zsh-syntax-highlighting
Fish shell-like like syntax highlighting for Zsh.
Requirements: zsh 4.3.17+.
This package provides syntax highlighing for the shell zsh. It enables highlighing of commands whilst they are typed at a zsh prompt into an interactive terminal. This helps in reviewing commands before running them, particularly in catching syntax errors.
How to install
See INSTALL.md.
FAQ
Why must zsh-syntax-highlighting.zsh be sourced at the end of the .zshrc file?
zsh-syntax-highlighting works by hooking into the Zsh Line Editor (ZLE) and computing syntax highlighting for the command-line buffer as it stands at the time z-sy-h's hook is invoked.
In zsh 5.2 and older,
zsh-syntax-highlighting.zsh hooks into ZLE by wrapping ZLE widgets. It must
be sourced after all custom widgets have been created (i.e., after all zle -N
calls and after running compinit) in order to be able to wrap all of them.
Widgets created after z-sy-h is sourced will work, but will not update the
syntax highlighting.
In zsh 5.3 and newer,
zsh-syntax-highlighting uses the add-zle-hook-widget facility to install
a zle-line-pre-redraw hook. Hooks are run in order of registration,
therefore, z-sy-h must be sourced (and register its hook) after anything else
that adds hooks that modify the command-line buffer.
Does syntax highlighting work during incremental history search?
Highlighting the command line during an incremental history search
(with the history-incremental-search-backward widget, which is
bound by default to Ctrl+R in zsh's emacs keymap) requires zsh 5.3
or newer.
Under zsh 5.2 and older, the zsh-default underlining of the matched portion of the buffer remains available, but zsh-syntax-highlighting's additional highlighting is unavailable. (Those versions of zsh do not provide enough information to allow computing the highlighting correctly.)
See issue #288 for details.
How are new releases announced?
There is currently no "push" announcements channel. However, the following alternatives exist:
- GitHub's RSS feed of releases: https://github.com/zsh-users/zsh-syntax-highlighting/releases.atom
- An anitya entry: https://release-monitoring.org/project/7552/
How to tweak
Syntax highlighting is done by pluggable highlighter scripts. See the documentation on highlighters for details and configuration settings.