general.md

Config

Of course your shell needs to be configured to work. Here's some tips and advanced zsh config settings you might care about.

If you're looking for config options like history and prompts please check out those sections directly.

Files

zsh allows basic configuration via a .zshrc file. There are other startup files but in general you don't need to create or edit them.

If you want to change the location of your .zshrc and .zhistory files you can use $HOME/.zshenv to set a new path with the $ZDOTDIR environment variable.

# $HOME/.zshenv

export ZDOTDIR=$HOME/.dotfiles/zdotdir

Throughout the document I'll refer to files that belong in your `$ZDOTDIR` folder but I will reference them without the variable because it is implied. By default `$ZDOTDIR` is the same as `$HOME`.

Something I've found to be successful is to have a $ZDOTDIR/zsh.d folder and drop plugins from other plugin managers (e.g. oh-my-zsh, prezto) there. You can then easily source the files in your .zshrc file with something like

for ZSH_FILE in "${ZDOTDIR:-$HOME}"/zsh.d/*.zsh(N); do
    source "${ZSH_FILE}"
done

The (N) at the end of the pattern in the for loop above is called a glob qualifier. Its purpose is to set the NULL_GLOB option, which tells the loop not to error if that location is missing or empty. More information about glob qualifiers can be found in the docs.

fpath

zsh's $fpath variable is kinda like $PATH but for search paths zsh uses. One of the main things zsh uses it for is shared functions.

A shared function is different from functions you declare in your .zshrc file.

One major difference with $fpath is that it's an array, instead of a string separated with :. Instead of saying export fpath=$ZDOTDIR/fuctions:$fpath you need to use array syntax like export fpath=($ZDOTDIR/functions $fpath) with a space between the entries. An even better option is to append to the array with fpath+=('/some/directory') so you don't delete existing paths.

Shared functions are loaded into a shell with the autoload command.

Shared function files in $fpath don't need to declare a function name or have a function definition. You should name the file for the name of the function you want to use.

# Add our own functions folder to fpath
export fpath=($ZDOTDIR/functions $fpath)

# Create a file called blah in $ZDOTDIR/functions folder
$ echo 'echo blah blah' > ${fpath[1]}/blah

$ autoload -U blah

$ blah
blah blah

It's a good idea to put emulate -L zsh at the top of your function file to avoid user configuration or parameter expansion.

There is more information about how files are searched in the docs.

fpath is really only useful for making functions portable. You'll probably use some of them (examples in the functions section), but most functions you define can go in your .zshrc file.

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