zsh-syntax-highlighting/docs/highlighters/regexp.md

zsh-syntax-highlighting / highlighters / regexp

This is the regexp highlighter, that highlights user-defined regular expressions. It's similar to the pattern highlighter, but allows more complex patterns.

How to tweak it

To use this highlighter, associate regular expressions with styles in the ZSH_HIGHLIGHT_REGEXP associative array, for example in ~/.zshrc:

typeset -A ZSH_HIGHLIGHT_REGEXP
ZSH_HIGHLIGHT_REGEXP+=('^rm .*' fg=red,bold)

This will highlight the whole line starting with rm command (for all operating systems, in contrast to the below example).

Some regular expressions are subject to the host platform, especially the libc module. To highlight sudo only as a complete word, i.e., sudo cmd, but not sudoedit, the respective regular expressions for the host systems would be:

• Platforms with GNU libc (e.g., many GNU/Linux)

  typeset -A ZSH_HIGHLIGHT_REGEXP
  ZSH_HIGHLIGHT_REGEXP+=('\<sudo\>' fg=123,bold)
  

• BSD-based platforms (e.g., macOS)

  typeset -A ZSH_HIGHLIGHT_REGEXP
  ZSH_HIGHLIGHT_REGEXP+=('[[:<:]]sudo[[:>:]]' fg=123,bold)
  

Both would give the same results, but do not work on each other's system.

The syntax for values is the same as the syntax of "types of highlighting" of the zsh builtin $zle_highlight array, which is documented in the zshzle(1) manual page.

See also: regular expressions tutorial, zsh regexp operator =~ in the zshmisc(1) manual page