ZSHZLE(1)

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 terminal, the user is able to edit command lines.

There are two display modes. The first, multiline mode, is the default. It only works if the TERM parameter is set to a valid terminal type that can move the cursor up. The second, single line mode, is used if TERM is invalid or incapable of moving the cursor up, or if the SINGLE_LINE_ZLE option is set. This mode is similar to ksh, and uses no termcap sequences. If TERM is "emacs", the ZLE option will be unset by default.

The parameters BAUD, COLUMNS, and LINES are also used by the line editor. See Parameters Used By The Shell in zshparam(1).

KEYMAPS
A keymap in ZLE contains a set of bindings between key sequences and ZLE commands. The empty key sequence cannot be bound.

There can be any number of keymaps at any time, and each keymap has one or more names. If all of a keymap's names are deleted, it disappears. bindkey can be used to manipulate keymap names.

Initially, there are four keymaps:

emacs
    EMACS emulation
viins
    vi emulation - insert mode
vicmd
    vi emulation - command mode
.safe
    fallback keymap

The `.safe' keymap is special. It can never be altered, and the name can never be removed. However, it can be linked to other names, which can be removed. In the future other special keymaps may be added; users should avoid using names beginning with `.' for their own keymaps.

In addition to these four names, either `emacs' or `viins' is also linked to the name `main'. If one of the VISUAL or EDITOR environment variables contain the string `vi' when the shell starts up then it will be `viins', otherwise it will be `emacs'. bindkey's -e and -v options provide a convenient way to override this default choice.

When the editor starts up, it will select the `main' keymap. If that keymap doesn't exist, it will use `.safe' instead.

In the `.safe' keymap, each single key is bound to self-insert, except for ^J (line feed) and ^M (return) which are bound to accept-line. This is deliberately not pleasant to use; if you are using it, it means you deleted the main keymap, and you should put it back.

  Reading Commands
When ZLE is reading a command from the terminal, it may read a sequence that is bound to some command and is also a prefix of a longer bound string. In this case ZLE will wait a certain time to see if more characters are typed, and if not (or they don't match any longer string) it will execute the binding. This timeout is defined by the KEYTIMEOUT parameter; its default is 0.4 sec. There is no timeout if the prefix string is not itself bound to a command.

As well as ZLE commands, key sequences can be bound to other strings, by using `bindkey -s'. When such a sequence is read, the replacement string is pushed back as input, and the command reading process starts again using these fake keystrokes. This input can itself invoke further replacement strings, but in order to detect loops the process will be stopped if there are twenty such replacements without a real command being read.

ZLE BUILTINS
The ZLE module contains three related builtin commands. The bindkey command manipulates keymaps and key bindings; the vared command invokes ZLE on the value of a shell parameter; and the zle command manipulates editing widgets and allows command line access to ZLE commands from within shell functions.

bindkey [ options ] -l
bindkey [ options ] -d
bindkey [ options ] -D keymap ...
bindkey [ options ] -A old-keymap new-keymap
bindkey [ options ] -N new-keymap [ old-keymap ]
bindkey [ options ] -m
bindkey [ options ] -r in-string ...
bindkey [ options ] -s in-string out-string ...
bindkey [ options ] in-string command ...
bindkey [ options ] [ in-string ]
    bindkey's options can be divided into three categories: keymap selection, operation selection, and others. The keymap selection options are:

    -e  Selects keymap `emacs', and also links it to `main'.

    -v  Selects keymap `viins', and also links it to `main'.

    -a  Selects keymap `vicmd'.

    -M keymap
        The keymap specifies a keymap name.

    If a keymap selection is required and none of the options above are used, the `main' keymap is used. Some operations do not permit a keymap to be selected, namely:

    -l  List all existing keymap names. If the -L option is also used, list in the form of bindkey commands to create the keymaps.

    -d  Delete all existing keymaps and reset to the default state.

    -D keymap ...
        Delete the named keymaps.

    -A old-keymap new-keymap
        Make the new-keymap name an alias for old-keymap, so that both names refer to the same keymap. The names have equal standing; if either is deleted, the other remains. If there is already a keymap with the new-keymap name, it is deleted.

    -N new-keymap [ old-keymap ]
        Create a new keymap, named new-keymap. If a keymap already has that name, it is deleted. If an old-keymap name is given, the new keymap is initialized to be a duplicate of it, otherwise the new keymap will be empty.

    To use a newly created keymap, it should be linked to main. Hence the sequence of commands to create and use a new keymap `mymap' initialized from the emacs keymap (which remains unchanged) is:

        bindkey -N mymap emacs
        bindkey -A mymap main

    Note that while `bindkey -A newmap main' will work when newmap is emacs or viins, it will not work for vicmd, as switching from vi insert to command mode becomes impossible.

    The following operations act on the `main' keymap if no keymap selection option was given:

    -m  Add the built-in set of meta-key bindings to the selected keymap. Only keys that are unbound or bound to self-insert are affected.

    -r in-string ...
        Unbind the specified in-strings in the selected keymap. This is exactly equivalent to binding the strings to undefined-key.

        When -R is also used, interpret the in-strings as ranges.

        When -p is also used, the in-strings specify prefixes. Any binding that has the given in-string as a prefix, not including the binding for the in-string itself, if any, will be removed. For example,

            bindkey -rpM viins '^['

        will remove all bindings in the vi-insert keymap beginning with an escape character (probably cursor keys), but leave the binding for the escape character itself (probably vi-cmd-mode). This is incompatible with the option -R.

    -s in-string out-string ...
        Bind each in-string to each out-string. When in-string is typed, out-string will be pushed back and treated as input to the line editor. When -R is also used, interpret the in-strings as ranges.

    in-string command ...
        Bind each in-string to each command. When -R is used, interpret the in-strings as ranges.

    [ in-string ]
        List key bindings. If an in-string is specified, the binding of that string in the selected keymap is displayed. Otherwise, all key bindings in the selected keymap are displayed. (As a special case, if the -e or -v option is used alone, the keymap is not displayed - the implicit linking of keymaps is the only thing that happens.)

        When the option -p is used, the in-string must be present. The listing shows all bindings which have the given key sequence as a prefix, not including any bindings for the key sequence itself.

        When the -L option is used, the list is in the form of bindkey commands to create the key bindings.

When the -R option is used as noted above, a valid range consists of two characters, with an optional `-' between them. All characters between the two specified, inclusive, are bound as specified.

For either in-string or out-string, the following escape sequences are recognised:

\a  bell character
\b  backspace
\e, \E
    escape
\f  form feed
\n  linefeed (newline)
\r  carriage return
\t  horizontal tab
\v  vertical tab
\NNN
    character code in octal
\xNN
    character code in hexadecimal
\M[-]X
    character with meta bit set
\C[-]X
    control character
^X  control character

In all other cases, `\' escapes the following character. Delete is written as `^?'. Note that `\M^?' and `^\M?' are not the same, and that (unlike emacs), the bindings `\M-X' and `\eX' are entirely distinct, although they are initialized to the same bindings by `bindkey -m'.

vared [ -Aache ] [ -p prompt ] [ -r rprompt ] name
    The value of the parameter name is loaded into the edit buffer, and the line editor is invoked. When the editor exits, name is set to the string value returned by the editor. When the -c flag is given, the parameter is created if it doesn't already exist. The -a flag may be given with -c to create an array parameter, or the -A flag to create an associative array. If the type of an existing parameter does not match the type to be created, the parameter is unset and recreated.

    If an array or array slice is being edited, separator characters as defined in $IFS will be shown quoted with a backslash, as will backslashes themselves. Conversely, when the edited text is split into an array, a backslash quotes an immediately following separator character or backslash; no other special handling of backslashes, or any handling of quotes, is performed.

    Individual elements of existing array or associative array parameters may be edited by using subscript syntax on name. New elements are created automatically, even without -c.

    If the -p flag is given, the following string will be taken as the prompt to display at the left. If the -r flag is given, the following string gives the prompt to display at the right. If the -h flag is specified, the history can be accessed from ZLE. If the -e flag is given, typing ^D (Control-D) on an empty line causes vared to exit immediately with a non-zero return value.

zle -l [ -L | -a ] [ string ... ]
zle -D widget ...
zle -A old-widget new-widget
zle -N widget [ function ]
zle -C widget completion-widget function
zle -R [ -c ] [ display-string ] [ string ... ]
zle -M string
zle -U string
zle -K keymap
zle -F [ -L ] [ fd [ handler ] ]
zle -I
zle widget [ -n num ] [ -N ] args ...
zle The zle builtin performs a number of different actions concerning ZLE. Which operation it performs depends on its options:

    -l [ -L | -a ]
        List all existing user-defined widgets. If the -L option is used, list in the form of zle commands to create the widgets.

        When combined with the -a option, all widget names are listed, including the builtin ones. In this case the -L option is ignored.

        If at least one string is given, nothing will be printed but the return status will be zero if all strings are names of existing widgets (or of user-defined widgets if the -a flag is not given) and non-zero if at least one string is not a name of an defined widget.

    -D widget ...
        Delete the named widgets.

    -A old-widget new-widget
        Make the new-widget name an alias for old-widget, so that both names refer to the same widget. The names have equal standing; if either is deleted, the other remains. If there is already a widget with the new-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 in zshzle(1).

    -C widget completion-widget function
        Create a user-defined completion widget named widget. The completion widget will behave like the built-in completion-widget whose name is given as completion-widget. To generate the completions, the shell function function will be called. For further information, see zshcompwid(1).

    -R [ -c ] [ display-string ] [ string ... ]
        Redisplay the command line; this is to be called from within a user-defined widget to allow changes to become visible. If a display-string is given and not empty, this is shown in the status line (immediately below the line being edited).

        If the optional strings are given they are listed below the prompt in the same way as completion lists are printed. If no strings are given but the -c option is used such a list is cleared.

        Note that this option is only useful for widgets that do not exit immediately after using it because the strings displayed will be erased immediately after return from the widget.

        This command can safely be called outside user defined widgets; if zle is active, the display will be refreshed, while if zle is not active, the command has no effect. In this case there will usually be no other arguments. The status is zero if zle was active, else one.

    -M string
        As with the -R option, the string will be displayed below the command line; unlike the -R option, the string will not be put into the status line but will instead be printed normally below the prompt. This means that the string will still be displayed after the widget returns (until it is overwritten by subsequent commands).

    -U string
        This pushes the characters in the string onto the input stack of ZLE. After the widget currently executed finishes ZLE will behave as if the characters in the string were typed by the user.

        As ZLE uses a stack, if this option is used repeatedly the last string pushed onto the stack will be processed first. However, the characters in each string will be processed in the order in which they appear in the string.

    -K keymap
        Selects the keymap named keymap. An error message will be displayed if there is no such keymap.

        This keymap selection affects the interpretation of following keystrokes within this invocation of ZLE. Any following invocation (e.g., the next command line) will start as usual with the `main' keymap selected.

    -F [ -L ] [ 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. When zle is attempting to read data, it will examine both the terminal and the list of handled fd's. If data becomes available on a handled fd, zle will call handler with the fd which is ready for reading as the only argument. If the handler produces output to the terminal, it should call `zle -I' before doing so (see below). The handler should not attempt to read from the terminal. Note that zle makes no attempt to check whether this fd is actually readable when installing the handler. The user must make their own arrangements for handling the file descriptor when zle is not active.

        Any number of handlers for any number of readable file descriptors may be installed. Installing a handler for an fd which is already handled causes the existing handler to be replaced.

        If no handler is given, but an fd is present, any handler for that fd is removed. If there is none, an error message is printed and status 1 is returned.

        If no arguments are given, or the -L option is supplied, a list of handlers is printed in a form which can be stored for later execution.

        An fd (but not a handler) may optionally be given with the -L option; in this case, the function will list the handler if any, else silently return status 1.

        Note that this feature should be used with care. Activity on one of the fd's which is not properly handled can cause the terminal to become unusable.

        Here is a simple example of using this feature. A connection to a remote TCP port is created using the ztcp command; see the description of the zsh/net/tcp module in zshmodules(1). Then a handler is installed which simply prints out any data which arrives on this connection. Note that `select' will indicate that the file descriptor needs handling if the remote side has closed the connection; we handle that by testing for a failed read.
            if ztcp pwspc 2811; then
              tcpfd=$REPLY
              handler() {
                zle -I
                local line
                if ! read -r line <&$1; then
                  # select marks this fd if we reach EOF,
                  # so handle this specially.
                  print "[Read on fd $1 failed, removing.]" >&2
                  zle -F $1
                  return 1
                fi
                print -r - $line
              }
              zle -F $tcpfd handler
            fi

    -I  Unusually, this option is most useful outside ordinary widget functions, though it may be used within if normal output to the terminal is required. It invalidates the current zle display in preparation for output; typically this will be from a trap function. It has no effect if zle is not active. When a trap exits, the shell checks to see if the display needs restoring, hence the following will print output in such a way as not to disturb the line being edited:

            TRAPUSR1() {
                # Invalidate zle display
              [[ -o zle ]] && zle -I
                # Show output
              print Hello
            }

        In general, the trap function may need to test whether zle is active before using this method (as shown in the example), since the zsh/zle module may not even be loaded; if it is not, the command can be skipped.

        It is possible to call `zle -I' several times before control is returned to the editor; the display will only be invalidated the first time to minimise disruption.

        Note that there are normally better ways of manipulating the display from within zle widgets; see, for example, `zle -R' above.

        The status is zero if zle is active and the current zle display has been invalidated (even if this was by a previous call to `zle -I'), else one.

    widget [ -n num ] [ -N ] args ...
        Invoke the specified widget. This can only be done when ZLE is active; normally this will be within a user-defined widget.

        With the options -n and -N, the current numerical argument will be saved and then restored after the call to widget; `-n num' sets the numerical argument temporarily to num, while `-N' sets it to the default, i.e. as if there were none.

        Any further arguments will be passed to the widget. If it is a shell function, these are passed down as positional parameters; for builtin widgets it is up to the widget in question what it does with them. 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.

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 if ZLE is not active.

WIDGETS
All actions in the editor are performed by `widgets'. A widget's job is simply to perform some small action. The ZLE commands that key sequences in keymaps are bound to are in fact widgets. Widgets can be user-defined or built in.

The standard widgets built in to ZLE are listed in 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 widget. This makes the widget available even when its usual name has been redefined.

User-defined widgets are defined using `zle -N', and implemented as shell functions. When the widget is executed, the corresponding shell function is executed, and can perform editing (or other) actions. It is recommended that user-defined widgets should not have names starting with `.'.

USER-DEFINED WIDGETS
User-defined widgets, being implemented as shell functions, can execute any normal shell command. They can also run other widgets (whether built-in or user-defined) using the zle builtin command. The standard input of the function is closed to prevent external commands from unintentionally blocking ZLE by reading from the terminal, but read -k or read -q can be used to read characters. Finally, they can examine and edit the ZLE buffer being edited by reading and setting the special parameters described below.

These special parameters are always available in widget functions, but are not in any way special outside ZLE. If they have some normal value outside ZLE, that value is temporarily inaccessible, but will return when the widget function exits. These special parameters in fact have local scope, like parameters created in a function using local.

Inside completion widgets and traps called while ZLE is active, these parameters are available read-only.

BUFFER (scalar)
    The entire contents of the edit buffer. If it is written to, the cursor remains at the same offset, unless that would put it outside the buffer.

BUFFERLINES (integer)
    The number of screen lines needed for the edit buffer currently displayed on screen (i.e. without any changes to the preceding parameters done after the last redisplay); read-only.

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 to be cut using one of the `kill-' commands; the string which the next yank would insert in the line.

HISTNO (integer)
    The current history number; 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.

killring (array)
    The array of previously killed items, with the most recently killed first. This gives the items that would be retrieved by a yank-pop in the same order.

    The default size for the kill ring is eight, however the length may be changed by normal array operations. Any empty string in the kill ring is ignored by the yank-pop command, hence the size of the array effectively sets the maximum length of the kill ring, while the number of non-zero strings gives the current length, both as seen by the user at the command line.

LASTSEARCH (scalar)
    The last search string used by an interactive search ; read-only.

LASTWIDGET (scalar)
    The name of the last widget that was executed; read-only.

LBUFFER (scalar)
    The part of the buffer that lies to the left of the cursor position. If it is assigned to, only that part of the buffer is replaced, and the cursor remains between the new $LBUFFER and the old $RBUFFER.

MARK (integer)
    Like CURSOR, but for the mark.

NUMERIC (integer)
    The numeric argument. If no numeric argument was given, this parameter is unset. When this is set inside a widget function, builtin widgets called with the zle builtin command will use the value assigned. If it is unset inside a widget function, builtin widgets called behave as if no numeric argument was given.

PENDING (integer)
    The number of bytes pending for input, i.e. the number of bytes which have already been typed and can immediately be read. On systems where the shell is not able to get this information, this parameter will always have a value of zero. Read-only.

PREBUFFER (scalar)
    In a multi-line input at the secondary prompt, this read-only parameter contains the contents of the lines before the one the cursor is currently in.

PREDISPLAY (scalar)
    Text to be displayed before the start of the editable text buffer. This does not have to be a complete line; to display a complete line, a 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.

WIDGET (scalar)
    The name of the widget currently being executed; read-only.

STANDARD WIDGETS
The following is a list of all the standard widgets, and their default bindings in emacs mode, vi command mode and vi insert mode (the `emacs', `vicmd' and `viins' keymaps, respectively).

Note that cursor keys are bound to movement keys in all three keymaps; the shell assumes that the cursor keys send the key sequences reported by the terminal-handling library (termcap or terminfo). The key sequences shown in the list are those based on the VT100, common on many modern terminals, but in fact these are not necessarily bound. In the case of the viins keymap, the initial escape character of the sequences serves also to return to the vicmd keymap: whether this happens is determined by the KEYTIMEOUT parameter, see zshparam(1).

  Movement
vi-backward-blank-word (unbound) (B) (unbound)
    Move backward one word, where a word is defined as a series of non-blank characters.

backward-char (^B ESC-[D) (unbound) (unbound)
    Move backward one character.

vi-backward-char (unbound) (^H h ^?) (ESC-[D)
    Move backward one character, without changing lines.

backward-word (ESC-B ESC-b) (unbound) (unbound)
    Move to the beginning of the previous word.

emacs-backward-word
    Move to the beginning of the previous word.

vi-backward-word (unbound) (b) (unbound)
    Move to the beginning of the previous word, vi-style.

beginning-of-line (^A) (unbound) (unbound)
    Move to the beginning of the line. If already at the beginning of the line, move to the beginning of the previous line, if any.

vi-beginning-of-line
    Move to the beginning of the line, without changing lines.

end-of-line (^E) (unbound) (unbound)
    Move to the end of the line. If already at the end of the line, move to the end of the next line, if any.

vi-end-of-line (unbound) ($) (unbound)
    Move to the end of the line. If an argument is given to this command, the cursor will be moved to the end of the line (argument - 1) lines down.

vi-forward-blank-word (unbound) (W) (unbound)
    Move forward one word, where a word is defined as a series of non-blank characters.

vi-forward-blank-word-end (unbound) (E) (unbound)
    Move to the end of the current word, or, if at the end of the current word, to the end of the next word, where a word is defined as a series of non-blank characters.

forward-char (^F ESC-[C) (unbound) (unbound)
    Move forward one character.

vi-forward-char (unbound) (space l) (ESC-[C)
    Move forward one character.

vi-find-next-char (^X^F) (f) (unbound)
    Read a character from the keyboard, and move to the next occurrence of it in the line.

vi-find-next-char-skip (unbound) (t) (unbound)
    Read a character from the keyboard, and move to the position just before the next occurrence of it in the line.

vi-find-prev-char (unbound) (F) (unbound)
    Read a character from the keyboard, and move to the previous occurrence of it in the line.

vi-find-prev-char-skip (unbound) (T) (unbound)
    Read a character from the keyboard, and move to the position just after the previous occurrence of it in the line.

vi-first-non-blank (unbound) (^) (unbound)
    Move to the first non-blank character in the line.

vi-forward-word (unbound) (w) (unbound)
    Move forward one word, vi-style.

forward-word (ESC-F ESC-f) (unbound) (unbound)
    Move to the beginning of the next word. The editor's idea of a word is specified with the WORDCHARS parameter.

emacs-forward-word
    Move to the end of the next word.

vi-forward-word-end (unbound) (e) (unbound)
    Move to the end of the next word.

vi-goto-column (ESC-|) (|) (unbound)
    Move to the column specified by the numeric argument.

vi-goto-mark (unbound) (`) (unbound)
    Move to the specified mark.

vi-goto-mark-line (unbound) (') (unbound)
    Move to beginning of the line containing the specified mark.

vi-repeat-find (unbound) (;) (unbound)
    Repeat the last vi-find command.

vi-rev-repeat-find (unbound) (,) (unbound)
    Repeat the last vi-find command in the opposite direction.

  History Control
beginning-of-buffer-or-history (ESC-<) (unbound) (unbound)
    Move to the beginning of the buffer, or if already there, move to the first event in the history list.

beginning-of-line-hist
    Move to the beginning of the line. If already at the beginning of the buffer, move to the previous history line.

beginning-of-history
    Move to the first event in the history list.

down-line-or-history (^N ESC-[B) (j) (ESC-[B)
    Move down a line in the buffer, or if already at the bottom line, move to the next event in the history list.

vi-down-line-or-history (unbound) (+) (unbound)
    Move down a line in the buffer, or if already at the bottom line, move to the next event in the history list. Then move to the first non-blank character on the line.

down-line-or-search
    Move down a line in the buffer, or if already at the bottom line, search forward in the history for a line beginning with the first word in the buffer.

    If called from a function by the zle command with arguments, the first argument is taken as the string for which to search, rather than the first word in the buffer.

down-history (unbound) (^N) (unbound)
    Move to the next event in the history list.

history-beginning-search-backward
    Search backward in the history for a line beginning with the current line up to the cursor. This leaves the cursor in its original position.

end-of-buffer-or-history (ESC->) (unbound) (unbound)
    Move to the end of the buffer, or if already there, move to the last event in the history list.

end-of-line-hist
    Move to the end of the line. If already at the end of the buffer, move to the next history line.

end-of-history
    Move to the last event in the history list.

vi-fetch-history (unbound) (G) (unbound)
    Fetch the history line specified by the numeric argument. This defaults to the current history line (i.e. the one that isn't history yet).

history-incremental-search-backward (^R ^Xr) (unbound) (unbound)
    Search backward incrementally for a specified string. The search is case-insensitive if the search string does not have uppercase letters and no numeric argument was given. The string may begin with `^' to anchor the search to the beginning of the line.

    A restricted set of editing functions is available in the mini-buffer. An interrupt signal, as defined by the stty setting, will stop the search and go back to the original line. An undefined key will have the same effect. The supported functions are: backward-delete-char, vi-backward-delete-char, clear-screen, redisplay, quoted-insert, vi-quoted-insert, accept-and-hold, accept-and-infer-next-history, accept-line and accept-line-and-down-history.

    magic-space just inserts a space. vi-cmd-mode toggles between the `main' and `vicmd' keymaps; the `main' keymap (insert mode) will be selected initially. history-incremental-search-backward will get the next occurrence of the contents of the mini-buffer. history-incremental-search-forward inverts the sense of the search. vi-repeat-search and vi-rev-repeat-search are similarly supported. The direction of the search is indicated in the mini-buffer.

    Any multi-character string that is not bound to one of the above functions will beep and interrupt the search, leaving the last found line in the buffer. Any single character that is not bound to one of the above functions, or self-insert or self-insert-unmeta, will have the same effect but the function will be executed.

    When called from a widget function by the zle command, the incremental search commands can take a string argument. This will be treated as a string of keys, as for arguments to the bindkey command, and used as initial input for the command. Any characters in the string which are unused by the incremental search will be silently ignored. For example,

        zle history-incremental-search-backward forceps

    will search backwards for forceps, leaving the minibuffer containing the string `forceps'.

history-incremental-search-forward (^S ^Xs) (unbound) (unbound)
    Search forward incrementally for a specified string. The search is case-insensitive if the search string does not have uppercase letters and no numeric argument was given. The string may begin with `^' to anchor the search to the beginning of the line. The functions available in the mini-buffer are the same as for history-incremental-search-backward.

history-search-backward (ESC-P ESC-p) (unbound) (unbound)
    Search backward in the history for a line beginning with the first word in the buffer.

    If called from a function by the zle command with arguments, the first argument is taken as the string for which to search, rather than the first word in the buffer.

vi-history-search-backward (unbound) (/) (unbound)
    Search backward in the history for a specified string. The string may begin with `^' to anchor the search to the beginning of the line.

    A restricted set of editing functions is available in the mini-buffer. An interrupt signal, as defined by the stty setting, will stop the search. The functions available in the mini-buffer are: accept-line, backward-delete-char, vi-backward-delete-char, backward-kill-word, vi-backward-kill-word, clear-screen, redisplay, quoted-insert and vi-quoted-insert.

    vi-cmd-mode is treated the same as accept-line, and magic-space is treated as a space. Any other character that is not bound to self-insert or self-insert-unmeta will beep and be ignored. If the function is called from vi command mode, the bindings of the current insert mode will be used.

    If called from a function by the zle command with arguments, the first argument is taken as the string for which to search, rather than the first word in the buffer.

history-search-forward (ESC-N ESC-n) (unbound) (unbound)
    Search forward in the history for a line beginning with the first word in the buffer.

    If called from a function by the zle command with arguments, the first argument is taken as the string for which to search, rather than the first word in the buffer.

vi-history-search-forward (unbound) (?) (unbound)
    Search forward in the history for a specified string. The string may begin with `^' to anchor the search to the beginning of the line. The functions available in the mini-buffer are the same as for vi-history-search-backward. Argument handling is also the same as for that command.

infer-next-history (^X^N) (unbound) (unbound)
    Search in the history list for a line matching the current one and fetch the event following it.

insert-last-word (ESC-_ ESC-.) (unbound) (unbound)
    Insert the last word from the previous history event at the cursor position. If a positive numeric argument is given, insert that word from the end of the previous history event. If the argument is zero or negative insert that word from the left (zero inserts the previous command word). Repeating this command replaces the word just inserted with the last word from the history event prior to the one just used; numeric arguments can be used in the same way to pick a word from that event.

    When called from a shell function invoked from a user-defined widget, the command can take one to three arguments. The first argument specifies a history offset which applies to successive calls to this widget: if 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 with a `--' argument to avoid confusing them with options.

    If two arguments are given, the second specifies the word on the command line in normal array index notation (as a more natural alternative to the prefix argument). Hence 1 is the first word, and -1 (the default) is the last word.

    If a third argument is given, its value is ignored, but it is used to signify that the history offset is relative to the current history line, rather than the one remembered after the previous invocations of insert-last-word.

    For example, the default behaviour of the command corresponds to

        zle insert-last-word -- -1 -1

    while the command

        zle insert-last-word -- -1 1 -

    always copies the first word of the line in the history immediately before the line being edited. This has the side effect that later invocations of the widget will be relative to that line.

vi-repeat-search (unbound) (n) (unbound)
    Repeat the last vi history search.

vi-rev-repeat-search (unbound) (N) (unbound)
    Repeat the last vi history search, but in reverse.

up-line-or-history (^P ESC-[A) (k) (ESC-[A)
    Move up a line in the buffer, or if already at the top line, move to the previous event in the history list.

vi-up-line-or-history (unbound) (-) (unbound)
    Move up a line in the buffer, or if already at the top line, move to the previous event in the history list. Then move to the first non-blank character on the line.

up-line-or-search
    Move up a line in the buffer, or if already at the top line, search backward in the history for a line beginning with the first word in the buffer.

    If called from a function by the zle command with arguments, the first argument is taken as the string for which to search, rather than the first word in the buffer.

up-history (unbound) (^P) (unbound)
    Move to the previous event in the history list.

history-beginning-search-forward
    Search forward in the history for a line beginning with the current line up to the cursor. This leaves the cursor in its original position.

  Modifying Text
vi-add-eol (unbound) (A) (unbound)
    Move to the end of the line and enter insert mode.

vi-add-next (unbound) (a) (unbound)
    Enter insert mode after the current cursor position, without changing lines.

backward-delete-char (^H ^?) (unbound) (unbound)
    Delete the character behind the cursor.

vi-backward-delete-char (unbound) (X) (^H)
    Delete the character behind the cursor, without changing lines. If in insert mode, this won't delete past the point where insert mode was last entered.

backward-delete-word
    Delete the word behind the cursor.

backward-kill-line
    Kill from the beginning of the line to the cursor position.

backward-kill-word (^W ESC-^H ESC-^?) (unbound) (unbound)
    Kill the word behind the cursor.

vi-backward-kill-word (unbound) (unbound) (^W)
    Kill the word behind the cursor, without going past the point where insert mode was last entered.

capitalize-word (ESC-C ESC-c) (unbound) (unbound)
    Capitalize the current word and move past it.

vi-change (unbound) (c) (unbound)
    Read a movement command from the keyboard, and kill from the cursor position to the endpoint of the movement. Then enter insert mode. If the command is vi-change, change the current line.

vi-change-eol (unbound) (C) (unbound)
    Kill to the end of the line and enter insert mode.

vi-change-whole-line (unbound) (S) (unbound)
    Kill the current line and enter insert mode.

copy-region-as-kill (ESC-W ESC-w) (unbound) (unbound)
    Copy the area from the cursor to the mark to the kill buffer.

copy-prev-word (ESC-^_) (unbound) (unbound)
    Duplicate the word to the left of the cursor.

copy-prev-shell-word (ESC-^_) (unbound) (unbound)
    Like copy-prev-word, but the word is found by using shell parsing, whereas copy-prev-word looks for blanks. This makes a difference when the word is quoted and contains spaces.

vi-delete (unbound) (d) (unbound)
    Read a movement command from the keyboard, and kill from the cursor position to the endpoint of the movement. If the command is vi-delete, kill the current line.

delete-char
    Delete the character under the cursor.

vi-delete-char (unbound) (x) (unbound)
    Delete the character under the cursor, without going past the end of the line.

delete-word
    Delete the current word.

down-case-word (ESC-L ESC-l) (unbound) (unbound)
    Convert the current word to all lowercase and move past it.

kill-word (ESC-D ESC-d) (unbound) (unbound)
    Kill the current word.

gosmacs-transpose-chars
    Exchange the two characters behind the cursor.

vi-indent (unbound) (>) (unbound)
    Indent a number of lines.

vi-insert (unbound) (i) (unbound)
    Enter insert mode.

vi-insert-bol (unbound) (I) (unbound)
    Move to the first non-blank character on the line and enter insert mode.

vi-join (^X^J) (J) (unbound)
    Join the current line with the next one.

kill-line (^K) (unbound) (unbound)
    Kill from the cursor to the end of the line. If already on the end of the line, kill the newline character.

vi-kill-line (unbound) (unbound) (^U)
    Kill from the cursor back to wherever insert mode was last entered.

vi-kill-eol (unbound) (D) (unbound)
    Kill from the cursor to the end of the line.

kill-region
    Kill from the cursor to the mark.

kill-buffer (^X^K) (unbound) (unbound)
    Kill the entire buffer.

kill-whole-line (^U) (unbound) (unbound)
    Kill the current line.

vi-match-bracket (^X^B) (%) (unbound)
    Move to the bracket character (one of {}, () or []) that matches the one under the cursor. If the cursor is not on a bracket character, move forward without going past the end of the line to find one, and then go to the matching bracket.

vi-open-line-above (unbound) (O) (unbound)
    Open a line above the cursor and enter insert mode.

vi-open-line-below (unbound) (o) (unbound)
    Open a line below the cursor and enter insert mode.

vi-oper-swap-case
    Read a movement command from the keyboard, and swap the case of all characters from the cursor position to the endpoint of the movement. If the movement command is vi-oper-swap-case, swap the case of all characters on the current line.

overwrite-mode (^X^O) (unbound) (unbound)
    Toggle between overwrite mode and insert mode.

vi-put-before (unbound) (P) (unbound)
    Insert the contents of the kill buffer before the cursor. If the kill buffer contains a sequence of lines (as opposed to characters), paste it above the current line.

vi-put-after (unbound) (p) (unbound)
    Insert the contents of the kill buffer after the cursor. If the kill buffer contains a sequence of lines (as opposed to characters), paste it below the current line.

quoted-insert (^V) (unbound) (unbound)
    Insert the next character typed into the buffer literally. An interrupt character will not be inserted.

vi-quoted-insert (unbound) (unbound) (^Q ^V)
    Display a `^' at the cursor position, and insert the next character typed into the buffer literally. An interrupt character will not be inserted.

quote-line (ESC-') (unbound) (unbound)
    Quote the current line; that is, put a `'' character at the beginning and the end, and convert all `'' characters to `'\'''.

quote-region (ESC-") (unbound) (unbound)
    Quote the region from the cursor to the mark.

vi-replace (unbound) (R) (unbound)
    Enter overwrite mode.

vi-repeat-change (unbound) (.) (unbound)
    Repeat the last vi mode text modification. If a count was used with the modification, it is remembered. If a count is given to this command, it overrides the remembered count, and is remembered for future uses of this command. The cut buffer specification is similarly remembered.

vi-replace-chars (unbound) (r) (unbound)
    Replace the character under the cursor with a character read from the keyboard.

self-insert (printable characters) (unbound) (printable characters and some control characters)
    Insert a character into the buffer at the cursor position.

self-insert-unmeta (ESC-^I ESC-^J ESC-^M) (unbound) (unbound)
    Insert a character into the buffer after stripping the meta bit and converting ^M to ^J.

vi-substitute (unbound) (s) (unbound)
    Substitute the next character(s).

vi-swap-case (unbound) (~) (unbound)
    Swap the case of the character under the cursor and move past it.

transpose-chars (^T) (unbound) (unbound)
    Exchange the two characters to the left of the cursor if at end of line, else exchange the character under the cursor with the character to the left.

transpose-words (ESC-T ESC-t) (unbound) (unbound)
    Exchange the current word with the one before it.

vi-unindent (unbound) (<) (unbound)
    Unindent a number of lines.

up-case-word (ESC-U ESC-u) (unbound) (unbound)
    Convert the current word to all caps and move past it.

yank (^Y) (unbound) (unbound)
    Insert the contents of the kill buffer at the cursor position.

yank-pop (ESC-y) (unbound) (unbound)
    Remove the text just yanked, rotate the kill-ring, and yank the new top. Only works following yank or yank-pop.

vi-yank (unbound) (y) (unbound)
    Read a movement command from the keyboard, and copy the region from the cursor position to the endpoint of the movement into the kill buffer. If the command is vi-yank, copy the current line.

vi-yank-whole-line (unbound) (Y) (unbound)
    Copy the current line into the kill buffer.

vi-yank-eol
    Copy the region from the cursor position to the end of the line into the kill buffer. Arguably, this is what Y should do in vi, but it isn't what it actually does.

  Arguments
digit-argument (ESC-0..ESC-9) (1-9) (unbound)
    Start a new numeric argument, or add to the current one. See also vi-digit-or-beginning-of-line. This only works if bound to a key sequence ending in a decimal digit.

    Inside a widget function, a call to this function treats the last key of the key sequence which called the widget as the digit.

neg-argument (ESC--) (unbound) (unbound)
    Changes the sign of the following argument.

universal-argument
    Multiply the argument of the next command by 4. Alternatively, if this command is followed by an integer (positive or negative), use that as the argument for the next command. Thus digits cannot be repeated using this command. For example, if this command occurs twice, followed immediately by forward-char, move forward sixteen spaces; if instead it is followed by -2, then forward-char, move backward two spaces.

    Inside a widget function, if passed an argument, i.e. `zle universal-argument num', the numerical argument will be set to num; this is equivalent to `NUMERIC=num'.

  Completion
accept-and-menu-complete
    In a menu completion, insert the current completion into the buffer, and advance to the next possible completion.

complete-word
    Attempt completion on the current word.

delete-char-or-list (^D) (unbound) (unbound)
    Delete the character under the cursor. If the cursor is at the end of the line, list possible completions for the current word.

expand-cmd-path
    Expand the current command to its full pathname.

expand-or-complete (TAB) (unbound) (TAB)
    Attempt shell expansion on the current word. If that fails, attempt completion.

expand-or-complete-prefix
    Attempt shell expansion on the current word up to cursor.

expand-history (ESC-space ESC-!) (unbound) (unbound)
    Perform history expansion on the edit buffer.

expand-word (^X*) (unbound) (unbound)
    Attempt shell expansion on the current word.

list-choices (ESC-^D) (^D =) (^D)
    List possible completions for the current word.

list-expand (^Xg ^XG) (^G) (^G)
    List the expansion of the current word.

magic-space
    Perform history expansion and insert a space into the buffer. This is intended to be bound to space.

menu-complete
    Like complete-word, except that menu completion is used. See the MENU_COMPLETE option.

menu-expand-or-complete
    Like expand-or-complete, except that menu completion is used.

reverse-menu-complete
    Perform menu completion, like menu-complete, except that if a menu completion is already in progress, move to the previous completion rather than the next.

end-of-list
    When a previous completion displayed a list below the prompt, this widget can be used to move the prompt below the list.

  Miscellaneous
accept-and-hold (ESC-A ESC-a) (unbound) (unbound)
    Push the contents of the buffer on the buffer stack and execute it.

accept-and-infer-next-history
    Execute the contents of the buffer. Then search the history list for a line matching the current one and push the event following onto the buffer stack.

accept-line (^J ^M) (^J ^M) (^J ^M)
    Finish editing the buffer. Normally this causes the buffer to be executed as a shell command.

accept-line-and-down-history (^O) (unbound) (unbound)
    Execute the current line, and push the next history event on the the buffer stack.

beep
    Beep, unless the BEEP option is unset.

vi-cmd-mode (^X^V) (unbound) (^[)
    Enter command mode; that is, select the `vicmd' keymap. Yes, this is bound by default in emacs mode.

vi-caps-lock-panic
    Hang until any lowercase key is pressed. This is for vi users without the mental capacity to keep track of their caps lock key (like the author).

clear-screen (^L ESC-^L) (^L) (^L)
    Clear the screen and redraw the prompt.

describe-key-briefly
    Reads a key sequence, then prints the function bound to that sequence.

exchange-point-and-mark (^X^X) (unbound) (unbound)
    Exchange the cursor position with the position of the mark.

execute-named-cmd (ESC-x) (unbound) (unbound)
    Read the name of an editor command and execute it. A restricted set of editing functions is available in the mini-buffer. An interrupt signal, as defined by the stty setting, will abort the function. The allowed functions are: backward-delete-char, vi-backward-delete-char, clear-screen, redisplay, quoted-insert, vi-quoted-insert, backward-kill-word, vi-backward-kill-word, kill-whole-line, vi-kill-line, backward-kill-line, list-choices, delete-char-or-list, complete-word, accept-line, expand-or-complete and expand-or-complete-prefix.

    kill-region kills the last word, and vi-cmd-mode is treated the same as accept-line. The space and tab characters, if not bound to one of these functions, will complete the name and then list the possibilities if the AUTO_LIST option is set. Any other character that is not bound to self-insert or self-insert-unmeta will beep and be ignored. The bindings of the current insert mode will be used.

execute-last-named-cmd (ESC-z) (unbound) (unbound)
    Redo the last function executed with execute-named-cmd.

get-line (ESC-G ESC-g) (unbound) (unbound)
    Pop the top line off the buffer stack and insert it at the cursor position.

pound-insert (unbound) (#) (unbound)
    If there is no # character at the beginning of the buffer, add one to the beginning of each line. If there is one, remove a # from each line that has one. In either case, accept the current line. The INTERACTIVE_COMMENTS option must be set for this to have any usefulness.

vi-pound-insert
    If there is no # character at the beginning of the current line, add one. If there is one, remove it. The INTERACTIVE_COMMENTS option must be set for this to have any usefulness.

push-input
    Push the entire current multiline construct onto the buffer stack and return to the top-level (PS1) prompt. If the current parser construct is only a single line, this is exactly like push-line. Next time the editor starts up or is popped with get-line, the construct will be popped off the top of the buffer stack and loaded into the editing buffer.

push-line (^Q ESC-Q ESC-q) (unbound) (unbound)
    Push the current buffer onto the buffer stack and clear the buffer. Next time the editor starts up, the buffer will be popped off the top of the buffer stack and loaded into the editing buffer.

push-line-or-edit
    At the top-level (PS1) prompt, equivalent to push-line. At a secondary (PS2) prompt, move the entire current multiline construct into the editor buffer. The latter is equivalent to push-input followed by get-line.

recursive-edit
    Only useful from a user-defined widget. At this point in the function, the editor regains control until one of the standard widgets which would normally cause zle to exit (typically an accept-line caused by hitting the return key) is executed. Instead, control returns to the user-defined widget. The status returned is non-zero if the return was caused by an error, but the function still continues executing and hence may tidy up. This makes it safe for the user-defined widget to alter the command line or key bindings temporarily.

    The following widget, caps-lock, serves as an example.
        self-insert-ucase() {
          LBUFFER+=${(U)KEYS[-1]}
        }

        integer stat

        zle -N self-insert self-insert-ucase
        zle -A caps-lock save-caps-lock
        zle -A accept-line caps-lock

        zle recursive-edit
        stat=$?

        zle -A .self-insert self-insert
        zle -A save-caps-lock caps-lock
        zle -D save-caps-lock

        (( stat )) && zle send-break

        return $stat

    This causes typed letters to be inserted capitalised until either accept-line (i.e. typically the return key) is typed or the caps-lock widget is invoked again; the later is handled by saving the old definition of caps-lock as save-caps-lock and then rebinding it to invoke accept-line. Note that an error from the recursive edit is detected as a non-zero return status and propagated by using the send-break widget.

redisplay (unbound) (^R) (^R)
    Redisplays the edit buffer.

send-break (^G ESC-^G) (unbound) (unbound)
    Abort the current editor function, e.g. execute-named-command, or the editor itself, e.g. if you are in vared. Otherwise abort the parsing of the current line.

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 35 buffers that can be specified: the 26 `named' buffers "a to "z and the nine `queued' buffers "1 to "9. The named buffers can also be specified as "A to "Z.

    When a buffer is specified for a cut command, the text being cut replaces the previous contents of the specified buffer. If a named buffer is specified using a capital, the newly cut text is appended to the buffer instead of overwriting it.

    If no buffer is specified for a cut command, "1 is used, and the contents of "1 to "8 are each shifted along one buffer; the contents of "9 is lost.

vi-set-mark (unbound) (m) (unbound)
    Set the specified mark at the cursor position.

set-mark-command (^@) (unbound) (unbound)
    Set the mark at the cursor position.

spell-word (ESC-$ ESC-S ESC-s) (unbound) (unbound)
    Attempt spelling correction on the current word.

undefined-key
    This command is executed when a key sequence that is not bound to any command is typed. By default it beeps.

undo (^_ ^Xu ^X^U) (unbound) (unbound)
    Incrementally undo the last text modification.

redo
    Incrementally redo undone text modifications.

vi-undo-change (unbound) (u) (unbound)
    Undo the last text modification. If repeated, redo the modification.

what-cursor-position (^X=) (unbound) (unbound)
    Print the character under the cursor, its code as an octal, decimal and hexadecimal number, the current cursor position within the buffer and the column of the cursor in the current line.

where-is
    Read the name of an editor command and and print the listing of key sequences that invoke the specified command.

which-command (ESC-?) (unbound) (unbound)
    Push the buffer onto the buffer stack, and execute the command `which-command cmd'. where cmd is the current command. which-command is normally aliased to whence.

vi-digit-or-beginning-of-line (unbound) (0) (unbound)
    If the last command executed was a digit as part of an argument, continue the argument. Otherwise, execute vi-beginning-of-line.