zsh-defer
defers execution of a zsh command until zsh has nothing else to do and is waiting for
user input. Its intended purpose is staged zsh startup. It works similarly to Turbo mode in
zplugin.
Features:
- Small and clean: The API consists of a single function implemented in ~150 lines of straightforward zsh.
- Fast to load: It takes under 1ms to source
zsh-defer.plugin.zsh
. - Easy to use:
source slow.zsh
=>zsh-defer source slow.zsh
. - Plugin manager agnostic: Can be used with any plugin manager or even without one. Turbo mode for everyone.
- Installation
- Usage
- Example
- Caveats
- FAQ
- Is it possible to autoload zsh-defer?
- Is it possible to find out from within a command whether it's being executed by zsh-defer?
- Is zsh-defer a plugin manager?
- How useful is it?
- Is zsh-defer compatible with Instant Prompt in Powerlevel10k?
- Can I use zsh-defer together with zplugin?
- How does zsh-defer compare to Turbo mode in zplugin?
- Why so many references to and comparisons with zplugin?
- Clone the repo.
git clone https://github.com/romkatv/zsh-defer.git ~/zsh-defer
- Add the following line at the top of
~/.zshrc
:
source ~/zsh-defer/zsh-defer.plugin.zsh
Using a plugin manager? You can install zsh-defer the same way as any other zsh plugin hosted on GitHub.
zsh-defer [{+|-}12dmshpr] [-t delay] word...
zsh-defer [{+|-}12dmshpr] [-t delay] -c list
Queues up the specified command for deferred execution. Whenever zle is idle, the next command is
popped from the queue. If the command has been queued up with -t delay
, execution of the command
and all deferred commands after it is delayed by the specified number of seconds (non-negative real
number) without blocking zle. Duration can be specified in any format accepted by sleep(1)
. After
that the command is executed either as word...
with every word quoted, or, if -c
is specified,
as eval list
. Commands are executed in the same order they are queued up.
Options can be used to enable (+x
) or disable (-x
) extra actions taken during and after the
execution of the command. By default, all actions are enabled. The same option can be enabled or
disabled more than once -- the last instance wins.
Option | Action |
---|---|
1 | Redirect standard output to /dev/null . |
2 | Redirect standard error to /dev/null . |
d | Call chpwd hooks. |
m | Call precmd hooks. |
s | Invalidate suggestions from zsh-autosuggestions. |
h | Invalidate highlighting from zsh-syntax-highlighting. |
p | Call zle reset-prompt . |
r | Call zle -R . |
a | Shorthand for all options: 12dmshpra. |
Here's an example of ~/.zshrc
that uses zsh-defer
to achieve staged zsh startup. When starting
zsh, it takes only a few milliseconds for this ~/.zshrc
to be evaluated and for prompt to appear.
After that, prompt and the command line buffer are refreshed and buffered keyboard input are
processed after the execution of every deferred command.
source ~/zsh-defer/zsh-defer.plugin.zsh
PS1="%F{12}%~%f "
RPS1="%F{240}loading%f"
setopt promp_subst
zsh-defer source ~/zsh-autosuggestions/zsh-autosuggestions.zsh
zsh-defer source ~/zsh-syntax-highlighting/zsh-syntax-highlighting.zsh
zsh-defer source ~/.nvm/nvm.sh
zsh-defer -c 'RPS1="%F{2}\$(git rev-parse --abbrev-ref HEAD 2>/dev/null)%f"'
Zsh startup without zsh-defer
. Prompt appears once everything is loaded.
Zsh startup with zsh-defer
. Prompt appears instantly and gets updated after every startup stage.
- zsh-autosuggestions is loaded: completion suggestion appears.
- zsh-highlighting is loaded:
nvm
in the command line turns red (no such command). - nvm is loaded:
nvm
turns green (recognized command). RPS1
is set: the name of the current Git branch appears.
zsh-defer
executes commands from zle. This has several ramifications.
- Commands cannot read standard input. Thus, commands that may require keyboard input should not be deferred.
- Output from commands can be invisible and can cause prompt to be reprinted. This is the reason
why
zsh-defer
redirects standard output and standard error to/dev/null
by default. This behavior can be disabled with+1
and+2
. - Some plugins don't expect to be sourced from zle and may fail to properly initialize.
- Corollary: It's often necessary to rely on implementation details of plugins in order to load
them from zle. This exposes the user to much higher risk of breakage when updating plugins.
The default options in
zsh-defer
can help you sidestep these issues in many cases but not always.
- Corollary: It's often necessary to rely on implementation details of plugins in order to load
them from zle. This exposes the user to much higher risk of breakage when updating plugins.
The default options in
zsh-defer
executes commands in function scope with LOCAL_OPTIONS
, LOCAL_PATTERNS
and
LOCAL_TRAPS
options. This can break initialization scripts that use typeset
without explicit
-g
, set options, change patterns or install traps.
Yes.
Instead of this:
source ~/zsh-defer/zsh-defer.plugin.zsh
You can do this:
fpath+=(~/zsh-defer)
autoload -Uz zsh-defer
Yes. Check whether zsh_defer_options
parameter is set.
function say-hi() {
if (( $+zsh_defer_options )); then
echo "Hello from zsh-defer with options: $zsh_defer_options" >>/tmp/log
else
echo "Hello from without zsh-defer" >>/tmp/log
fi
}
say-hi # Hello from zsh-defer with options: 12dmshp
zsh-defer say-hi # Hello from without zsh-defer
No. zsh-defer
is a function that allows you to defer execution of zsh commands. You can use it
on its own or with a plugin manager to effectively add Turbo mode to it.
About as useful as Turbo mode in zplugin.
Yes. Although if you are using Powerlevel10k with Instant Prompt you likely don't need to use deferred loading of any kind.
Yes, both ways.
You can load zsh-defer
with zplugin the same way as any other plugin.
zplugin light romkatv/zsh-defer
You can defer a zplugin
command with zsh-defer
the same way as any other command.
zsh-defer zplugin light zsh-users/zsh-autosuggestions
zsh-defer zplugin light zsh-users/zsh-syntax-highlighting
They are quite similar. Both allow you to defer execution of a zsh command and both execute the command from zle, with all the negative consequences that this entails.
zsh-defer
is most useful to those who don't use zplugin as it gives them access to Turbo mode that
they otherwise didn't have. However, there are also a few minor benefits to using
zsh-defer zplugin light
compared to the builtin Turbo mode:
zsh-defer
guarantees that all buffered keyboard input gets processed before every deferred command.- The argument of
-t
can be fractional. - The default options of
zsh-defer
are fairly effective at mitigating the negative side effects of deferred loading. - Options provide full flexibility that hardcore zsh users might desire.
zsh-defer
has a short and easy-to-understand implementation.
Has zplugin closed the gap on one or more of these points? Please send a PR removing them from the list.
On the other hand, zplugin ice wait
has its own advantages:
- I don't know any. Please help expanding this section.
Turbo mode in zplugin is the only other robust implementation of deferred zsh command execution that
I'm aware of. There is also zsh/sched
but it's underpowered by comparison.
Note that zsh-defer is not a plugin manager and thus not an alternative to zplugin.