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Zsh Vi Mode

Friendly bindings for ZSH's vi mode

softmoth
|
304 stars
23 forks

Friendly bindings for ZSH's vi mode

To avoid conflicts, load these plugins in the following order if you use them:

zsh-autosuggestions
zsh-syntax-highlighting
zsh-vim-mode

Additional key bindings

In INSERT mode (viins keymap), most Emacs key bindings are available. Use ^A and ^E (or <Home> and <End>) for beginning and end of line, ^R for incremental search, etc.

Surround Bindings for ZSH text objects

ZSH has support for text objects since 5.0.8. This plugin adds the to use surround-type objects. For example, when in NORMAL mode with the cursor inside a double-quoted string, type ci" to change the contents of the string. Or type cs"( to change the quotes to parentheses. Type ds( to remove the parentheses. Type ys2W] to surround the following two Words with brackets.

In visual mode, type a[ to select the surrounding bracketed text (including the brackets), or type i' to select the text within single quotes. Type S< to put angle brackets around the selected text.

KEYTIMEOUT

The time it takes for <Esc> to switch to NORMAL mode tends to be KEYTIMEOUT, as there are bindings beginning with the escape character and ZSH has to wait to see if the user is typing one of them. Pressing any key (that doesn't follow <Esc> in a binding) will resolve this, and immediately enter NORMAL mode and apply the key. So usually this timeout is not a practical concern.

Shortening the timeout can make the switch into NORMAL mode feel snappier. However, setting KEYTIMEOUT=1, as is often recommended, can cause subtle problems. A very short timeout effectively disables multi-key commands in NORMAL mode, which must be typed within the duration. For example, if you try to type cs") and the duration between c and s is over KEYTIMEOUT, the s will be treated separately and will take you back to INSERT mode.

Minimal solution

The minimal workaround is to avoid defining any key bindings that start with <Esc>X, where X is a key you might use first in NORMAL mode (such as the movement keys h or k, for example). Use <Esc> as always, and just trust that the next key you type will be handled properly in NORMAL mode.

This plugin is careful to avoid bindings in INSERT mode that might conflict with switching to NORMAL mode. You can configure which bindings it adds with the Vim Mode Esc Prefix Wanted option.

# Put this in .zshrc, before this plugin is loaded
# Enable <Esc>-prefixed bindings that should rarely conflict with NORMAL mode
VIM_MODE_ESC_PREFIXED_WANTED='^?^Hbdfhul.g'  # Default is '^?^Hbdf.g'

Removing bindings

One hard-core workaround is to remove all bindings starting with <Esc>, but that includes very useful bindings such as arrow keys. This makes ZSH immediately enter NORMAL mode when <Esc> is hit, but most people will not want to lose all of those bindings. But you could unbind double escapes; that way you only lose Alt-Left and Alt-Right for word movement in INSERT mode:

# Put this in .zshrc, after this plugin is loaded
bindkey -rpM viins '^[^['

Pressing <Esc><Esc> will then switch to NORMAL mode with no delay, every time.

Changing the command key

One more option is to use another key, like <Ctrl-D>, to switch into NORMAL mode. Since there are no key bindings that start with <Ctrl-D>, ZSH can immediately switch to NORMAL mode when this key is hit. This plugin provides a setting for this behavior:

# Add to .zshrc, before this plugin is loaded:
# Use Control-D instead of Escape to switch to NORMAL mode
VIM_MODE_VICMD_KEY='^D'

Wrap conflicting bindings with disambiguation widgets

A hack is provided in issue-33 to use surrounds while keeping KEYTIMEOUT=1. The code can simply be copied into .zshrc after loading this module.

Disabling default keybindings

Out of the box, various common keybindings for vim mode are defined. If this does not suit your purposes, you can disable them easily:

VIM_MODE_NO_DEFAULT_BINDINGS=true

Editing keymap tracking

This plugin carefully tracks the editing mode state in order to provide feedback about what keymap is active. While ZSH provides basic support for this via its $KEYMAP variable, that only switches between viins (INSERT) and vicmd (NORMAL) modes.

The $VIM_MODE_KEYMAP variable is set to viins, vicmd, replace, isearch, visual or vline. This is available for easy inspection from other plugins or prompt themes.

Disabling keymap tracking

Tracking the keymap at this level requires hooking in to the ZSH line editor for each keystroke. While the goal is for this to be efficient and trouble-free, you may want to disable it entirely if you do not use the feedback it provides. To disable all mode-sensitive feedback and behavior from this plugin, including cursor styling, prompt indicator and initial keymap, set this:

# Disable all tracking of editing keymap, cursor styling, prompt indicators,
# etc.
VIM_MODE_TRACK_KEYMAP=no

Mode-sensitive cursor styling

Change the color and shape of the terminal cursor with:

MODE_CURSOR_VIINS="#00ff00 blinking bar"
MODE_CURSOR_REPLACE="$MODE_CURSOR_VIINS #ff0000"
MODE_CURSOR_VICMD="green block"
MODE_CURSOR_SEARCH="#ff00ff steady underline"
MODE_CURSOR_VISUAL="$MODE_CURSOR_VICMD steady bar"
MODE_CURSOR_VLINE="$MODE_CURSOR_VISUAL #00ffff"

Use #RRGGBB notation for for colors. Your terminal application may recognize X11 color names, rgb:xxx/yyy/zzz or other formats.

The recognized style words are steady, blinking, block, underline and bar.

If your cursor used to blink, and now it's stopped, you can fix that with unset MODE_CURSOR_DEFAULT. The default (steady) is appropriate for most terminals.

If you are using tmux and cursor styles are not shown, first ensure that your terminal application reports its capabilities properly. If it is an old version of tmux, you may need to set TMUX_PASSTHROUGH=1 to get the cursor styling to work.

When in VISUAL or VLINE mode, ZSH colors text in reverse (background and foreground colors swapped). Depending on your terminal, this may override or interfere with the cursor color. Using bar or underline may display better than block in some cases.

Disabling cursor styling

Cursor styling is not enabled by default. If you do not set any MODE_CURSOR_* variables, the terminal escape sequence to change the cursor is not sent.

Mode in prompt

If RPS1 / RPROMPT is not set, the mode indicator will be added automatically. The appearance can be set with:

MODE_INDICATOR_VIINS='%F{15}<%F{8}INSERT<%f'
MODE_INDICATOR_VICMD='%F{10}<%F{2}NORMAL<%f'
MODE_INDICATOR_REPLACE='%F{9}<%F{1}REPLACE<%f'
MODE_INDICATOR_SEARCH='%F{13}<%F{5}SEARCH<%f'
MODE_INDICATOR_VISUAL='%F{12}<%F{4}VISUAL<%f'
MODE_INDICATOR_VLINE='%F{12}<%F{4}V-LINE<%f'

If you want to add this to your existing RPS1, there are two ways. If setopt prompt_subst is on, then simply add ${MODEINDICATORPROMPT} to your RPS1, ensuring it is quoted:

setopt PROMPT_SUBST
# Note the single quotes
RPS1='${MODE_INDICATOR_PROMPT} ${vcs_info_msg_0_}'

If you do not want to use prompt_subst, then it must not be quoted, and this module must be loaded first before adding it to your prompt:

setopt NO_prompt_subst

# Load this plugin first, then later on ...

MODE_INDICATOR_VICMD='%F{9}<%F{1}<<%f'
MODE_INDICATOR_SEARCH='%F{13}<%F{5}<<%f'
# Note the double quotes
RPS1="${MODE_INDICATOR_PROMPT} %B%F{15}<%b %*"

Each time the line editor keymap changes, the text of the prompt will be substituted, removing the previous mode indicator text and inserting the new.

If your theme sets $MODE_INDICATOR, it will be used as a default for MODE_INDICATOR_VICMD if nothing else is set.

Disabling mode indicator in prompt

If you set MODE_INDICATOR="" before loading this plugin, and none of the other MODE_INDICATOR_* variables are set, then the prompt is not modified by this plugin.