zgen

A lightweight plugin manager for ZSH inspired by Antigen. The goal is to have a minimal overhead when starting up the shell because nobody likes waiting. The script generates a static init.zsh file which does nothing but sources your plugins and appends them to fpath. The downside is that you have to refresh the init script manually with zgen reset whenever you update your .zshrc.

Usage

Load oh-my-zsh base

zgen oh-my-zsh

Load oh-my-zsh plugins

zgen oh-my-zsh <location>

This is a shortcut for zgen load.

Or if you prefer prezto

zgen prezto

This will also create a symlink in the ZSHDOT or HOME directory. This is needed by prezto

Load prezto plugins

zgen prezto <modulename>

This is uses the prezto method for loading modules

Load a repo as prezto plugins

zgen pmodule <reponame> <branch>

This is uses the prezto method for loading the module, by creating a symlink and calling pmodule

Set prezto options

zgen prezto <modulename> <option> <value(s)>

This must be used before the module is loaded. Or if the default modules should be loaded (default) these settings must be done before the zgen prezto command. module is prepended if the name does not start with module, prezto or a *, prezto is prepended if it does not start with prezto.

Load plugins and completions

zgen load <repo> [location] [branch]

Similar to antigen bundle. It tries to source any scripts from location. If none found, it adds location to $fpath.

• repo
  • github 'user/repository' or path to a local repository
• location
  • relative path to a script/folder
  • useful for repositories that don't have proper plugin support like zsh-users/zsh-completions
• branch
  • for those who don't use the master branch

Save all loaded scripts into an init script

zgen save

We do this so they'll get run each time you source zgen.

Remove the init script

zgen reset

You must do this every time you tweak your .zshrc so that the new plugins can be saved to an init script.

Check for an init script

zgen saved

Returns 0 if an init script exists.

Update zgen framework

zgen selfupdate

Update all repositories and remove the init script

zgen update

Automatically check for filechanges and regenerate zinit

You can set the environment variable ZGEN_RESET_ON_CHANGE. These files will be checked and if a change is detected zgen reset is called. ZGEN_RESET_ON_CHANGE=(${HOME}/.zshrc ${HOME}/.zshrc.local)

Example .zshrc

# load zgen
source "${HOME}/proj/zgen/zgen.zsh"

# check if there's no init script
if ! zgen saved; then
    echo "Creating a zgen save"

    zgen oh-my-zsh

    # plugins
    zgen oh-my-zsh plugins/git
    zgen oh-my-zsh plugins/sudo
    zgen oh-my-zsh plugins/command-not-found
    zgen load zsh-users/zsh-syntax-highlighting
    zgen load /path/to/super-secret-private-plugin

    # bulk load
    zgen loadall <<EOPLUGINS
        zsh-users/zsh-history-substring-search
        /path/to/local/plugin
EOPLUGINS
    # ^ can't indent this EOPLUGINS

    # completions
    zgen load zsh-users/zsh-completions src

    # theme
    zgen oh-my-zsh themes/arrow

    # save all to init script
    zgen save
fi

Example .zshrc for prezto use

Here is a partial example how to work with prezto

...
    echo "Creating a zgen save"

    # prezto options
	zgen prezto editor key-bindings 'emacs'
	zgen prezto prompt theme 'sorin'

    # prezto and modules
    zgen prezto
    zgen prezto git
    zgen prezto command-not-found
    zgen prezto syntax-highlighting

    # plugins
    zgen load /path/to/super-secret-private-plugin
....

Other resources

The awesome-zsh-plugins list contains many zgen-compatible zsh plugins & themes that you may find useful.