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Add comments for the platform dependency of the regex module #747

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28 changes: 25 additions & 3 deletions docs/highlighters/regexp.md
Original file line number Diff line number Diff line change
Expand Up @@ -12,11 +12,32 @@ To use this highlighter, associate regular expressions with styles in the

```zsh
typeset -A ZSH_HIGHLIGHT_REGEXP
ZSH_HIGHLIGHT_REGEXP+=('\bsudo\b' fg=123,bold)
ZSH_HIGHLIGHT_REGEXP+=('^rm .*' fg=red,bold)
```

This will highlight "sudo" only as a complete word, i.e., "sudo cmd", but not
"sudoedit"
This will highlight the whole line starting with `rm` command (for all
operating systems, in contrast to the below example).

Some regular expressions are [subject to the host platform][MAN_ZSH_REGEX],
especially the `libc` module. To highlight `sudo` only as a complete word, i.e.,
`sudo cmd`, but not `sudoedit`, the respective regular expressions for the host
systems would be:

* Platforms with GNU `libc` (e.g., many GNU/Linux distributions)

```zsh
typeset -A ZSH_HIGHLIGHT_REGEXP
ZSH_HIGHLIGHT_REGEXP+=('\<sudo\>' fg=123,bold)
```

* BSD-based platforms (e.g., macOS)

```zsh
typeset -A ZSH_HIGHLIGHT_REGEXP
ZSH_HIGHLIGHT_REGEXP+=('[[:<:]]sudo[[:>:]]' fg=123,bold)
```

Both would give the same results, but do not work on each other's system.

The syntax for values is the same as the syntax of "types of highlighting" of
the zsh builtin `$zle_highlight` array, which is documented in [the `zshzle(1)`
Expand All @@ -25,6 +46,7 @@ manual page][zshzle-Character-Highlighting].
See also: [regular expressions tutorial][perlretut], zsh regexp operator `=~`
in [the `zshmisc(1)` manual page][zshmisc-Conditional-Expressions]

[MAN_ZSH_REGEX]: http://zsh.sourceforge.net/Doc/Release/Zsh-Modules.html#The-zsh_002fregex-Module
[zshzle-Character-Highlighting]: http://zsh.sourceforge.net/Doc/Release/Zsh-Line-Editor.html#Character-Highlighting
[perlretut]: http://perldoc.perl.org/perlretut.html
[zshmisc-Conditional-Expressions]: http://zsh.sourceforge.net/Doc/Release/Conditional-Expressions.html#Conditional-Expressions