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zsh-no-ps2: A plugin for zsh that inserts a newline on Enter if the typed command is incomplete

Normally, when you press <kbd>Enter</kbd> in zsh, one of two things happens: if the currently typed command is complete, zsh attempts to execute it; if it's incomplete, zsh displays the secondary prompt, also known as PS2, to invite you to continue typing the command. When this plugin is used, <kbd>Enter</kbd> inserts a newline if the typed command is incomplete. No PS2!

Note: You can forcefully insert a newline by pressing <kbd>Escape</kbd> followed by <kbd>Enter</kbd>, or <kbd>Alt-Enter</kbd>. This is the default binding in zsh, not part of this plugin.

Installation

  1. Clone the repo. 
    git clone https://github.com/romkatv/zsh-no-ps2.git ~/zsh-no-ps2
  2. Add the following line to ~/.zshrc: 
    source ~/zsh-no-ps2/zsh-no-ps2.plugin.zsh

Using a plugin manager? You can install zsh-no-ps2 the same way as any other zsh plugin hosted on GitHub.

When zsh-no-ps2.plugin.zsh is sourced, it defines a zle widget called zsh-no-ps2 and binds it to ^J and ^M—the two common escape sequences sent on <kbd>Enter</kbd>. If you are using plugins that must be loaded after all widgets have been defined (for example, zsh-syntax-highlighting), ensure that this ordering requirement is respected.

If you want more control over the initialization, you can manually autoload and bind zsh-no-ps2 instead of sourcing zsh-no-ps2.plugin.zsh.

Lastly, if you are using zsh4humans, you don't need to install this plugin. You can achieve the same effect by adding the following binding to ~/.zshrc:

z4h bindkey z4h-accept-line Enter

Configuration

By default, when the currently typed command is complete, zsh-no-ps2 invokes accept-line zle widget. You can override this.

zstyle :zsh-no-ps2: accept-line 'alternative-zle-widget-name'

Using .accept-line (note the leading dot) is a reasonable option here. You can also use an empty value, in which case zsh-no-ps2 will never attempt to execute commands.

FAQ

How do I force execution?

Sometimes you know that the command you've typed is malformed but you want to execute it anyway to see PS2 or an error message. You can do this by manually executing the accept-line zle widget:

  1. Press <kbd>Escape</kbd> followed by <kbd>x</kbd>, or <kbd>Alt-x</kbd>.
  2. Type accept-line.
  3. Press <kbd>Enter</kbd>.

If you do this often, you can bind accept-line to a key. If you don't use <kbd>Alt-Enter</kbd> for anything, you can use that one for forced execution.

# Alt-Enter: Execute what's been typed even if it's malformed.
bindkey '^[^J' accept-line
bindkey '^[^M' accept-line