Zsh IMproved FrameWork

What is Zim?

Zim is a Zsh configuration framework with blazing speed and modular extensions.

Zim is very easy to customize, and comes with a rich set of modules and features without compromising on speed or functionality!

What does Zim offer?

If you're here, it means you want to see the cool shit Zim can do. Check out the available modules!

Below is a brief showcase of Zim's features.

Speed

For a speed comparison between Zim and other frameworks, see this wiki entry.

Themes

To preview some of the available themes, check the themes wiki page.

Fish-shell history navigation

Syntax highlighting

And much more!

Zim has many modules! Enable as many or as few as you'd like.

Installation

Installing Zim is easy. If you have a different shell framework installed (like oh-my-zsh or prezto), uninstall those first to prevent conflicts. It can be installed manually by following the instructions below:

1. Start a Zsh shell:

   zsh
   

2. Clone the repository:

   git clone --recursive https://github.com/zimfw/zimfw.git ${ZDOTDIR:-${HOME}}/.zim
   

3. Paste this into your terminal to prepend the initialization templates to your configs:

   for template_file in ${ZDOTDIR:-${HOME}}/.zim/templates/*; do
     user_file="${ZDOTDIR:-${HOME}}/.${template_file:t}"
     cat ${template_file} ${user_file}(.N) > ${user_file}.tmp && mv ${user_file}{.tmp,}
   done
   

4. Set Zsh as the default shell:

   chsh -s =zsh
   

5. Open a new terminal and install the enabled modules.

   zimfw install
   

6. Finish optimization (this is only needed once, hereafter it will happen upon desktop/tty login):

   zimfw login-init
   

7. You're done! Enjoy your Zsh IMproved! Take some time to read about the available modules and tweak your .zshrc file.

Settings

Enabled modules

Use the following zstyle to select the modules you would like enabled:

zstyle ':zim' modules 'first-module' 'second-module' 'third-module'

You can provide as many module names as you want. Modules are sourced in the order given.

By default, a module is installed from the Zim repository with the same name. For example, the git module is installed from https://github.com/zimfw/git if no additional module configuration is provided.

Module customization

To configure a module, use the following format (where the style name is the module name):

zstyle ':zim:module' <module> ['frozen' yes] ['url' <url>] ['branch' <branch>|'tag' <tag>]

If frozen is set to yes, then the module will not be cleaned, installed or updated.

You can provide a custom url with the following equivalent formats:

• module
• zimfw/module
• https://github.com/zimfw/module.git

If no branch or tag name is given, then the default is branch master.

Choose the module name wisely. The first file found in the module root directory, in the following order, will be sourced (where module is the module name):

1. init.zsh
2. module.zsh
3. module.plugin.zsh
4. module.zsh.theme
5. module.sh

For example, https://github.com/mafredri/zsh-async must be configured as:

zstyle ':zim:module' async 'url' 'mafredri/zsh-async'

because it has a async.zsh initialization file, then enabled as async in the modules style.

Prompt theme

Prompt themes are enabled in one of two different ways, depending on how the specific theme you want works:

1. If it has a prompt_module_setup file (where module is the module name): it is enabled with Zim's prompt module. See the instructions here. The advantage of these themes is that you can customize them with additional parameters. All Zim themes work this way.
2. If it has one of the initialization files listed above: it is enabled when it's sourced, not with Zim's prompt module.

Updating

To update your modules, run:

zimfw update

To upgrade Zim, run:

zimfw upgrade

For more information about the zimfw tool, run zimfw with no parameters.

Uninstalling

The best way to remove Zim is to manually delete ~/.zim, ~/.zimrc, and remove the initialization lines from your ~/.zshrc and ~/.zlogin.