Let the user customize history search coloring

[marlonrichert]

Discussed in #786

^{Originally posted by norsemangrey March 7, 2025}
Anyone know if it is possible to to change the bg/fg colors of the history search? I'm trying to get it to look more like the completion predictor in PowerShell which I think looks nicer. Is it also possible to highlight all words/letters matching in the search? The fist matching word loses its highlight once starting on the next.

zsh-autocomplete

CompletionPredictor

[marlonrichert]

The history match coloring logic is somewhat complex:

zsh-autocomplete/Completions/_autocomplete__history_lines

Lines 8 to 38 in 1c2c985

	local -P lbuffer='' rbuffer=''
	(( CURRENT > 1 )) &&
	lbuffer="${(j.[[:blank:]]##.)${(@b)words[1,CURRENT-1]}}[[:blank:]]##"
	(( CURRENT < $#words[@] )) &&
	rbuffer="[[:blank:]]##${(j.[[:blank:]]##.)${(@b)words[CURRENT+1,-1]}}"
	lbuffer="$lbuffer${(b)QIPREFIX}"
	rbuffer="${(b)QISUFFIX}$rbuffer"
	local -P query=''
	if [[ -n $words[CURRENT] ]]; then
	local -Pa includes=( "${(@s..b)^words[CURRENT]}" )
	local -Pa excludes=( "(|[^${(@s..b)^words[CURRENT]}\n;]#)" )
	local -Pa tokens=( ${(@)excludes:^includes} )
	query="((#l)$tokens[2]${(j..)tokens[3,-1]})"
	local -P no_delim='[^\n;]#' pre='' post=''
	if [[ -z $lbuffer ]]; then
	pre='*'
	else
	pre=$no_delim
	fi
	if [[ -z $rbuffer ]]; then
	post='*'
	else
	post=$no_delim
	fi
	query="(|$pre)$query$post"
	else
	query='()*'
	fi

zsh-autocomplete/Completions/_autocomplete__history_lines

Lines 55 to 64 in 1c2c985

	local -P numpat='[[:blank:]]#(<->)[*[:blank:]][[:blank:]]'
	local -P groups="${(l:$(( 2 * $#words[CURRENT] ))::=0:):-}"
	_comp_colors=(
	"=(#b)${numpat}${lbuffer}(${query})${rbuffer}${rbuffer:+[[:blank:]]#}=2=2=0=0=30;103$groups"
	"=(#b)${numpat}${lbuffer}(${query})*=2=2=0=30;103$groups"
	"=(#b)${numpat}${lbuffer}(*)=2=2=0"
	"=(#b)${numpat}*=0=2"
	${(M)_comp_colors:#ma=*}
	)

So, letting the user fully customize is not really possible.

However, we could offer the user a zstyle that lets them replace the colors used (=0, =2 and =30;103 in the code).

@norsemangrey Feel free to submit a pull request. It shouldn't be hard to implement.