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zsh-history-substring-search

This is a clean-room implementation of the Fish shell's history search feature, where you can type in any part of any command from history and then press chosen keys, such as the UP and DOWN arrows, to cycle through matches.

Requirements

Install

Using the Homebrew package manager:

brew install zsh-history-substring-search
echo 'source $(brew --prefix)/share/zsh-history-substring-search/zsh-history-substring-search.zsh' >> ~/.zshrc

Using Fig:

Fig adds apps, shortcuts, and autocomplete to your existing terminal.

Install zsh-history-substring-search in just one click.

<a href="https://fig.io/plugins/other/zsh-history-substring-search" target="_blank"><img src="https://fig.io/badges/install-with-fig.svg" /></a>

Using Oh-my-zsh:

  1. Clone this repository in oh-my-zsh's plugins directory:

     git clone https://github.com/zsh-users/zsh-history-substring-search ${ZSH_CUSTOM:-~/.oh-my-zsh/custom}/plugins/zsh-history-substring-search

  2. Activate the plugin in ~/.zshrc:

     plugins=( [plugins...] zsh-history-substring-search)

  3. Run exec zsh to take changes into account:

     exec zsh

Using zplug:

  1. Add this repo to ~/.zshrc:

     zplug "zsh-users/zsh-history-substring-search", as: plugin

Using antigen:

  1. Add the antigen bundle command just before antigen apply, like this:
antigen bundle zsh-users/zsh-history-substring-search
antigen apply
  1. Then, after antigen apply, add the key binding configurations, like this:
# zsh-history-substring-search configuration
bindkey '^[[A' history-substring-search-up # or '\eOA'
bindkey '^[[B' history-substring-search-down # or '\eOB'
HISTORY_SUBSTRING_SEARCH_ENSURE_UNIQUE=1

Using Zinit:

  1. Use the Oh-my-zsh Zinit snippet in ~/.zshrc:

     zinit snippet OMZ::plugins/git/git.plugin.zsh`

  2. Load the plugin in ~/.zshrc:

     zinit load 'zsh-users/zsh-history-substring-search
 zinit ice wait atload'_history_substring_search_config'

  3. Run exec zsh to take changes into account:

     exec zsh

Usage

  1. Load this script into your interactive ZSH session:

    source zsh-history-substring-search.zsh

    If you want to use zsh-syntax-highlighting along with this script, then make sure that you load it before you load this script:

    source zsh-syntax-highlighting.zsh
source zsh-history-substring-search.zsh

  2. Bind keyboard shortcuts to this script's functions.

    Users typically bind their UP and DOWN arrow keys to this script, thus:

    • Run cat -v in your favorite terminal emulator to observe key codes.      (NOTE: In some cases, cat -v shows the wrong key codes. If the key codes shown by cat -v don't work for you, press <C-v><UP> and <C-v><DOWN> at your ZSH command line prompt for correct key codes.)

    • Press the UP arrow key and observe what is printed in your terminal.

    • Press the DOWN arrow key and observe what is printed in your terminal.

    • Press the Control and C keys simultaneously to terminate the cat -v.

    • Use your observations from the previous steps to create key bindings. For example, if you observed ^[[A for UP and ^[[B for DOWN, then:

      bindkey '^[[A' history-substring-search-up
bindkey '^[[B' history-substring-search-down

      However, if the observed values don't work, you can try using terminfo:

      bindkey "$terminfo[kcuu1]" history-substring-search-up
bindkey "$terminfo[kcud1]" history-substring-search-down

      Users have also observed that [OA and [OB are correct values, even if these were not the observed values. If you are having trouble with the observed values, give these a try.

      You might also want to bind the Control-P/N keys for use in EMACS mode:

      bindkey -M emacs '^P' history-substring-search-up
bindkey -M emacs '^N' history-substring-search-down

      You might also want to bind the k and j keys for use in VI mode:

      bindkey -M vicmd 'k' history-substring-search-up
bindkey -M vicmd 'j' history-substring-search-down

  3. Type any part of any previous command and then:

    • Press the history-substring-search-up key, which was configured in step 2 above, to select the nearest command that (1) contains your query and (2) is also older than the current command in your command history.

    • Press the history-substring-search-down key, which was configured in step 2 above, to select the nearest command that (1) contains your query and (2) is also newer than the current command in your command history.

    • Press ^U the Control and U keys simultaneously to abort the search.

  4. If a matching command spans more than one line of text, press the LEFT arrow key to move the cursor away from the end of the command, and then:

    • Press the history-substring-search-up key, which was configured in step 2 above, to move the cursor to the line above the cursored line. When the cursor reaches the first line of the command, pressing the history-substring-search-up key again will cause this script to perform another search.

    • Press the history-substring-search-down key, which was configured in step 2 above, to move the cursor to the line below the cursored line. When the cursor reaches the last line of the command, pressing the history-substring-search-down key, which was configured in step 2 above, again will cause this script to perform another search.

Configuration

This script defines the following global variables. You may override their default values.

History