Introduction

Binds Ctrl-R to a widget that searches for multiple keywords in AND fashion. In other words, you can enter multiple words, and history entries that match all of them will be found. The entries are syntax highlighted.

Video – view on asciinema. You can resize the video by pressing Ctrl-+ or Cmd-+.

HSMW has feature called context viewing – see all occurrences of a command together with surrounding commands:

Set:

    zstyle :plugin:history-search-multi-word reset-prompt-protect 1

to be able to use zle reset-prompt in your e.g. sched calls, in presence of zdharma-continuum/fast-syntax-highlighting, zsh-users/zsh-syntax-highlighting, zsh-users/zsh-autosuggestions and other plugins that hook up into Zshell by overloading Zle widgets. You could e.g. use sched in following way:

PROMPT=%B%F{yellow}%D{%H:%M:%S}%B%b%f
schedprompt() {
    zle && zle reset-prompt
    sched +1 schedprompt
}

zmodload -i zsh/sched
schedprompt

to refresh the clock in prompt every second. The reset-prompt-protect zstyle needs to be set to 1 for correct cooperation with HSMW. Or, you could use zle .reset-prompt (i.e. with the dot in front) to call the original, not overloaded (by F-Sy-H, zsh-autosuggestsions, etc.) reset-prompt widget.

News

14-07-2020
If an […] string will occur in the search query, it'll be interpreted as pattern. So that it's possible to enter as the search query e.g.: print ["a-zA-Z0-9_-] or print [^[:alpha:]], etc.
28-10-2019
^ – if first – matches beginning of the command's string, $ – if last – its end. So that it's possible to enter '^ls' and have only commands starting with ls matched.
25-05-2018

Hash holding paths that shouldn't be grepped (globbed) – blacklist for slow disks, mounts, etc.:

typeset -gA FAST_BLIST_PATTERNS
FAST_BLIST_PATTERNS[/mount/nfs1/*]=1
FAST_BLIST_PATTERNS[/mount/disk2/*]=1

13-06-2017
Canceling search doesn't clear entered query. Change to previous behavior via:
```
zstyle ":plugin:history-search-multi-word" clear-on-cancel "yes"
```
12-04-2017

Page size can be relative to screen height, e.g.:

zstyle ":history-search-multi-word" page-size "LINES/4"

05-04-2017
17% performance optimization
27-01-2017
Input-driven case-sensivity of search – if your query contains capital latin letters, search will be case-sensitive
12-11-2016
HSMW can now show context of selected history entry! Just hit Ctrl-K, video
More performance optimizations
31-10-2016
Newlines do not disturb the parser anymore, and are also highlighted with a dark color – video
27-10-2016
New optimizations – 30% speed up of syntax highlighting!
Architectural change – syntax highlighting is now computed rarely, so any possible performance problems are now solved, in advance!
24-10-2016
Workaround for Zsh versions like 5.0.2 has been added – Ctrl-V and ESC cancel search. On such Zsh versions Ctrl-C might not work. Fully problem-free Zsh version will be the upcoming 5.3, where I have together with Zsh Hackers fully fixed the Ctrl-C issue.
22-10-2016
Search process has been optimized by 20%! History sizes like 100000 are now supported.
Active history entry can be underline, standout (i.e. inverse video), bold, bg=blue, etc. with the new Zstyle :plugin:history-search-multi-word / active (see Zstyles section) – video.
16-10-2016
More optimizations of syntax highlighting (40% in total for the two days) – new video above.
15-10-2016
The compact, already optimized (by me) zsh-syntax-highlighting part has been further optimized by 21%! Also, more tokens are highlighted – variable expressions like "${(@)var[1,3]}" (when quoted).
11-10-2016
Syntax highlighting of history – adapted, fine crafted, small part of zsh-syntax-highlighting to color what hsmw shows:
20-09-2016
Keys Page Up and Page Down work and page-wise move along history. Also, Ctrl-P, Ctrl-N move to previous and next entries.
19-09-2016
Better immunity to zsh-autosuggestions and zsh-syntax-highlighting – home, end, left and right cursor keys now work smoothly.
25-05-2016
Cooperation with zsh-autosuggestions plugin

Configuration option to set page size, example use:

zstyle ":history-search-multi-word" page-size "5"

Installation

The plugin is "standalone", which means that only sourcing it is needed. So to install, unpack history-search-multi-word somewhere and add

source {where-hsmw-is}/history-search-multi-word.plugin.zsh

to zshrc.

If using a plugin manager, then Zinit is recommended, but you can use any other too, and also install with Oh My Zsh (by copying directory to ~/.oh-my-zsh/custom/plugins).

Zinit

Add zinit load zdharma-continuum/history-search-multi-word to your .zshrc file. Zinit will handle cloning the plugin for you automatically the next time you start zsh.

Antigen

Add antigen bundle zdharma-continuum/history-search-multi-word to your .zshrc file. Antigen will handle cloning the plugin for you automatically the next time you start zsh. You can also add the plugin to a running zsh with antigen bundle zdharma-continuum/history-search-multi-word for testing before adding it to your .zshrc.

Oh-My-Zsh

cd ~/.oh-my-zsh/custom/plugins
git clone git@github.com:zdharma-continuum/history-search-multi-word.git
Add history-search-multi-word to your plugin list

Zgen

Add zgen load zdharma-continuum/history-search-multi-word to your .zshrc file in the same place you're doing your other zgen load calls in.

Arch Linux

Install zsh-history-search-multi-word-git from the AUR.

Add the following to your .zshrc:

source /usr/share/zsh/plugins/history-search-multi-word/history-search-multi-word.plugin.zsh

Start a new terminal session

Customizing

Zstyles

zstyle ":history-search-multi-word" page-size "8"                      # Number of entries to show (default is $LINES/3)
zstyle ":history-search-multi-word" highlight-color "fg=yellow,bold"   # Color in which to highlight matched, searched text (default bg=17 on 256-color terminals)
zstyle ":plugin:history-search-multi-word" synhl "yes"                 # Whether to perform syntax highlighting (default true)
zstyle ":plugin:history-search-multi-word" active "underline"          # Effect on active history entry. Try: standout, bold, bg=blue (default underline)
zstyle ":plugin:history-search-multi-word" check-paths "yes"           # Whether to check paths for existence and mark with magenta (default true)
zstyle ":plugin:history-search-multi-word" clear-on-cancel "no"        # Whether pressing Ctrl-C or ESC should clear entered query

Syntax highlighting

Syntax highlighting is customized via HSMW_HIGHLIGHT_STYLES associative array. It has keys like reserved-word, alias, command, path, etc. which are assigned with strings like fg=blue,bold, to configure how given elements are to be colored. If you assign this array before or after loading hsmw you will change the defaults. Complete list of available keys is at the beginning of hsmw-highlight file. Example ~/.zshrc addition that sets path key – paths that exist will be highlighted with background magenta, foreground white, bold:

typeset -gA HSMW_HIGHLIGHT_STYLES
HSMW_HIGHLIGHT_STYLES[path]="bg=magenta,fg=white,bold"

Following code will enable coloring of options of form "-o" and "--option", with cyan:

typeset -gA HSMW_HIGHLIGHT_STYLES
HSMW_HIGHLIGHT_STYLES[single-hyphen-option]="fg=cyan"
HSMW_HIGHLIGHT_STYLES[double-hyphen-option]="fg=cyan"

Following code will use 256 colors to highlight command separators (like ";" or "&&"):

HSMW_HIGHLIGHT_STYLES[commandseparator]="fg=241,bg=17"