for the character to be inserted. The two-character codes are a subset of those given by
RFC 1345 (see for example http://www.faqs.org/rfcs/rfc1345.html).
The function may optionally be followed by up to two characters which replace one or both of the
characters read from the keyboard; if both characters are supplied, no input is read. For example,
insert-composed-char a: can be used within a widget to insert an a with umlaut into the com-
mand line. This has the advantages over use of a literal character that it is more portable.
For best results zsh should have been built with support for multibyte characters (configured with
--enable-multibyte); however, the function works for the limited range of characters available in
single-byte character sets such as ISO-8859-1.
The character is converted into the local representation and inserted into the command line at the
cursor position. (The conversion is done within the shell, using whatever facilities the C library
provides.) With a numeric argument, the character and its code are previewed in the status line
The function may be run outside zle in which case it prints the character (together with a newline)
to standard output. Input is still read from keystrokes.
See insert-unicode-char for an alternative way of inserting Unicode characters using their hexa-
decimal character number.
The set of accented characters is reasonably complete up to Unicode character U+0180, the set of
special characters less so. However, it is very sporadic from that point. Adding new characters is
easy, however; see the function define-composed-chars. Please send any additions to
[email protected].
The codes for the second character when used to accent the first are as follows. Note that not ev-
ery character can take every accent.
! Grave.
’ Acute.
> Circumflex.
? Tilde. (This is not ˜ as RFC 1345 does not assume that character is present on the key-
board.)
- Macron. (A horizontal bar over the base character.)
( Breve. (A shallow dish shape over the base character.)
. Dot above the base character, or in the case of i no dot, or in the case of L and l a cen-
tered dot.
: Diaeresis (Umlaut).
c Cedilla.
_ Underline, however there are currently no underlined characters.
/ Stroke through the base character.
" Double acute (only supported on a few letters).
; Ogonek. (A little forward facing hook at the bottom right of the character.)
< Caron. (A little v over the letter.)
0 Circle over the base character.
2 Hook over the base character.
9 Horn over the base character.
The most common characters from the Arabic, Cyrillic, Greek and Hebrew alphabets are

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available; consult RFC 1345 for the appropriate sequences. In addition, a set of two letter codes
not in RFC 1345 are available for the double-width characters corresponding to ASCII characters
from ! to ˜ (0x21 to 0x7e) by preceding the character with ˆ, for example ˆA for a double-width
A.
The following other two-character sequences are understood.
ASCII characters
These are already present on most keyboards:
<( Left square bracket
// Backslash (solidus)
)> Right square bracket
(! Left brace (curly bracket)
!! Vertical bar (pipe symbol)
!) Right brace (curly bracket)
’? Tilde
Special letters
Characters found in various variants of the Latin alphabet:
ss Eszett (scharfes S)
D-, d- Eth
TH, th Thorn
kk Kra
’n ’n
NG, ng Ng
OI, oi Oi
yr yr
ED ezh
Currency symbols
Ct Cent
Pd Pound sterling (also lira and others)
Cu Currency
Ye Yen
Eu Euro (N.B. not in RFC 1345)
Punctuation characters
References to "right" quotes indicate the shape (like a 9 rather than 6) rather than their
grammatical use. (For example, a "right" low double quote is used to open quotations in
German.)
!I Inverted exclamation mark
BB Broken vertical bar
SE Section
Co Copyright
-a Spanish feminine ordinal indicator
<< Left guillemet
-- Soft hyphen
Rg Registered trade mark
PI Pilcrow (paragraph)
-o Spanish masculine ordinal indicator
>> Right guillemet
?I Inverted question mark
-1 Hyphen
-N En dash
-M Em dash
-3 Horizontal bar

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:3 Vertical ellipsis
.3 Horizontal midline ellipsis
!2 Double vertical line
=2 Double low line
’6 Left single quote
’9 Right single quote
.9 "Right" low quote
9’ Reversed "right" quote
"6 Left double quote
"9 Right double quote
:9 "Right" low double quote
9" Reversed "right" double quote
/- Dagger
/= Double dagger
Mathematical symbols
DG Degree
-2, +-, -+
- sign, +/- sign, -/+ sign
2S Superscript 2
3S Superscript 3
1S Superscript 1
My Micro
.M Middle dot
14 Quarter
12 Half
34 Three quarters
*X Multiplication
-: Division
%0 Per mille
FA, TE, /0
For all, there exists, empty set
dP, DE, NB
Partial derivative, delta (increment), del (nabla)
(-, -) Element of, contains
*P, +Z Product, sum
*-, Ob, Sb
Asterisk, ring, bullet
RT, 0(, 00
Root sign, proportional to, infinity
Other symbols
cS, cH, cD, cC
Card suits: spades, hearts, diamonds, clubs
Md, M8, M2, Mb, Mx, MX
Musical notation: crotchet (quarter note), quaver (eighth note), semiquavers (sixteenth
notes), flag sign, natural sign, sharp sign
Fm, Ml
Female, male
Accents on their own
’> Circumflex (same as caret, ˆ)
’! Grave (same as backtick, ‘)
’, Cedilla
’: Diaeresis (Umlaut)

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’m Macron
’’ Acute
insert-files
This function allows you type a file pattern, and see the results of the expansion at each step.
When you hit return, all expansions are inserted into the command line.
bindkey ’ˆXf’ insert-files
insert-unicode-char
When first executed, the user inputs a set of hexadecimal digits. This is terminated with another
call to insert-unicode-char. The digits are then turned into the corresponding Unicode charac-
ter. For example, if the widget is bound to ˆXU, the character sequence ‘ˆXU 4 c ˆXU’ inserts L
(Unicode U+004c).
See insert-composed-char for a way of inserting characters using a two-character mnemonic.

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

[ -S statepm | -R statepm | [ -l lbufvar ] [ -r rbufvar ] ]
[ -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 per-
formed; 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 recursive-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 parameter will be local to the calling function.
The options -l lbufvar and -r rbufvar may be used to specify parameters where the widget will
store the resulting text from the operation. The parameter lbufvar will contain LBUFFER and
rbufvar will contain RBUFFER. Neither of these two options may be used with -S or -R.
narrow-to-region-invisible is a simple widget which calls narrow-to-region with arguments
which replace any text outside the region with ‘...’. It does not take any arguments.
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 additional 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

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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 his-
tory, adding a key performs standard completion, and then inserts itself if no completions were
found. However, 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 several 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
predict-off as well.
zle -N predict-on
zle -N predict-off
bindkey ’ˆXˆZ’ predict-on
bindkey ’ˆZ’ predict-off
read-from-minibuffer
This is most useful when called as a function from inside a widget, but will work correctly as a
widget in its own right. It prompts for a value below the current command line; a value may be in-
put using all of the standard zle operations (and not merely the restricted set available when exe-
cuting, 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 previous state. If the read was
aborted by a keyboard break (typically ˆG), 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 ar-
gument is given it is the initial value of $RBUFFER. This provides a default value and starting
cursor placement. 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 similar functions while reading a value.

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replace-argument, replace-argument-edit
The function replace-argument can be used to replace a command line argument in the current
command line or, if the current command line is empty, in the last command line executed (the
new command line is not executed). Arguments are as delimited by standard shell syntax,
If a numeric argument is given, that specifies the argument to be replaced. 0 means the command
name, as in history expansion. A negative numeric argument counts backward from the last word.
If no numeric argument is given, the current argument is replaced; this is the last argument if the
previous history line is being used.
The function prompts for a replacement argument.
If the widget contains the string edit, for example is defined as
zle -N replace-argument-edit replace-argument
then the function presents the current value of the argument for editing, otherwise the editing buf-
fer for the replacement is initially empty.
replace-string, replace-pattern
replace-string-again, replace-pattern-again
The function replace-string implements three 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 every-
where 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 matching is performed using zsh
patterns. All zsh extended globbing patterns can be used in the source string; note that unlike file-
name generation the pattern does not need to match an entire word, nor do glob qualifiers have any
effect. In addition, the replacement string can contain parameter or command substitutions. Fur-
thermore, 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 expression matched. The form
‘\{N}’ may be used to protect the digit from following digits.
If the widget instead contains the word ‘regex’ (or ‘regexp’), then the matching is performed us-
ing regular expressions, respecting the setting of the option RE_MATCH_PCRE (see the descrip-
tion of the function regexp-replace below). The special replacement facilities described above
for pattern matching are available.
By default the previous source or replacement string will not be offered for editing. However, this
feature can be activated by setting the style edit-previous in the context :zle:widget (for example,
:zle:replace-string) to true. In addition, a positive numeric argument forces the previous values
to be offered, a negative or zero argument forces them not to be.
The function replace-string-again can be used to repeat the previous replacement; no prompting
is done. As with replace-string, if the name of the widget contains the word ‘pattern’ or
‘regex’, pattern or regular expression matching is performed, else a literal string replacement.
Note that the previous source and replacement text are the same whether pattern, regular expres-
sion or string matching is used.
In addition, replace-string shows the previous replacement above the prompt, so long as there
was one during the current session; if the source string is empty, that replacement will be repeated
without the widget prompting for a replacement string.
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 replacement string ‘c\1r’ pro-
duces 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

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widget. One limitation of the current version is that undo will cycle through changes to the re-
placement and source strings before undoing the replacement itself.
send-invisible
This is similar to read-from-minibuffer in that it may be called as a function from a widget or as a
widget of its own, and interactively reads input from the keyboard. However, the input being
typed is concealed and a string of asterisks (‘*’) is shown instead. The value is saved in the pa-
rameter $INVISIBLE to which a reference is inserted into the editing buffer at the restored cursor
position. If the read was aborted by a keyboard break (typically ˆG) or another escape from edit-
ing such as push-line, $INVISIBLE is set to empty and the original buffer is restored unchanged.
If one argument is supplied to the function it is taken as a prompt, otherwise ‘Non-echoed text: ’
is used (as in emacs). If a second and third argument are supplied they are used to begin and end
the reference to $INVISIBLE that is inserted into the buffer. The default is to open with ${, then
INVISIBLE, and close with }, but many other effects are possible.
smart-insert-last-word
This function may replace the insert-last-word widget, like so:
zle -N insert-last-word smart-insert-last-word
With a numeric argument, or when passed command line arguments in a call from another widget,
it behaves like insert-last-word, except that words in comments are ignored when INTERAC-
TIVE_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 overridden 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. How-
ever, you can bind this function to different widgets to use different patterns:
zle -N insert-last-assignment smart-insert-last-word
zstyle :insert-last-assignment match ’[[:alpha:]][][[:alnum:]]#=*’
bindkey ’\e=’ insert-last-assignment
If no interesting word is found and the auto-previous style is set to a true value, the search con-
tinues upward through the history. When auto-previous is unset or false (the default), the widget
must be invoked repeatedly in order to search earlier history lines.
transpose-lines
Only useful with a multi-line editing buffer; the lines here are lines within the current on-screen
buffer, not history lines. The effect is similar to the function of the same name in Emacs.
Transpose the current line with the previous line and move the cursor to the start of the next line.
Repeating this (which can be done by providing a positive numeric argument) has the effect of
moving the line above the cursor down by a number of lines.
With a negative numeric argument, requires two lines above the cursor. These two lines are trans-
posed and the cursor moved to the start of the previous line. Using a numeric argument less than
-1 has the effect of moving the line above the cursor up by minus that number of lines.
url-quote-magic
This widget replaces the built-in self-insert to make it easier to type URLs as command line ar-
guments. As you type, the input character is analyzed and, if it may need quoting, the current
word is checked for a URI scheme. If one is found and the current word is not already in quotes, a
backslash is inserted before the input character.
Styles to control quoting behavior:
url-metas
This style is looked up in the context ‘:url-quote-magic:scheme’ (where scheme is that
of the current URL, e.g. "ftp"). The value is a string listing the characters to be treated as
globbing metacharacters when appearing in a URL using that scheme. The default is to

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quote all zsh extended globbing characters, excluding ’<’ and ’>’ but including braces (as
in brace expansion). See also url-seps.
url-seps
Like url-metas, but lists characters that should be considered command separators, redi-
rections, history references, etc. The default is to quote the standard set of shell separa-
tors, excluding those that overlap with the extended globbing characters, but including ’<’
and ’>’ and the first character of $histchars.
url-globbers
This style is looked up in the context ‘:url-quote-magic’. The values form a list of
command names that are expected to do their own globbing on the URL string. This im-
plies that they are aliased to use the ‘noglob’ modifier. When the first word on the line
matches one of the values and the URL refers to a local file (see url-local-schema),
only the url-seps characters are quoted; the url-metas are left alone, allowing them to
affect command-line parsing, completion, etc. The default values are a literal ‘noglob’
plus (when the zsh/parameter module is available) any commands aliased to the helper
function ‘urlglobber’ or its alias ‘globurl’.
url-local-schema
This style is always looked up in the context ‘:urlglobber’, even though it is used by both
url-quote-magic and urlglobber. The values form a list of URI schema that should be
treated as referring to local files by their real local path names, as opposed to files which
are specified relative to a web-server-defined document root. The defaults are "ftp" and
"file".
url-other-schema
Like url-local-schema, but lists all other URI schema upon which urlglobber and
url-quote-magic should act. If the URI on the command line does not have a scheme
appearing either in this list or in url-local-schema, it is not magically quoted. The de-
fault values are "http", "https", and "ftp". When a scheme appears both here and in
url-local-schema, it is quoted differently depending on whether the command name ap-
pears in url-globbers.
Loading url-quote-magic also defines a helper function ‘urlglobber’ and aliases ‘globurl’ to
‘noglob urlglobber’. This function takes a local URL apart, attempts to pattern-match the local
file portion of the URL path, and then puts the results back into URL format again.
vi-pipe
This function reads a movement command from the keyboard and then prompts for an external
command. The part of the buffer covered by the movement is piped to the external command and
then replaced by the command’s output. If the movement command is bound to vi-pipe, the cur-
rent line is used.
The function serves as an example for reading a vi movement command from within a user-de-
fined widget.
which-command
This function is a drop-in replacement for the builtin widget which-command. It has enhanced
behaviour, in that it correctly detects whether or not the command word needs to be expanded as
an alias; if so, it continues tracing the command word from the expanded alias until it reaches the
command that will be executed.
The style whence is available in the context :zle:$WIDGET; this may be set to an array to give
the command and options that will be used to investigate the command word found. The default is
whence -c.
zcalc-auto-insert
This function is useful together with the zcalc function described in the section Mathematical
Functions. It should be bound to a key representing a binary operator such as ‘+’, ‘-’, ‘*’ or ‘/’.

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When running in zcalc, if the key occurs at the start of the line or immediately following an open
parenthesis, the text "ans " is inserted before the representation of the key itself. This allows easy
use of the answer from the previous calculation in the current line. The text to be inserted before
the symbol typed can be modified by setting the variable ZCALC_AUTO_INSERT_PREFIX.
Hence, for example, typing ‘+12’ followed by return adds 12 to the previous result.
If zcalc is in RPN mode (-r option) the effect of this binding is automatically suppressed as opera-
tors alone on a line are meaningful.
When not in zcalc, the key simply inserts the symbol itself.
Utility Functions
These functions are useful in constructing widgets. They should be loaded with ‘autoload -U function’
and called as indicated from user-defined widgets.
split-shell-arguments
This function splits the line currently being edited into shell arguments and whitespace. The result
is stored in the array reply. The array contains all the parts of the line in order, starting with any
whitespace before the first argument, and finishing with any whitespace after the last argument.
Hence (so long as the option KSH_ARRAYS is not set) whitespace is given by odd indices in the
array and arguments by even indices. Note that no stripping of quotes is done; joining together all
the elements of reply in order is guaranteed to produce the original line.
The parameter REPLY is set to the index of the word in reply which contains the character after
the cursor, where the first element has index 1. The parameter REPLY2 is set to the index of the
character under the cursor in that word, where the first character has index 1.
Hence reply, REPLY and REPLY2 should all be made local to the enclosing function.
See the function modify-current-argument, described below, for an example of how to call this
function.
modify-current-argument [ expr-using-$ARG | func ]
This function provides a simple method of allowing user-defined widgets to modify the command
line argument under the cursor (or immediately to the left of the cursor if the cursor is between ar-
guments).
The argument can be an expression which when evaluated operates on the shell parameter ARG,
which will have been set to the command line argument under the cursor. The expression should
be suitably quoted to prevent it being evaluated too early.
Alternatively, if the argument does not contain the string ARG, it is assumed to be a shell function,
to which the current command line argument is passed as the only argument. The function should
set the variable REPLY to the new value for the command line argument. If the function returns
non-zero status, so does the calling function.
For example, a user-defined widget containing the following code converts the characters in the
argument under the cursor into all upper case:
modify-current-argument ’${(U)ARG}’
The following strips any quoting from the current word (whether backslashes or one of the styles
of quotes), and replaces it with single quoting throughout:
modify-current-argument ’${(qq)${(Q)ARG}}’
The following performs directory expansion on the command line argument and replaces it by the
absolute path:
expand-dir() {
REPLY=${˜1}
REPLY=${REPLY:a}
}
modify-current-argument expand-dir

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In practice the function expand-dir would probably not be defined within the widget where mod-
ify-current-argument is called.
Styles
The behavior of several of the above widgets can be controlled by the use of the zstyle mechanism. In par-
ticular, widgets that interact with the completion system pass along their context to any completions that
they invoke.
break-keys
This style is used by the incremental-complete-word widget. Its value should be a pattern, and
all keys matching this pattern will cause the widget to stop incremental completion without the key
having any further effect. Like all styles used directly by incremental-complete-word, this style
is looked up using the context ‘:incremental’.
completer
The incremental-complete-word and insert-and-predict widgets set up their top-level context
name before calling completion. This allows one to define different sets of completer functions
for normal completion and for these widgets. For example, to use completion, approximation and
correction for normal completion, completion and correction for incremental completion and only
completion for prediction one could use:
zstyle ’:completion:*’ completer \
_complete _correct _approximate
zstyle ’:completion:incremental:*’ completer \
_complete _correct
zstyle ’:completion:predict:*’ completer \
_complete
It is a good idea to restrict the completers used in prediction, because they may be automatically
invoked as you type. The _list and _menu completers should never be used with prediction. The
_approximate, _correct, _expand, and _match completers may be used, but be aware that they
may change characters anywhere in the word behind the cursor, so you need to watch carefully
that the result is what you intended.
cursor The insert-and-predict widget uses this style, in the context ‘:predict’, to decide where to place
the cursor after completion has been tried. Values are:
complete
The cursor is left where it was when completion finished, but only if it is after a character
equal to the one just inserted by the user. If it is after another character, this value is the
same as ‘key’.
key The cursor is left after the nth occurrence of the character just inserted, where n is the
number of times that character appeared in the word before completion was attempted. In
short, this has the effect of leaving the cursor after the character just typed even if the
completion code found out that no other characters need to be inserted at that position.
Any other value for this style unconditionally leaves the cursor at the position where the comple-
tion 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:incre-
mental’.
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 EX-
TENDED_GLOB syntax) that matches an interesting word. The context is the name of the wid-
get to which smart-insert-last-word is bound (see above). The default behavior of smart-in-
sert-last-word is equivalent to:

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

However, you might want to include words that contain spaces:
zstyle :insert-last-word match ’*[[:alpha:][:space:]/\\]*’
Or include numbers as long as the word is at least two characters long:
zstyle :insert-last-word match ’*([[:digit:]]?|[[:alpha:]/\\])*’
The above example causes redirections like "2>" to be included.
prompt
The incremental-complete-word widget shows the value of this style in the status line during in-
cremental completion. The string value may contain any of the following substrings in the manner
of the PS1 and other prompt parameters:
%c Replaced by the name of the completer function that generated the matches (without the
leading underscore).
%l When the list style is set, replaced by ‘...’ if the list of matches is too long to fit on the
screen and with an empty string otherwise. If the list style is ‘false’ or not set, ‘%l’ is al-
ways removed.
%n Replaced by the number of matches generated.
%s Replaced by ‘-no match-’, ‘-no prefix-’, or an empty string if there is no completion
matching the word on the line, if the matches have no common prefix different from the
word on the line, or if there is such a common prefix, respectively.
%u Replaced by the unambiguous part of all matches, if there is any, and if it is different
from the word on the line.
Like ‘break-keys’, this uses the ‘:incremental’ context.
stop-keys
This style is used by the incremental-complete-word widget. Its value is treated similarly to the
one for the break-keys style (and uses the same context: ‘:incremental’). However, in this case
all keys matching the pattern given as its value will stop incremental completion and will then exe-
cute 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 pre-
dictive state is toggled. This is most useful in combination with the toggle style. The default does
not display these messages.
widget This style is similar to the command style: For widget functions that use zle to call other widgets,
this style can sometimes be used to override the widget which is called. The context for this style
is the name of the calling widget (not the name of the calling function, because one function may
be bound to multiple widget names).
zstyle :copy-earlier-word widget smart-insert-last-word
Check the documentation for the calling widget or function to determine whether the widget style
is used.
EXCEPTION HANDLING
Two functions are provided to enable zsh to provide exception handling in a form that should be familiar
from other languages.

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throw exception
The function throw throws the named exception. The name is an arbitrary string and is only used
by the throw and catch functions. An exception is for the most part treated the same as a shell er-
ror, i.e. an unhandled exception will cause the shell to abort all processing in a function or script
and to return to the top level in an interactive shell.
catch exception-pattern
The function catch returns status zero if an exception was thrown and the pattern exception-pat-
tern matches its name. Otherwise it returns status 1. exception-pattern is a standard shell pattern,
respecting the current setting of the EXTENDED_GLOB option. An alias catch is also defined
to prevent the argument to the function from matching filenames, so patterns may be used un-
quoted. Note that as exceptions are not fundamentally different from other shell errors it is possi-
ble to catch shell errors by using an empty string as the exception name. The shell variable
CAUGHT is set by catch to the name of the exception caught. It is possible to rethrow an excep-
tion by calling the throw function again once an exception has been caught.
The functions are designed to be used together with the always construct described in zshmisc(1). This is
important as only this construct provides the required support for exceptions. A typical example is as fol-
lows.
{
# "try" block
# ... nested code here calls "throw MyExcept"
} always {
# "always" block
if catch MyExcept; then
print "Caught exception MyExcept"
elif catch ’’; then
print "Caught a shell error. Propagating..."
throw ’’
fi
# Other exceptions are not handled but may be caught further
# up the call stack.
}
If all exceptions should be caught, the following idiom might be preferable.
{
# ... nested code here throws an exception
} always {
if catch *; then
case $CAUGHT in
(MyExcept)
print "Caught my own exception"
;;
(*)
print "Caught some other exception"
;;
esac
fi
}
In common with exception handling in other languages, the exception may be thrown by code deeply
nested inside the ‘try’ block. However, note that it must be thrown inside the current shell, not in a subshell
forked for a pipeline, parenthesised current-shell construct, or some form of command or process substitu-
tion.
The system internally uses the shell variable EXCEPTION to record the name of the exception between
throwing and catching. One drawback of this scheme is that if the exception is not handled the variable

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EXCEPTION remains set and may be incorrectly recognised as the name of an exception if a shell error
subsequently occurs. Adding unset EXCEPTION at the start of the outermost layer of any code that uses
exception handling will eliminate this problem.
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 [ -fv ] [ -l [ suffix ... ] ]
zsh-mime-handler [ -l ] command argument ...
These two functions use the files ˜/.mime.types and /etc/mime.types, which associate types and
extensions, 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 Exten-
sions.
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 comple-
tion system. 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.
For suffixes defined in lower case, upper case variants will also automatically be handled (e.g.
PDF is automatically handled if handling for the suffix pdf is defined), but not vice versa.
Repeated calls to zsh-mime-setup do not override the existing mapping between suffixes and ex-
ecutable 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.
Suffixes to list (which may contain pattern characters that should be quoted from immediate inter-
pretation on the command line) may be given as additional arguments, otherwise all suffixes are
listed.
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
zshmodules(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 *
(suitably quoted) be appended to style patterns in case the system is extended in future. Some ex-
amples are given below.
For files that have multiple suffixes, e.g. .pdf.gz, where the context includes the suffix it will be
looked up starting with the longest possible suffix until a match for the style is found. For exam-
ple, if .pdf.gz produces a match for the handler, that will be used; otherwise the handler for .gz
will be used. Note that, owing to the way suffix aliases work, it is always required that there be a
handler for the shortest possible suffix, so in this example .pdf.gz can only be handled if .gz is also
handled (though not necessarily in the same way). Alternatively, if no handling for .gz on its own
is needed, simply adding the command
alias -s gz=zsh-mime-handler
to the initialisation code is sufficient; .gz will not be handled on its own, but may be in combina-
tion with other suffixes.
current-shell
If this boolean style is true, the mailcap handler for the context in question is run using
the eval builtin instead of by starting a new sh process. This is more efficient, but may
not work in the occasional cases where the mailcap handler uses strict POSIX syntax.

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disown If this boolean style is true, mailcap handlers started in the background will be disowned,
i.e. not subject to job control within the parent shell. Such handlers nearly always pro-
duce their own windows, so the only likely harmful side effect of setting the style is that
it becomes harder to kill jobs from within the shell.
execute-as-is
This style gives a list of patterns to be matched against files passed for execution with a
handler program. If the file matches the pattern, the entire command line is executed in
its current form, with no handler. This is useful for files which might have suffixes but
nonetheless be executable in their own right. If the style is not set, the pattern *(*) *(/) is
used; hence executable files are executed directly and not passed to a handler, and the op-
tion AUTO_CD may be used to change to directories that happen to have MIME suffixes.
execute-never
This style is useful in combination with execute-as-is. It is set to an array of patterns
corresponding to full paths to files that should never be treated as executable, even if the
file passed to the MIME handler matches execute-as-is. This is useful for file systems
that don’t handle execute permission or that contain executables from another operating
system. For example, if /mnt/windows is a Windows mount, then
zstyle ’:mime:*’ execute-never ’/mnt/windows/*’
will ensure that any files found in that area will be executed as MIME types even if they
are executable. As this example shows, the complete file name is matched against the
pattern, regardless of how the file was passed to the handler. The file is resolved to a full
path using the :P modifier described in the subsection Modifiers in zshexpn(1); this
means that symbolic links are resolved where possible, so that links into other file sys-
tems behave in the correct fashion.
file-path
Used if the style find-file-in-path is true for the same context. Set to an array of direc-
tories that are used for searching for the file to be handled; the default is the command
path given by the special parameter path. The shell option PATH_DIRS is respected; if
that is set, the appropriate path will be searched even if the name of the file to be handled
as it appears on the command line contains a ‘/’. The full context is :mime:.suffix:, as de-
scribed for the style handler.
find-file-in-path
If set, allows files whose names do not contain absolute paths to be searched for in the
command path or the path specified by the file-path style. If the file is not found in the
path, it is looked for locally (whether or not the current directory is in the path); if it is not
found locally, the handler will abort unless the handle-nonexistent style is set. Files
found in the path are tested as described for the style execute-as-is. The full context is
:mime:.suffix:, as described for the style handler.
flags Defines flags to go with a handler; the context is as for the handler style, and the format
is as for the flags in mailcap.
handle-nonexistent
By default, arguments that don’t correspond to files are not passed to the MIME handler
in order to prevent it from intercepting commands found in the path that happen to have
suffixes. This style may be set to an array of extended glob patterns for arguments that
will be passed to the handler even if they don’t exist. If it is not explicitly set it defaults
to [[:alpha:]]#:/* which allows URLs to be passed to the MIME handler even though
they don’t exist in that format in the file system. The full context is :mime:.suffix:, as de-
scribed for the style handler.
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

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colon to distinguish this use of the context. This overrides any handler specified by the
mailcap files. If the handler requires a terminal, the flags style should be set to include
the word needsterminal, or if the output is to be displayed through a pager (but not if the
handler is itself a pager), it should include copiousoutput.
mailcap
A list of files in the format of ˜/.mailcap and /etc/mailcap to be read during setup, replac-
ing the default list which consists of those two files. The context is :mime:. A + in the
list will be replaced by the default files.
mailcap-priorities
This style is used to resolve multiple mailcap entries for the same MIME type. It consists
of an array of the following elements, in descending order of priority; later entries will be
used if earlier entries are unable to resolve the entries being compared. If none of the
tests resolve the entries, the first entry encountered is retained.
files The order of files (entries in the mailcap style) read. Earlier files are preferred.
(Note this does not resolve entries in the same file.)
priority
The priority flag from the mailcap entry. The priority is an integer from 0 to 9
with the default value being 5.
flags The test given by the mailcap-prio-flags option is used to resolve entries.
place Later entries are preferred; as the entries are strictly ordered, this test always
succeeds.
Note that as this style is handled during initialisation, the context is always :mime:, with
no discrimination by suffix.
mailcap-prio-flags
This style is used when the keyword flags is encountered in the list of tests specified by
the mailcap-priorities style. It should be set to a list of patterns, each of which is tested
against the flags specified in the mailcap entry (in other words, the sets of assignments
found with some entries in the mailcap file). Earlier patterns in the list are preferred to
later ones, and matched patterns are preferred to unmatched ones.
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 context is :mime:. A + in
the list will be replaced by the default files.
never-background
If this boolean style is set, the handler for the given context is always run in the fore-
ground, even if the flags provided in the mailcap entry suggest it need not be (for exam-
ple, it doesn’t require a terminal).
pager If set, will be used instead of $PAGER or more to handle suffixes where the copiousout-
put flag is set. The context is as for handler, i.e. :mime:.suffix: for handling 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 terminal.
As there are several steps to dispatching a command, the following should be checked if

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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 something 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
combination for .ext files. In that case, appropriate 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 handler 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 terminal; 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
Running ‘zsh-mime-handler -l command line’ prints the command line that would be executed,
simplified to remove the effect of any flags, and quoted so that the output can be run as a complete
zsh command line. This is used by the completion system to decide how to complete after a file
handled by zsh-mime-setup.
pick-web-browser
This function is separate from the two MIME functions described above and can be assigned di-
rectly to a suffix:
autoload -U pick-web-browser
alias -s html=pick-web-browser
It is provided as an intelligent front end to dispatch a web browser. It may be run as either a func-
tion or a shell script. The status 255 is returned if no browser could be started.
Various styles are available to customize the choice of browsers:
browser-style
The value of the style is an array giving preferences in decreasing order for the type of
browser to use. The values of elements may be
running
Use a GUI browser that is already running when an X Window display is avail-
able. The browsers listed in the x-browsers style are tried in order until one is
found; if it is, the file will be displayed in that browser, so the user may need to
check whether it has appeared. If no running browser is found, one is not
started. Browsers other than Firefox, Opera and Konqueror are assumed to un-
derstand the Mozilla syntax for opening a URL remotely.
x Start a new GUI browser when an X Window display is available. Search for the
availability of one of the browsers listed in the x-browsers style and start the
first one that is found. No check is made for an already running browser.
tty Start a terminal-based browser. Search for the availability of one of the
browsers listed in the tty-browsers style and start the first one that is found.
If the style is not set the default running x tty is used.
x-browsers
An array in decreasing order of preference of browsers to use when running under the X
Window System. The array consists 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 firefox

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specifies that pick-web-browser should first look for a running instance of Opera, Kon-
queror or Firefox, in that order, and if it fails to find any should attempt to start Opera.
The default is firefox mozilla netscape opera konqueror.
tty-browsers
An array similar to x-browsers, except that it gives browsers to use when no X Window
display is available. The default is elinks links lynx.
command
If it is set this style is used to pick the command used to open a page for a browser. The
context is :mime:browser:new:$browser: to start a new browser or
:mime:browser:running:$browser: to open a URL in a browser already running on the
current X display, where $browser is the value matched in the x-browsers or
tty-browsers style. The escape sequence %b in the style’s value will be replaced by the
browser, while %u will be replaced by the URL. If the style is not set, the default for all
new instances is equivalent to %b %u and the defaults for using running browsers are
equivalent to the values kfmclient openURL %u for Konqueror, firefox -new-tab %u
for Firefox, opera -newpage %u for Opera, and %b -remote "openUrl(%u)" for all
others.
MATHEMATICAL FUNCTIONS
zcalc [ -erf ] [ expression ... ]
A reasonably powerful calculator based on zsh’s arithmetic evaluation facility. The syntax is simi-
lar to that of formulae in most programming languages; see the section ‘Arithmetic Evaluation’ in
zshmisc(1) for details.
Non-programmers should note that, as in many other programming languages, expressions involv-
ing only integers (whether constants without a ‘.’, variables containing such constants as strings, or
variables declared to be integers) are by default evaluated using integer arithmetic, which is not
how an ordinary desk calculator operates. To force floating point operation, pass the option -f; see
further notes below.
If the file ˜/.zcalcrc exists it will be sourced inside the function once it is set up and about to
process the command line. This can be used, for example, to set shell options; emulate -L zsh
and setopt extendedglob are in effect at this point. Any failure to source the file if it exists is
treated as fatal. As with other initialisation files, the directory $ZDOTDIR is used instead of
$HOME if it is set.
The mathematical library zsh/mathfunc will be loaded if it is available; see the section ‘The
zsh/mathfunc Module’ in zshmodules(1). The mathematical functions correspond to the raw sys-
tem libraries, so trigonometric functions are evaluated using radians, and so on.
Each line typed is evaluated as an expression. The prompt shows a number, which corresponds to
a positional parameter where the result of that calculation is stored. For example, the result of the
calculation on the line preceded by ‘4> ’ is available as $4. The last value calculated is available
as ans. 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 (‘q’
is allowed for historical compatibility).
A line ending with a single backslash is treated in the same fashion as it is in command line edit-
ing: the backslash is removed, the function prompts for more input (the prompt is preceded by ‘...’
to indicate this), and the lines are combined into one to get the final result. In addition, if the input
so far contains more open than close parentheses zcalc will prompt for more input.
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 unless the :local special com-
mand is used. The function creates local variables whose names start with _, so users should avoid

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doing so. The variables ans (the last answer) and stack (the stack in RPN mode) may be referred
to directly; stack is an array but elements of it are numeric. Various other special variables are
used locally with their standard meaning, for example compcontext, match, mbegin, mend,
psvar.
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).
If the option ‘-e’ is set, the function runs non-interactively: the arguments are treated as expres-
sions to be evaluated as if entered interactively line by line.
If the option ‘-f’ is set, all numbers are treated as floating point, hence for example the expression
‘3/4’ evaluates to 0.75 rather than 0. Options must appear in separate words.
If the option ‘-r’ is set, RPN (Reverse Polish Notation) mode is entered. This has various addi-
tional properties:
Stack Evaluated values are maintained in a stack; this is contained in an array named stack with
the most recent value in ${stack[1]}.
Operators and functions
If the line entered matches an operator (+, -, *, /, **, ˆ, | or &) or a function supplied by
the zsh/mathfunc library, the bottom element or elements of the stack are popped to use
as the argument or arguments. The higher elements of stack (least recent) are used as ear-
lier arguments. The result is then pushed into ${stack[1]}.
Expressions
Other expressions are evaluated normally, printed, and added to the stack as numeric val-
ues. The syntax within expressions on a single line is normal shell arithmetic (not RPN).
Stack listing
If an integer follows the option -r with no space, then on every evaluation that many ele-
ments of the stack, where available, are printed instead of just the most recent result.
Hence, for example, zcalc -r4 shows $stack[4] to $stack[1] each time results are
printed.
Duplication: =
The pseudo-operator = causes the most recent element of the stack to be duplicated onto
the stack.
pop The pseudo-function pop causes the most recent element of the stack to be popped. A
‘>’ on its own has the same effect.
>ident The expression > followed (with no space) by a shell identifier causes the most recent ele-
ment of the stack to be popped and assigned to the variable with that name. The variable
is local to the zcalc function.
<ident The expression < followed (with no space) by a shell identifier causes the value of the
variable with that name to be pushed onto the stack. ident may be an integer, in which
case the previous result with that number (as shown before the > in the standard zcalc
prompt) is put on the stack.
Exchange: xy
The pseudo-function xy causes the most recent two elements of the stack to be ex-
changed. ‘<>’ has the same effect.
The prompt is configurable via the parameter ZCALCPROMPT, 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> ’.
The variable ZCALC_ACTIVE is set within the function and can be tested by nested functions; it
has the value rpn if RPN mode is active, else 1.
A few special commands are available; these are introduced by a colon. For backward

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compatibility, the colon may be omitted for certain commands. Completion is available if
compinit has been run.
The output precision may be specified within zcalc by special commands familiar from many cal-
culators.
:norm The default output format. It corresponds to the printf %g specification. Typically this
shows six decimal digits.
:sci digits
Scientific notation, corresponding to the printf %g output format with the precision given
by digits. This produces either fixed point or exponential notation depending on the value
output.
:fix digits
Fixed point notation, corresponding to the printf %f output format with the precision
given by digits.
:eng digits
Exponential notation, corresponding to the printf %E output format with the precision
given by digits.
:raw Raw output: this is the default form of the output from a math evaluation. This may
show more precision than the number actually possesses.
Other special commands:
:!line... Execute line... as a normal shell command line. Note that it is executed in the context of
the function, i.e. with local variables. Space is optional after :!.
:local arg ...
Declare variables local to the function. Other variables may be used, too, but they will be
taken from or put into the global scope.
:function name [ body ]
Define a mathematical function or (with no body) delete it. :function may be abbreviated
to :func or simply :f. The name may contain the same characters as a shell function
name. The function is defined using zmathfuncdef, see below.
Note that zcalc takes care of all quoting. Hence for example:
:f cube $1 * $1 * $1
defines a function to cube the sole argument. Functions so defined, or indeed any func-
tions defined directly or indirectly using functions -M, are available to execute by typing
only the name on the line in RPN mode; this pops the appropriate number of arguments
off the stack to pass to the function, i.e. 1 in the case of the example cube function. If
there are optional arguments only the mandatory arguments are supplied by this means.
[#base] This is not a special command, rather part of normal arithmetic syntax; however, when
this form appears on a line by itself the default output radix is set to base. Use, for exam-
ple, ‘[#16]’ to display hexadecimal output preceded by an indication 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. Note that setting an output
base suppresses floating point output; use ‘[#]’ to return to normal operation.
$var Print out the value of var literally; does not affect the calculation. To use the value of var,
omit the leading ‘$’.
See the comments in the function for a few extra tips.
min(arg, ...)
max(arg, ...)

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sum(arg, ...)
zmathfunc
The function zmathfunc defines the three mathematical functions min, max, and sum. The func-
tions min and max take one or more arguments. The function sum takes zero or more arguments.
Arguments can be of different types (ints and floats).
Not to be confused with the zsh/mathfunc module, described in the section ‘The zsh/mathfunc
Module’ in zshmodules(1).
zmathfuncdef [ mathfunc [ body ] ]
A convenient front end to functions -M.
With two arguments, define a mathematical function named mathfunc which can be used in any
form of arithmetic evaluation. body is a mathematical expression to implement the function. It
may contain references to position parameters $1, $2, ... to refer to mandatory parameters and
${1:-defvalue} ... to refer to optional parameters. Note that the forms must be strictly adhered to
for the function to calculate the correct number of arguments. The implementation is held in a
shell function named zsh_math_func_mathfunc; usually the user will not need to refer to the shell
function directly. Any existing function of the same name is silently replaced.
With one argument, remove the mathematical function mathfunc as well as the shell function im-
plementation.
With no arguments, list all mathfunc functions in a form suitable for restoring the definition. The
functions have not necessarily been defined by zmathfuncdef.
USER CONFIGURATION FUNCTIONS
The zsh/newuser module comes with a function to aid in configuring shell options for new users. If the
module is installed, this function can also be run by hand. It is available even if the module’s default be-
haviour, namely running the function for a new user logging in without startup files, is inhibited.
zsh-newuser-install [ -f ]
The function presents the user with various options for customizing their initialization scripts.
Currently only ˜/.zshrc is handled. $ZDOTDIR/.zshrc is used instead if the parameter ZDOT-
DIR is set; this provides a way for the user to configure a file without altering an existing .zshrc.
By default the function exits immediately if it finds any of the files .zshenv, .zprofile, .zshrc, or
.zlogin in the appropriate directory. The option -f is required in order to force the function to con-
tinue. Note this may happen even if .zshrc itself does not exist.
As currently configured, the function will exit immediately if the user has root privileges; this be-
haviour cannot be overridden.
Once activated, the function’s behaviour is supposed to be self-explanatory. Menus are present al-
lowing the user to alter the value of options and parameters. Suggestions for improvements are al-
ways welcome.
When the script exits, the user is given the opportunity to save the new file or not; changes are not
irreversible until this point. However, the script is careful to restrict changes to the file only to a
group marked by the lines ‘# Lines configured by zsh-newuser-install’ and ‘# End of lines
configured by zsh-newuser-install’. In addition, the old version of .zshrc is saved to a file with
the suffix .zni appended.
If the function edits an existing .zshrc, it is up to the user to ensure that the changes made will take
effect. For example, if control usually returns early from the existing .zshrc the lines will not be
executed; or a later initialization file may override options or parameters, and so on. The function
itself does not attempt to detect any such conflicts.
OTHER FUNCTIONS
There are a large number of helpful functions in the Functions/Misc directory of the zsh distribution. Most
are very simple and do not require documentation here, but a few are worthy of special mention.

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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, yellow, blue, magenta, cyan, and white. Each of
these has codes for foreground and background. In addition there are seven intensity attributes:
bold, faint, standout, underline, blink, reverse, and conceal. Finally, there are seven codes used
to negate attributes: none (reset all attributes to the defaults), normal (neither bold nor faint),
no-standout, no-underline, no-blink, no-reverse, and no-conceal.
Some terminals do not support all combinations of colors and intensities.
The associative arrays are:
color
colour Map all the color names to their integer codes, and integer codes to the color names. The
eight base names map to the foreground color codes, as do names prefixed with ‘fg-’,
such as ‘fg-red’. Names prefixed with ‘bg-’, such as ‘bg-blue’, refer to the background
codes. The reverse mapping from code to color yields base name for foreground codes
and the bg- form for backgrounds.
Although it is a misnomer to call them ‘colors’, these arrays also map the other fourteen
attributes from names to codes and codes to names.
fg
fg_bold
fg_no_bold
Map the eight basic color names to ANSI terminal escape sequences that set the corre-
sponding foreground text properties. The fg sequences change the color without chang-
ing the eight intensity attributes.
bg
bg_bold
bg_no_bold
Map the eight basic color names to ANSI terminal 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 [ -x num ] name
Same as zed -f. This function does not appear in the zsh distribution, but can be created by link-
ing zed to the name fned in some directory in your fpath.
is-at-least needed [ present ]
Perform a greater-than-or-equal-to comparison of two strings having the format of a zsh version
number; that is, a string of numbers and text with segments separated by dots or dashes. If the
present string is not provided, $ZSH_VERSION is used. Segments are paired left-to-right in the
two strings with leading non-number parts ignored. If one string has fewer segments than the
other, the missing segments are considered zero.
This is useful in startup files to set options and other state that are not available in all versions of
zsh.
is-at-least 3.1.6-15 && setopt NO_GLOBAL_RCS
is-at-least 3.1.0 && setopt HIST_REDUCE_BLANKS
is-at-least 2.6-17 || print "You can’t use is-at-least here."

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nslookup [ arg ... ]

This wrapper function for the nslookup command requires the zsh/zpty module (see zshmod-
ules(1)). It behaves exactly like the standard nslookup except that it provides customizable
prompts (including a right-side prompt) and completion of nslookup commands, host names, etc.
(if you use the function-based completion system). Completion styles may be set with the context
prefix ‘:completion:nslookup’.
See also the pager, prompt and rprompt styles below.
regexp-replace var regexp replace
Use regular expressions to perform a global search and replace operation on a variable. POSIX
extended regular expressions are used, unless the option RE_MATCH_PCRE has been set, in
which case Perl-compatible regular expressions are used (this requires the shell to be linked
against the pcre library).
var is the name of the variable containing the string to be matched. The variable will be modified
directly by the function. The variables MATCH, MBEGIN, MEND, match, mbegin, mend
should be avoided as these are used by the regular expression code.
regexp is the regular expression to match against the string.
replace is the replacement text. This can contain parameter, command and arithmetic expressions
which will be replaced: in particular, a reference to $MATCH will be replaced by the text
matched by the pattern.
The return status is 0 if at least one match was performed, else 1.
run-help cmd
This function is designed to be invoked by the run-help ZLE widget, in place of the default alias.
See ‘Accessing On-Line Help’ above for setup instructions.
In the discussion which follows, if cmd is a file system path, it is first reduced to its rightmost
component (the file name).
Help is first sought by looking for a file named cmd in the directory named by the HELPDIR pa-
rameter. If no file is found, an assistant function, alias, or command named run-help-cmd is
sought. If found, the assistant is executed with the rest of the current command line (everything af-
ter the command name cmd) as its arguments. When neither file nor assistant is found, the exter-
nal command ‘man cmd’ is run.
An example assistant for the "ssh" command:
run-help-ssh() {
emulate -LR zsh
local -a args
# Delete the "-l username" option
zparseopts -D -E -a args l:
# Delete other options, leaving: host command
args=(${@:#-*})
if [[ ${#args} -lt 2 ]]; then
man ssh
else
run-help $args[2]
fi
}
Several of these assistants are provided in the Functions/Misc directory. These must be au-
toloaded, or placed as executable scripts in your search path, in order to be found and used by
run-help.

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run-help-git
run-help-ip
run-help-openssl
run-help-p4
run-help-sudo
run-help-svk
run-help-svn
Assistant functions for the git, ip, openssl, p4, sudo, svk, and svn, commands.
tetris Zsh was once accused of not being as complete as Emacs, because it lacked a Tetris game. This
function was written to refute this vicious slander.
This function must be used as a ZLE widget:
autoload -U tetris
zle -N tetris
bindkey keys tetris
To start a game, execute the widget by typing the keys. Whatever command line you were editing
disappears temporarily, and your keymap is also temporarily replaced by the Tetris control keys.
The previous editor state is restored when you quit the game (by pressing ‘q’) or when you lose.
If you quit in the middle of a game, the next invocation of the tetris widget will continue where
you left off. If you lost, it will start a new game.
tetriscurses
This is a port of the above to zcurses. The input handling is improved a bit so that moving a block
sideways doesn’t automatically advance a timestep, and the graphics use unicode block graphics.
This version does not save the game state between invocations, and is not invoked as a widget, but
rather as:
autoload -U tetriscurses
tetriscurses
zargs [ option ... -- ] [ input ... ] [ -- command [ arg ... ] ]
This function has a similar purpose to GNU xargs. Instead of reading lines of arguments from the
standard input, it takes them from the command line. This is useful because zsh, especially with
recursive glob operators, often can construct a command line for a shell function that is longer
than can be accepted by an external command.
The option list represents options of the zargs command itself, which are the same as those of
xargs. The input list is the collection of strings (often file names) that become the arguments of
the command, analogous to the standard input of xargs. Finally, the arg list consists of those ar-
guments (usually options) that are passed to the command each time it runs. The arg list precedes
the elements from the input list in each run. If no command is provided, then no arg list may be
provided, and in that event the default command is ‘print’ with arguments ‘-r --’.
For example, to get a long ls listing of all non-hidden plain files in the current directory or its sub-
directories:
autoload -U zargs
zargs -- **/*(.) -- ls -ld --
The first and third occurrences of ‘--’ are used to mark the end of options for zargs and ls respec-
tively to guard against filenames starting with ‘-’, while the second is used to separate the list of
files from the command to run (‘ls -ld --’).
The first ‘--’ would also be needed if there was a chance the list might be empty as in:
zargs -r -- ./*.back(#qN) -- rm -f
In the event that the string ‘--’ is or may be an input, the -e option may be used to change the
end-of-inputs marker. Note that this does not change the end-of-options marker. For example,

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to use ‘..’ as the marker:

zargs -e.. -- **/*(.) .. ls -ld --
This is a good choice in that example because no plain file can be named ‘..’, but the best
end-marker depends on the circumstances.
The options -i, -I, -l, -L, and -n differ slightly from their usage in xargs. There are no input
lines for zargs to count, so -l and -L count through the input list, and -n counts the number of ar-
guments passed to each execution of command, including any arg list. Also, any time -i or -I is
used, each input is processed separately as if by ‘-L 1’.
For details of the other zargs options, see xargs(1) (but note the difference in function between
zargs and xargs) or run zargs with the --help option.
zed [ -f [ -x num ] ] name
zed -b This function uses the ZLE editor to edit a file or function.
Only one name argument is allowed. If the -f option is given, the name is taken to be that of a
function; if the function is marked for autoloading, zed searches for it in the fpath and loads it.
Note that functions edited this way are installed into the current shell, but not written back to the
autoload file. In this case the -x option specifies that leading tabs indenting the function according
to syntax should be converted into the given number of spaces; ‘-x 2’ is consistent with the layout
of functions distributed with the shell.
Without -f, name is the path name of the file to edit, which need not exist; it is created on write, if
necessary.
While editing, the function sets the main keymap to zed and the vi command keymap to
zed-vicmd. These will be copied from the existing main and vicmd keymaps if they do not exist
the first time zed is run. They can be used to provide special key bindings used only in zed.
If it creates the keymap, zed rebinds the return key to insert a line break and ‘ˆXˆW’ 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 ˆj
at the end instead of the return key), or can be bound to a key in either of the zed or zed-vicmd
keymaps after ‘zed -b’ has been run. When the widget is called, it prompts for a new name for
the file being edited. When zed exits the file will be written under that name and the original file
will be left alone. The widget has no effect with ‘zed -f’.
While zed-set-file-name is running, zed uses the keymap zed-normal-keymap, which is linked
from the main keymap in effect at the time zed initialised its bindings. (This is to make the return
key operate normally.) The result is that if the main keymap has been changed, the widget won’t
notice. This is not a concern for most users.
zcp [ -finqQvwW ] srcpat dest
zln [ -finqQsvwW ] srcpat dest
Same as zmv -C and zmv -L, respectively. These functions do not appear in the zsh distribution,
but can be created by linking zmv to the names zcp and zln in some directory in your fpath.
zkbd See ‘Keyboard Definition’ above.

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

srcpat dest
Move (usually, rename) files matching the pattern srcpat to corresponding files having names of
the form given by dest, where srcpat contains parentheses surrounding patterns which will be

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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 substitution resulted in an empty
string, two substitutions 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.
In addition to pattern replacement, the variable $f can be referrred to in the second (replacement)
argument. This makes it possible to use variable substitution to alter the argument; see examples
below.
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 charac-
ter.
-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 quali-
fiers 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 parentheses
for referring to them.
-W Just like -w, with the addition of turning wildcards in the replacement pattern into se-
quential ${1} .. ${N} references.
-C
-L
-M Force cp, ln or mv, respectively, regardless of the name of the function.
-p program
Call program instead of cp, ln or mv. Whatever it does, it should at least understand the
form ‘program -- oldname newname’ where oldname and newname are filenames gener-
ated by zmv. program will be split into words, so might be e.g. the name of an archive
tool plus a copy or rename subcommand.
-P program
As -p program, except that program does not accept a following -- to indicate the end of
options. In this case filenames must already be in a sane form for the program in ques-
tion.
-o optstring
The optstring is split into words and passed down verbatim to the cp, ln or mv command
called to perform the work. It should probably begin with a ‘-’.
Further examples:
zmv -v ’(* *)’ ’${1// /_}’
For any file in the current directory with at least one space in the name, replace every space by an
underscore and display the commands executed.
zmv -v ’* *’ ’${f// /_}’
This does exactly the same by referring to the file name stored in $f.
For more complete examples and other implementation details, see the zmv source file, usually lo-
cated in one of the directories named in your fpath, or in Functions/Misc/zmv in the zsh distribu-
tion.

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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 context 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 subcontext
may be the empty string to re-use the first context unchanged.
Styles
insert-tab
The zed function sets this style in context ‘:completion:zed:*’ to turn off completion when TAB
is typed at the beginning of a line. You may override this by setting your own value for this con-
text and style.
pager The nslookup function looks up this style in the context ‘:nslookup’ to determine the program
used to display output that does not fit on a single screen.
prompt
rprompt
The nslookup function looks up this style in the context ‘:nslookup’ to set the prompt and the
right-side prompt, respectively. The usual expansions for the PS1 and RPS1 parameters may be
used (see EXPANSION OF PROMPT SEQUENCES in zshmisc(1)).

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FILES
$ZDOTDIR/.zshenv
$ZDOTDIR/.zprofile
$ZDOTDIR/.zshrc
$ZDOTDIR/.zlogin
$ZDOTDIR/.zlogout
${TMPPREFIX}* (default is /tmp/zsh*)
/etc/zsh/zshenv
/etc/zsh/zprofile
/etc/zsh/zshrc
/etc/zsh/zlogin
/etc/zsh/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 Operating System Interface (POSIX) - Part
2: Shell and Utilities, IEEE Inc, 1993, ISBN 1-55937-255-9.

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