The up and down key behavior is overwritten, even though it has been overridden in the .zshrc file.

[kaushiksahu18]

General information

• Terminal program: unknown unknown (xterm-kitty)
• Operating system: Linux (6.11.5-arch1-1 Unsupported grep -P option on Mac OS #1 SMP PREEMPT_DYNAMIC Tue, 22 Oct 2024 18:31:38 +0000 x86_64 GNU/Linux)
• ZSH framework: starship 1.21.1, zinit v3.13.1-11-gd05a5301 (linux-gnu_x86_64)
• ZSH version: zsh 5.9 (x86_64-pc-linux-gnu)
• ZVM version: zsh-vi-mode 0.11.0

Basic examination

• [ x] I have read through the README page
• [x ] I have the latest version of zsh-vi-mode
• [x ] I have tested with another terminal program

Problem description

I would like to utilize the up and down arrow keys for the key bindings listed below, but the current plugin is preventing me from doing so. I am able to access my desired key bindings if I execute the source .zshrc command, however, this action must be performed each time. Alternatively, when I commented out the plugin, the functionality operated as expected. I would appreciate your assistance in resolving this issue.

bindkey "^[[A" history-beginning-search-backward
bindkey "^[[B" history-beginning-search-forward

Reproduction steps

1. add this pluin to .zshrc
2. change bindkey

Expected behavior

...

[rseichter]

@jeffreytse I have run into the same problem, and it is driving me quite insane. 😉 Using ZVM as an Oh My Zsh plugin, my ~/.zshrc contains this:

# Extend OMZ plugin list
plugins+=(
  zsh-autosuggestions
  zsh-history-substring-search
  zsh-syntax-highlighting
  zsh-vi-mode
)

# ... More setup, including OMZ activation ...

# Last lines in .zshrc
bindkey '^[OA' history-substring-search-up
bindkey '^[OB' history-substring-search-down

Activating zsh-vi-mode like shown above breaks the key bindings used for zsh-history-substring-search. As soon as I disable ZVM, things are working again.

This bug affects me badly, because using the up-arrow to search Zsh history is deeply embedded in my muscle memory.

[kaushiksahu18]

This bug affects me badly, because using the up-arrow to search Zsh history is deeply embedded in my muscle memory.

you can give a try to Atuin

[rseichter]

@kaushiksahu18 wrote

you can give a try to Atuin

I'm sorry, but I don't understand your comment. What do you mean?

[miversen33]

@rseichter they are saying you can use the program Atuin to manage your zsh history.

Which... Ya I mean that's a workaround, but it would be better if we had a way to tell the plugin "Hey don't overwrite these things".

Alternatively I wonder if we were to have vi-mode be the first plugin loaded, would that help?

Basically, let vi-mode be loaded, then all other plugins or settings override what they need to do. Its not ideal but it might work?

[rseichter]

@miversen33 Thank you for clarifying, Atuin was a complete unknown to me. At first glance, it seems to be a bit of an overkill for my needs, but looking into Atuin in more detail won't hurt.

As for your idea of using plugin load order to our advantage: Does OMZ even have a notion of order/priority when it comes to plugins? I don't recall seeing this mentioned in Oh-My-Zsh documentation yet.

Lastly, while I would not say no to a workaround, the problem is apparently caused by ZVM and should be addressed there. If you look at my .zshrc excerpt above, you see that I set my key bindings as the last step. ZVM somehow interferes with this core Zsh functionality.

[miversen33]

I don't use oh-my-zsh anymore but I was able to verify that loading zsh-vi-mode before any other plugins does work as expected.

To your question, plugins is just an array, I don't suspect that oh-my-zsh is doing anything special to load the plugins contained in the array. It's almost certainly just looping through from the top. So if you just put zsh-vi-mode in the plugins array first, everything else should be loaded after (or over top) it.

[rseichter]

I don't use oh-my-zsh anymore but I was able to verify that loading zsh-vi-mode before any other plugins does work as expected.

@miversen33 You were? I tried it myself, and found that placing ZVM in different places in the OMZ plugins array did not solve the problem. History search using the up-arrow key remained broken. Only removing the ZVM plugin restored that functionality.

[miversen33]

Ahh I should have been more clear. I was able to verify that loading it first works when not using OMZ. IE manually loading plugins. As I stated, I'm not using it anymore, but it's interesting that simply adding the plugin "first" in the plugin array doesn't work.

[rseichter]

@miversen33 I tried manual plugin loading, and even without using OMZ anymore I still can't get backwards history search to work. Would you perhaps be willing to share your .zshrc file? I would like to understand why it works for you but not for me.

[miversen33]

@rseichter They likely won't be terribly usable but here is a point in time on my dots that had vi-mode being loaded and then I made changes to the bindkeys after.

The changes I made were to the CTRL-left and CTRL-right keybinds and it worked as expected.

That said, I have since removed vi-mode altogether from my dotfiles as it was just a bit too "obtuse" for my liking.

Since you are using OMZ, are you aware that OMZ includes its own vi-mode you can use?

[rseichter]

@miversen33 Thanks, your .zshrc looks similar enough to mine that I don't feel like I am making some fundamental mistakes. I am still experimenting. Using OMZ, not using it, loading plugins manually or not, even trying Atuin as @kaushiksahu18 suggested (it is quite a fancy approach, I have to admit). I am uncertain about the best way forward. /me shrugs