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Re: do you use separate .zshenv and .zshrc files?



On Sat, 28 Apr 2012, TJ Luoma wrote:

I keep vacillating between wanting to separate my config files into two separate files or keep them in one.

My config currently spans 19 files, so my bias should be apparent. I keep everything in ~/.zsh/, except for machine-specific settings, which I put in ~/.zsh.local/. And ~/.zshenv is a symlink to ~/.zsh/.zshenv, which sets ZDOTDIR to ~/.zsh. My ~/.zsh/.zshrc sources the other files in ~/.zsh/, most of which have some guard at the top (e.g. ~/.zsh/.zsh_screen returns if the `screen` command isn't installed).


If I understand ZSH correctly, I could use one file (.zshenv) and put the settings which *would* have been in .zshrc into a block like this:

if [[ -o login ]]

You want 'interactive' here, not 'login':
if [[ -o interactive ]]


then
# do stuff which would have been in .zshrc here
fi


[[ -o login ]] would catch things that would be done in .zprofile and .zlogin, not those that are done in .zshrc.


The reason for doing this is that I tend to forget which file has whatever thing it is that I want to tweak/edit/change/add, and so I end up having to open one, search for what I'm looking for, realize it's in the other file, and then open the other file.

ISTM that it would be easier to just keep everything in one file and separate the login stuff using the `if` statement above.

As pointed out above .zshenv vs .zshrc isn't a difference of "login" vs. not. It's "interactive" vs. not.

Here's the order of the standard four files, and the condition under which they run:

.zshenv: (always)
.zprofile: [[ -o login ]]
.zshrc: [[ -o interactive ]]
.zlogin: [[ -o login ]]

To disable all of them, there is the 'NO_RCS' option.

Personally, I don't use .zprofile or .zlogin, because all of my customization outside of .zshenv is only applicable to interactive shells.


Are there any drawbacks to that method?

None that I know of. If that's how you prefer to organize it, it should work fine.

--
Best,
Ben



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