Types

Some zsh-abbr commands take a type parameter. There are two supported types: regular and global. Regular abbreviations expand only at the start of the command line. Global abbreviations expand anywhere in the command line.

Regular is the default type.

Regular

Regular abbreviations expand only at the start of the command line, or —with the default configuration— after sudo at the start of the command line.

That's different from zsh's native "regular aliases" and fish's native "regular abbreviations", which work when in command position even if that isn't the start of the line (that is, fish can expand my-abbreviation in my-abbreviation and in foo; my-abbreviation; zsh-abbr cannot). zsh-abbr has experimental support for command position regular abbreviations. Read more about ABBR_EXPERIMENTAL_COMMAND_POSITION_REGULAR_ABBREVIATIONS in Configuration variables.

TIP

Read Prefixes for how to disable the sudo prefix and/or add your own prefixes.

To scope a zsh-abbr command to the user, pass the --regular flag or its shorthand -r… or do not pass a type flag — regular is the default scope.

In the following examples, regular abbreviations expand at the start of the line but not in other positions:

% abbr hw="echo hello world"
Added the regular user abbreviation `hw`

% hw[Enter] # expands to `echo hello world` and runs
hello world

% echo foo && hw[Enter] # runs without expanding `hw`
foo
zsh: command not found: hw

% abbr --regular l="echo longhand"
Added the regular user abbreviation `l`

% l[Enter] # expands to `echo longhand` and runs
longhand

% echo foo && l[Enter] # runs without expanding  `l`
zsh: command not found: l

% abbr -r s="echo shorthand"
Added the regular user abbreviation `s`

% s[Enter] # expands to `echo shorthand` and runs
shorthand

% echo foo && s[Enter] # runs without expanding  `s`
zsh: command not found: s

Global

Global abbreviations expand everywhere.

To scope a zsh-abbr command to the user, pass the --global flag or its shorthand -g.

In the following examples, global abbreviations expand at the start of the line and also in other positions:

% abbr -g hw="echo hello world"
Added the global user abbreviation `hw`

% hw[Enter] # expands to `echo hello world` and runs
hello world

% echo foo && hw[Enter] # expands to `echo foo && echo hello world` and runs
foo
hello world

% abbr --global l="echo longhand"
Added the global user abbreviation `l`

% l[Enter] # expands to `echo longhand` and runs
longhand

% echo foo && l[Enter] # expands to `echo foo && echo longhand` and runs
foo
longhand

% abbr -g s="echo shorthand"
Added the global user abbreviation `s`

% s[Enter] # expands to `echo shorthand` and runs
shorthand

% echo foo && s[Enter] # expands to `echo foo && echo shorthand` and runs
foo
shorthand