README.md

# Zsh Navigation Tools

https://raw.githubusercontent.com/psprint/zsh-navigation-tools/master/doc/img/n-history2.png

Set of tools like n-history – multi-word history searcher, n-cd – directory
bookmark manager, n-kill – htop like kill utility, and more. Based on
n-list, a tool generating selectable curses-based list of elements that has
access to current Zsh session, i.e. has broad capabilities to work together
with it. Feature highlights include incremental multi-word searching, ANSI
coloring, unique mode, horizontal scroll, non-selectable elements, grepping and
various integrations with Zsh.

## History Widget

To have n-history as multi-word incremental searcher bound to Ctrl-R copy znt-*
files into the */site-functions dir (unless you use Oh My Zsh) and
add:

    autoload znt-history-widget
    zle -N znt-history-widget
    bindkey "^R" znt-history-widget

to .zshrc. This is done automatically when using Oh My Zsh. Two other
widgets exist, znt-cd-widget and znt-kill-widget, they can be too assigned
to key combinations (no need for autoload when using Oh My Zsh):

    zle -N znt-cd-widget
    bindkey "^A" znt-cd-widget
    zle -N znt-kill-widget
    bindkey "^Y" znt-kill-widget

Oh My Zsh stores history into ~/.zsh_history. When you switch to OMZ you could
want to copy your previous data (from e.g. ~/.zhistory) into the new location.

## News

* 30-04-2016
  - New feature: color themes. Use Ctrl-T and Ctrl-G to browse predefined
    themes. They are listed in ~/.config/znt/n-list.conf. Use the file to
    permanently set a color scheme. Also, I sent a patch to Zsh developers
    and starting from Zsh > 5.2 (not yet released) supported will be 256 colors.
    The file ~/.config/znt/n-list.conf already has set of 256-color themes prepared :)

* 29-04-2016
  - New feature: private history – n-history tracks selected history entries,
    exposes them via new view (activated with F1)

* 28-04-2016
  - New features:
    1. New n-history view (activated with F1): Most Frequent History Words
    2. Predefined search keywords – use F2 to quickly search for chosen
       keywords (video: [https://youtu.be/DN9QqssAYB8](https://youtu.be/DN9QqssAYB8))
    3. Configuration option for doing instant selection in search mode

## Introduction

The tools are:

- n-aliases - browses aliases, relegates editing to vared
- n-cd - browses dirstack and bookmarked directories, allows to enter selected directory
- n-functions - browses functions, relegates editing to zed or vared
- n-history - browses history, allows to edit and run commands from it
- n-kill - browses processes list, allows to send signal to selected process
- n-env - browses environment, relegates editing to vared
- n-options - browses options, allows to toggle their state
- n-panelize - loads output of given command into the list for browsing

All tools support horizontal scroll with <,>, {,}, h,l or left and right
cursors. Other keys are:

- [,] - jump directory bookmarks in n-cd and typical signals in n-kill
- Ctrl-d, Ctrl-u - half page up or down
- Ctrl-p, Ctrl-n - previous and next (also done with vim's j,k)
- Ctrl-l - redraw of whole display
- g, G - beginning and end of the list
- Ctrl-o, o - enter uniq mode (no duplicate lines)
- / - start incremental search
- Enter - finish incremental search, retaining filter
- Esc - exit incremental search, clearing filter
- Ctrl-w (in incremental search) - delete whole word
- Ctrl-k (in incremental search) - delete whole line

## Configuration

`ZNT` has configuration files located in `~/.config/znt`. The files are:

```
n-aliases.conf
n-cd.conf
n-env.conf
n-functions.conf
n-history.conf
n-kill.conf
n-list.conf
n-options.conf
n-panelize.conf
```

`n-list.conf` contains main configuration variables:

```zsh
# Should the list (text, borders) be drawn in bold
local bold=0

# Main color pair (foreground/background)
local colorpair="white/black"

# Should draw the border?
local border=1

# Combinations of colors to try out with Ctrl-T and Ctrl-G
# The last number is the bold option, 0 or 1
local -a themes
themes=( "white/black/1" "green/black/0" "green/black/1" "white/blue/0" "white/blue/1"
         "magenta/black/0" "magenta/black/1" )
```

Read remaining configuration files to see what's in them. Nevertheless, configuration
can be also set from `zshrc`. There are `5` standard `zshrc` configuration variables:

```
znt_history_active_text - underline or reverse - how should be active element highlighted
znt_history_nlist_coloring_pattern - pattern that can be used to colorize elements
znt_history_nlist_coloring_color - color with which to colorize
znt_history_nlist_coloring_match_multiple - should multiple matches be colorized (0 or 1)
znt_history_keywords (array) - search keywords activated with `Ctrl-X`
```

Above variables will work for `n-history` tool. For other tools, change `_history_` to
e.g. `_cd_`, for the `n-cd` tool. The same works for all `8` tools.

Common configuration of the tools uses variables with `_list_` in them:

```
znt_list_bold - should draw text in bold (0 or 1)
znt_list_colorpair - main pair of colors to be used, e.g "green/black"
znt_list_border - should draw borders around windows (0 or 1)
znt_list_themes (array) - list of themes to try out with Ctrl-T, e.g. ( "white/black/1" "green/black/0" )
znt_list_instant_select - should pressing enter in search mode leave tool (0 or 1)
```

## Programming

The function n-list is used as follows:

    n-list {element1} [element2] ... [elementN]

This is all that is needed to be done to have the features like ANSI coloring,
incremental multi-word search, unique mode, horizontal scroll, non-selectable
elements (grepping is done outside n-list, see the tools for how it can be
done). To set up non-selectable entries add their indices into array
NLIST_NONSELECTABLE_ELEMENTS:

    typeset -a NLIST_NONSELECTABLE_ELEMENTS
    NLIST_NONSELECTABLE_ELEMENTS=( 1 )

Result is stored as $reply[REPLY] ($ isn't needed before REPLY because
of arithmetic context inside []). The returned array might be different from
input arguments as n-list can process them via incremental search or uniq
mode. $REPLY is the index in that possibly processed array. If $REPLY
equals -1 it means that no selection have been made (user quitted via q
key).

To set up entries that can be jumped to with [,] keys add their indices to
NLIST_HOP_INDEXES array:

    typeset -a NLIST_HOP_INDEXES
    NLIST_HOP_INDEXES=( 1 10 )

n-list can automatically colorize entries according to a Zsh pattern.
Following example will colorize all numbers with blue:

    local NLIST_COLORING_PATTERN="[0-9]##"
    local NLIST_COLORING_COLOR=$'\x1b[00;34m'
    local NLIST_COLORING_END_COLOR=$'\x1b[0m'
    local NLIST_COLORING_MATCH_MULTIPLE=1
    n-list "This is a number 123" "This line too has a number: 456"

Blue is the default color, it doesn't have to be set. See zshexpn man page
for more information on Zsh patterns. Briefly, comparing to regular
expressions, (#s) is ^, (#e) is $, # is *, ## is +. Alternative
will work when in parenthesis, i.e. (a|b). BTW by using this method you can
colorize output of the tools, via their config files (check out e.g. n-cd.conf,
it uses this).

## Performance
ZNT are fastest with Zsh before 5.0.6 and starting from 5.2


vim:filetype=conf