Z shell Development

The source code is managed in a Git repository hosted by SourceForge. To clone the repository use the following command.

git clone git://git.code.sf.net/p/zsh/code zsh

You can also browse the repository online through SourceForge's Git viewer.

To build it, you will need to run Util/preconfig to build the configure script. This requires that you have a copy of autoconf installed. Documentation is pre-built for the releases so unless you have Yodl installed builds from Git sources will fail when they come to build documentation. This is after zsh itself has been built so don't let that error worry you.

The master branch contains the current development.

Be aware that if you obtain your copy of Zsh in any of the ways described on this page, it is likely to contain many more bugs than the official releases. If you're not interested in having the very latest features and just want to get on with some real work get the latest stable release.

Contributions should be sent to the zsh-workers@zsh.org mailing list in the form of patch files. To generate a patch, you can use git diff. We prefer patches to be included inline in the body of the message because it makes it easier to comment on particular lines. However, if you can't do that without your e-mail program wrapping long lines, then attachments are also fine.

Note that you don't as such need to be subscribed to post to the mailing list. It does have a spam filter that is sometimes over zealous so please keep an eye on the list archives to ensure that your message arrives.

There is an unofficial mirror of the git repository at github. The associated issue tracker is not used but in the case of contributions to completion functions, you are welcome to submit pull requests.