NAME

grmlzshrc - grml's zsh setup

SYNOPSIS

zsh [options]...

DESCRIPTION

The grml project provides a fairly exhaustive interactive setup (referred to as grmlzshrc throughout this document) for the amazing unix shell zsh (http://zsh.sourceforge.net). This is the reference manual for that setup.

To use grmlzshrc, you need at least version 3.1.7 of zsh (although not all features are enabled in every version).

grmlzshrc behaves differently depending on which user loads it. For the root user (EUID == 0) only a subset of features is loaded by default. This behaviour can be altered by setting the GRML_ALWAYS_LOAD_ALL STARTUP VARIABLE (see below). Also the umask(1) for the root user is set to 022, while for regular users it is set to 002. So read/write permissions for the regular user and her group are set for new files (keep that in mind on systems, where regular users share a common group).

STARTUP VARIABLES

Some of the behaviour of grmlzshrc can be altered by setting certain shell variables. These may be set temporarily when starting zsh like this:

% BATTERY=1 zsh

Or by setting them permanently in zshrc.pre (See AUXILIARY FILES below).

BATTERY: If set to a value greater than zero and acpi installed, grmlzshrc will put the battery status into the right hand side interactive prompt.
COMMAND_NOT_FOUND: A non zero value activates a handler, which is called when a command can not be found. The handler is defined by GRML_ZSH_CNF_HANDLER (see below).
GRML_ALWAYS_LOAD_ALL: Enables the whole grml setup for root, if set to a non zero value.
GRML_ZSH_CNF_HANDLER: This variable contains the handler to be used by COMMAND_NOT_FOUND (see above) and defaults to "/usr/share/command-not-found/command-not-found".
GRMLSMALL_SPECIFIC: Set this to zero to remove items in zsh config, which do not work in grml-small.
HISTFILE: Where zsh saves the history. Default: ${HOME}/.zsh_history.
HISTSIZE: Number of commands to be kept in the history. On a grml-CD this defaults to 500, on a hard disk installation to 5000.
MAILCHECK: Sets the frequency in seconds for zsh to check for new mail. Defaults to 30. A value of zero turns off checking.
NOCOR: Non zero values deactivate automatic correction of commands.
NOMENU: If set to zero (default), allows selection from a menu, if there are at least five possible options of completion.
NOPRECMD: A non zero value disables precmd and preexec commands. These are functions that are run before every command (setting xterm/screen titles etc.).
REPORTTIME: Show time (user, system and cpu) used by external commands, if they run longer than the defined number of seconds (default: 5).
SAVEHIST: Number of commands to be stored in ${HISTFILE}. Defaults to 1000 on a grml-CD and to 10000 on an installation on hard disk.
watch: As in tcsh(1) an array of login/logout events to be reported by the shell builtin "log". For details see zshparam(1). Defaults to (notme root).
ZSH_NO_DEFAULT_LOCALE: Import "/etc/default/locale", if set to zero (default).
ZSH_PROFILE_RC: A non zero value causes shell functions to be profiled. The results can be obtained with the zprof builtin command (see zshmodules(1) for details).

FEATURE DESCRIPTION

This is an in depth description of non-standard features implemented by grmlzshrc.

DIRSTACK HANDLING

The dirstack in grmlzshrc has a persistent nature. It is stored into a file each time zsh's working directory is changed. That file can be configured via the DIRSTACKFILE variable and it defaults to ~/.zdirs. The DIRSTACKSIZE variable defaults to 20 in this setup.

The DIRSTACKFILE is loaded each time zsh starts, therefore freshly started zshs inherit the dirstack of the zsh that most recently updated DIRSTACKFILE.

DIRECTORY BASED PROFILES

If you want certain settings to be active in certain directories (and automatically switch back and forth between them), this is what you want.

zstyle ':chpwd:profiles:/usr/src/grml(|/|/*)'   profile grml
zstyle ':chpwd:profiles:/usr/src/debian(|/|/*)' profile debian

When that's done and you enter a directory that matches the pattern in the third part of the context, a function called chpwd_profile_grml, for example, is called (if it exists).

If no pattern matches (read: no profile is detected) the profile is set to 'default', which means chpwd_profile_default is attempted to be called.

A word about the context (the ':chpwd:profiles:*' stuff in the zstyle command) which is used: The third part in the context is matched against $PWD. That's why using a pattern such as /foo/bar(|/|/*) makes sense. Because that way the profile is detected for all these values of $PWD:

/foo/bar
/foo/bar/
/foo/bar/baz

So, if you want to make double damn sure a profile works in /foo/bar and everywhere deeper in that tree, just use (|/|/*) and be happy.

The name of the detected profile will be available in a variable called 'profile' in your functions. You don't need to do anything, it'll just be there.

Then there is the parameter $CHPWD_PROFILE which is set to the profile, that was active up to now. That way you can avoid running code for a profile that is already active, by running code such as the following at the start of your function:

function chpwd_profile_grml() {
    [[ ${profile} == ${CHPWD_PROFILE} ]] && return 1
    ...
}

The initial value for $CHPWD_PROFILE is 'default'.

Signaling availabily/profile changes

If you use this feature and need to know whether it is active in your current shell, there are several ways to do that. Here are two simple ways:

a) If knowing if the profiles feature is active when zsh starts is good enough for you, you can put the following snippet into your .zshrc.local:

(( ${+functions[chpwd_profiles]} )) &&
    print "directory profiles active"

b) If that is not good enough, and you would prefer to be notified whenever a profile changes, you can solve that by making sure you start every profile function you create like this:

function chpwd_profile_myprofilename() {
    [[ ${profile} == ${CHPWD_PROFILE} ]] && return 1
    print "chpwd(): Switching to profile: $profile"
  ...
}

That makes sure you only get notified if a profile is changed, not everytime you change directory.

Version requirement

This feature requires zsh 4.3.3 or newer.

ACCEPTLINE WRAPPER

The accept-line wiget is the one that is taking action when the return key is hit. grmlzshrc uses a wrapper around that widget, which adds new functionality.

This wrapper is configured via styles. That means, you issue commands, that look like:

zstyle 'context' style value

The context namespace, that we are using is 'acceptline'. That means, the actual context for your commands look like: ':acceptline:<subcontext>'.

Where <subcontext> is one of: default, normal, force, misc or empty.

Recognized Contexts

default: This is the value, the context is initialized with. The compwarnfmt and //rehash styles are looked up in this context.
normal: If the first word in the command line is either a command, alias, function, builtin or reserved word, you are in this context.
force: This is the context, that is used if you hit enter again, after being warned about the existence of a _completion for the non-existing command you entered.
empty: This is the context, you are in if the command line is empty or only consists of whitespace.
misc: This context is in effect, if you entered something that does not match any of the above. (e.g.: variable assignments).

Available Styles

nocompwarn: If you set this style to true, the warning about non existent commands, for which completions exist will not be issued. (Default: false)
compwarnfmt: The message, that is displayed to warn about the _completion issue. (default: '%c will not execute and completion %f exists.') '%c' is replaced by the command name, '%f' by the completion's name.
rehash: If this is set, we'll force rehashing, if appropriate. (Defaults to true in grmlzshrc).
actions: This can be a list of wigdets to call in a given context. If you need a specific order for these to be called, name them accordingly. The default value is an empty list.
default_action: The name of a widget, that is called after the widgets from 'actions'. By default, this will be '.accept-line' (which is the built-in accept-line widget).
call_default: If true in the current context, call the widget in the 'default_action' style. (The default is true in all contexts.)

PROMPT

GNU/SCREEN STATUS SETTING

grmlzshrc sets screen's hardstatus lines to the currently running command or 'zsh' if the shell is idling at its prompt. If the current working directory is inside a repository unter version control, screen status is set to: 'zsh: <repository name>' via zsh's vcs_info.

PERSISTENT HISTORY

If you got commands you consider important enough to be included in every shell's history, you can put them into ~/.important_commands and they will be available via the usual history lookup widgets.

REFERENCE

ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES

grmlzshrc sets some environment variables, which influence the behaviour of applications.

BROWSER: If X is running this is set to "firefox", otherwise to "w3m".
COLORTERM: Set to "yes". Some applications read this to learn about properties of the terminal they are running in.
EDITOR: If not already set, sets the default editor. Falls back to vi(1), if vim(1) is not available.
LESS_TERMCAP_*: Some environment variables that add colour support to less(1) for viewing man pages. See termcap(5) for details.
MAIL: The mailbox file for the current user is set to /var/mail/$USER, if not already set otherwise.
PAGER: Set less(1) as default pager, if not already set to something different.
QTDIR: Holds the path to shared files for the C++ application framework QT (version 3 or 4).
SHELL: Set explicitly to /bin/zsh, to prevent certain terminal emulators to default to /bin/sh or /bin/bash.

OPTIONS

Apart from zsh's default options, grmlzshrc sets some options that change the behaviour of zsh. Options that change Z-shell's default settings are marked by <grml>. But note, that zsh's defaults vary depending on its emulation mode (csh, ksh, sh, or zsh). For details, see zshoptions(1).

append_history: Zsh sessions, that use grmlzshrc, will append their history list to the history file, rather than replace it. Thus, multiple parallel zsh sessions will all have the new entries from their history lists added to the history file, in the order that they exit. The file will still be periodically re-written to trim it when the number of lines grows 20% beyond the value specified by $SAVEHIST.
auto_cd <grml>: If a command is issued that can't be executed as a normal command, and the command is the name of a directory, perform the cd command to that directory.
auto_pushd <grml>: Make cd push the old directory onto the directory stack.
completeinword <grml>: If the cursor is inside a word, completion is done from both ends; instead of moving the cursor to the end of the word first and starting from there.
extended_glob <grml>: Treat the '#', '~' and '^' characters as active globbing pattern characters.
extended_history <grml>: Save each command's beginning timestamp (in seconds since the epoch) and the duration (in seconds) to the history file.
hash_list_all: Whenever a command completion is attempted, make sure the entire command path is hashed first. This makes the first completion slower.
histignorealldups <grml>: If a new command line being added to the history list duplicates an older one, the older command is removed from the list, even if it is not the previous event.
histignorespace <grml>: Remove command lines from the history list when the first character on the line is a space, or when one of the expanded aliases contains a leading space. Note that the command lingers in the internal history until the next command is entered before it vanishes.
longlistjobs <grml>: List jobs in long format by default.
nobeep <grml>: Avoid to beep on errors in zsh command line editing (zle).
noglobdots: A wildcard character never matches a leading '.'.
nohup <grml>: Do not send the hangup signal (HUP:1) to running jobs when the shell exits.
nonomatch <grml>: If a pattern for filename generation has no matches, do not print an error and leave it unchanged in the argument list. This also applies to file expansion of an initial `~' or `='.
notify: Report the status of background jobs immediately, rather than waiting until just before printing a prompt.
pushd_ignore_dups <grml>: Don't push multiple copies of the same directory onto the directory stack.
share_history <grml>: As each line is added to the history file, it is checked to see if anything else was written out by another shell, and if so it is included in the history of the current shell too. Using !-style history, the commands from the other sessions will not appear in the history list unless you explicitly type the "history" command. This option is activated for zsh versions >= 4, only.

KEYBINDINGS

Apart from zsh's default key bindings, grmlzshrc comes with its own set of key bindings. Note that bindings like ESC-e can also be typed as ALT-e on PC keyboards.

ESC-e: Edit the current command buffer in your favourite editor.
ESC-v: Deletes a word left of the cursor; seeing '/' as additional word separator.
CTRL-x-1: Jump right after the first word.
CTRL-x-p: Searches the last occurence of string before the cursor in the command history.
CTRL-z: Brings a job, which got suspended with CTRL-z back to foreground.

SHELL FUNCTIONS

grmlzshrc comes with a wide array of defined shell functions to ease the user's life.

2html()

Converts plaintext files to HTML using vim. The output is written to <filename>.html.

855resolution()

If 915resolution is available, issues a warning to the user to run it instead to modify the resolution on intel graphics chipsets.

accessed()

Lists files in current directory, which have been accessed within the last N days. N is an integer to be passed as first and only argument. If no argument is specified N is set to 1.

agoogle()

Searches for USENET postings from authors using google groups.

allulimit()

Sets all ulimit values to "unlimited".

ansi-colors()

Prints a colored table of available ansi color codes (to be used in escape sequences) and the colors they represent.

any()

Lists processes matching given pattern.

aoeu(), asdf(), uiae()

Pressing the 'asdf' keys toggles between dvorak or neon and us keyboard layout.

apache2-ssl-certificate()

Advices the user how to create self signed certificates.

asc()

Login on the host provided as argument using autossh. Then reattach a GNU screen session if a detached session is around or detach a currently attached screen or else start a new screen. This is especially useful for roadwarriors using GNU screen and ssh.

audioburn()

Burns the files in ~/ripps (see audiorip() below) to an audio CD. Then prompts the user if she wants to remove that directory. You might need to tell audioburn which cdrom device to use like: "DEVICE=/dev/cdrom audioburn"

audiorip()

Creates directory ~/ripps, if it does not exist. Then rips audio CD into it. Then prompts the user if she wants to burn a audio CD with audioburn() (see above). You might need to tell audiorip which cdrom device to use like: "DEVICE=/dev/cdrom audioburn"

bk()

Simple backup of a file or directory using cp(1). The target file name is the original name plus a time stamp attached. Symlinks and file attributes like mode, ownership and timestamps are preserved.

brltty()

The brltty(1) program provides a braille display, so a blind person can access the console screen. This wrapper function works around problems with some environments (f. e. utf8).

cdiff()

Runs a recursive diff(1) over two given directories trying to find the smallest set of changes. Three lines of context will be printed and binary files filtered out.

cdrecord()

If the original cdrecord is not installed, issues a warning to the user to use the wodim binary instead. Wodim is the debian fork of Joerg Schillings cdrecord.

changed()

Lists files in current directory, which have been changed within the last N days. N is an integer to be passed as first and only argument. If no argument is specified N is set to 1.

check_com()

Returns true if given command exists either as program, function, alias, builtin or reserved word. If the option -c is given, only returns true, if command is a program.

checkhome()

Changes directory to $HOME on first invocation of zsh. This is neccessary on grml systems with autologin.

cl()

Changes current directory to the one supplied by argument and lists the files in it, including file names starting with ".".

cvsa()

Adds and commits the given files using cvs(1). The commit message will be 'initial checkin'.

cvsd()

Shows a cvs diff of the arguments in $PAGER.

cvsl()

Shows the cvs log in $PAGER.

cvsq()

Runs a cvs update.

cvsr()

Generates a changelog using rcs2log and shows it in $PAGER.

cvss()

Shows cvs status of given files.

d()

Presents a numbered listing of the directory stack. Then changes current working directory to the one chosen by the user.

dchange()

Shows the changelog of given package in $PAGER.

debbug()

Searches the Debian bug tracking system (bugs.debian.org) for Bug numbers, email addresses of submitters or any string given on the command line.

debbugm()

Shows bug report for debian given by number in mailbox format.

debian2hd()

Tells the user to use grml-debootstrap, if she wants to install debian to harddisk.

deswap()

A trick from $LINUX-KERNELSOURCE/Documentation/power/swsusp.txt. It brings back interactive responsiveness after suspend, when the system is swapping heavily.

dirspace()

Shows the disk usage of the directories given in human readable format; defaults to $path.

disassemble()

Translates C source code to assembly and ouputs both.

dmoz()

Searches for the first argument (optional) in the Open Directory Project (See http://www.dmoz.org/docs/en/about.html).

dnews()

Shows the NEWS file for the given package in $PAGER.

doc()

Takes packagename as argument. Sets current working directory to /usr/share/doc/<packagename> and prints out a directory listing.

dwicti()

Looks up the first argument (optional) in the german Wiktionary which is an online dictionary (See: http://de.wiktionary.org/).

edalias()

Edit given alias.

edfunc()

Edit given shell function.

ewicti()

Looks up the first argument (optional in the english Wiktionary which is an online dictionary (See: http://en.wiktionary.org/).

exirename()

Renames image files based on date/time informations in their exif headers.

fir()

Opens given URL with Firefox (Iceweasel on Debian). If there is already an instance of firefox running, attaches to the first window found and opens the URL in a new tab (this even works across an ssh session).

fluxkey-change()

Switches the key combinations for changing current workspace under fluxbox(1) from Alt-[0-9] to Alt-F[0-9] and vice versa by rewriting $HOME/.fluxbox/keys. Requires the window manager to reread configuration to take effect.

freload()

Reloads an autoloadable shell function (See autoload in zshbuiltins(1)).

genthumbs()

A simple thumbnails generator. Resizes images (i. e. files that end in ".jpg", ".jpeg", ".gif" or ".png") to 100x200. Output files are named "thumb-<original filename>". Creates an index.html with title "Images" showing the thumbnails as clickable links to the respective original file. Warning: On start genthumbs() silently removes a possibly existing "index.html" and all files and/or directories beginning with "thumb-" in current directory!

get_tw_cli()

Fetches 3ware RAID controller software using get_3ware(1).

gex()

Performs an exact (i. e. quoted) web search using Google.

ggogle()

Searches the arguments on Google Groups, a web to USENET gateway.

google()

Searches the search engine Google using arguments as search string.

greph()

Searches the zsh command history for a regular expression.

hex()

Prints the hexadecimal representation of the number supplied as argument (base ten only).

hgdi()

Use GNU diff with options -ubwd for mercurial.

hgstat()

Displays diffstat between the revision given as argument and tip (no argument means last revision).

hidiff()

Outputs highlighted diff; needs highstring(1).

hl()

Shows source files in less(1) with syntax highlighting. Run "hl -h" for detailed usage information.

ic_get()

Queries IMAP server (first parameter) for its capabilities. Takes port number as optional second argument.

ipv6-tunnel()

Sets up an IPv6 tunnel on interface sit1. Needs one argument - either "start", "stop" or "status".

is4()

Returns true, if zsh version is equal or greater than 4, else false.

is41()

Returns true, if zsh version is equal or greater than 4.1, else false.

is42()

Returns true, if zsh version is equal or greater than 4.2, else false.

is425()

Returns true, if zsh version is equal or greater than 4.2.5, else false.

is43()

Returns true, if zsh version is equal or greater than 4.3, else false.

is433()

Returns true, if zsh version is equal or greater than 4.3.3, else false.

isdarwin()

Returns true, if running on darwin, else false.

isgrml()

Returns true, if running on a grml system, else false.

isgrmlcd()

Returns true, if running on a grml system from a live cd, else false.

isgrmlsmall()

Returns true, if run on grml-small, else false.

iso2utf()

Changes every occurrence of the string iso885915 or ISO885915 in environment variables to UTF-8.

isutfenv()

Returns true, if run within an utf environment, else false.

iwclient()

Searches a wireless interface and runs dhclient(8) on it.

lcheck()

Lists libraries that define the symbol containing the string given as parameter.

limg()

Lists images (i. e. files ending with ".jpg", ".gif" or ".png") in current directory.

linenr()

Prints specified range of (numbered) lines of a file. Usage: linenr <start>[,<end>] <file>

makereadable()

Creates a PostScript and a PDF file (basename as first argument) from source code files.

man2()

Displays manpage in a streched style.

manzsh()

Shows the zshall manpage and jumps to the first match of the regular expression optionally given as argument (Needs qma(1)).

mcd()

Creates directory including parent directories, if necessary. Then changes current working directory to it.

mdiff()

Diffs the two arguments recursively and writes the output (unified format) to a timestamped file.

memusage()

Prints the summarized memory usage in bytes.

mggogle()

Searches Google Groups for a USENET message-ID.

minimal-shell()

Spawns a minimally set up MirBSD Korn shell. It references no files in /usr, so that file system can be unmounted.

mkaudiocd()

Renames all mp3 files in ~/ripps (see audiorip above) to lowercase and replaces spaces in file names with underscores. Then mkaudiocd() normalizes the files and recodes them to WAV.

mkiso()

Creates an iso9660 filesystem image with Rockridge and Joliet extensions enabled using mkisofs(8). Prompts the user for volume name, filename and target directory.

mkmaildir()

Creates a directory with first parameter as name inside $MAILDIR_ROOT (defaults to $HOME/Mail) and subdirectories cur, new and tmp.

mmake()

Runs "make install" and logs the output under ~/.errorlogs/; useful for a clean deinstall later.

modified()

Lists files in current directory, which have been modified within the last N days. N is an integer to be passed as first and only argument. If no argument is specified N is set to 1.

netcraft()

Asks netcraft.com for informations about the site given as argument.

nt()

A helper function for the "e" glob qualifier to list all files newer than a reference file. Example usages:

% NTREF=/reference/file
% ls -l *(e:nt:)
% # Inline:
% ls -l *(e:'nt /reference/file':)

ogg2mp3_192()

Recodes an ogg file to mp3 with a bitrate of 192.

oleo()

Translates the given word using the english - german online dictionary dict.leo.org.

peval()

Evaluates a perl expression; useful as command line calculator, therefore also available as "calc".

plap()

Lists all occurrences of the string given as argument in current $PATH.

profile()

Runs a command in $SHELL with profiling enabled (See startup variable ZSH_PROFILE_RC above).

purge()

Removes typical temporary files (i. e. files like "*~", ".*~", "#*#", "*.o", "a.out", "*.core", "*.cmo", "*.cmi" and ".*.swp") from current directory. Asks for confirmation.

readme()

Opens all README-like files in current working directory with the program defined in the $PAGER environment variable.

refunc()

Reloads functions given as parameters.

regcheck()

Checks whether a regular expression (first parameter) matches a string (second parameter) using perl.

salias()

Creates an alias whith sudo prepended, if $EUID is not zero. Run "salias -h" for details. See also xunfunction() below.

selhist()

Greps the history for the string provided as parameter and shows the numbered findings in default pager. On exit of the pager the user is prompted for a number. The shells readline buffer is then filled with the corresponding command line.

setenv()

Reimplementation of the csh(1) builtin setenv.

show-archive()

Lists the contents of a (compressed) archive with the appropriate programs. The choice is made along the filename extension.

shtar()

Lists the content of a gzipped tar archive in default pager.

shzip()

Shows the content of a zip archive in default pager.

simple-extract()

Tries to uncompress/unpack given file with the appropriate programs. The choice is made along the filename ending.

sll()

Prints details of symlinks given as arguments.

slow_print()

Prints the arguments slowly by sleeping 0.08 seconds between each character.

smartcompress()

Compresses/archives the file given as first parameter. Takes an optional second argument, which denotes the compression/archive type as typical filename extension; defaults to "tar.gz".

smart-indent()

Indents C source code files given; uses Kernighan & Ritchie style.

sshot()

Creates directory named shots in user's home directory, if it does not yet exist and changes current working directory to it. Then sleeps 5 seconds, so you have plenty of time to switch desktops/windows. Then makes a screenshot of the current desktop. The result is stored in ~/shots to a timestamped jpg file.

ssl-cert-fingerprints

Prints the SHA512, SHA256, SHA1 and MD5 digest of a x509 certificate. First and only parameter must be a file containing a certificate. Use /dev/stdin as file if you want to pipe a certificate to these functions.

ssl-cert-info

Prints all information of a x509 certificate including the SHA512, SHA256, SHA1 and MD5 digests. First and only parameter must be a file containing a certificate. Use /dev/stdin as file if you want to pipe a certificate to this function.

ssl-cert-sha512(), ssl-cert-sha256(), ssl-cert-sha1(), ssl-cert-md5()

Prints the SHA512, SHA256, SHA1 respective MD5 digest of a x509 certificate. First and only parameter must be a file containing a certificate. Use /dev/stdin as file if you want to pipe a certificate to this function.

Start(), Restart(), Stop(), Force-Reload(), Reload()

Functions for controlling daemons.

Example usage:
% Restart ssh

status()

Shows some information about current system status.

swiki()

Searches articles in the german Wikipedia for the term given as argument.

swspeak()

Sets up software synthesizer by calling swspeak-setup(8). Kernel boot option swspeak must be set for this to work.

trans()

Translates a word from german to english (-D) or vice versa (-E).

uchange()

Shows upstreams changelog of a given package in $PAGER.

udiff()

Makes a unified diff of the command line arguments trying hard to find a smaller set of changes. Descends recursively into subdirectories. Ignores hows some information about current status.

uopen()

Downloads and displays a file using a suitable program for its Content-Type.

uprint()

Works around the "print -l ${(u)foo}"-limitation on zsh older than 4.2.

urlencode()

Takes a string as its first argument and prints it RFC 2396 URL encoded to standard out.

utf2iso()

Changes every occurrence of the string UTF-8 or utf-8 in environment variables to iso885915.

viless()

Vim as pager.

vim()

Wrapper for vim(1). It tries to set the title and hands vim the environment variable VIM_OPTIONS on the command line. So the user may define command line options, she always wants, in her .zshrc.local.

vman()

Use vim(1) as manpage reader.

whatwhen()

Searches the history for a given pattern and lists the results by date. The first argument is the search pattern. The second and third ones are optional and denote a search range (default: -100).

weather()

Retrieves and prints weather information from "http://weather.noaa.gov". The first and only argument is the ICAO code for the desired station. For a list of ICAO codes see "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_airports_by_ICAO_code".

wikide()

Looks up the argument on Wikipedia (german).

wikien()

Looks up the argument on Wikipedia (english).

wodeb()

Searches the list of official debian packages for the term given as first argument. The optional second argument denotes the distribution (stable, testing or unstable) and defaults to unstable.

xcat()

Tries to cat(1) file(s) given as parameter(s). Always returns true. See also xunfunction() below.

xsource()

Tries to source the file(s) given as parameter(s). Always returns true. See zshbuiltins(1) for a detailed description of the source command. See also xunfunction() below.

xtrename()

Changes the title of xterm window from within screen(1). Run without arguments for details.

xunfunction()

Removes the functions salias, xcat, xsource, xunfunction and zrcautoload.

zg()

Search for patterns in grml's zshrc using perl. zg takes no or exactly one option plus a non empty pattern. Run zg without any arguments for a listing of available command line switches. For a zshrc not in /etc/zsh, set the GRML_ZSHRC environment variable.

zrcautoload()

Wrapper around the autoload builtin. Loads the definitions of functions from the file given as argument. Searches $fpath for the file. See also xunfunction() above.

zrclocal()

Sources /etc/zsh/zshrc.local and ${HOME}/.zshrc.local. These are the files where own modifications should go. See also zshbuiltins(1) for a description of the source command.

ALIASES

grmlzshrc comes with a wide array of predefined aliases to ease the user's life. A few aliases (like those involving grep or ls) use the option --color=auto for colourizing output. That option is part of GNU implementations of these tools, and will only be used if such an implementation is detected.

acp (apt-cache policy): With no arguments prints out the priorities of each source. If a package name is given, it displays detailed information about the priority selection of the package.
acs (apt-cache search): Searches debian package lists for the regular expression provided as argument. The search includes package names and descriptions. Prints out name and short description of matching packages.
acsh (apt-cache show): Shows the package records for the packages provided as arguments.
adg (apt-get dist-upgrade): Performs an upgrade of all installed packages. Also tries to automatically handle changing dependencies with new versions of packages. As this may change the install status of (or even remove) installed packages, it is potentially dangerous to use dist-upgrade; invoked by sudo, if necessary.
ag (apt-get upgrade): Downloads and installs the newest versions of all packages currently installed on the system. Under no circumstances are currently installed packages removed, or packages not already installed retrieved and installed. New versions of currently installed packages that cannot be upgraded without changing the install status of another package will be left at their current version. An update must be performed first (see au below); run by sudo, if necessary.
agi (apt-get install): Downloads and installs or upgrades the packages given on the command line. If a hyphen is appended to the package name, the identified package will be removed if it is installed. Similarly a plus sign can be used to designate a package to install. This may be useful to override decisions made by apt-get's conflict resolution system. A specific version of a package can be selected for installation by following the package name with an equals and the version of the package to select. This will cause that version to be located and selected for install. Alternatively a specific distribution can be selected by following the package name with a slash and the version of the distribution or the Archive name (stable, testing, unstable). Gets invoked by sudo, if user id is not 0.
ati (aptitude install): Aptitude is a terminal-based package manager with a command line mode similar to apt-get (see agi above); invoked by sudo, if necessary.
au (apt-get update): Resynchronizes the package index files from their sources. The indexes of available packages are fetched from the location(s) specified in /etc/apt/sources.list. An update should always be performed before an upgrade or dist-upgrade; run by sudo, if necessary.
calc (peval): Evaluates a perl expression (see peval() above); useful as a command line calculator.
CH (./configure --help): Lists available compilation options for building program from source.
cmplayer (mplayer -vo fbdev): Video player with framebuffer as video output device, so you can watch videos on a virtual tty. Hint: Using fbdev2 allows you to use the shell while watching a movie.
CO (./configure): Prepares compilation for building program from source.
cp (nocorrect cp): cp(1) without spelling correction.
da (du -sch): Prints the summarized disk usage of the arguments as well as a grand total in human readable format.
dbp (dpkg-buildpackage): Builds binary or source packages from sources (See: dpkg-buildpackage(1)).
debs-by-size (grep-status -FStatus -sInstalled-Size,Package -n "install ok installed" | paste -sd " \n" | sort -rn): Prints installed Packages sorted by size (descending).
default (echo -en [ escape sequence ]): Sets font of xterm to "-misc-fixed-medium-r-normal-*-*-140-*-*-c-*-iso8859-15" using escape sequence.
dir (ls -lSrah): Lists files (including dot files) sorted by size (biggest last) in long and human readable output format.
fblinks (links2 -driver fb): A Web browser on the framebuffer device. So you can browse images and click links on the virtual tty.
fbmplayer (mplayer -vo fbdev -fs -zoom): Fullscreen Video player with the framebuffer as video output device. So you can watch videos on a virtual tty.
g (git): Revision control system by Linus Torvalds.
ge (grep-excuses): Searches the testing excuses files for a specific maintainer (See: grep-excuses(1)).
grep (grep --color=auto): Shows grep output in nice colors, if available.
GREP (grep -i --color=auto): Case insensitive grep with colored output.
grml-rebuildfstab (rebuildfstab -v -r -config): Scans for new devices and updates /etc/fstab according to the findings.
grml-version (cat /etc/grml_version): Prints version of running grml.
hbp (hg-buildpackage): Helper program to maintain Debian packages with mercurial.
http (python -m SimpleHTTPServer): Basic HTTP server implemented in python. Listens on port 8000/tcp and serves current directory. Implements GET and HEAD methods.
insecscp (scp -o "StrictHostKeyChecking=no" -o "UserKnownHostsFile=/dev/null"): scp with possible man-in-the-middle attack enabled. This is convenient, if the targets host key changes frequently, for example on virtualized test- or development-systems. To be used only inside trusted networks, of course.
insecssh (ssh -o "StrictHostKeyChecking=no" -o "UserKnownHostsFile=/dev/null"): ssh with possible man-in-the-middle attack enabled (for an explanation see insecscp above).
help-zshglob (H-Glob()): Runs the function H-Glob() to expand or explain wildcards.
hide (echo -en [ escape sequence ]): Tries to hide xterm window using escape sequence.
hidiff (histring -fE '^Comparing files .*|^diff .*' | histring -c yellow -fE '^\-.*' | histring -c green -fE '^\+.*'): If histring(1) is installed, highlight important stuff in diff(1) output.
huge (echo -en [ escape sequence ]): Sets huge font in xterm ("-misc-fixed-medium-r-normal-*-*-210-*-*-c-*-iso8859-15") using escape sequence.
j (jobs -l): Prints status of jobs in the current shell session in long format.
l (ls -lF --color=auto): Lists files in long output format with indicator for filetype appended to filename. If the terminal supports it, with colored output.
la (ls -la --color=auto): Lists files in long colored output format. Including file names starting with ".".
lad (ls -d .*(/)): Lists the dot directories (not their contents) in current directory.
large (echo -en [ escape sequence ]): Sets large font in xterm ("-misc-fixed-medium-r-normal-*-*-150-*-*-c-*-iso8859-15") using escape sequence.
lh (ls -hAl --color=auto): Lists files in long and human readable output format in nice colors, if available. Includes file names starting with "." except "." and "..".
ll (ls -l --color=auto): Lists files in long colored output format.
llog ($PAGER /var/log/syslog): Opens syslog in pager.
ls (ls -b -CF --color=auto): Lists directory printing octal escapes for nongraphic characters. Entries are listed by columns and an indicator for file type is appended to each file name. Additionally the output is colored, if the terminal supports it.
lsa (ls -a .*(.)): Lists dot files in current working directory.
lsbig (ls -flh *(.OL[1,10])): Displays the ten biggest files (long and human readable output format).
lsd (ls -d *(/)): Shows directories.
lse (ls -d *(/^F)): Shows empty directories.
lsl (ls -l *(@)): Lists symbolic links in current directory.
lsnew (ls -rl *(D.om[1,10])): Displays the ten newest files (long output format).
lsold (ls -rtlh *(D.om[1,10])): Displays the ten oldest files (long output format).
lss (ls -l *(s,S,t)): Lists files in current directory that have the setuid, setgid or sticky bit set.
lssmall (ls -Srl *(.oL[1,10])): Displays the ten smallest files (long output format).
lsw (ls -ld *(R,W,X.^ND/)): Displays all files which are world readable and/or world writable and/or world executable (long output format).
lsx (ls -l *(*)): Lists only executable files.
md (mkdir -p): Creates directory including parent directories, if necessary
mdstat (cat /proc/mdstat): Lists all active md (i.e. linux software raid) devices with some information about them.
medium (echo -en [ escape sequence ]): Sets medium sized font ("-misc-fixed-medium-r-normal--13-120-75-75-c-80-iso8859-15") in xterm using escape sequence.
mkdir (nocorrect mkdir): mkdir(1) without spelling correction.
mq (hg -R $(readlink -f $(hg root)/.hg/patches)): Executes the commands on the versioned patch queue from current repository.
mv (nocorrect mv): mv(1) without spelling correction.
rd (rmdir): Short rmdir(1) (remove directory).
rm (nocorrect rm): rm(1) without spelling correction.
screen (/usr/bin/screen -c ${HOME}/.screenrc): If invoking user is root, starts screen session with /etc/grml/screenrc as config file. If invoked by a regular user, start a screen session with users .screenrc config if it exists, else use /etc/grml/screenrc_grml as configuration.
rw- (chmod 600): Grants read and write permission of a file to the owner and nobody else.
rwx (chmod 700): Grants read, write and execute permission of a file to the owner and nobody else.
r-- (chmod 644): Grants read and write permission of a file to the owner and read-only to anybody else.
r-x (chmod 755): Grants read, write and execute permission of a file to the owner and read-only plus execute permission to anybody else.
S (screen): Short for screen(1).
s (ssh): Short for ssh(1).
semifont (echo -en [ escape sequence ]): Sets font of xterm to "-misc-fixed-medium-r-semicondensed-*-*-120-*-*-*-*-iso8859-15" using escape sequence.
small (echo -en [ escape sequence ]): Sets small xterm font ("6x10") using escape sequence.
smartfont (echo -en [ escape sequence ]): Sets font of xterm to "-artwiz-smoothansi-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*" using escape sequence.
su (sudo su): If user is running a grml live-CD, dont ask for any password, if she wants a root shell.
term2iso (echo 'Setting terminal to iso mode' ; print -n '\e%@'): Sets mode from UTF-8 to ISO 2022 (See: http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~mgk25/unicode.html#term).
term2utf (echo 'Setting terminal to utf-8 mode'; print -n '\e%G'): Sets mode from ISO 2022 to UTF-8 (See: http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~mgk25/unicode.html#term).
tiny (echo -en [ escape sequence ]): Sets tiny xterm font ("-misc-fixed-medium-r-normal-*-*-80-*-*-c-*-iso8859-15") using escape sequence.
tlog (tail -f /var/log/syslog): Prints syslog continuously (See tail(1)).
top10 (print -l ? ${(o)history%% *} | uniq -c | sort -nr | head -n 10): Prints the ten most used shell commands.
truec (truecrypt [ mount options ]): Mount a truecrypt volume with some reasonable mount options ("rw,sync,dirsync,users,uid=1000,gid=users,umask=077" and "utf8", if available).
up (aptitude update ; aptitude safe-upgrade): Performs a system update followed by a system upgrade using aptitude; run by sudo, if necessary. See au and ag above.
url-quote (autoload -U url-quote-magic ; zle -N self-insert url-quote-magic): After calling, characters of URLs as typed get automatically escaped, if necessary, to protect them from the shell.
0 (return 0): Gives a clean prompt (i.e. without $?).
$(uname -r)-reboot (kexec -l --initrd=/boot/initrd.img-"$(uname -r)" --command-line=\"$(cat /proc/cmdline)\" /boot/vmlinuz-"$(uname -r)"): Reboots using kexec(8) and thus reduces boot time by skipping hardware initialization of BIOS/firmware.
... (cd ../../): Changes current directory two levels higher.
? (qma zshall): Runs the grml script qma (quick manual access) to build the collected man pages for the z-shell. This compressed file is kept at ~/man/zshall.txt.lzo Once it is built, the second use of the alias '?' is fast. See "man qma" for further information.

AUXILIARY FILES

This is a set of files, that - if they exist - can be used to customize the behaviour of grmlzshrc.

.zshrc.pre

Sourced at the very beginning of grmlzshrc. Among other things, it can be used to permantenly change grmlzshrc's STARTUP VARIABLES (see above):

# show battery status in RPROMPT
BATTERY=1
# always load the complete setup, even for root
GRML_ALWAYS_LOAD_ALL=1

.zshrc.local

Sourced right before loading grmlzshrc is finished. There is a global version of this file (/etc/zsh/zshrc.local) which is sourced before the user-specific one.

.zdirs

Directory listing for persistent dirstack (see above).

.important_commands

List of commands, used by persistent history (see above).

INSTALLATION ON NON-DEBIAN SYSTEMS

On Debian systems (http://www.debian.org) - and possibly Ubuntu (http://www.ubuntu.com) and similar systems - it is very easy to get grmlzshrc via grml's .deb repositories.

On non-debian systems, that is not an option, but all is not lost:

% wget -O .zshrc http://git.grml.org/f/grml-etc-core/etc/zsh/zshrc

If you would also like to get seperate function files (which you can put into your $fpath), you can browse and download them at:

http://git.grml.org/?p=grml-etc-core.git;a=tree;f=usr_share_grml/zsh;hb=HEAD

ZSH REFCARD TAGS

If you read grmlzshrc's code you may notice strange looking comments in it. These are there for a purpose. grml's zsh-refcard is automatically generated from the contents of the actual configuration file. However, we need a little extra information on which comments and what lines of code to take into account (and for what purpose).

Here is what they mean:

List of tags (comment types) used:

#a#

Next line contains an important alias, that should be included in the grml-zsh-refcard. (placement tag: @@INSERT-aliases@@)

#f#

Next line contains the beginning of an important function. (placement tag: @@INSERT-functions@@)

#v#

Next line contains an important variable. (placement tag: @@INSERT-variables@@)

#k#

Next line contains an important keybinding. (placement tag: @@INSERT-keybindings@@)

#d#

Hashed directories list generation: start: denotes the start of a list of 'hash -d' definitions. end: denotes its end. (placement tag: @@INSERT-hasheddirs@@)

#A#

Abbreviation expansion list generation: start: denotes the beginning of abbreviations. end: denotes their end. Lines within this section that end in '#d .*' provide extra documentation to be included in the refcard. (placement tag: @@INSERT-abbrev@@)

#m#

This tag allows you to manually generate refcard entries for code lines that are hard/impossible to parse. Example:

#m# k ESC-h Call the run-help function

That would add a refcard entry in the keybindings table for 'ESC-h' with the given comment. So the syntax is: #m# <section> <argument> <comment>

#o#

This tag lets you insert entries to the 'other' hash. Generally, this should not be used. It is there for things that cannot be done easily in another way. (placement tag: @@INSERT-other-foobar@@)

All of these tags (except for m and o) take two arguments, the first within the tag, the other after the tag:

#<tag><section># <comment>

Where <section> is really just a number, which are defined by the @secmap array on top of 'genrefcard.pl'. The reason for numbers instead of names is, that for the reader, the tag should not differ much from a regular comment. For zsh, it is a regular comment indeed. The numbers have got the following meanings:

0: default
1: system
2: user
3: debian
4: search
5: shortcuts
6: services

So, the following will add an entry to the 'functions' table in the 'system' section, with a (hopefully) descriptive comment:

#f1# Edit an alias via zle
edalias() {

It will then show up in the @@INSERT-aliases-system@@ replacement tag that can be found in 'grml-zsh-refcard.tex.in'. If the section number is omitted, the 'default' section is assumed. Furthermore, in 'grml-zsh-refcard.tex.in' @@INSERT-aliases@@ is exactly the same as @@INSERT-aliases-default@@. If you want a list of all aliases, for example, use @@INSERT-aliases-all@@.

CONTRIBUTING

If you want to help to improve grml's zsh setup, clone the grml-etc-core repository from git.grml.org:

% git clone git://git.grml.org/grml-etc-core.git

Make your changes, commit them; use 'git format-patch' to create a series of patches and send those to the following address via 'git send-email':

grml-etc-core@grml.org

Doing so makes sure the right people get your patches for review and possibly inclusion.

STATUS

This manual page is the reference manual for grmlzshrc.

That means that in contrast to the existing refcard it should document every aspect of the setup.

This manual is currently not complete. If you want to help improving it, visit the following pages:

http://wiki.grml.org/doku.php?id=zshrcmanual

http://lists.mur.at/pipermail/grml/2009-August/004609.html

Contributions are highly welcome.

AUTHORS

This manpage was written by Frank Terbeck <ft@grml.org>, Joerg Woelke <joewoe@fsmail.de>, Maurice McCarthy <manselton@googlemail.com> and Axel Beckert <abe@deuxchevaux.org>.

COPYRIGHT

This manpage is distributed under the terms of the GPL version 2.

Most parts of grml's zshrc are distributed under the terms of GPL v2, too, except for accept-line() and vcs_info(), which are distributed under the same conditions as zsh itself (which is BSD-like).

GRMLZSHRC

June, 2010