Zplugin

Zplugin gives reports from plugin load. Plugins are no longer black boxes, report will tell what aliases, functions, bindkeys, Zle widgets, zstyles, completions, variables, PATH and FPATH elements a plugin has set up. Supported is unloading of plugin and ability to list, uninstall, reinstall and selectively disable, enable plugin's completions. Also, every plugin is compiled and user can control this function. The system does not use $FPATH, it's kept clean!

Code is immune to KSH_ARRAYS, emulate sh, emulate ksh, thoroughly tested to support any user setup, be as transparent as plain source command. Compdef replays functionality is provided to allow user call compinit only once in .zshrc.

Zplugin in action:

Completion handling:

Dtrace:

Code recognition with recently, changes, glance, report, stress:

Introduction

Example use:

% . ~/github/TomfromBerlin/zplugin.zsh
% zplugin load zsh-users/zsh-syntax-highlighting
% zplugin load psprint/zsh-cmd-architect

Example plugin report:

% zpl report TomfromBerlin/zsh-cmd-time
Plugin report for TomfromBerlin/zsh-cmd-time
--------------------------------------------
Source cmd-time.plugin.zsh

Functions created:
_cmd_time_precmd _cmd_time_preexec
TRAPWINCH        zsh_cmd_time

Variables added or redefined:
_CMD_TIME_DIR  [ "" -> scalar ]

Example plugin unload:

% zpl unload TomfromBerlin/zsh-cmd-time
Deleting function _cmd_time_precmd
Deleting function _cmd_time_preexec
Deleting function TRAPWINCH
Deleting function zsh_cmd_time
Unsetting variable _CMD_TIME_DIR
Unregistering plugin TomfromBerlin/zsh-cmd-time
Plugin's report saved to $LASTREPORT

Example csearch invocation (completion management):

# zplg csearch
[+] is installed, [-] uninstalled, [+-] partially installed
[+] _local/zplugin                  _zplugin
[-] benclark/parallels-zsh-plugin   _parallels
[+] mollifier/cd-gitroot            _cd-gitroot
[-] or17191/going_places            _favrm, _go
[-] psprint/zsh-cmd-architect       _xauth
[-] psprint/zsh-editing-workbench   _cp
[+] tevren/gitfast-zsh-plugin       _git

Example compile invocation:

% zplg uncompile TomfromBerlin/zsh-syntax-highlighting
TomfromBerlin/zsh-syntax-highlighting not compiled
% zplg compile TomfromBerlin/zsh-syntax-highlighting
Compiling zsh-syntax-highlighting.plugin.zsh...
% zplg compiled
TomfromBerlin/zsh-syntax-highlighting:
zsh-syntax-highlighting.plugin.zsh.zwc
% zplg uncompile TomfromBerlin/zsh-syntax-highlighting
Removing zsh-syntax-highlighting.plugin.zsh.zwc
% zplg compiled
No compiled plugins
% zplg compile-all
chriskempson/base16-shell:
Compiling base16-shell.plugin.zsh...
marlonrichert/zsh-autocomplete:
Compiling zsh-autocomplete.plugin.zsh...
TomfromBerlin/zsh-autosuggestions:
Compiling zsh-autosuggestions.plugin.zsh...
TomfromBerlin/zsh-cmd-time:
Compiling cmd-time.plugin.zsh...
TomfromBerlin/zsh-completions:
Compiling zsh-completions.plugin.zsh...
TomfromBerlin/zsh-history-substring-search:
Compiling zsh-history-substring-search.plugin.zsh...
TomfromBerlin/zsh-syntax-highlighting:
Compiling zsh-syntax-highlighting.plugin.zsh...

Example create invocation:

% zplg create ~/.zplugin/plugins/testplugin
Github user name or just "_local": TomfromBerlin
Plugin name: testplugin
Plugin is TomfromBerlin/testplugin
Creating Github repository
Enter host password for user 'TomfromBerlin':
Cloning into 'TomfromBerlin---testplugin'...
warning: You appear to have cloned an empty repository.
Checking connectivity... done.
Remote repository TomfromBerlin/testplugin set up as origin
You're in plugin's local folder
The files aren't added to git
Your next step after commiting will be:
git push -u origin master
% ls
.git                   README.md
LICENSE                testplugin.plugin.zsh

Installation

Execute:

sh -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/TomfromBerlin/zplugin/master/doc/install.sh)"

To update run the command again (or just execute doc/install.sh).

Zplugin will be installed into ~/.zplugin/bin. .zshrc will be updated with three lines of code that will be added to the bottom (the lines will be sourcing zplugin.zsh and setting up completion).

Completion will be available, for command zplugin and aliases zpl, zplg.

After installing and reloading shell give Zplugin a quick try with zplugin help.

Manual installation

To manually install Zplugin clone the repo to e.g. ~/.zplugin/bin:

mkdir ~/.zplugin
git clone https://github.com/TomfromBerlin/zplugin.git ~/.zplugin/bin

and source it from .zshrc (above compinit):

source ~/.zplugin/bin/zplugin.zsh

If you place the source below compinit, then add those two lines after the source:

autoload -Uz _zplugin
(( ${+_comps} )) && _comps[zplugin]=_zplugin

After installing and reloading shell give Zplugin a quick try with zplugin help.

Compilation

It's good to compile zplugin into Zsh bytecode:

zcompile ~/.zplugin/bin/zplugin.zsh

Zplugin will compile each newly downloaded plugin. You can clear compilation of a plugin by invoking zplugin uncompile {plugin-name}. There are also commands compile, compile-all, uncompile-all, compiled that control the functionality of compiling plugins.

Usage

% zpl help
Usage:
-h|--help|help           - usage information
man                      - manual
self-update              - updates Zplugin
load {plugin-name}       - load plugin
light {plugin-name}      - light plugin load, without reporting
unload {plugin-name}     - unload plugin
snippet [-f] {url}       - source local or remote file (-f: force - don't use cache)
update {plugin-name}     - update plugin (Git)
update-all               - update all plugins (Git)
status {plugin-name}     - status for plugin (Git)
status-all               - status for all plugins (Git)
report {plugin-name}     - show plugin's report
all-reports              - show all plugin reports
loaded|list [keyword]    - show what plugins are loaded (filter with `keyword')
cd {plugin-name}         - cd into plugin's directory
create {plugin-name}     - create plugin (also together with Github repository)
edit {plugin-name}       - edit plugin's file with $EDITOR
glance {plugin-name}     - look at plugin's source (pygmentize, {,source-}highlight)
stress {plugin-name}     - test plugin for compatibility with set of options
changes {plugin-name}    - view plugin's git log
recently [time-spec]     - show plugins that changed recently, argument is e.g. 1 month 2 days
clist|completions        - list completions in use
cdisable {cname}         - disable completion `cname'
cenable  {cname}         - enable completion `cname'
creinstall {plugin-name} - install completions for plugin
cuninstall {plugin-name} - uninstall completions for plugin
csearch                  - search for available completions from any plugin
compinit                 - refresh installed completions
dtrace|dstart            - start tracking what's going on in session
dstop                    - stop tracking what's going on in session
dunload                  - revert changes recorded between dstart and dstop
dreport                  - report what was going on in session
dclear                   - clear report of what was going on in session
compile  {plugin-name}   - compile plugin
compile-all              - compile all downloaded plugins
uncompile {plugin-name}  - remove compiled version of plugin
uncompile-all            - remove compiled versions of all downloaded plugins
compiled                 - list plugins that are compiled

To use themes created for Oh-My-Zsh you might want to first source the git library there:

zplugin snippet 'http://github.com/robbyrussell/oh-my-zsh/raw/master/lib/git.zsh'

Then you can use the themes either as plugins (zplugin load {user/theme-name}) or as snippets (zplugin snippet {file path or URL}; plugin method recommended). Some themes require not only Oh-My-Zsh's git library, but also git plugin (error about function current_branch appears). Source it as snippet directly from Oh-My-Zsh:

zplugin snippet 'https://github.com/robbyrussell/oh-my-zsh/raw/master/plugins/git/git.plugin.zsh'

Such lines should be added to .zshrc. Snippets are cached locally, use -f option to download a fresh version of a snippet.

Clean .zshrc With Compdef Replaying

Zplugin provides a feature which brings order into .zshrc. When to call compinit? Some plugins require completion being in place, other update $FPATH and want compinit to be called later. Zplugin is like a pre-initialized completion for the first type of plugins. They will thus work without real compinit in place. You should call compinit only once after loading all plugins, in following way:

source ~/.zplugin/bin/zplugin.zsh
zplugin load "some/plugin"
...
zplugin load "other/plugin"

autoload -Uz compinit
compinit
zplugin cdreplay -q # -q is for quiet

Performance gains are huge, example shell startup time with double compinit: 0.980 sec, with cdreplay and single compinit: 0.156 sec.

Ignoring Compdefs

If you want to ignore compdefs provided by some plugins or snippets, place their load commands before commands loading other plugins or snippets, and issue zplugin cdclear:

source ~/.zplugin/bin/zplugin.zsh
zplugin snippet https://github.com/robbyrussell/oh-my-zsh/blob/master/plugins/git/git.plugin.zsh
zplugin cdclear # <- forget completions provided up to this moment

zplugin load "some/plugin"
...
zplugin load "other/plugin"

autoload -Uz compinit
compinit
zplugin cdreplay -q # <- execute compdefs provided by rest of plugins
zplugin cdlist # look at gathered compdefs

IRC channel

Simply connect to chat.freenode.net:6697 (SSL) or chat.freenode.net:6667 and join #zplugin.

Following is a quick access via Webchat