Zsh

Zsh
is a powerful
shell
that operates as both an interactive shell and as a scripting language interpreter. While being compatible with the POSIX sh (not by default, only if issuing
emulate sh
), it offers advantages such as improved
tab completion
and
globbing
.
The
Zsh FAQ
offers more reasons to use Zsh.
Installation
Before starting, users may want to see what shell is currently being used:
$ echo $SHELL
Install
the
zsh
package. For additional completion definitions, install the
zsh-completions
package as well.
Initial configuration
Make sure that Zsh has been installed correctly by running the following in a terminal:
$ zsh
You should now see
zsh-newuser-install
, which will walk you through some basic configuration. If you want to skip this, press
q
. If you did not see it, you can invoke it manually with:
$ autoload -Uz zsh-newuser-install
$ zsh-newuser-install -f
Note
Make sure your terminal's size is at least 72×15 otherwise
zsh-newuser-install
will not run.
Making Zsh your default shell
Change your shell to
/usr/bin/zsh
. See
Command-line shell#Changing your default shell
.
Tip
If replacing
bash
, users may want to move some code from
~/.bashrc
to
~/.zshrc
(e.g. the prompt and the
aliases
) and from
~/.bash_profile
to
~/.zprofile
(e.g.
the code that starts the X Window System
).
Startup/Shutdown files
Tip
See
A User's Guide to the Z-Shell
for explanation on interactive and login shells, and what to put in your startup files.
Note
If
$ZDOTDIR
is not set,
$HOME
is used instead.
If option
RCS
is unset in any of the files, no configuration files will be read after that file.
If option
GLOBAL_RCS
is unset in any of the files, no global configuration files (
/etc/zsh/*
) will be read after that file.
When starting, Zsh will read commands from the following files in this order by default, provided they exist.
/etc/zsh/zshenv
Used for setting
environment variables
for all users; it should not contain commands that produce output or assume the shell is attached to a TTY. When this file exists it will
always
be read, this cannot be overridden.
$ZDOTDIR/.zshenv
Used for setting user's environment variables; it should not contain commands that produce output or assume the shell is attached to a TTY. When this file exists it will
always
be read.
/etc/zsh/zprofile
Used for executing commands at start for all users, will be read when starting as a
login shell
. Please note that on Arch Linux, by default it contains
one line
which sources
/etc/profile
. See warning below before wanting to remove that!
/etc/profile
This file should be sourced by all POSIX sh-compatible shells upon login: it sets up
$PATH
and other environment variables and application-specific (
/etc/profile.d/*.sh
) settings upon login.
$ZDOTDIR/.zprofile
Used for executing user's commands at start, will be read when starting as a
login shell
. Typically used to autostart graphical sessions and to set session-wide environment variables.
/etc/zsh/zshrc
Used for setting interactive shell configuration and executing commands for all users, will be read when starting as an
interactive shell
.
$ZDOTDIR/.zshrc
Used for setting user's interactive shell configuration and executing commands, will be read when starting as an
interactive shell
.
/etc/zsh/zlogin
Used for executing commands for all users at ending of initial progress, will be read when starting as a
login shell
.
$ZDOTDIR/.zlogin
Used for executing user's commands at ending of initial progress, will be read when starting as a
login shell
. Typically used to autostart command line utilities. Should not be used to autostart graphical sessions, as at this point the session might contain configuration meant only for an interactive shell.
$ZDOTDIR/.zlogout
Used for executing commands when a
login shell
exits
.
/etc/zsh/zlogout
Used for executing commands for all users when a
login shell
exits
.
See
the graphic representation
.
Note
$HOME/.profile
is not a part of the Zsh startup files and
is not sourced
by Zsh unless Zsh is invoked as
sh
or
ksh
and started as a login shell. For more details about the sh and
ksh
compatibility modes refer to
zsh(1) § COMPATIBILITY
.
Warning
Do not remove the default
one line
in
/etc/zsh/zprofile
, otherwise it will break the integrity of other packages which provide some scripts in
/etc/profile.d/
.
Configure Zsh
Although Zsh is usable out of the box, it is almost certainly not set up the way most users would like to use it. But due to the sheer amount of customization available in Zsh, configuring Zsh can be a daunting and time-consuming experience. For automatic configuration, see
#Third-party extensions
.
Simple .zshrc
Included below is a sample configuration file. It provides a decent set of default options as well as giving examples of many ways that Zsh can be customized. In order to use this configuration save it as a file named
.zshrc
.
Tip
Apply the changes without needing to logout and then back in by running
source ~/.zshrc
.
Here is a simple
.zshrc
:
~/.zshrc
autoload -Uz compinit promptinit
compinit
promptinit

# This will set the default prompt to the walters theme
prompt walters
See
#Prompt themes
for more details about the prompt theme system.
Configuring $PATH
Zsh ties the
PATH
variable to a
path
array. This allows you to manipulate
PATH
by simply modifying the
path
array. See
A User's Guide to the Z-Shell
for details.
To add
~/.local/bin/
to the
PATH
:
~/.zshenv
typeset -U path PATH
path=(~/.local/bin $path)
export PATH
Command completion
Perhaps the most compelling feature of Zsh is its advanced autocompletion abilities. At the very least, enable autocompletion in
.zshrc
. To enable autocompletion, add the following to your
~/.zshrc
:
~/.zshrc
autoload -Uz compinit
compinit
The above configuration includes ssh/scp/sftp hostnames completion but in order for this feature to work, users must not enable ssh's hostname hashing (i.e. option
HashKnownHosts
in ssh client configuration).
For autocompletion with an arrow-key driven interface, add the following to:
~/.zshrc
zstyle ':completion:*' menu select
To activate the menu, press
Tab
twice.
For enabling autocompletion of privileged environments in privileged commands (e.g. if you complete a command starting with
sudo
, completion scripts will also try to determine your completions with sudo), include:
~/.zshrc
zstyle ':completion::complete:*' gain-privileges 1
Warning
This will let Zsh completion scripts run commands with sudo privileges. You should not enable this if you use untrusted autocompletion scripts.
Note
This special kind of context-aware completion is only available for a small number of commands.
Custom completion
You can write custom completions on your own. Should you do so, you can refer to the
zshcompsys(1)
man page.
Note that the official documentation can be hard to read. You can consider trying the simpler
zsh-completion-howto
tutorial for an easy start.
Key bindings
Zsh does not use
readline
, instead it uses its own and more powerful Zsh Line Editor (ZLE). It does not read
/etc/inputrc
or
~/.inputrc
. Read
A closer look at the zsh line editor and creating custom widgets
for an introduction to ZLE configuration.
ZLE has an
Emacs
mode and a
vi
mode. If one of the
VISUAL
or
EDITOR
environment variables
contain the string
vi
then vi mode will be used; otherwise, it will default to Emacs mode. Set the mode explicitly with
bindkey -e
or
bindkey -v
respectively for Emacs mode or vi mode. The delay of pressing Esc key in vi mode is 0.4s by default, and you can make it shorter (0.05s) with
export KEYTIMEOUT=5
.
Key bindings are assigned by mapping an escape sequence matching a keypress to a ZLE widget. The available widgets, with descriptions of their actions and their default keybindings, are listed in
zshzle(1) § STANDARD WIDGETS
and
zshcontrib(1) § ZLE FUNCTIONS
.
The recommended way to set key bindings in Zsh is by using string capabilities from
terminfo(5)
. For example
[1]
[2]
:
~/.zshrc
# create a zkbd compatible hash;
# to add other keys to this hash, see: man 5 terminfo
typeset -g -A key

key[Home]="${terminfo[khome]}"
key[End]="${terminfo[kend]}"
key[Insert]="${terminfo[kich1]}"
key[Backspace]="${terminfo[kbs]}"
key[Delete]="${terminfo[kdch1]}"
key[Up]="${terminfo[kcuu1]}"
key[Down]="${terminfo[kcud1]}"
key[Left]="${terminfo[kcub1]}"
key[Right]="${terminfo[kcuf1]}"
key[PageUp]="${terminfo[kpp]}"
key[PageDown]="${terminfo[knp]}"
key[Shift-Tab]="${terminfo[kcbt]}"

# setup key accordingly
[[ -n "${key[Home]}"      ]] && bindkey -- "${key[Home]}"       beginning-of-line
[[ -n "${key[End]}"       ]] && bindkey -- "${key[End]}"        end-of-line
[[ -n "${key[Insert]}"    ]] && bindkey -- "${key[Insert]}"     overwrite-mode
[[ -n "${key[Backspace]}" ]] && bindkey -- "${key[Backspace]}"  backward-delete-char
[[ -n "${key[Delete]}"    ]] && bindkey -- "${key[Delete]}"     delete-char
[[ -n "${key[Up]}"        ]] && bindkey -- "${key[Up]}"         up-line-or-history
[[ -n "${key[Down]}"      ]] && bindkey -- "${key[Down]}"       down-line-or-history
[[ -n "${key[Left]}"      ]] && bindkey -- "${key[Left]}"       backward-char
[[ -n "${key[Right]}"     ]] && bindkey -- "${key[Right]}"      forward-char
[[ -n "${key[PageUp]}"    ]] && bindkey -- "${key[PageUp]}"     beginning-of-buffer-or-history
[[ -n "${key[PageDown]}"  ]] && bindkey -- "${key[PageDown]}"   end-of-buffer-or-history
[[ -n "${key[Shift-Tab]}" ]] && bindkey -- "${key[Shift-Tab]}"  reverse-menu-complete

# Finally, make sure the terminal is in application mode, when zle is
# active. Only then are the values from $terminfo valid.
if (( ${+terminfo[smkx]} && ${+terminfo[rmkx]} )); then
    autoload -Uz add-zle-hook-widget
    function zle_application_mode_start { echoti smkx }
    function zle_application_mode_stop { echoti rmkx }
    add-zle-hook-widget -Uz zle-line-init zle_application_mode_start
    add-zle-hook-widget -Uz zle-line-finish zle_application_mode_stop
fi
Shift, Alt, Ctrl and Meta modifiers
xterm-compatible terminals can use extended key-definitions from
user_caps(5)
. Those are combinations of
Shift
,
Alt
,
Ctrl
and
Meta
together with
Up
,
Down
,
Left
,
Right
,
PageUp
,
PageDown
,
Home
,
End
or
Del
. Refer to the
zkbd source
for a list of recommended names for the modifier keys and key combinations.
For example, for
Ctrl+Left
to move to the beginning of the previous word and
Ctrl+Right
to move to the beginning of the next word:
~/.zshrc
key[Control-Left]="${terminfo[kLFT5]}"
key[Control-Right]="${terminfo[kRIT5]}"

[[ -n "${key[Control-Left]}"  ]] && bindkey -- "${key[Control-Left]}"  backward-word
[[ -n "${key[Control-Right]}" ]] && bindkey -- "${key[Control-Right]}" forward-word
History
To have the history list ignore commands that start with a blank space, issue
setopt HIST_IGNORE
, either in the command prompt, or in
.zshrc
. Though even with
setopt HIST_IGNORE
, the last command can be repeated, for example by pressing the
Up
key, until another command takes its place as the last command.
unsetopt
OPT
to undo a
setopt
OPT
command.
By default, history will be with
HISTSIZE
of 30, separate for each terminal, without the ability to delete entries from the list, and not saved between sessions. One of the consequences of setting
HISTFILE
is to have the history list saved between sessions.
History search
You need to set up the
key
array and make sure that ZLE enters application mode to use the following instructions; see
#Key bindings
.
To enable history search add these lines to
.zshrc
file:
~/.zshrc
autoload -Uz up-line-or-beginning-search down-line-or-beginning-search
zle -N up-line-or-beginning-search
zle -N down-line-or-beginning-search

[[ -n "${key[Up]}"   ]] && bindkey -- "${key[Up]}"   up-line-or-beginning-search
[[ -n "${key[Down]}" ]] && bindkey -- "${key[Down]}" down-line-or-beginning-search
By doing this, only the past commands matching the current line up to the current cursor position will be shown when
Up
or
Down
keys are pressed.
Prompts
Zsh offers the options of using a prompt theme or, for users who are dissatisfied with the themes (or want to expand their usefulness), the possibility to build a custom prompt.
Prompt themes
Prompt themes are a quick and easy way to set up a colored prompt in Zsh. See
zshcontrib(1) § PROMPT THEMES
for information about prompt themes and how to write your own theme.
To use a theme, make sure that prompt theme system is set to autoload in
.zshrc
. This can be done by adding these lines to:
~/.zshrc
autoload -Uz promptinit
promptinit
Available prompt themes are listed by running the command:
$ prompt -l
For example, to use the
walters
theme, enter:
$ prompt walters
To preview all available themes, use this command:
$ prompt -p
Manually installing prompt themes
It is possible to install themes manually, without external configuration manager tools. For a local installation, first create a folder and add it to the
fpath
array, eg:
$ mkdir ~/.zprompts
$ fpath=("$HOME/.zprompts" "$fpath[@]")
Now create a symbolic link of your theme file in this folder:
$ ln -s mytheme.zsh ~/.zprompts/prompt_mytheme_setup
If instead you wish to install a theme globally, do:
# ln -s mytheme.zsh /usr/share/zsh/functions/Prompts/prompt_mytheme_setup
Now you should be able to activate it using:
$ prompt mytheme
If everything works, you can edit your
.zshrc
accordingly.
Adding prompt themes without a separate file for each one
In addition to adding a prompt theme through its own file, it is possible to add themes from within another file (like your
.zshrc
), eg:
~/.zshrc
# Load promptinit
autoload -Uz promptinit && promptinit

# Define the theme
prompt_mytheme_setup() {
    PS1="%~%# "
}

# Add the theme to promptsys
prompt_themes+=( mytheme )

# Load the theme
prompt mytheme
Customized prompt
Additionally to a primary left-sided prompt
PS1
(
PROMPT
,
prompt
) that is common to all shells, Zsh also supports a right-sided prompt
RPS1
(
RPROMPT
). These two variables are the ones you will want to set to a custom value.
Other special purpose prompts, such as
PS2
(
PROMPT2
),
PS3
(
PROMPT3
),
PS4
(
PROMPT4
),
RPS1
(
RPROMPT
),
RPS2
(
RPROMPT2
) and
SPROMPT
, are explained in
zshparam(1) § PARAMETERS USED BY THE SHELL
.
All prompts can be customized with prompt escapes. The available prompt escapes are listed in
zshmisc(1) § EXPANSION OF PROMPT SEQUENCES
.
Colors
Zsh sets colors differently than
Bash
; You do not need to use profuse ANSI escape sequences or terminal capabilities from
terminfo(5)
. Zsh provides convenient prompt escapes to set the foreground color, background color and other visual effects; see
zshmisc(1) § Visual effects
for a list of them and their descriptions.
Colors
can be specified using a decimal integer, the name of one of the eight most widely-supported colors or as a # followed by an RGB triplet in hexadecimal format. See the description of fg=colour in
zshzle(1) § CHARACTER HIGHLIGHTING
for more details.
Most terminals support the following colors by name:
Name
Number
black
0
red
1
green
2
yellow
3
blue
4
magenta
5
cyan
6
white
7
Color numbers 0–255 for terminal emulators compatible with xterm 256 colors can be found in the
xterm-256color chart
.
With a correctly set TERM environment variable, the terminal's supported maximum number of colors can be found from the
terminfo(5)
database using
echoti colors
. In the case of
24-bit colors
, also check the COLORTERM environment variable with
print $COLORTERM
. If it returns
24bit
or
truecolor
then your terminal supports 16777216 (2
24
) colors even if terminfo shows a smaller number.
Note
The colors 0–15 may differ between terminal emulators and their used color schemes.
Many terminal emulators display bold with a brighter color.
Tip
Prompt escapes can be tested with command
print -P
"prompt escapes"
, for example:
$ print -P '%B%F{red}co%F{green}lo%F{blue}rs%f%b'
If you use 24-bit colors, you might want to load the
zsh/nearcolor
module in terminals that do not support them. E.g.:
[[ "$COLORTERM" == (24bit|truecolor) || "${terminfo[colors]}" -eq '16777216' ]] || zmodload zsh/nearcolor
See
zshmodules(1) § THE ZSH/NEARCOLOR MODULE
for details about the
zsh/nearcolor
module.
Example
An example of a simple colorless prompt:
PROMPT='%n@%m %~ %# '
How it will be displayed:
username@host ~ %
This is an example of a two-sided prompt with color:
PROMPT='%F{green}%n%f@%F{magenta}%m%f %F{blue}%B%~%b%f %# '
RPROMPT='[%F{yellow}%?%f]'
And here is how it will be displayed:
username
@
host
~
%
[
0
]
To use colors from the 16-255 range and 24-bit true color, you can use the number from 0 to 255 assigned to the wanted color and its hexadecimal color code, respectively:
PROMPT='%F{2}%n%f@%F{5}%m%f %F{4}%B%~%b%f %# '
RPROMPT='[%F{3}%?%f]'
PROMPT='%F{#c0c0c0}%n%f@%F{#008000}%m%f %F{#800080}%B%~%b%f %# '
RPROMPT='[%F{#0000ff}%?%f]'
Sample .zshrc files
To get the same setup as the
monthly ISO releases
(which use Zsh by default), install
grml-zsh-config
. It includes the many tweaks and advanced optimizations from
grml
.
https://github.com/MrElendig/dotfiles-alice/blob/master/.zshrc
- basic setup, with dynamic prompt and window title/hardinfo.
See
dotfiles#User repositories
for more.
Tips and tricks
Autostart X at login
See
xinit#Autostart X at login
.
Restore terminal settings after a program exits abnormally
Many programs change the terminal state, and often do not restore terminal settings on exiting abnormally (e.g. when crashing or encountering SIGINT).
This can typically be solved by executing
reset(1)
:
$ reset
The following sections describe ways to avoid the need to manually reset the terminal.
The ttyctl command
The
ttyctl
command can be used to "freeze/unfreeze" the terminal. To freeze the interactive shell on launch, use the following:
~/.zshrc
ttyctl -f
Resetting the terminal with escape sequences
Alternate linedrawing character set
can screw up the terminal in a way which ttyctl cannot prevent.
A simple solution is to output the escape sequences that reset the terminal from the
precmd
hook function, so that they are executed every time before the prompt is drawn. For example, using
the escape sequence
\e[0m\e(B\e)0\017\e[?5l\e7\e[0;0r\e8
:
~/.zshrc
autoload -Uz add-zsh-hook

function reset_broken_terminal () {
    printf '%b' '\e[0m\e(B\e)0\017\e[?5l\e7\e[0;0r\e8'
}

add-zsh-hook -Uz precmd reset_broken_terminal
To test if it works, run:
$ print '\e(0\e)B'
Remembering recent directories
Dirstack
Zsh can be configured to remember the DIRSTACKSIZE last visited folders. This can then be used to
cd
them very quickly. You need to add some lines to your configuration file:
~/.zshrc
autoload -Uz add-zsh-hook

DIRSTACKFILE="${XDG_CACHE_HOME:-$HOME/.cache}/zsh/dirs"
if [[ -f "$DIRSTACKFILE" ]] && (( ${#dirstack} == 0 )); then
    dirstack=("${(@f)"$(< "$DIRSTACKFILE")"}")
    [[ -d "${dirstack[1]}" ]] && cd -- "${dirstack[1]}"
fi
chpwd_dirstack() {
    print -l -- "$PWD" "${(u)dirstack[@]}" > "$DIRSTACKFILE"
}
add-zsh-hook -Uz chpwd chpwd_dirstack

DIRSTACKSIZE='20'

setopt AUTO_PUSHD PUSHD_SILENT PUSHD_TO_HOME

## Remove duplicate entries
setopt PUSHD_IGNORE_DUPS

## This reverts the +/- operators.
setopt PUSHD_MINUS
Now use
$ dirs -v
to print the dirstack. Use
cd -<NUM>
to go back to a visited folder. Use autocompletion after the dash. This proves very handy if using the autocompletion menu.
Note
This will not work if you have more than one
zsh
session open, and attempt to
cd
, due to a conflict in both sessions writing to the same file.
You might need to create
$HOME/.cache/zsh
directory not to get
no such file or directory
error.
cdr
cdr allows you to change the working directory to a previous working directory from a list maintained automatically. It stores all entries in files that are maintained across sessions and (by default) between terminal emulators in the current session.
See
zshcontrib(1) § REMEMBERING RECENT DIRECTORIES
for setup instructions.
zoxide
zoxide
is a smarter
cd
command that lets you navigate anywhere in just a few keystrokes. It remembers your frequently used directories and uses a scoring mechanism to guess where you want to go.
See
[3]
or
zoxide(1)
for more details.
Help command
Unlike
Bash
, Zsh does not enable a built in
help
command, instead it provides
run-help
. By default
run-help
is an alias to
man
, it can be either executed manually by prepending it to a command or it can be invoked for the currently typed command with the keyboard shortcuts
Alt+h
or
Esc
h
.
Since by default it is just an alias to
man
, it will only work on external commands. To improve its functionality, so that it works on shell builtins and other shell features, you need to use the
run-help
function. See
zshcontrib(1)
for more information on the
run-help
and its assistant functions.
First load the
run-help
function and then remove the existing
run-help
alias. For convenience
help
can be aliased to
run-help
. For example, add following to your
zshrc
:
autoload -Uz run-help
(( ${+aliases[run-help]} )) && unalias run-help
alias help=run-help
The factual accuracy of this article or section is disputed.
Reason:
Does the example of
run-help git commit
demonstrates what it assumed to demonstrates? (Discuss in
Talk:Zsh#The Help command section accuracy is disputed
)
Assistant functions have to be enabled separately:
autoload -Uz run-help-git run-help-ip run-help-openssl run-help-p4 run-help-sudo run-help-svk run-help-svn
For example,
run-help git commit
command will now open the
man page
git-commit(1)
instead of
git(1)
.
Persistent rehash
Typically,
compinit
from
zshcompsys(1) § Use of compinit
will not automatically find new executables in the
$PATH
. For example, after you install a new package, the files in
/usr/bin/
would not be immediately or automatically included in the completion. Thus, to have these new executables included, one would run:
$ rehash
This 'rehash' can be set to happen automatically.
[4]
Simply include the following in your
zshrc
:
~/.zshrc
zstyle ':completion:*' rehash true
On-demand rehash
As above, however
pacman
can be configured with
hooks
to automatically request a
rehash
, which does not incur the performance penalty of constant rehashing as above. To enable this, create the
/etc/pacman.d/hooks
directory, and a
/var/cache/zsh
directory, then create a hook file:
/etc/pacman.d/hooks/zsh-rehash.hook
[Trigger]
Operation = Install
Operation = Upgrade
Operation = Remove
Type = Path
Target = usr/bin/*

[Action]
Description=Rehash executables
Depends = zsh
When = PostTransaction
Exec = /usr/bin/install -Dm644 /dev/null /var/cache/zsh/pacman
This keeps the modification date of the file
/var/cache/zsh/pacman
consistent with the last time a package was installed, upgraded or removed. Then,
zsh
must be coaxed into rehashing its own command cache when it goes out of date, by adding to your
~/.zshrc
:
~/.zshrc
zshcache_time="$(date +%s%N)"

autoload -Uz add-zsh-hook

rehash_precmd() {
    if [[ -a /var/cache/zsh/pacman ]]; then
        local paccache_time="$(date -r /var/cache/zsh/pacman +%s%N)"
        if (( zshcache_time < paccache_time )); then
            rehash
            zshcache_time="$paccache_time"
        fi
    fi
}

add-zsh-hook -Uz precmd rehash_precmd
If the
precmd
hook is triggered before
/var/cache/zsh/pacman
is updated, completion may not work until a new prompt is initiated. Running an empty command, e.g. pressing
enter
, should be sufficient.
Alternative on-demand rehash using SIGUSR1
As above, however the hook file looks like this:
/etc/pacman.d/hooks/zsh-rehash.hook
[Trigger]
Operation = Install
Operation = Upgrade
Operation = Remove
Type = Path
Target = usr/bin/*

[Action]
Description=Rehash executables
Depends = zsh
Depends = procps-ng
When = PostTransaction
Exec = /usr/bin/pkill zsh --signal=USR1
Warning
This sends SIGUSR1 to all running
zsh
instances. Note that the default behavior for SIGUSR1 is terminate so when you first configure this all running
zsh
instances of all users (including login shells) will terminate if they have not sourced the trap below.
~/.zshrc
TRAPUSR1() { rehash }
The
function trap
above can be replaced with a
list trap
trap 'rehash' USR1
. See
zshmisc(1) § Trap Functions
for differences between types of traps.
This method will instantly
rehash
all
zsh
instances, removing the need to press enter to trigger
precmd
.
Bind key to ncurses application
Bind a ncurses application to a keystroke, but it will not accept interaction. Use
BUFFER
variable to make it work. The following example lets users open
ncmpcpp
using
Alt+\
:
~/.zshrc
ncmpcppShow() {
    BUFFER="ncmpcpp"
    zle accept-line
}
zle -N ncmpcppShow
bindkey '^[\' ncmpcppShow
An alternate method, that will keep everything you entered in the line before calling application:
~/.zshrc
ncmpcppShow() {
    ncmpcpp <$TTY
    zle redisplay
}
zle -N ncmpcppShow
bindkey '^[\' ncmpcppShow
File manager key binds
Key binds like those used in graphic file managers may come handy. The first comes back in directory history (
Alt+Left
), the second let the user go to the parent directory (
Alt+Up
). They also display the directory content.
~/.zshrc
cdUndoKey() {
    popd
    zle       reset-prompt
    print
    ls
    zle       reset-prompt
}

cdParentKey() {
    pushd ..
    zle      reset-prompt
    print
    ls
    zle       reset-prompt
}

zle -N                 cdParentKey
zle -N                 cdUndoKey
bindkey '^[[1;3A'      cdParentKey
bindkey '^[[1;3D'      cdUndoKey
xterm title
If your terminal emulator supports it, you can set its title from Zsh. This allows dynamically changing the title to display relevant information about the shell state, for example showing the user name and current directory or the currently executing command.
The xterm title is set with the
xterm control sequence operating system command
\e]2;
\a
or
\e]2;
\e\\
. For example:
$ print -n '\e]2;My xterm title\a'
will set the title to
My xterm title
A simple way to have a dynamic title is to set the title in the
precmd
and
preexec
hook functions. See
zshmisc(1) § Hook Functions
for a list of available hook functions and their descriptions.
By using
print -P
you can additionally take advantage of Zsh's prompt escapes.
Tip
Title printing can be split up in multiple commands as long as they are sequential.
GNU Screen
sends the xterm title to the hardstatus (
%h
). If you want to use Screen's
string escapes
(e.g. for colors) you should set the hardstatus with the
\e_
\e\\
escape sequence. Otherwise, if string escapes are used in
\e]2;
\a
, the terminal emulator will get a garbled title due to it being incapable of interpreting Screen's string escapes.
Note
Do not use the
-P
option of
print
when printing variables to prevent them from being parsed as prompt escapes.
Use the
q
parameter expansion flag
when printing variables to prevent them from being parsed as escape sequences.
~/.zshrc
autoload -Uz add-zsh-hook

function xterm_title_precmd () {
    print -Pn -- '\e]2;%n@%m %~\a'
    [[ "$TERM" == 'screen'* ]] && print -Pn -- '\e_\005{2}%n\005{-}@\005{5}%m\005{-} \005{+b 4}%~\005{-}\e\\'
}

function xterm_title_preexec () {
    print -Pn -- '\e]2;%n@%m %~ %# ' && print -n -- "${(q)1}\a"
    [[ "$TERM" == 'screen'* ]] && { print -Pn -- '\e_\005{2}%n\005{-}@\005{5}%m\005{-} \005{+b 4}%~\005{-} %# ' && print -n -- "${(q)1}\e\\"; }
}

if [[ "$TERM" == (Eterm*|alacritty*|aterm*|foot*|gnome*|konsole*|kterm*|putty*|rxvt*|screen*|wezterm*|tmux*|xterm*) ]]; then
    add-zsh-hook -Uz precmd xterm_title_precmd
    add-zsh-hook -Uz preexec xterm_title_preexec
fi
Terminal emulator tab title
Some terminal emulators and multiplexers support setting the title of the tab. The escape sequences depend on the terminal:
Terminal
Escape sequences
Description
GNU Screen
\ek
\e\\
Screen's window title (
%t
).
Konsole
\e]30;
\a
Konsole's tab title.
Shell environment detection
See
Environment variables#Shell environment detection
.
/dev/tcp equivalent: ztcp
Use the
zsh/net/tcp
module:
$ zmodload zsh/net/tcp
You can now establish TCP connections:
$ ztcp example.com 80
More details are available in
zshmodules(1) § THE_ZSH/NET/TCP_MODULE
and
zshtcpsys(1)
.
Shortcut to exit shell on partial command line
By default,
Ctrl+d
will not close your shell if the command line is filled, this fixes it:
.zshrc
exit_zsh() { exit }
zle -N exit_zsh
bindkey '^D' exit_zsh
pacman -F "command not found" handler
pacman
includes functionality to search for packages containing a file. The following command-not-found handler will use pacman directly to search for matching packages when an unknown command is executed.
~/.zshrc
...
function command_not_found_handler {
    local purple='\e[1;35m' bright='\e[0;1m' green='\e[1;32m' reset='\e[0m'
    printf 'zsh: command not found: %s\n' "$1"
    local entries=(
        ${(f)"$(/usr/bin/pacman -F --machinereadable -- "/usr/bin/$1")"}
    )
    if (( ${#entries[@]} ))
    then
        printf "${bright}$1${reset} may be found in the following packages:\n"
        local pkg
        for entry in "${entries[@]}"
        do
            # (repo package version file)
            local fields=(
                ${(0)entry}
            )
            if [[ "$pkg" != "${fields[2]}" ]]
            then
                printf "${purple}%s/${bright}%s ${green}%s${reset}\n" "${fields[1]}" "${fields[2]}" "${fields[3]}"
            fi
            printf '    /%s\n' "${fields[4]}"
            pkg="${fields[2]}"
        done
    fi
    return 127
}
...
Note
The files database of pacman is separate from the normal sync database and it needs to be fetched using
pacman -Fy
. See
pacman#Querying package databases
for details.
For an alternative using
pkgfile
, see
#pkgfile "command not found" handler
.
Clear the backbuffer using a key binding
By default, the clear screen keybinding will not clear the backbuffer (the part you need to scroll up for to see it) on most terminal emulators. A possible solution to this problem is the following.
~/.zshrc
...
function clear-screen-and-scrollback() {
    printf '\x1Bc'
    zle clear-screen
}

zle -N clear-screen-and-scrollback
bindkey '^L' clear-screen-and-scrollback
...
Third-party extensions
Configuration frameworks
Note
Frameworks introduce a level of abstraction and complexity. They can, and often do, introduce undefined behavior. In case of shell breakage, the
first
debugging step should be to revert to the plain shell.
oh-my-posh
— Oh My Posh is a custom prompt engine for any shell that has the ability to adjust the prompt string with a function or variable.
https://github.com/JanDeDobbeleer/oh-my-posh
||
oh-my-posh
AUR
oh-my-zsh
— A popular, community-driven framework for managing your Zsh configuration. It comes bundled with a ton of helpful functions, helpers, plugins, themes.
https://github.com/ohmyzsh/ohmyzsh
||
oh-my-zsh-git
AUR
Prezto
— A configuration framework for Zsh. It comes with modules, enriching the command line interface environment with sane defaults, aliases, functions, auto completion, and prompt themes.
https://github.com/sorin-ionescu/prezto
||
prezto-git
AUR
ZIM
— A configuration framework with blazing speed and modular extensions. Zim is very easy to customize, and comes with a rich set of modules and features without compromising on speed or functionality.
https://github.com/zimfw/zimfw
||
zsh-zim-git
AUR
Plugin managers
Antidote
— A feature complete Zsh implementation of the legacy Antibody plugin manager.
https://github.com/mattmc3/antidote
||
zsh-antidote
AUR
zinit (previously "zplugin")
— Flexible Zsh plugin manager with clean fpath, reports, completion management, turbo mode
REVIVED
https://github.com/zdharma-continuum/zinit
||
zinit
AUR
zi (previously "zplugin")
— Alternative fork of zplugin aiming to expand on the original project, instead of preservation and maintenance of the original project like zinit.
https://github.com/z-shell/zi
||
not packaged?
search in AUR
sheldon
— Fast, configurable, shell plugin manager, written in Rust
[5]
https://github.com/rossmacarthur/sheldon
||
sheldon
Antigen
— A plugin manager for Zsh, inspired by oh-my-zsh and vundle.
ABANDONED
https://github.com/zsh-users/antigen
||
antigen-git
AUR
zgen
— A lightweight and simple plugin manager for Zsh.
ABANDONED
https://github.com/tarjoilija/zgen
||
zgen-git
AUR
zplug
— A next-generation plugin manager for Zsh.
ABANDONED
https://github.com/zplug/zplug
||
zplug
AUR
Fish-like syntax highlighting and autosuggestions
Fish
provides very powerful shell syntax highlighting and autosuggestions. To use both in Zsh, you can install
zsh-syntax-highlighting
,
zsh-autosuggestions
, and finally
source
one or both of the provided scripts from the end of your zshrc, ensuring that
zsh-syntax-highlighting
is sourced after
zsh-autosuggestions
[6]
:
~/.zshrc
source /usr/share/zsh/plugins/zsh-autosuggestions/zsh-autosuggestions.zsh
source /usr/share/zsh/plugins/zsh-syntax-highlighting/zsh-syntax-highlighting.zsh
pkgfile "command not found" handler
pkgfile
includes a Zsh script file that provides a
command_not_found_handler
function that will automatically search the pkgfile database when entering an unrecognized command.
You need to
source
the script to enable it. For example:
~/.zshrc
source /usr/share/doc/pkgfile/command-not-found.zsh
Note
The pkgfile database may need to be updated before this will work. See
pkgfile#Installation
for details.
For an alternative using pacman's native functionality, see
#pacman -F "command not found" handler
.
Troubleshooting
IOT instruction
IOT instruction
message just means that an application exited with signal 6 (SIGABRT, Signal Abort). The
patch
is already in upstream (i.e. you can use
zsh-git
AUR
) and it will be applied in 5.10. For more information, see
[7]
,
[8]
and
signal(7) § Standard signals
.
See also
Wikipedia:Zsh
An Introduction to the Z Shell
A User's Guide to ZSH
The Z Shell Manual
(different format available
here
)
Zsh FAQ
zsh-lovers(1)
(available as
zsh-lovers
package)
Gentoo: Zsh/Guide
Bash2Zsh Reference Card