This is a texinfo version of the documentation for the Z Shell, originally by Paul Falstad.

Permission is granted to make and distribute verbatim copies of this manual provided the copyright notice and this permission notice are preserved on all copies.

Permission is granted to copy and distribute modified versions of this manual under the conditions for verbatim copying, provided also that the entire resulting derived work is distributed under the terms of a permission notice identical to this one.

Permission is granted to copy and distribute translations of this manual into another language, under the above conditions for modified versions.

[ < ]

[ > ]

[Contents]

[Index]

[ ? ]

The Z Shell Manual

This Info file documents Zsh, a freely available UNIX command interpreter (shell), which of the standard shells most closely resembles the Korn shell (ksh), although it is not completely compatible. Zsh is able to emulate POSIX shells, but its default mode is not POSIX compatible, either.

Version 5.9, last updated May 14, 2022.

— Indices —
1 The Z Shell Manual
2 Introduction
3 Roadmap
4 Invocation
5 Files
6 Shell Grammar
7 Redirection
8 Command Execution
9 Functions
10 Jobs & Signals
11 Arithmetic Evaluation
12 Conditional Expressions
13 Prompt Expansion
14 Expansion
15 Parameters
16 Options
17 Shell Builtin Commands
18 Zsh Line Editor
19 Completion Widgets
20 Completion System
21 Completion Using compctl
22 Zsh Modules
23 Calendar Function System
24 TCP Function System
25 Zftp Function System
26 User Contributions
Concept Index
Variables Index
Options Index
Functions Index
Editor Functions Index
Style and Tag Index
— The Detailed Node Listing — Introduction
2.1 Author
2.2 Availability
2.3 Mailing Lists
2.4 The Zsh FAQ
2.5 The Zsh Web Page
2.6 The Zsh Userguide
2.7 See Also
Invocation
4.2 Compatibility
4.3 Restricted Shell
Shell Grammar
6.1 Simple Commands & Pipelines
6.2 Precommand Modifiers
6.3 Complex Commands
6.4 Alternate Forms For Complex Commands
6.5 Reserved Words
6.7 Comments
6.8 Aliasing
6.9 Quoting
Expansion
14.1 History Expansion
14.2 Process Substitution
14.3 Parameter Expansion
14.4 Command Substitution
14.5 Arithmetic Expansion
14.6 Brace Expansion
14.7 Filename Expansion
14.8 Filename Generation
Parameters
15.2 Array Parameters
15.3 Positional Parameters
15.4 Local Parameters
15.5 Parameters Set By The Shell
15.6 Parameters Used By The Shell
Options
16.1 Specifying Options
16.2 Description of Options
16.3 Option Aliases
16.4 Single Letter Options
Zsh Line Editor
18.2 Keymaps
18.3 Zle Builtins
18.4 Zle Widgets
18.5 User-Defined Widgets
18.6 Standard Widgets
18.7 Character Highlighting
Completion Widgets
19.2 Completion Special Parameters
19.3 Completion Builtin Commands
19.4 Completion Condition Codes
19.5 Completion Matching Control
19.6 Completion Widget Example
Completion System
20.2 Initialization
20.3 Completion System Configuration
20.4 Control Functions
20.5 Bindable Commands
20.6 Utility Functions
20.8 Completion Directories
Completion Using compctl
21.3 Command Flags
21.4 Option Flags
21.5 Alternative Completion
21.6 Extended Completion
21.7 Example
Zsh Modules
22.2 The zsh/attr Module
22.3 The zsh/cap Module
22.4 The zsh/clone Module
22.5 The zsh/compctl Module
22.6 The zsh/complete Module
22.7 The zsh/complist Module
22.8 The zsh/computil Module
22.9 The zsh/curses Module
22.10 The zsh/datetime Module
22.11 The zsh/db/gdbm Module
22.12 The zsh/deltochar Module
22.13 The zsh/example Module
22.14 The zsh/files Module
22.15 The zsh/langinfo Module
22.16 The zsh/mapfile Module
22.17 The zsh/mathfunc Module
22.18 The zsh/nearcolor Module
22.19 The zsh/newuser Module
22.20 The zsh/parameter Module
22.21 The zsh/pcre Module
22.22 The zsh/param/private Module
22.23 The zsh/regex Module
22.24 The zsh/sched Module
22.25 The zsh/net/socket Module
22.26 The zsh/stat Module
22.27 The zsh/system Module
22.28 The zsh/net/tcp Module
22.29 The zsh/termcap Module
22.30 The zsh/terminfo Module
22.31 The zsh/watch Module
22.32 The zsh/zftp Module
22.33 The zsh/zle Module
22.34 The zsh/zleparameter Module
22.35 The zsh/zprof Module
22.36 The zsh/zpty Module
22.37 The zsh/zselect Module
22.38 The zsh/zutil Module
Calendar Function System
23.2 File and Date Formats
23.3 User Functions
23.4 Styles
23.5 Utility functions
23.6 Bugs
TCP Function System
24.2 TCP User Functions
24.5 TCP User Parameters
24.8 TCP Examples
24.9 TCP Bugs
Zftp Function System
25.2 Installation
25.3 Functions
25.4 Miscellaneous Features
User Contributions
26.2 Utilities
26.3 Remembering Recent Directories
26.4 Abbreviated dynamic references to directories
26.5 Gathering information from version control systems
26.6 Prompt Themes
26.7 ZLE Functions
26.8 Exception Handling
26.9 MIME Functions
26.10 Mathematical Functions
26.11 User Configuration Functions
26.12 Other Functions

The Z Shell Manual

Version 5.9

Updated May 14, 2022

The Z Shell Manual