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https://github.com/zee-editor/zee

A modern text editor for the terminal written in Rust
https://github.com/zee-editor/zee

async cross-platform emacs ide incremental-parsing rope rust-lang text-editor tree-sitter

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A modern text editor for the terminal written in Rust

Lists

README 

        


  Zi logo





  

    Build Status

  

  

    Crates.io

  




Zee is a modern editor for the terminal, _in the spirit of Emacs_. It is written in Rust and it is

somewhat experimental.



In the old tradition of text editor demos, here's what it currently looks like editing its own

source code



![Peek 2020-03-09 00-16](https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/797170/76173969-0bdc4980-619c-11ea-9f24-7899e2722910.gif)



## features



- The 100 FPS editor. Cursor movement and edits render under 10ms. Everything else happens asynchronously (syntax parsing and highlighting, IO to/from disk, file pickers).

- Buffers are backed by a fast B-tree implementation of a [rope]() (via cessen's [ropey](https://github.com/cessen/ropey)).

- Edit tree history, aka. undo/redo tree

- Uses [Tree-sitter](https://tree-sitter.github.io/tree-sitter/) for generating a parse tree from your code. This AST is used for syntax highlighting and on the fly validation. As it is an incremental parsing library, it scales to files with 1 million lines of code.

- multi-buffer, multi-pane -- shared state _beats_ tmux with multiple editors

- fast recursive file search with fuzzy matching and aware of _ignore_ files (using BurntSushi's ripgrep crates [walkdir](https://github.com/BurntSushi/walkdir), [ignore](https://github.com/BurntSushi/ripgrep))

- local file picker with directory navigation

- a pragmatic editor, not a research endeavour into CRDTs



## getting started



The recommended way to install zee is using [cargo](https://crates.io/)



```

cargo install --locked zee

```



To start the editor run `zee`. As expected, you can pass in one or multiple files to be opened, e.g. `zee file1 file2`.



### install options



To enable integration with your system's clipboard, install zee with the `system-clipboard` feature



```

cargo install --locked --features system-clipboard zee

```



To build with clipboard support, you'll additionally need x11 bindings on Linux. On a _Debian-y_ distribution, you can install them like this



```

sudo apt install xorg-dev libxcb-shape0-dev libxcb-xfixes0-dev

```



#### nightly version



To install the latest version directly from the official repository, just run

the following command:



```

cargo install --git https://github.com/zee-editor/zee

```



**Important:** please note that the code base state fetched by this instruction

could contain work-in-progress features which might need some further

maintenance before being included in the release of the next stable version.



### configuration



Zee is customised using a [`config.ron`](zee/config/config.ron) file inside the configuration directory.



To create the default configuration file, use the `--init` command line argument.



```

zee --init

```



If `config.ron` doesn't already exist, `zee --init` will create a fresh configuration file with comments, ready to be edited.



The exact location of the configuration directory is system specific, e.g. `~/.config/zee` on Linux or macOS

and `%AppData%/zee` on Windows. The location of the configuration directory can be overwritten by setting the environment variable `ZEE_CONFIG_DIR`.



```

ZEE_CONFIG_DIR=/home/user/.zee zee --init --build

```



This command will initialise a configuration directory at `/home/user/.zee` and immediately download and build the configured tree sitter parsers. See below details on the `--build` command line argument.



### syntax highlighting



Zee uses [Tree-sitter](https://tree-sitter.github.io/tree-sitter/) parsers for

syntax highlighting and on the fly validation of source code. Each tree sitter

parser is compiled to a shared object which is linked dynamically. To download

and build the parsers, simply run



```

zee --build

```



The parsers are downloaded, compiled and placed in a `grammars` directory inside the config

directory. The exact location is system specific, e.g. `~/.config/zee/grammars` on Linux or macOS

and `%AppData%/zee/grammars` on Windows.



The parsers are either the ones configured in the `config.ron` file or the

default ones if no configuration file is found.



If you change the parsers in the `config.ron` file, you'll have to re-run the build command.



## building from source



Zee is written in Rust and it requires the latest stable compiler to build. You can use cargo to

build it as you'd expect



```

git clone https://github.com/zee-editor/zee.git && cd zee

cargo run -- zee/src/main.rs

```



The editor also depends on tree sitter parsers, one for each supported language,

see [configuration](#configuration). Each tree sitter parser is compiled to a

shared object which is linked dynamically.



Running `cargo build` downloads and builds this parsers just to ensure

everything works correctly. You can skip this step by setting

`ZEE_DISABLE_GRAMMAR_BUILD`, e.g.



```

ZEE_DISABLE_GRAMMAR_BUILD=t cargo run -- zee/src/main.rs

```



## usage



To start the editor run `zee`. As expected, you can pass in one or multiple files to be opened,

e.g. `zee file1 file2`.



Zee uses Emacs-y keybindings. Feeling at home with the default Emacs bindings is a goal of the

project.



Below, `C-` means `Ctrl` + the specified key, e.g. `C-k` is `Ctrl + k`. Similarly `A-` means

`Alt` + the specified key. Empty spaces denote a sequence of key presses, e.g. `C-x C-c` means

first pressing `C-x` followed by `C-c`.



The following keybindings are available



### movement



- `C-f`, `Right` move forward

- `C-b`, `Left` move backward

- `C-n`, `Down` move down

- `C-p`, `Up` move up

- `A-f` move forward by one word

- `A-b` move backward by one word

- `A-n` move forward by one paragraph

- `A-p` move backward by one paragraph

- `C-a`, `Home` move to start of line

- `C-e`, `End` move to end of line

- `C-v`, `PageDown` move down one page

- `A-v`, `PageUp` move up one page

- `A-<` move to the beginning of the buffer

- `A->` move to the end of the buffer

- `C-l` centre the cursor visually



### editing



- `C-d` delete forwards

- `Backspace` delete backwards

- `C-k` delete the current line

- `C-SPC` enter selection mode at the current cursor position

- `C-w` cut selection

- `A-w` copy selection

- `C-x h` select the entire buffer and move the cursor to the beginning

- `C-y` paste selection (yank in Emacs)

- `C-g` clear the current selection

- `C-_`, `C-z`, `C-/` undo previous command

- `C-q` redo previous command

- `C-x u` open the edit tree viewer

- `Enter` insert a new line, moving the cursor

- `C-o` insert a new line after the cursor, without moving it

- `C-x C-s` save the current buffer



### file navigation



- `C-x C-f` choose a file to open using a directory-level picker

- `C-x C-v` search recursively for a file to open from the selected directory

- `C-l` while opening a file, go to the parent directory

- `Tab` while opening a file, fills in the currently selected path



### edit tree viewer



- `C-p`, `Up` move up the tree to an older revision, undoing the command

- `C-n`, `Down` move down the tree to a newer revision, redoing the command

- `C-b`, `Left` select the left child of current revision

- `C-f`, `Right` select the right child of current revision



### global



- `C-g` cancel the current operation

- `C-x k` choose a buffer to close

- `C-x b` switch the current window to another buffer

- `C-x 0`, `C-x C-0` close the focused window

- `C-x 1`, `C-x C-1` make the focused window fullscreen

- `C-x 2`, `C-x C-2` split the focused window below

- `C-x 3`, `C-x C-3` split the focused window to the right

- `C-x o`, `C-x C-o` switch focus to the next buffer

- `C-x C-t` cycle through the available themes

- `C-x C-c` quit



## license



This project is licensed under either of



- Apache License, Version 2.0, ([LICENSE-APACHE](LICENSE-APACHE) or

  http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0)

- MIT license ([LICENSE-MIT](LICENSE-MIT) or

  http://opensource.org/licenses/MIT)



at your discretion.



### contribution



Unless you explicitly state otherwise, any contribution intentionally submitted

for inclusion by you, as defined in the Apache-2.0 license, shall be dual

licensed as above, without any additional terms or conditions.