Category: ubuntu

Here is my take on VI mode indicator in zsh’s prompt. This is useful only for people who use the vi mode (bindkey -v) in ZSH.

vim_ins_mode="%{$fg[cyan]%}[INS]%{$reset_color%}"
vim_cmd_mode="%{$fg[green]%}[CMD]%{$reset_color%}"
vim_mode=$vim_ins_mode

function zle-keymap-select {
  vim_mode="${${KEYMAP/vicmd/${vim_cmd_mode}}/(main|viins)/${vim_ins_mode}}"
  zle reset-prompt
}
zle -N zle-keymap-select

function zle-line-finish {
  vim_mode=$vim_ins_mode
}
zle -N zle-line-finish

# Fix a bug when you C-c in CMD mode and you'd be prompted with CMD mode indicator, while in fact you would be in INS mode
# Fixed by catching SIGINT (C-c), set vim_mode to INS and then repropagate the SIGINT, so if anything else depends on it, we will not break it
# Thanks Ron! (see comments)
function TRAPINT() {
  vim_mode=$vim_ins_mode
  return $(( 128 + $1 ))
} 

And then it’s a matter of adding ${vim_mode} somewhere in your prompt. For example like this:

RPROMPT='${vim_mode}'

Other examples on the web use zle reset-prompt in the zle-line-init, which has a very nasty side effect of deleting last couple of lines on mode change (when going from ins to cmd mode) when using multi-line prompt. Using zle-line-finish works around that.

Also see my current ~/.zshrc, which includes those tweaks (and many others!).

This is my attempt at bringing emacs-style keybindings to vi mode in ZSH:

# VI MODE KEYBINDINGS (ins mode)                                      
bindkey -M viins '^a'    beginning-of-line                            
bindkey -M viins '^e'    end-of-line                                  
bindkey -M viins '^k'    kill-line                                    
bindkey -M viins '^r'    history-incremental-pattern-search-backward  
bindkey -M viins '^s'    history-incremental-pattern-search-forward   
bindkey -M viins '^p'    up-line-or-history                           
bindkey -M viins '^n'    down-line-or-history                         
bindkey -M viins '^y'    yank                                         
bindkey -M viins '^w'    backward-kill-word                           
bindkey -M viins '^u'    backward-kill-line                           
bindkey -M viins '^h'    backward-delete-char                         
bindkey -M viins '^?'    backward-delete-char                         
bindkey -M viins '^_'    undo                                         
bindkey -M viins '^x^r'  redisplay                                    
bindkey -M viins '\eOH'  beginning-of-line # Home                     
bindkey -M viins '\eOF'  end-of-line       # End                      
bindkey -M viins '\e[2~' overwrite-mode    # Insert                   
bindkey -M viins '\ef'   forward-word      # Alt-f                    
bindkey -M viins '\eb'   backward-word     # Alt-b                    
bindkey -M viins '\ed'   kill-word         # Alt-d                    
                                                                      
                                                                      
# VI MODE KEYBINDINGS (cmd mode)                                      
bindkey -M vicmd '^a'    beginning-of-line                            
bindkey -M vicmd '^e'    end-of-line                                  
bindkey -M vicmd '^k'    kill-line                                    
bindkey -M vicmd '^r'    history-incremental-pattern-search-backward  
bindkey -M vicmd '^s'    history-incremental-pattern-search-forward   
bindkey -M vicmd '^p'    up-line-or-history                           
bindkey -M vicmd '^n'    down-line-or-history                         
bindkey -M vicmd '^y'    yank                                         
bindkey -M vicmd '^w'    backward-kill-word                           
bindkey -M vicmd '^u'    backward-kill-line                           
bindkey -M vicmd '/'     vi-history-search-forward                    
bindkey -M vicmd '?'     vi-history-search-backward                   
bindkey -M vicmd '^_'    undo                                         
bindkey -M vicmd '\ef'   forward-word                      # Alt-f    
bindkey -M vicmd '\eb'   backward-word                     # Alt-b    
bindkey -M vicmd '\ed'   kill-word                         # Alt-d    
bindkey -M vicmd '\e[5~' history-beginning-search-backward # PageUp   
bindkey -M vicmd '\e[6~' history-beginning-search-forward  # PageDown

You know, so that your muscle memory can rest in peace. Also see the commit adding the above emacs style keybindings to my dotfiles.