ohmyzsh/plugins/zsh-navigation-tools

Zsh Navigation Tools

Also check out Zsh Command Architect
and Zconvey

Videos:

• https://youtu.be/QwZ8IJEgXRE
• https://youtu.be/DN9QqssAYB8

Screenshots:

Set of tools like n-history – multi-word history searcher, n-cd – directory
bookmark manager, n-kill – htop like kill utility, and more. Based on
n-list, a tool generating selectable curses-based list of elements that has
access to current Zsh session, i.e. has broad capabilities to work together
with it. Feature highlights include incremental multi-word searching, approximate
matching, ANSI coloring, themes, unique mode, horizontal scroll, grepping, advanced
history management and various integrations with Zsh.

News

• 06-10-2016

  • Tmux-integration – Ctrl-B H in Tmux to open n-history in new window.
    Then select history entry, it will be copied to the original Tmux window.
    Use this to execute local commands on remote hosts:

    

    All that is needed is this line added to ~/.tmux.conf:

    bind h run-shell -b "$ZNT_REPO_DIR/doc/znt-tmux.zsh"
    

    or – if Homebrew or other package manager is used:

    bind h run-shell -b "$ZNT_REPO_DIR/znt-tmux.zsh"
    

• 16-05-2016

  • n-kill has completion. It proposes words from what's in ps -A. Giving n-kill
    arguments means grepping – it will start only with matching ps entries.

• 15-05-2016

  • Fixed problem where zsh-syntax-highlighting could render n-history slow (for
    long history entries).

• 14-05-2016

  • Configuration can be set from zshrc (starting from v2.1.12). Documentation is below. Example:

    znt_list_instant_select=1
    znt_list_border=0
    znt_list_bold=1
    znt_list_colorpair="green/black"
    znt_functions_keywords=( "zplg" "zgen" "match" )
    znt_cd_active_text="underline"
    znt_env_nlist_coloring_color=$'\x1b[00;33m'
    znt_cd_hotlist=( "~/.config/znt" "/usr/share/zsh/site-functions" "/usr/share/zsh"
                     "/usr/local/share/zsh/site-functions" "/usr/local/share/zsh"
                     "/usr/local/bin" )
    

• 10-05-2016

  • Search query rotation – use Ctrl-A to rotate entered words right.
    Words 1 2 3 become 3 1 2.

• 09-05-2016

  • New feature: n-help tool, available also from n-history via H key. It
    displays help screen with various information on ZNT.

    

• 08-05-2016

  • Approximate matching – pressing f or Ctrl-F will enter "FIX" mode,
    in which 1 or 2 errors are allowed in what's searched. This utilizes
    original Zsh approximate matching features and is intended to be used
    after entering search query, when a typo is discovered.

    

• 06-05-2016

  • Private history can be edited. Use e key or Ctrl-E for that when in
    n-history. Your $EDITOR will start. This is a way to have handy set of
    bookmarks prepared in private history's file.

  • Border can be disabled. Use following snippet in ~/.config/znt/n-list.conf
    or any other tool-targetted config file:

    # Should draw the border?
    local border=0
    

• 30-04-2016

  • New feature: color themes. Use Ctrl-T and Ctrl-G to browse predefined
    themes. They are listed in ~/.config/znt/n-list.conf.
    Use the file to permanently set a color scheme. Also, I sent a patch to Zsh developers
    and starting from Zsh > 5.2 (not yet released) supported will be 256 colors.
    The file ~/.config/znt/n-list.conf
    already has set of 256-color themes prepared :)

    

• 29-04-2016

  • New feature: private history – n-history tracks selected history entries,
    exposes them via new view (activated with F1). It is shared across all
    sessions

• 28-04-2016

  • New features:
    1. New n-history view (activated with F1): Most Frequent History Words
    2. Predefined search keywords – use F2 to quickly search for chosen
       keywords (video: https://youtu.be/DN9QqssAYB8)
    3. Configuration option for doing instant selection in search mode

Installation

sh -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/zdharma-continuum/zsh-navigation-tools/master/doc/install.sh)"

To update run the command again.

ZNT will be installed at ~/.config/znt/zsh-navigation-tools, config files will be copied to ~/.config/znt. .zshrc
will be updated with only 8 lines of code, which will be added at the bottom.

After installing and reloading shell give ZNT a quick try with Ctrl-R – this keyboard shortcut will open n-history.

Installation With Zinit

Add zinit load zdharma-continuum/zsh-navigation-tools to .zshrc. The config files will be in ~/.config/znt.

Installation With Zgenom/Zgen

Add zgen load zdharma-continuum/zsh-navigation-tools to .zshrc and issue a zgen reset (this assumes that there is a proper zgen save construct in .zshrc).
The config files will be available in ~/.config/znt.

Installation With Antigen

Add antigen bundle zdharma-continuum/zsh-navigation-tools to .zshrc. There also
should be antigen apply. The config files will be in ~/.config/znt.

Single File Manual Installation

Running script doc/generate_single_file will create single-file version of ZNT.
It can be sourced from .zshrc. Don't forget about configuration files as described
above.

Manual Installation

After extracting ZNT to {some-directory} add following two lines
to ~/.zshrc:

fpath+=( {some-directory} )
source "{some-directory}/zsh-navigation-tools.plugin.zsh"

As you can see, no plugin manager is needed to use the *.plugin.zsh
file. The above two lines of code are all that almost all plugin
managers do. In fact, what's actually needed is only:

source "{some-directory}/zsh-navigation-tools.plugin.zsh"

because ZNT detects if it is used by any plugin manager and can
handle $fpath update by itself.

Truly Manual Installation

Copy (or link) all n-* and znt-* files to /usr/share/zsh/site-functions/
(or /usr/local/share/zsh/site-functions/, check with echo $fpath[1]) and then add:

autoload n-list n-cd n-env n-kill n-panelize n-options n-aliases n-functions n-history n-help

to ~/.zshrc.

Create aliases to avoid typing of the minus sign "-":

alias naliases=n-aliases ncd=n-cd nenv=n-env nfunctions=n-functions nhistory=n-history
alias nkill=n-kill noptions=n-options npanelize=n-panelize nhelp=n-help

Don't forget to copy configuration files. They should go to ~/.config/znt. Moreover, n-cd works together with option AUTO_PUSHD and you should have:

setopt AUTO_PUSHD

in .zshrc (also recommend PUSHD_IGNORE_DUPS). Without the option n-cd
will just work as incremental searcher of directory bookmarks.

History Widget

To have n-history as the incremental searcher bound to Ctrl-R copy znt-*
files into the */site-functions dir (unless you do single file install) and
add:

autoload znt-history-widget
zle -N znt-history-widget
bindkey "^R" znt-history-widget

to .zshrc. This is done automatically when using the installer, zgen, antigen
or single file install. Two other widgets exist, znt-cd-widget and
znt-kill-widget, they too can be assigned to key combinations (autoload is done
in .zshrc so no need of it):

zle -N znt-cd-widget
bindkey "^B" znt-cd-widget
zle -N znt-kill-widget
bindkey "^Y" znt-kill-widget

Introduction

The tools are:

• n-aliases - browses aliases, relegates editing to vared
• n-cd - browses dirstack and bookmarked directories, allows to enter selected directory
• n-functions - browses functions, relegates editing to zed or vared
• n-history - browses history, allows to edit and run commands from it
• n-kill - browses processes list, allows to send signal to selected process
• n-env - browses environment, relegates editing to vared
• n-options - browses options, allows to toggle their state
• n-panelize - loads output of given command into the list for browsing

All tools support horizontal scroll with <,>, {,}, h,l or left and right cursors. Other keys are:

• H, ? (from n-history) - run n-help
• Ctrl-R - start n-history, the incremental, multi-keyword history searcher (Zsh binding)
• Ctrl-A - rotate entered words (1+2+3 -> 3+1+2)
• Ctrl-F - fix mode (approximate matching)
• Ctrl-L - redraw of whole display
• Ctrl-T - browse themes (next theme)
• Ctrl-G - browse themes (previous theme)
• Ctrl-U - half page up
• Ctrl-D - half page down
• Ctrl-P - previous element (also done with vim's k)
• Ctrl-N - next element (also done with vim's j)
• [, ] - jump directory bookmarks in n-cd and typical signals in n-kill
• g, G - beginning and end of the list
• / - show incremental search
• F3 - show/hide incremental search
• Esc - exit incremental search, clearing filter
• Ctrl-W (in incremental search) - delete whole word
• Ctrl-K (in incremental search) - delete whole line
• Ctrl-O, o - enter uniq mode (no duplicate lines)
• Ctrl-E, e - edit private history (when in private history view)
• F1 - (in n-history) - switch view
• F2, Ctrl-X, Ctrl-/ - search predefined keywords (defined in config files)

Configuration

ZNT has configuration files located in ~/.config/znt. The files are:

n-aliases.conf
n-cd.conf
n-env.conf
n-functions.conf
n-history.conf
n-kill.conf
n-list.conf
n-options.conf
n-panelize.conf

n-list.conf contains main configuration variables:

# Should the list (text, borders) be drawn in bold
local bold=0

# Main color pair (foreground/background)
local colorpair="white/black"

# Should draw the border?
local border=1

# Combinations of colors to try out with Ctrl-T and Ctrl-G
# The last number is the bold option, 0 or 1
local -a themes
themes=( "white/black/1" "green/black/0" "green/black/1" "white/blue/0" "white/blue/1"
         "magenta/black/0" "magenta/black/1" )

Read remaining configuration files to see what's in them. Nevertheless, configuration
can be also set from zshrc. There are 5 standard zshrc configuration variables:

znt_history_active_text - underline or reverse - how should be active element highlighted
znt_history_nlist_coloring_pattern - pattern that can be used to colorize elements
znt_history_nlist_coloring_color - color with which to colorize
znt_history_nlist_coloring_match_multiple - should multiple matches be colorized (0 or 1)
znt_history_keywords (array) - search keywords activated with `Ctrl-X`, `F2` or `Ctrl-/`, e.g. ( "git" "vim" )

Above variables will work for n-history tool. For other tools, change _history_ to
e.g. _cd_, for the n-cd tool. The same works for all 8 tools.

Common configuration of the tools uses variables with _list_ in them:

znt_list_bold - should draw text in bold (0 or 1)
znt_list_colorpair - main pair of colors to be used, e.g "green/black"
znt_list_border - should draw borders around windows (0 or 1)
znt_list_themes (array) - list of themes to try out with Ctrl-T, e.g. ( "white/black/1" "green/black/0" )
znt_list_instant_select - should pressing enter in search mode leave tool (0 or 1)

If you used ZNT before v2.1.12, remove old configuration files ~/.config/znt/*.conf so that ZNT
can update them to the latest versions that support integration with Zshrc. If you used installer
then run it again (after the remove of configuration files).

Programming

The function n-list is used as follows:

n-list {element1} [element2] ... [elementN]

This is all that is needed to be done to have the features like ANSI coloring,
incremental multi-word search, unique mode, horizontal scroll, non-selectable
elements (grepping is done outside n-list, see the tools for how it can be
done). To set up non-selectable entries add their indices into array
NLIST_NONSELECTABLE_ELEMENTS:

typeset -a NLIST_NONSELECTABLE_ELEMENTS
NLIST_NONSELECTABLE_ELEMENTS=( 1 )

Result is stored as $reply[REPLY] ($ isn't needed before REPLY because
of arithmetic context inside []). The returned array might be different from
input arguments as n-list can process them via incremental search or uniq
mode. $REPLY is the index in that possibly processed array. If $REPLY
equals -1 it means that no selection have been made (user quitted via q
key).

To set up entries that can be jumped to with [,] keys add their indices to
NLIST_HOP_INDEXES array:

typeset -a NLIST_HOP_INDEXES
NLIST_HOP_INDEXES=( 1 10 )

n-list can automatically colorize entries according to a Zsh pattern.
Following example will colorize all numbers with blue:

local NLIST_COLORING_PATTERN="[0-9]##"
local NLIST_COLORING_COLOR=$'\x1b[00;34m'
local NLIST_COLORING_END_COLOR=$'\x1b[0m'
local NLIST_COLORING_MATCH_MULTIPLE=1

n-list "This is a number 123" "This line too has a number: 456"

Blue is the default color, it doesn't have to be set. See zshexpn man page
for more information on Zsh patterns. Briefly, comparing to regular
expressions, (#s) is ^, (#e) is $, # is *, ## is +. Alternative
will work when in parenthesis, i.e. (a|b). BTW by using this method you can
colorize output of the tools, via their config files (check out e.g. n-cd.conf,
it is using this).

Performance

ZNT are fastest with Zsh before 5.0.6 and starting from 5.2

A tip

Zsh plugins may look scary, as they seem to have some "architecture". In fact, what a plugin really is, is that:

1. It has its directory added to fpath
2. It has any first *.plugin.zsh file sourced

That's it. When one contributes to Oh-My-Zsh or creates a plugin for any plugin manager, he only needs to account for this.
The same with doing any non-typical Zsh Navigation Tools installation.

More

• be aware of this

Fixing tmux, screen and linux vt

If TERM=screen-256color (often a case for tmux and screen sessions) then
ncv terminfo capability will have 2nd bit set. This in general means that
underline won't work. To fix this by creating your own ncv=0-equipped
terminfo file, run:

{ infocmp -x screen-256color; printf '\t%s\n' 'ncv@,'; } > /tmp/t && tic -x /tmp/t

A file will be created in directory ~/.terminfo and will be automatically
used, tmux and screen will work. Similar is for Linux virtual terminal:

{ infocmp -x linux; printf '\t%s\n' 'ncv@,'; } > /tmp/t && tic -x /tmp/t

It will not display underline properly, but will instead highlight by a color,
which is quite nice. The same will not work for FreeBSD's vt, ZNT will detect
if that vt is used and will revert to highlighting elements via reverse mode.