Zsh config layout, env vars, FZF, and colored man pages. See shell/zsh-tips for runtime behavior.

File layout (XDG)

• $ZDOTDIR = ~/.config/zsh (set in a tiny ~/.zshenv)
• .zprofile → ~/.config/zsh/.zprofile — login shells (env, paths)
• .zshrc → ~/.config/zsh/.zshrc — interactive shells (completion, prompt, plugins, keys)
• History file: ~/.cache/zsh_history
• Completion cache: ~/.cache/zsh/zcompdump-$ZSH_VERSION

.zprofile runs first (login), .zshrc after (interactive). Put env in .zprofile, behavior in .zshrc.

XDG dirs (set in .zprofile)

XDG_CONFIG_HOME=$HOME/.config
XDG_DATA_HOME=$HOME/.local/share
XDG_STATE_HOME=$HOME/.local/state
XDG_CACHE_HOME=$HOME/.cache

App-specific relocations:

• LESSHISTFILE=$XDG_CACHE_HOME/less_history
• PYTHON_HISTORY=$XDG_DATA_HOME/python/history
• WORKON_HOME=$XDG_DATA_HOME/.virtualenvs

Default editor

• EDITOR=nvim — used by visudo, crontab -e, git, etc.

PATH

• Custom scripts dir is on PATH: PATH=$XDG_CONFIG_HOME/scripts:$PATH

FZF env

• FZF_DEFAULT_OPTS="--style minimal --color 16 --layout=reverse --height 30% --preview='bat -p --color=always {}'"
• FZF_CTRL_R_OPTS="--style minimal --color 16 --info inline --no-sort --no-preview"

Ctrl+R history widget set up via source <(fzf --zsh).

Colored man pages

Set in .zprofile:

LESS='-R'
MANPAGER='sh -c "less"'
GROFF_NO_SGR=0
MANROFFOPT='-c'

ANSI escape colors for man formatting:

• Blink → bright red \e[1;91m
• Bold → magenta \e[1;95m
• Underline → bright green \e[1;92m
• Standout → gray bg / white fg \e[48;5;238;38;5;15m
• Line numbers → dim gray \e[38;5;240m

Dependencies

• zoxide — smart cd
• fzf + bat — fuzzy search with previews
• zsh-syntax-highlighting — real-time command highlighting
• zsh-vi-mode (AUR) — replaces built-in zle vi-mode

Reload

• source ~/.config/zsh/.zshrc (or just open a new shell)