Zsh Evil Registers

Access external clipboards in vi-mode keymaps, and synchronize registers to your favorite editors.

If you have a supported clipboard program, simply use your familiar vim bindings:

• "+ to specify the clipboard selection
• "* to specify the primary selection (the same as "+ in some cases)

If you have a clipboard which is not supported, but there is a program which can set the clipboard from stdin, and a program which can print the contents of the clipboard on stdout, you can set the appropriate handlers like so:

zstyle :zle:evil-registers:'+' yank clipboard-program --read-from-stdin
zstyle :zle:evil-registers:'+' put  clipboard-program --print-to-stdout

Then send us a pull request or report an issue! We'd love to support more clipboards.

Workflow Examples

• Yank a word to the system clipboard with "+yaw
• Paste from the system primary selection (if supported) with "*p
• If zstyle :zle:evil-registers:'[A-Za-z]' editor $your_editor is set with a supported editor:
  • Delete the current line to your editor's register a: "add
  • Append the text within quotes to your editor's register q: "Qyi"
  • Put the text from your editor's register r before your cursor: "rP

See a demo here!

Insert Mode <Ctrl-R>[reg] mapping

You can enable Vim-style Ctrl-r inserting by setting the following style before sourcing this plugin:

zstyle :zle:evil-registers ctrl-r true

Keep in mind that other plugins may bind to ^R, so alternatively you can manually bind the function after sourcing all your plugins:

bindkey -M viins '^r' →evil-registers::ctrl-r

Supported interfaces

System Clipboards

The following programs are used to set the system clipboard(s) with registers + and *.

• xclip
• xsel
• wl-clipboard
• termux-clipboard (Android has no "selection", so both + and * operate on the same clipboard)

Editor Register Sync

Synchronization of the alphabetic registers is supported with these editors:

• Neovim (requires nvr)
• Vim (requires +clientserver support)

Example:

zstyle :zle:evil-registers:'[A-Za-z%#]' editor nvim

The function which pulls the registers from Neovim and Vim have special behavior for "% and "#, as they substitute the full path instead.

Last Insert Register .:

The last insert register should work by default. It uses the global parameters $__last_insert, $_old_CURSOR, and $_old_KEYMAP.

Custom Registers:

If you have a clipboard (or any other function which you want to act as one), you can register it by adding the appropriate zstyle:

# Here, $p is either a keystroke or a pattern which matches a keystroke
zstyle :zle:evil-registers:$p yank - your-command --with --args
zstyle :zle:evil-registers:$p put  - your-command --with --args

# The first argument to a style is a set of flags
# -v: Don't run a program, treat the handler as a parameter name
# -a: Add the register name to the handler's args
# -p: (yank-only): Add the yanked text to the handler's args
# -r:  (put-only): The function will assign the text to the REPLY parameter

# With this style, "byy will run `your-command --which-expects-register b "$yanked_line"`
zstyle :zle:evil-registers:'[abc]' yank -ap your-command --which-expects-register

# With this style, "bp will run `your-command --which-expects-register b`
# your-command should print to stdout the text to put
zstyle :zle:evil-registers:'[abc]' put -a  your-command --which-expects-register

# With this style, "bp will run `your-function --which-expects-register b`
# your-function should set the $REPLY parameter to the text to put
zstyle :zle:evil-registers:'[abc]' put -ar your-function --which-expects-register
your-function(){
	do-something
	REPLY=$whatever
}

# The following style will substitute the current value of the variable passed:
zstyle :zle:evil-registers:$p put -v VAR_NAME
zstyle :zle:evil-registers:$p put -v 'array[key]'

If you define a function on a normal-use register (examples: a, T, 3), then it will override its normal functionality, including the synchronization offered by this plugin. As an example, a simple one-directional append-to-text-file board can be implemented:

zstyle :zle:evil-registers:/ yank eval ">> $HOME/.scraps"

Now you can append to ~/.scraps with "/y<vi-motion>.

Unnamed Register

To set a handler for the unnamed register, use an empty pattern:

zstyle :zle:evil-registers:'' $operation $handler

Example: To get the same result as Vim's set unnamedplus, add this after you source this plugin:

(){
	local op
	local -a handler
	for op in yank put; do
		# get the current behavior for '+'
		zstyle -a :zle:evil-registers:'+' $op handler
		# if there is a handler, assign it for the empty pattern
		(($#handler)) && zstyle :zle:evil-registers:'' $op $handler
	done
}

Installation

Antigen:

antigen bundle zsh-vi-more/evil-registers
antigen apply

Zgen:

zgen load zsh-vi-more/evil-registers
zgen save

Zplug:

zplug zsh-vi-more/evil-registers

Zplugin:

zplugin ice wait "0"
zplugin light zsh-vi-more/evil-registers

# Optionally, track the latest development version:
zplugin ice wait "0" ver"dev"
zplugin light zsh-vi-more/evil-registers

Manually: Clone the project, and then source it:

source /path/to/evil-registers/evil-registers.zsh

Similar Projects

• kutsan/zsh-system-clipboard