powerlevel10k Documentation

File: README.md Copy Chapter

Powerlevel10k

• THE PROJECT HAS VERY LIMITED SUPPORT
• NO NEW FEATURES ARE IN THE WORKS
• MOST BUGS WILL GO UNFIXED
• HELP REQUESTS WILL BE IGNORED

Powerlevel10k is a theme for Zsh. It emphasizes speed,
flexibility and out-of-the-box experience.

• Getting started
• Features
• Installation
• Configuration
• Fonts
• Try it in Docker
• License
• FAQ
• Troubleshooting

Getting started Copy Chapter

1. Install the recommended font. Optional but highly
   recommended.
2. Install Powerlevel10k itself.
3. Restart Zsh with exec zsh.
4. Type p10k configure if the configuration wizard doesn't start automatically.

Features Copy Chapter

• Configuration wizard
• Uncompromising performance
• Powerlevel9k compatibility
• Pure compatibility
• Instant prompt
• Show on command
• Transient prompt
• Current directory that just works
• Extremely customizable
• Batteries included
• Extensible

Configuration wizard Copy Section

Type p10k configure to access the builtin configuration wizard right from your terminal.

Screen recording

All styles except Pure are functionally equivalent. They display the same
information and differ only in presentation.

Configuration wizard creates ~/.p10k.zsh based on your preferences. Additional prompt
customization can be done by editing this file. It has plenty of comments to help you navigate
through configuration options.

Tip: Install the recommended font before
running p10k configure to unlock all prompt styles.

FAQ:

• What is the best prompt style in the configuration wizard?
• What do different symbols in Git status mean?
• How do I change prompt colors?

Troubleshooting:

• Some prompt styles are missing from the configuration wizard.
• Question mark in prompt.
• Icons, glyphs or powerline symbols don't render.
• Sub-pixel imperfections around powerline symbols.
• Directory is difficult to see in prompt when using Rainbow style.

Uncompromising performance Copy Section

When you hit ENTER, the next prompt appears instantly. With Powerlevel10k there is no prompt lag.
If you install Cygwin on Raspberry Pi, cd into a Linux Git repository and activate enough prompt
segments to fill four prompt lines on both sides of the screen... wait, that's just crazy and no
one ever does that. Probably impossible, too. The point is, Powerlevel10k prompt is always fast, no
matter what you do!

Screen recording

Note how the effect of every command is instantly reflected by the very next prompt.

Other Zsh themes capable of displaying the same information either produce prompt lag or print
prompt that doesn't reflect the current state of the system and then refresh it later. With
Powerlevel10k you get fast prompt and up-to-date information.

FAQ: Is it really fast?

Powerlevel9k compatibility Copy Section

Powerlevel10k understands all Powerlevel9k
configuration parameters.

Screen recording

Migration from Powerlevel9k to Powerlevel10k is a straightforward process. All
your POWERLEVEL9K configuration parameters will still work. Prompt will look the same as before
(almostig))
but it will be much faster (certainly).

FAQ:

• I'm using Powerlevel9k with Oh My Zsh. How do I migrate?
• Does Powerlevel10k always render exactly the same prompt as Powerlevel9k given the same config?
• What is the relationship between Powerlevel9k and Powerlevel10k?

Pure compatibility Copy Section

Powerlevel10k can produce the same prompt as Pure. Type
p10k configure and select Pure style.

Screen recording

You can still use Powerlevel10k features such as transient prompt or
instant prompt when sporting Pure style.

To customize prompt, edit ~/.p10k.zsh. Powerlevel10k doesn't recognize Pure configuration
parameters, so you'll need to use POWERLEVEL9K_COMMAND_EXECUTION_TIME_THRESHOLD=3 instead of
PURE_CMD_MAX_EXEC_TIME=3, etc. All relevant parameters are in ~/.p10k.zsh. This file has
plenty of comments to help you navigate through it.

FAQ: What is the best prompt style in the configuration wizard?

Instant prompt Copy Section

If your ~/.zshrc loads many plugins, or perhaps just a few slow ones
(for example, pyenv or nvm), you
may have noticed that it takes some time for Zsh to start.

Screen recording

Powerlevel10k can remove Zsh startup lag even if it's not caused by a theme.

Screen recording

This feature is called Instant Prompt. You need to explicitly enable it through p10k configure
or manually. It does what it says on the tin -- prints prompt
instantly upon Zsh startup allowing you to start typing while plugins are still loading.

Other themes increase Zsh startup lag -- some by a lot, others by a just a little. Powerlevel10k
removes it outright.

If you are curious about how Instant Prompt works, see
this section in zsh-bench.

FAQ: How do I configure instant prompt?

Show on command Copy Section

The behavior of some commands depends on global environment. For example, kubectl run ... runs an
image on the cluster defined by the current kubernetes context. If you frequently change context
between "prod" and "testing", you might want to display the current context in Zsh prompt. If you do
likewise for AWS, Azure and Google Cloud credentials, prompt will get pretty crowded.

Enter Show On Command. This feature makes prompt segments appear only when they are relevant to
the command you are currently typing.

Screen recording

Configs created by p10k configure enable show on command for several prompt segments by default.
Here's the relevant parameter for kubernetes context:

# Show prompt segment "kubecontext" only when the command you are typing invokes one of these tools.
typeset -g POWERLEVEL9K_KUBECONTEXT_SHOW_ON_COMMAND='kubectl|helm|kubens'

To customize when different prompt segments are shown, open ~/.p10k.zsh, search for
SHOW_ON_COMMAND and either remove these parameters to display affected segments unconditionally,
or change their values.

Transient prompt Copy Section

When Transient Prompt is enabled through p10k configure, Powerlevel10k will trim down every
prompt when accepting a command line.

Screen recording

Transient prompt makes it much easier to copy-paste series of commands from the terminal scrollback.

Tip: If you enable transient prompt, take advantage of two-line prompt. You'll get the benefit of
extra space for typing commands without the usual drawback of reduced scrollback density. Sparse
prompt (with an empty line before prompt) also works great in combination with transient prompt.

Current directory that just works Copy Section

The current working directory is perhaps the most important prompt segment. Powerlevel10k goes to
great length to highlight its important parts and to truncate it with the least loss of information
when horizontal space gets scarce.

Screen recording

When the full directory doesn't fit, the leftmost segment gets truncated to its shortest unique
prefix. In the screencast, ~/work becomes ~/wo. It couldn't be truncated to ~/w because it
would be ambiguous (there was ~/wireguard when the session was recorded). The next segment --
projects -- turns into p as there was nothing else that started with p in ~/work/.

Directory segments are shown in one of three colors:

• Truncated segments are bleak.
• Important segments are bright and never truncated. These include the first and the last segment,
  roots of Git repositories, etc.
• Regular segments (not truncated but can be) use in-between color.

Tip: If you copy-paste a truncated directory and hit TAB, it'll complete to the original.

Troubleshooting: Directory is difficult to see in prompt when using Rainbow style.

Extremely customizable Copy Section

Powerlevel10k can be configured to look like any other Zsh theme out there.

Screen recording

Pure, Powerlevel9k and robbyrussell emulations are built-in.
To emulate the appearance of other themes, you'll need to write a suitable configuration file. The
best way to go about it is to run p10k configure, select the style that is the closest to your
goal and then edit ~/.p10k.zsh.

The full range of Powerlevel10k appearance spans from spartan:

To ridiculous extravagant:

Batteries included Copy Section

Powerlevel10k comes with dozens of built-in high quality prompt segments that can display
information from a variety of sources. When you run p10k configure and choose any style
except Pure, many of these segments get enabled by
default while others can be manually enabled by opening ~/.p10k.zsh and uncommenting them.
You can enable as many segments as you like. It won't slow down your prompt or Zsh startup.

Extensible Copy Section

If there is no prompt segment that does what you need, implement your own. Powerlevel10k provides
public API for defining segments that are as fast and as flexible as built-in ones.

Screen recording

On Linux you can fetch current CPU temperature by reading /sys/class/thermal/thermal_zone0/temp.
The screencast shows how to define a prompt segment to display this value. Once the segment is
defined, you can use it like any other segment. All standard customization parameters will work for
it out of the box.

Type p10k help segment for reference.

Note: If you modify POWERLEVEL9K_* parameters in an already initialized interactive shell (as
opposed to editing ~/.p10k.zsh), the changes might not be immediately effective. To apply the
modifications, invoke p10k reload. Setting POWERLEVEL9K_DISABLE_HOT_RELOAD=false eliminates the
necessity for p10k reload but results in a marginally slower prompt.

Tip: Prefix names of your own segments with my_ to avoid clashes with future versions of
Powerlevel10k.

Installation Copy Chapter

• Manual 👈 choose this if confused or uncertain
• Oh My Zsh
• Prezto
• Zim
• Antibody
• Antidote
• Antigen
• Zplug
• Zgen
• Zplugin
• Zinit
• Zi
• Zap
• Homebrew
• Arch Linux
• Alpine Linux
• Fig

Manual Copy Section

git clone --depth=1 https://github.com/romkatv/powerlevel10k.git ~/powerlevel10k
echo 'source ~/powerlevel10k/powerlevel10k.zsh-theme' >>~/.zshrc

Users in China can use the official mirror on gitee.com for faster download.
中国用户可以使用 gitee.com 上的官方镜像加速下载.

git clone --depth=1 https://gitee.com/romkatv/powerlevel10k.git ~/powerlevel10k
echo 'source ~/powerlevel10k/powerlevel10k.zsh-theme' >>~/.zshrc

This is the simplest kind of installation and it works even if you are using a plugin manager. Just
make sure to disable the current theme in your plugin manager. See
troubleshooting for help.

Oh My Zsh Copy Section

1. Clone the repository:

   zsh Copy

   git clone --depth=1 https://github.com/romkatv/powerlevel10k.git "${ZSH_CUSTOM:-$HOME/.oh-my-zsh/custom}/themes/powerlevel10k"

   Users in China can use the official mirror on gitee.com for faster download.
   中国用户可以使用 gitee.com 上的官方镜像加速下载.

   zsh Copy

   git clone --depth=1 https://gitee.com/romkatv/powerlevel10k.git "${ZSH_CUSTOM:-$HOME/.oh-my-zsh/custom}/themes/powerlevel10k"

2. Open ~/.zshrc, find the line that sets ZSH_THEME, and change its value to "powerlevel10k/powerlevel10k".

Prezto Copy Section

Add zstyle :prezto:module:prompt theme powerlevel10k to ~/.zpreztorc.

Zim Copy Section

Add zmodule romkatv/powerlevel10k --use degit to ~/.zimrc and run zimfw install.

Antibody Copy Section

Add antibody bundle romkatv/powerlevel10k to ~/.zshrc.

Antidote Copy Section

Add romkatv/powerlevel10k to ~/.zsh_plugins.txt.

Antigen Copy Section

Add antigen theme romkatv/powerlevel10k to ~/.zshrc. Make sure you have antigen apply
somewhere after it.

Zplug Copy Section

Add zplug romkatv/powerlevel10k, as:theme, depth:1 to ~/.zshrc.

Zgen Copy Section

Add zgen load romkatv/powerlevel10k powerlevel10k to ~/.zshrc.

Zplugin Copy Section

Add zplugin ice depth=1; zplugin light romkatv/powerlevel10k to ~/.zshrc.

The use of depth=1 ice is optional. Other types of ice are neither recommended nor officially
supported by Powerlevel10k.

Zinit Copy Section

Add zinit ice depth=1; zinit light romkatv/powerlevel10k to ~/.zshrc.

The use of depth=1 ice is optional. Other types of ice are neither recommended nor officially
supported by Powerlevel10k.

Zi Copy Section

Add zi ice depth=1; zi light romkatv/powerlevel10k to ~/.zshrc.

The use of depth=1 ice is optional. Other types of ice are neither recommended nor officially
supported by Powerlevel10k.

Zap Copy Section

Add plug "romkatv/powerlevel10k" to ~/.zshrc.

Homebrew Copy Section

brew install powerlevel10k
echo "source $(brew --prefix)/share/powerlevel10k/powerlevel10k.zsh-theme" >>~/.zshrc

Arch Linux Copy Section

yay -S --noconfirm zsh-theme-powerlevel10k-git
echo 'source /usr/share/zsh-theme-powerlevel10k/powerlevel10k.zsh-theme' >>~/.zshrc

zsh-theme-powerlevel10k-git
referenced above is the official Powerlevel10k package.

Alpine Linux Copy Section

apk add zsh zsh-theme-powerlevel10k
mkdir -p ~/.local/share/zsh/plugins
ln -s /usr/share/zsh/plugins/powerlevel10k ~/.local/share/zsh/plugins/

Fig Copy Section

Follow the instructions on
this page.

Configuration Copy Chapter

• For new users
• For Powerlevel9k users

For new users Copy Section

On the first run, Powerlevel10k configuration wizard will ask you a few
questions and configure your prompt. If it doesn't trigger automatically, type p10k configure.
Configuration wizard creates ~/.p10k.zsh based on your preferences. Additional prompt
customization can be done by editing this file. It has plenty of comments to help you navigate
through configuration options.

FAQ:

• What is the best prompt style in the configuration wizard?
• What do different symbols in Git status mean?
• How do I change the format of Git status?
• How do I add username and/or hostname to prompt?
• How do I change prompt colors?
• Why some prompt segments appear and disappear as I'm typing?

Troubleshooting:

• Question mark in prompt.
• Icons, glyphs or powerline symbols don't render.
• Sub-pixel imperfections around powerline symbols.
• Directory is difficult to see in prompt when using Rainbow style.

For Powerlevel9k users Copy Section

If you've been using Powerlevel9k before, do not remove the configuration options. Powerlevel10k
will pick them up and provide you with the same prompt UI you are used to. See
Powerlevel9k compatibility.

FAQ:

• I'm using Powerlevel9k with Oh My Zsh. How do I migrate?
• What is the relationship between Powerlevel9k and Powerlevel10k?
• Does Powerlevel10k always render exactly the same prompt as Powerlevel9k given the same config?

Troubleshooting: Extra or missing spaces in prompt compared to Powerlevel9k.

Fonts Copy Chapter

Powerlevel10k doesn't require custom fonts but can take advantage of them if they are available.
It works well with Nerd Fonts,
Source Code Pro,
Font Awesome, Powerline, and even
the default system fonts. The full choice of style options is available only when using
Nerd Fonts.

👇 Recommended font: Meslo Nerd Font patched for Powerlevel10k. 👇

Meslo Nerd Font patched for Powerlevel10k Copy Section

Gorgeous monospace font designed by Jim Lyles for Bitstream, customized by the same for Apple,
further customized by André Berg, and finally patched by yours truly with customized scripts
originally developed by Ryan L McIntyre of Nerd Fonts. Contains all glyphs and symbols that
Powerlevel10k may need. Battle-tested in dozens of different terminals on all major operating
systems.

FAQ: How was the recommended font created?

Automatic font installation

If you are using iTerm2 or Termux, p10k configure can install the recommended font for you.
Simply answer Yes when asked whether to install Meslo Nerd Font.

If you are using a different terminal, proceed with manual font installation. 👇

Manual font installation

1. Download these four ttf files:
   • MesloLGS NF Regular.ttf
   • MesloLGS NF Bold.ttf
   • MesloLGS NF Italic.ttf
   • MesloLGS NF Bold Italic.ttf
2. Double-click on each file and click "Install". This will make MesloLGS NF font available to all
   applications on your system.
3. Configure your terminal to use this font:

   • iTerm2: Type p10k configure and answer Yes when asked whether to install
     Meslo Nerd Font. Alternatively, open iTerm2 → Preferences → Profiles → Text and set Font to
     MesloLGS NF.

   • Apple Terminal: Open Terminal → Preferences → Profiles → Text, click Change under Font
     and select MesloLGS NF family.

   • Hyper: Open Hyper → Edit → Preferences and change the value of fontFamily under
     module.exports.config to MesloLGS NF.

   • Visual Studio Code: Open File → Preferences → Settings (PC) or
     Code → Preferences → Settings (Mac), enter terminal.integrated.fontFamily in the search box at
     the top of Settings tab and set the value below to MesloLGS NF.
     Consult this screenshot
     to see how it should look like or see this issue for extra information.

     Note that software installed via Snap is
     unable to use system fonts. If you've install Visual Studio Code via Snap, remove it by running
     sudo snap remove code and install the official .deb build from the
     Visual Studio Code website.

   • GNOME Terminal (the default Ubuntu terminal): Open Terminal → Preferences and click on the
     selected profile under Profiles. Check Custom font under Text Appearance and select
     MesloLGS NF Regular.

   • Konsole: Open Settings → Edit Current Profile → Appearance, click Select Font and select
     MesloLGS NF Regular.

   • Tilix: Open Tilix → Preferences and click on the selected profile under Profiles. Check
     Custom font under Text Appearance and select MesloLGS NF Regular.

   • Windows Console Host (the old thing): Click the icon in the top left corner, then
     Properties → Font and set Font to MesloLGS NF.

   • Windows Terminal by Microsoft (the new thing): Open Settings (Ctrl+,), click
     either on the selected profile under Profiles or on Defaults, click Appearance and set
     Font face to MesloLGS NF.

   • Conemu: Open Setup → General → Fonts and set Main console font to MesloLGS NF.

   • IntelliJ (and other IDEs by Jet Brains): Open IDE → Edit → Preferences → Editor →
     Color Scheme → Console Font. Select Use console font instead of the default and set the font
     name to MesloLGS NF.

   • Termux: Type p10k configure and answer Yes when asked whether to install
     Meslo Nerd Font.

   • Blink: Type config, go to Appearance, tap Add a new font, tap Open Gallery, select
     MesloLGS NF.css, tap import and type exit in the home view to reload the font.

   • Tabby (formerly Terminus): Open Settings → Appearance and set Font to MesloLGS NF.

   • Terminator: Open Preferences using the context menu. Under Profiles select the General
     tab (should be selected already), uncheck Use the system fixed width font (if not already)
     and select MesloLGS NF Regular. Exit the Preferences dialog by clicking Close.

   • Guake: Right Click on an open terminal and open Preferences. Under Appearance
     tab, uncheck Use the system fixed width font (if not already) and select MesloLGS NF Regular.
     Exit the Preferences dialog by clicking Close.

   • MobaXterm: Open Settings → Configuration → Terminal → (under Terminal look and feel)
     and change Font to MesloLGS NF. If you have sessions, you need to change the font in each
     of them through Settings → right click on an individual session → Edit Session → Terminal
     Settings → Font settings.

   • Asbrú Connection Manager: Open Preferences → Local Shell Options → Look and Feel, enable
     Use these personal options and change Font: under Terminal UI to MesloLGS NF Regular.
     To change the font for the remote host connections, go to Preferences → Terminal Options →
     Look and Feel and change Font: under Terminal UI to MesloLGS NF Regular.

   • Warp: Open Warp and Navigate to Settings then Appearance. Scroll down to Text Section
     and under "Terminal Font", select the MesloLGS NF font.

   • WSLtty: Right click on an open terminal and then on Options. In the Text section, under
     Font, click "Select..." and set Font to MesloLGS NF Regular.

   • Yakuake: Click ≡ → Manage Profiles → New → Appearance. Click Choose next to the
     Font dropdown, select MesloLGS NF and click OK. Click OK to save the profile. Select the
     new profile and click Set as Default.

   • Alacritty: Create or open ~/.config/alacritty/alacritty.toml and add the following
     section to it:

     toml Copy

     [font.normal]
     family = "MesloLGS NF"

   • foot: Create or open ~/.config/foot/foot.ini and add the following section to it:

     ini Copy

     font=MesloLGS NF:size=12

   • kitty: Create or open ~/.config/kitty/kitty.conf and add the following line to it:

     text Copy

     font_family MesloLGS NF

     Restart kitty by closing all sessions and opening a new session.

   • puTTY: Set Window → Appearance → Font to MesloLGS NF. Requires puTTY
     version >= 0.75.

   • WezTerm: Create or open $HOME/.config/wezterm/wezterm.lua and add the following:

     lua Copy

     local wezterm = require 'wezterm';
     return {
         font = wezterm.font("MesloLGS NF"),
     }

     If the file already exists, only add the line with the font to the existing return.
     Also add the first line if it is not already present.

   • urxvt: Create or open ~/.Xresources and add the following line to it:

     text Copy

     URxvt.font: xft:MesloLGS NF:size=11

     You can adjust the font size to your preference. After changing the config run
     xrdb ~/.Xresources to reload it. The new config is applied to all new terminals.

   • xterm: Create or open ~/.Xresources and add the following line to it:

     text Copy

     xterm*faceName: MesloLGS NF

     After changing the config run xrdb ~/.Xresources to reload it. The new config is applied to
     all new terminals.

   • Zed: Open ~/.config/zed/settings.json and set terminal.font_family to "MesloLGS NF".

     jsonc Copy

     {
       "terminal": {
         "font_family": "MesloLGS NF"
       },
       // Other settings.
     }

   • Crostini (Linux on Chrome OS): Open
     chrome-untrusted://terminal/html/nassh_preferences_editor.html, set Text font family to
     'MesloLGS NF' (including the quotes) and Custom CSS (inline text) to the following:

     css Copy

     @font-face {
      font-family: "MesloLGS NF";
      src: url("https://raw.githubusercontent.com/romkatv/powerlevel10k-media/master/MesloLGS%20NF%20Regular.ttf");
      font-weight: normal;
      font-style: normal;
     }
     @font-face {
         font-family: "MesloLGS NF";
         src: url("https://raw.githubusercontent.com/romkatv/powerlevel10k-media/master/MesloLGS%20NF%20Bold.ttf");
         font-weight: bold;
         font-style: normal;
     }
     @font-face {
         font-family: "MesloLGS NF";
         src: url("https://raw.githubusercontent.com/romkatv/powerlevel10k-media/master/MesloLGS%20NF%20Italic.ttf");
         font-weight: normal;
         font-style: italic;
     }
     @font-face {
         font-family: "MesloLGS NF";
         src: url("https://raw.githubusercontent.com/romkatv/powerlevel10k-media/master/MesloLGS%20NF%20Bold%20Italic.ttf");
         font-weight: bold;
         font-style: italic;
     }

     CAVEAT: If you open the normal terminal preferences these settings will be overwritten.

   • Deepin Terminal: Create or open ~/.config/deepin/deepin-terminal/config.conf and add the following section
     to it:

     ini Copy

     [basic.interface.font]
     value = "MesloLGS NF"

   • Ghostty: Open Menu → Open Configuration (Linux) or Ghostty → Settings... (Mac) and add
     the following line:

     text Copy

     font-family = "MesloLGS NF"

4. Run p10k configure to generate a new ~/.p10k.zsh. The old config may work
   incorrectly with the new font.

Using a different terminal and know how to set the font for it? Share your knowledge by sending a
PR to expand the list!

Try it in Docker Copy Chapter

Try Powerlevel10k in Docker. You can safely make any changes to the file system while trying out
the theme. Once you exit Zsh, the container is deleted.

docker run -e TERM -e COLORTERM -e LC_ALL=C.UTF-8 -it --rm alpine sh -uec '
  apk add git zsh nano vim
  git clone --depth=1 https://github.com/romkatv/powerlevel10k.git ~/powerlevel10k
  echo "source ~/powerlevel10k/powerlevel10k.zsh-theme" >>~/.zshrc
  cd ~/powerlevel10k
  exec zsh'

Tip: Install the recommended font before
running the Docker command to get access to all prompt styles.

Tip: Run p10k configure while in Docker to try a different prompt style.

License Copy Chapter

Powerlevel10k is released under the
MIT license.

FAQ Copy Chapter

• How do I update Powerlevel10k?
• How do I uninstall Powerlevel10k?
• How do I install Powerlevel10k on a machine without Internet access?
• Where can I ask for help and report bugs?
• Which aspects of shell and terminal does Powerlevel10k affect?
• I'm using Powerlevel9k with Oh My Zsh. How do I migrate?
• Is it really fast?
• How do I configure instant prompt?
• How do I initialize direnv when using instant prompt?
• How do I export GPG_TTY when using instant prompt?
• What do different symbols in Git status mean?
• How do I change the format of Git status?
• Why is Git status from $HOME/.git not displayed in prompt?
• Why does Git status sometimes appear grey and then gets colored after a short period of time?
• How do I add username and/or hostname to prompt?
• Why some prompt segments appear and disappear as I'm typing?
• How do I change prompt colors?
• Why does Powerlevel10k spawn extra processes?
• Are there configuration options that make Powerlevel10k slow?
• Is Powerlevel10k fast to load?
• What is the relationship between Powerlevel9k and Powerlevel10k?
• Does Powerlevel10k always render exactly the same prompt as Powerlevel9k given the same config?
• What is the best prompt style in the configuration wizard?
• How to make Powerlevel10k look like robbyrussell Oh My Zsh theme?
• Can prompts for completed commands display error status for those commands instead of the commands preceding them?
• What is the minimum supported Zsh version?
• How were these screenshots and animated gifs created?
• How was the recommended font created?
• How to package Powerlevel10k for distribution?

How do I update Powerlevel10k? Copy Section

The command to update Powerlevel10k depends on how it was installed.

IMPORTANT: Restart Zsh after updating Powerlevel10k. Do not use source ~/.zshrc.

How do I uninstall Powerlevel10k? Copy Section

1. Remove all references to "p10k" from ~/.zshrc. You might have this snippet at the top:

   zsh Copy

   if [[ -r "${XDG_CACHE_HOME:-$HOME/.cache}/p10k-instant-prompt-${(%):-%n}.zsh" ]]; then
     source "${XDG_CACHE_HOME:-$HOME/.cache}/p10k-instant-prompt-${(%):-%n}.zsh"
   fi

   And this at the bottom:

   zsh Copy

   [[ ! -f ~/.p10k.zsh ]] || source ~/.p10k.zsh

   These are added by the configuration wizard. Remove them.

2. Remove all references to "powerlevel10k" from ~/.zshrc, ~/.zpreztorc and ~/.zimrc (some
   of these files may be missing -- this is normal). These references have been added manually by
   yourself when installing Powerlevel10k. Refer to the installation instructions
   if you need a reminder.

3. Verify that all references to "p10k" and "powerlevel10k" are gone from ~/.zshrc, ~/.zpreztorc
   and ~/.zimrc.

   zsh Copy

   grep -E 'p10k|powerlevel10k' ~/.zshrc ~/.zpreztorc ~/.zimrc 2>/dev/null

   If this command produces output, there are still references to "p10k" or "powerlevel10k". You
   need to remove them.

4. Delete Powerlevel10k configuration file. This file is created by the
   configuration wizard and may contain manual edits by yourself.

   zsh Copy

   rm -f ~/.p10k.zsh

5. Delete Powerlevel10k source files. These files have been downloaded when you've installed
   Powerlevel10k. The command to delete them depends on which installation method you'd chosen.
   Refer to the installation instructions if you need a reminder.

   Installation	Uninstall command
   Manual	rm -rf ~/powerlevel10k
   Oh My Zsh	rm -rf -- "${ZSH_CUSTOM:-$HOME/.oh-my-zsh/custom}/themes/powerlevel10k"
   Prezto	n/a
   Zim	zimfw uninstall
   Antigen	antigen purge romkatv/powerlevel10k
   Antidote	antidote purge romkatv/powerlevel10k
   Zplug	zplug clean
   Zgen	zgen reset
   Zplugin	zplugin delete romkatv/powerlevel10k
   Zinit	zinit delete romkatv/powerlevel10k
   Zi	zi delete romkatv/powerlevel10k
   Zap	zsh -ic 'zap clean'
   Homebrew	brew uninstall powerlevel10k
   Arch Linux	yay -R --noconfirm zsh-theme-powerlevel10k-git
   Alpine Linux	apk del zsh-theme-powerlevel10k

6. Restart Zsh. Do not use source ~/.zshrc.

7. Delete Powerlevel10k cache files.

   zsh Copy

   rm -rf -- "${XDG_CACHE_HOME:-$HOME/.cache}"/p10k-*(N) "${XDG_CACHE_HOME:-$HOME/.cache}"/gitstatus

How do I install Powerlevel10k on a machine without Internet access? Copy Section

1. Run this command on the machine without Internet access:
   sh Copy

   uname -sm | tr '[A-Z]' '[a-z]'

2. Run these commands on a machine connected to the Internet after replacing the value of
   target_uname with the output of the previous command:
   sh Copy

   target_uname="replace this with the output of the previous command"
   git clone --depth=1 https://github.com/romkatv/powerlevel10k.git ~/powerlevel10k
   GITSTATUS_CACHE_DIR="$HOME"/powerlevel10k/gitstatus/usrbin ~/powerlevel10k/gitstatus/install -f -s "${target_uname% *}" -m "${target_uname#* }"

3. Copy ~/powerlevel10k from the machine connected to the Internet to the one without Internet
   access.
4. Add source ~/powerlevel10k/powerlevel10k.zsh-theme to ~/.zshrc on the machine without
   Internet access:
   zsh Copy

   echo 'source ~/powerlevel10k/powerlevel10k.zsh-theme' >>~/.zshrc

5. If ~/.zshrc on the machine without Internet access sets ZSH_THEME, remove that line.
   zsh Copy

   sed -i.bak '/^ZSH_THEME=/d' ~/.zshrc

To update, remove ~/powerlevel10k on both machines and repeat steps 1-3.

Where can I ask for help and report bugs? Copy Section

The best way to ask for help and to report bugs is to open an issue.

Gitter
is another option.

If all else fails, email [email protected].

If necessary, encrypt your communication with this PGP key.

Which aspects of shell and terminal does Powerlevel10k affect? Copy Section

Powerlevel10k defines prompt and nothing else. It sets prompt-related options, and parameters PS1 and RPS1.

Everything within the highlighted areas on the screenshot is produced by Powerlevel10k.
Powerlevel10k has no control over the terminal content or colors outside these areas.

Powerlevel10k does not affect:

• Terminal window/tab title.
• Colors used by ls.
• The behavior of git command.
• The content and style of Tab completions.
• Command line colors (syntax highlighting, autosuggestions, etc.).
• Key bindings.
• Aliases.
• Prompt parameters other than PS1 and RPS1.
• Zsh options other than those related to prompt.
• The set of available commands. Powerlevel10k does not install any new commands
  with the only exception of p10k.

I'm using Powerlevel9k with Oh My Zsh. How do I migrate? Copy Section

1. Run this command:

# Add powerlevel10k to the list of Oh My Zsh themes.
git clone --depth=1 https://github.com/romkatv/powerlevel10k.git "${ZSH_CUSTOM:-$HOME/.oh-my-zsh/custom}/themes/powerlevel10k"
# Replace ZSH_THEME="powerlevel9k/powerlevel9k" with ZSH_THEME="powerlevel10k/powerlevel10k".
sed -i.bak 's/powerlevel9k/powerlevel10k/g' ~/.zshrc
# Restart Zsh.
exec zsh

2. Optional but highly recommended:
   1. Install the recommended font.
   2. Type p10k configure and choose your favorite prompt style.

Related:

• Powerlevel9k compatibility.
• Does Powerlevel10k always render exactly the same prompt as Powerlevel9k given the same config?
• Extra or missing spaces in prompt compared to Powerlevel9k.
• Configuration wizard.

Is it really fast? Copy Section

Yes. See zsh-bench or a direct comparison with
Powerlevel9k and
Spaceship.

How do I configure instant prompt? Copy Section

See instant prompt to learn about instant prompt. This section explains how you
can enable and configure it and lists caveats that you should be aware of.

Instant prompt can be enabled either through p10k configure or by manually adding the following
code snippet at the top of ~/.zshrc:

# Enable Powerlevel10k instant prompt. Should stay close to the top of ~/.zshrc.
# Initialization code that may require console input (password prompts, [y/n]
# confirmations, etc.) must go above this block; everything else may go below.
if [[ -r "${XDG_CACHE_HOME:-$HOME/.cache}/p10k-instant-prompt-${(%):-%n}.zsh" ]]; then
  source "${XDG_CACHE_HOME:-$HOME/.cache}/p10k-instant-prompt-${(%):-%n}.zsh"
fi

It's important that you copy the lines verbatim. Don't replace source with something else, don't
call zcompile, don't redirect output, etc.

When instant prompt is enabled, for the duration of Zsh initialization standard input is redirected
to /dev/null and standard output with standard error are redirected to a temporary file. Once Zsh
is fully initialized, standard file descriptors are restored and the content of the temporary file
is printed out.

When using instant prompt, you should carefully check any output that appears on Zsh startup as it
may indicate that initialization has been altered, or perhaps even broken, by instant prompt.
Initialization code that may require console input, such as asking for a keyring password or for a
[y/n] confirmation, must be moved above the instant prompt preamble in ~/.zshrc. Initialization
code that merely prints to console but never reads from it will work correctly with instant prompt,
although output that normally has colors may appear uncolored. You can either leave it be, suppress
the output, or move it above the instant prompt preamble.

Here's an example of ~/.zshrc that breaks when instant prompt is enabled:

if [[ -r "${XDG_CACHE_HOME:-$HOME/.cache}/p10k-instant-prompt-${(%):-%n}.zsh" ]]; then
  source "${XDG_CACHE_HOME:-$HOME/.cache}/p10k-instant-prompt-${(%):-%n}.zsh"
fi

keychain id_rsa --agents ssh  # asks for password
chatty-script                 # spams to stdout even when everything is fine
# ...

Fixed version:

keychain id_rsa --agents ssh  # moved before instant prompt

# OK to perform console I/O before this point.
if [[ -r "${XDG_CACHE_HOME:-$HOME/.cache}/p10k-instant-prompt-${(%):-%n}.zsh" ]]; then
  source "${XDG_CACHE_HOME:-$HOME/.cache}/p10k-instant-prompt-${(%):-%n}.zsh"
fi
# From this point on, until zsh is fully initialized, console input won't work and
# console output may appear uncolored.

chatty-script >/dev/null      # spam output suppressed
# ...

If POWERLEVEL9K_INSTANT_PROMPT is unset or set to verbose, Powerlevel10k will print a warning
when it detects console output during initialization to bring attention to potential issues. You can
silence this warning (without suppressing console output) with POWERLEVEL9K_INSTANT_PROMPT=quiet.
This is recommended if some initialization code in ~/.zshrc prints to console and it's infeasible
to move it above the instant prompt preamble or to suppress its output. You can completely disable
instant prompt with POWERLEVEL9K_INSTANT_PROMPT=off. Do this if instant prompt breaks Zsh
initialization and you don't know how to fix it.

The value of POWERLEVEL9K_INSTANT_PROMPT can be changed by running p10k configure and selecting
the appropriate option on the Instant Prompt screen. Alternatively, you can search for
POWERLEVEL9K_INSTANT_PROMPT in the existing ~/.p10k.zsh and change its value there.

Note: Instant prompt requires Zsh >= 5.4. It's OK to enable it even when using an older version of
Zsh but it won't do anything.

FAQ:

• How do I initialize direnv when using instant prompt?
• How do I export GPG_TTY when using instant prompt?

How do I initialize direnv when using instant prompt? Copy Section

If you've enabled instant prompt, you should have these lines at the top of
~/.zshrc:

if [[ -r "${XDG_CACHE_HOME:-$HOME/.cache}/p10k-instant-prompt-${(%):-%n}.zsh" ]]; then
  source "${XDG_CACHE_HOME:-$HOME/.cache}/p10k-instant-prompt-${(%):-%n}.zsh"
fi

To initialize direnv you need to add one line above that block and one line below it.

(( ${+commands[direnv]} )) && emulate zsh -c "$(direnv export zsh)"

if [[ -r "${XDG_CACHE_HOME:-$HOME/.cache}/p10k-instant-prompt-${(%):-%n}.zsh" ]]; then
  source "${XDG_CACHE_HOME:-$HOME/.cache}/p10k-instant-prompt-${(%):-%n}.zsh"
fi

(( ${+commands[direnv]} )) && emulate zsh -c "$(direnv hook zsh)"

Related: How do I export GPG_TTY when using instant prompt?

How do I export GPG_TTY when using instant prompt? Copy Section

You can export GPG_TTY like this anywhere in ~/.zshrc:

export GPG_TTY=$TTY

This works whether you are using instant prompt or not. It works even if you
aren't using powerlevel10k. As an extra bonus, it's much faster than the commonly used
export GPG_TTY=$(tty).

Related: How do I initialize direnv when using instant prompt?

What do different symbols in Git status mean? Copy Section

When using Lean, Classic or Rainbow style, Git status may look like this:

feature:master wip ⇣42⇡42 ⇠42⇢42 *42 merge ~42 +42 !42 ?42

Related: How do I change the format of Git status?

How do I change the format of Git status? Copy Section

To change the format of Git status, open ~/.p10k.zsh, search for my_git_formatter and edit its
source code.

Related: What do different symbols in Git status mean?

Why is Git status from `$HOME/.git` not displayed in prompt? Copy Section

When using Lean, Classic or Rainbow style, ~/.p10k.zsh contains the following parameter:

# Don't show Git status in prompt for repositories whose workdir matches this pattern.
# For example, if set to '~', the Git repository at $HOME/.git will be ignored.
# Multiple patterns can be combined with '|': '~(|/foo)|/bar/baz/*'.
typeset -g POWERLEVEL9K_VCS_DISABLED_WORKDIR_PATTERN='~'

To see Git status for $HOME/.git in prompt, open ~/.p10k.zsh and remove
POWERLEVEL9K_VCS_DISABLED_WORKDIR_PATTERN.

Why does Git status sometimes appear grey and then gets colored after a short period of time? Copy Section

tl;dr: When Git status in prompt is greyed out, it means Powerlevel10k is currently computing
up-to-date Git status in the background. Prompt will get automatically refreshed when this
computation completes.

When your current directory is within a Git repository, Powerlevel10k computes up-to-date Git
status after every command. If the repository is large, or the machine is slow, this computation
can take quite a bit of time. If it takes longer than 10 milliseconds (configurable via
POWERLEVEL9K_VCS_MAX_SYNC_LATENCY_SECONDS), Powerlevel10k displays the last known Git status in
grey and continues to compute up-to-date Git status in the background. When the computation
completes, Powerlevel10k refreshes prompt with new information, this time with colored Git status.

When using Rainbow style, Git status is displayed as black on grey while it's still being
computed. Depending on the terminal color palette, this may be difficult to read. In this case you
might want to change the background color to something lighter for more contrast. To do that, open
~/.p10k.zsh, search for POWERLEVEL9K_VCS_LOADING_BACKGROUND, uncomment it if it's commented out,
and change the value.

typeset -g POWERLEVEL9K_VCS_LOADING_BACKGROUND=244

Type source ~/.p10k.zsh to apply your changes to the current Zsh session.

Related: How do I change prompt colors?

How do I add username and/or hostname to prompt? Copy Section

When using Lean, Classic or Rainbow style, prompt shows username@hostname when you are logged in
as root or via SSH. There is little value in showing username or hostname when you are logged in
to your local machine as a normal user. So the absence of username@hostname in your prompt is an
indication that you are working locally and that you aren't root. You can change it, however.

Open ~/.p10k.zsh. Close to the top you can see the most important parameters that define which
segments are shown in your prompt. All generally useful prompt segments are listed in there. Some of
them are enabled, others are commented out. One of them is of interest to you.

typeset -g POWERLEVEL9K_RIGHT_PROMPT_ELEMENTS=(
  ...
  context  # user@hostname
  ...
)

Search for context to find the section in the config that lists parameters specific to this prompt
segment. You should see the following lines:

# Don't show context unless running with privileges or in SSH.
# Tip: Remove the next line to always show context.
typeset -g POWERLEVEL9K_CONTEXT_{DEFAULT,SUDO}_{CONTENT,VISUAL_IDENTIFIER}_EXPANSION=

If you follow the tip and remove (or comment out) the last line, you'll always see
username@hostname in prompt. You can change the format to just username, or change the color, by
adjusting the values of parameters nearby. There are plenty of comments to help you navigate.

You can also move context to a different position in POWERLEVEL9K_RIGHT_PROMPT_ELEMENTS or even
to POWERLEVEL9K_LEFT_PROMPT_ELEMENTS.

Why some prompt segments appear and disappear as I'm typing? Copy Section

Prompt segments can be configured to be shown only when the current command you are typing invokes
a relevant tool.

# Show prompt segment "kubecontext" only when the command you are typing invokes
# invokes kubectl, helm, or kubens.
typeset -g POWERLEVEL9K_KUBECONTEXT_SHOW_ON_COMMAND='kubectl|helm|kubens'

Configs created by p10k configure may contain parameters of this kind. To customize when different
prompt segments are shown, open ~/.p10k.zsh, search for SHOW_ON_COMMAND and either remove these
parameters or change their values.

You can also define a function in ~/.zshrc to toggle the display of a prompt segment between
always and on command. This is similar to kubeon/kubeoff from
kube-ps1.

function kube-toggle() {
  if (( ${+POWERLEVEL9K_KUBECONTEXT_SHOW_ON_COMMAND} )); then
    unset POWERLEVEL9K_KUBECONTEXT_SHOW_ON_COMMAND
  else
    POWERLEVEL9K_KUBECONTEXT_SHOW_ON_COMMAND='kubectl|helm|kubens'
  fi
  p10k reload
  if zle; then
    zle push-input
    zle accept-line
  fi
}

Invoke this function by typing kube-toggle. You can also bind it to a key by adding two more lines
to ~/.zshrc:

zle -N kube-toggle
bindkey '^]' kube-toggle  # ctrl-] to toggle kubecontext in powerlevel10k prompt

How do I change prompt colors? Copy Section

You can either change the color palette used by your terminal or
set colors through Powerlevel10k configuration parameters.

Change the color palette used by your terminal

How exactly you change the terminal color palette (a.k.a. color scheme, or theme) depends on the
kind of terminal you are using. Look around in terminal's settings/preferences or consult
documentation.

When you change the terminal color palette, it usually affects only the first 16 colors, numbered
from 0 to 15. In order to see any effect on Powerlevel10k prompt, you need to use prompt style that
utilizes these low-numbered colors. Type p10k configure and select Rainbow, Lean → 8 colors
or Pure → Original. Other styles use higher-numbered colors, so they look the same in any
terminal color palette.

Set colors through Powerlevel10k configuration parameters

Open ~/.p10k.zsh, search for "color", "foreground" and "background" and change values of
appropriate parameters. For example, here's how you can set the foreground of time prompt segment
to bright red:

typeset -g POWERLEVEL9K_TIME_FOREGROUND=160

Colors are specified using numbers from 0 to 255. Colors from 0 to 15 look differently in different
terminals. Many terminals also support customization of these colors through color palettes
(a.k.a. color schemes, or themes). Colors from 16 to 255 always look the same.

Type source ~/.p10k.zsh to apply your changes to the current Zsh session.

To see how different numbered colors look in your terminal, run the following command:

for i in {0..255}; do print -Pn "%K{$i}  %k%F{$i}${(l:3::0:)i}%f " ${${(M)$((i%6)):#3}:+$'\n'}; done

If your terminal supports truecolor, you can use 24-bit colors in the #RRGGBB format in addition
to the numbered colors.

typeset -g POWERLEVEL9K_TIME_FOREGROUND='#FF0000'

Related:

• Directory is difficult to see in prompt when using Rainbow style.
• Incorrect foreground color in VSCode Terminal.

By default, VSCode Terminal may arbitrarily replace the foreground color of your choice with a
different color. This behavior can be
turned off in
VSCode settings.

Why does Powerlevel10k spawn extra processes? Copy Section

Powerlevel10k uses gitstatus as the backend behind vcs
prompt; gitstatus spawns gitstatusd and zsh. See
gitstatus for details. Powerlevel10k may also spawn zsh
to perform computation without blocking prompt. To avoid security hazard, these background processes
aren't shared by different interactive shells. They terminate automatically when the parent zsh
process terminates or runs exec(3).

Are there configuration options that make Powerlevel10k slow? Copy Section

No, Powerlevel10k is always fast, with any configuration you throw at it. If you have noticeable
prompt latency when using Powerlevel10k, please
open an issue.

Is Powerlevel10k fast to load? Copy Section

Yes. See zsh-bench.

What is the relationship between Powerlevel9k and Powerlevel10k? Copy Section

Powerlevel10k was forked from Powerlevel9k in March 2019 after a week-long discussion in
powerlevel9k#1170. Powerlevel9k was
already a mature project with a large user base and a release cycle measured in months. Powerlevel10k
was spun off to iterate on performance improvements and new features at much higher pace.

Powerlevel9k and Powerlevel10k are independent projects. When using one, you shouldn't install the
other. Issues should be filed against the project that you actually use. There are no individuals
that have commit rights in both repositories. All bug fixes and new features committed to
Powerlevel9k repository get ported to Powerlevel10k.

Over time, virtually all code in Powerlevel10k has been rewritten. There is currently no meaningful
overlap between the implementations of Powerlevel9k and Powerlevel10k.

Powerlevel10k is committed to maintaining backward compatibility with all configs indefinitely. This
commitment covers all configuration parameters recognized by Powerlevel9k (see
Powerlevel9k compatibility) and additional parameters that only
Powerlevel10k understands. Names of all parameters in Powerlevel10k start with POWERLEVEL9K_ for
consistency.

Does Powerlevel10k always render exactly the same prompt as Powerlevel9k given the same config? Copy Section

Almost. There are a few differences.

• By default only git vcs backend is enabled in Powerlevel10k. If you need svn and hg, add
  them to POWERLEVEL9K_VCS_BACKENDS. These backends aren't yet optimized in Powerlevel10k, so
  enabling them will make prompt very slow.
• Powerlevel10k doesn't support POWERLEVEL9K_VCS_SHOW_SUBMODULE_DIRTY=true.
• Powerlevel10k strives to be bug-compatible with Powerlevel9k but not when it comes to egregious
  bugs. If you accidentally rely on these bugs, your prompt will differ between Powerlevel9k and
  Powerlevel10k. Some examples:
  • Powerlevel9k ignores some options that are set after the theme is sourced while Powerlevel10k
    respects all options. If you see different icons in Powerlevel9k and Powerlevel10k, you've
    probably defined POWERLEVEL9K_MODE before sourcing the theme. This parameter gets ignored
    by Powerlevel9k but honored by Powerlevel10k. If you want your prompt to look in Powerlevel10k
    the same as in Powerlevel9k, remove POWERLEVEL9K_MODE.
  • Powerlevel9k doesn't respect ZLE_RPROMPT_INDENT. As a result, right prompt in Powerlevel10k
    can have an extra space at the end compared to Powerlevel9k. Set ZLE_RPROMPT_INDENT=0 if you
    don't want that space. More details in
    troubleshooting.
  • Powerlevel9k has inconsistent spacing around icons. This was fixed in Powerlevel10k. Set
    POWERLEVEL9K_LEGACY_ICON_SPACING=true to get the same spacing as in Powerlevel9k. More
    details in troubleshooting.
  • There are dozens more bugs in Powerlevel9k that don't exist in Powerlevel10k.

If you notice any other changes in prompt appearance when switching from Powerlevel9k to
Powerlevel10k, please open an issue.

What is the best prompt style in the configuration wizard? Copy Section

There are as many opinions on what constitutes the best prompt as there are people. It mostly comes
down to personal preference. There are, however, a few hidden implications of different choices.

Pure style is an exact replication of Pure Zsh theme. It
exists to ease the migration for users of this theme. Unless you are one of them, choose Lean
style over Pure.

If you want to confine prompt colors to the selected terminal color palette (say, Solarized Dark),
use Rainbow, Lean → 8 colors or Pure → Original. Other styles use fixed colors and thus
look the same in any terminal color palette.

All styles except Pure have an option to use ASCII charset. Prompt will look less pretty but will
render correctly with all fonts and in all locales.

If you enable transient prompt, take advantage of two-line prompt. You'll get the benefit of
extra space for typing commands without the usual drawback of reduced scrollback density. Having
all commands start from the same offset is also nice.

Similarly, if you enable transient prompt, sparse prompt (with an empty line before prompt) is a
great choice.

If you are using vi keymap, choose prompt with prompt_char in it (shown as green ❯ in the
wizard). This symbol changes depending on vi mode: ❯, ❮, V, ▶ for insert, command, visual
and replace mode respectively. When a command fails, the symbol turns red. Lean style always has
prompt_char in it. Rainbow and Classic styles have it only in the two-line configuration
without left frame.

If you value horizontal space or prefer minimalist aesthetics:

• Use a monospace font, such as the recommended font.
  Non-monospace fonts require extra space after icons that are larger than a single column.
• Use Lean style. Compared to Classic and Rainbow, it saves two characters per prompt segment.
• Disable current time and frame.
• Use few icons. The extra icons enabled by the many icons option primarily serve decorative
  function. Informative icons, such as background job indicator, will be shown either way.

Note: You can run configuration wizard as many times as you like. Type p10k configure to try new
prompt style.

How to make Powerlevel10k look like robbyrussell Oh My Zsh theme? Copy Section

Use this config.

You can either download it, save as ~/.p10k.zsh and source ~/.p10k.zsh from ~/.zshrc, or
source p10k-robbyrussell.zsh directly from your cloned powerlevel10k repository.

Can prompts for completed commands display error status for *those* commands instead of the commands preceding them? Copy Section

No. When you hit ENTER and the command you've typed starts running, its error status isn't yet
known, so it cannot be shown in prompt. When the command completes, the error status gets known but
it's no longer possible to update prompt for that command. This is why the error status for every
command is reflected in the next prompt.

For details, see this post on /r/zsh.

What is the minimum supported Zsh version? Copy Section

Zsh 5.3 or newer should work. Fast startup requires Zsh >= 5.4.

How were these screenshots and animated gifs created? Copy Section

All screenshots and animated gifs were recorded in GNOME Terminal with
the recommended font and Tango Dark color palette with
custom background color (#171A1B instead of #2E3436 -- twice as dark).

Syntax highlighting, where present, was provided by zsh-syntax-highlighting.

How was the recommended font created? Copy Section

The recommended font is the product of many
individuals. Its origin is Bitstream Vera Sans Mono, which has given birth to Menlo, which in
turn has spawned Meslo. Finally, extra glyphs have been added to Meslo with scripts forked
from Nerd Fonts. The final font is released under the terms of
Apache License.

MesloLGS NF font can be recreated with the following command (requires git and docker):

git clone --depth=1 https://github.com/romkatv/nerd-fonts.git
cd nerd-fonts
./build 'Meslo/S/*'

If everything goes well, four ttf files will appear in ./out.

How to package Powerlevel10k for distribution? Copy Section

It's currently neither easy nor recommended to package and distribute Powerlevel10k. There are no
instructions you can follow that would allow you to easily update your package when new versions of
Powerlevel10k are released. This may change in the future but not soon.

Troubleshooting Copy Chapter

• [oh-my-zsh] theme 'powerlevel10k/powerlevel10k' not found
• Question mark in prompt
• Icons, glyphs or powerline symbols don't render
• Sub-pixel imperfections around powerline symbols
• Error: character not in range
• Cursor is in the wrong place
• Prompt wrapping around in a weird way
• Right prompt is in the wrong place
• Configuration wizard runs automatically every time Zsh is started
• Some prompt styles are missing from the configuration wizard
• Cannot install the recommended font
• Extra or missing spaces in prompt compared to Powerlevel9k
  • Extra space without background on the right side of right prompt
  • Extra or missing spaces around icons
• Weird things happen after typing source ~/.zshrc
• Transient prompt stops working after some time
• Cannot make Powerlevel10k work with my plugin manager
• Directory is difficult to see in prompt when using Rainbow style
• Incorrect foreground color in VSCode Terminal.
• Horrific mess when resizing terminal window
• Icons cut off in Konsole
• Arch Linux logo has a dot in the bottom right corner
• Incorrect git status in prompt

`[oh-my-zsh] theme 'powerlevel10k/powerlevel10k' not found` Copy Section

When opening a terminal, or starting zsh manually, you may encounter this error message:

[oh-my-zsh] theme 'powerlevel10k/powerlevel10k' not found

1. First, run typeset -p P9K_VERSION to check whether Powerlevel10k has been loaded.
   • If typeset -p P9K_VERSION succeeds and prints something like typeset P9K_VERSION=1.19.14
     (the version could be different), remove the following line from ~/.zshrc:
     zsh Copy

     ZSH_THEME="powerlevel10k/powerlevel10k"

   • If typeset -p P9K_VERSION fails with the error typeset: no such variable: P9K_VERSION, run
     the following command:
     zsh Copy

     git clone --depth=1 https://github.com/romkatv/powerlevel10k.git "${ZSH_CUSTOM:-$HOME/.oh-my-zsh/custom}/themes/powerlevel10k"

2. Restart Zsh with exec zsh.

Question mark in prompt Copy Section

If it looks like a regular ?, that's normal. It means you have untracked files in the current Git
repository. Type git status to see these files. You can change this symbol or disable the display
of untracked files altogether. Search for untracked files in ~/.p10k.zsh.

FAQ: What do different symbols in Git status mean?

You can also get a weird-looking question mark in your prompt if your terminal's font is missing
some glyphs. See icons, glyphs or powerline symbols don't render.

Icons, glyphs or powerline symbols don't render Copy Section

Restart your terminal, install the recommended font
and run p10k configure.

Sub-pixel imperfections around powerline symbols Copy Section

There are three imperfections on the screenshot. From left to right:

1. A thin blue line (a sub-pixel gap) between the content of a prompt segment and the following
   powerline connection.
2. Incorrect alignment of a powerline connection and the following prompt segment. The connection
   appears shifted to the right.
3. A thin red line below a powerline connection. The connection appears shifted up.

Zsh themes don't have down-to-pixel control over the terminal content. Everything you see on the
screen is made of monospace characters. A white powerline prompt segment is made of text on white
background followed by U+E0B0 (a right-pointing triangle).

If Powerlevel10k prompt has imperfections around powerline symbols, you'll see exactly the same
imperfections with all powerline themes (Agnoster, Powerlevel9k, Powerline, etc.)

There are several things you can try to deal with these imperfections:

• Try the recommended font. If you are already using
  it, switching to another font may help but is unlikely.
• Change terminal font size one point up or down. For example, in iTerm2 powerline prompt looks
  perfect at font sizes 11 and 13 but breaks down at 12.
• Enable builtin powerline glyphs in terminal settings if your terminal supports it (iTerm2 does).
• Change font hinting and/or anti-aliasing mode in the terminal settings.
• Shift all text one pixel up/down/left/right if your terminal has an option to do so.
• Try a different terminal.

A more radical solution is to switch to prompt style without background. Type p10k configure and
select Lean. This style has a modern lightweight look. As a bonus, it doesn't suffer from
rendering imperfections that afflict powerline-style prompt.

Error: character not in range Copy Section

Type echo '\u276F'. If you get an error saying "zsh: character not in range", your locale
doesn't support UTF-8. You need to fix it. If you are running Zsh over SSH, see
this. If you are
running Zsh locally, Google "set UTF-8 locale in your OS".

Cursor is in the wrong place Copy Section

Type echo '\u276F'. If you get an error saying "zsh: character not in range", see the
previous section.

If the echo command prints ❯ but the cursor is still in the wrong place, install
the recommended font and run
p10k configure.

If this doesn't help, add unset ZLE_RPROMPT_INDENT at the bottom of ~/.zshrc.

Still having issues? Run the following command to diagnose the problem:

() {
  emulate -L zsh
  setopt err_return no_unset
  local text
  print -rl -- 'Select a part of your prompt from the terminal window and paste it below.' ''
  read -r '?Prompt: ' text
  local -i len=${(m)#text}
  local frame="+-${(pl.$len..-.):-}-+"
  print -lr -- $frame "| $text |" $frame
}

If the prompt line aligns with the frame

+------------------------------+
| romka@adam ✓ ~/powerlevel10k |
+------------------------------+

If the output of the command is aligned for every part of your prompt (left and right), this
indicates a bug in the theme or your config. Use this command to diagnose it:

print -rl -- ${(eq+)PROMPT} ${(eq+)RPROMPT}

Look for %{...%} and backslash escapes in the output. If there are any, they are the likely
culprits. Open an issue if you get stuck.

If the prompt line is longer than the frame

+-----------------------------+
| romka@adam ✓ ~/powerlevel10k |
+-----------------------------+

This is usually caused by a terminal bug or misconfiguration that makes it print ambiguous-width
characters as double-width instead of single width. For example,
this issue.

If the prompt line is shorter than the frame and is mangled

+------------------------------+
| romka@adam ✓~/powerlevel10k |
+------------------------------+

Note that this prompt is different from the original as it's missing a space after the check mark.

This can be caused by a low-level bug in macOS. See
this issue.

This can also happen if prompt contains glyphs designated as "wide" in the Unicode standard and your
terminal incorrectly displays them as non-wide. Terminals suffering from this limitation include
Konsole, Hyper and the integrated VSCode Terminal. The solution is to use a different terminal or
remove all wide glyphs from prompt.

If the prompt line is shorter than the frame and is not mangled

+--------------------------------+
| romka@adam ✓ ~/powerlevel10k |
+--------------------------------+

This can be caused by misconfigured locale. See
this issue.

Prompt wrapping around in a weird way Copy Section

See cursor is in the wrong place.

Right prompt is in the wrong place Copy Section

See cursor is in the wrong place.

Configuration wizard runs automatically every time Zsh is started Copy Section

When Powerlevel10k starts, it automatically runs p10k configure if no POWERLEVEL9K_*
parameters are defined. Based on your prompt style choices, the configuration wizard creates
~/.p10k.zsh with a bunch of POWERLEVEL9K_* parameters in it and adds a line to ~/.zshrc to
source this file. The next time you start Zsh, the configuration wizard shouldn't run automatically.
If it does, this means the evaluation of ~/.zshrc terminates prematurely before it reaches the
line that sources ~/.p10k.zsh. This most often happens due to syntax errors in ~/.zshrc. These
errors get hidden by the configuration wizard screen, so you don't notice them. When you exit
configuration wizard, look for error messages. You can also use
POWERLEVEL9K_DISABLE_CONFIGURATION_WIZARD=true zsh to start Zsh without automatically running the
configuration wizard. Once you can see the errors, fix ~/.zshrc to get rid of them.

Some prompt styles are missing from the configuration wizard Copy Section

If Zsh version is below 5.7.1 or COLORTERM environment variable is neither 24bit nor
truecolor, configuration wizard won't offer Pure style with Snazzy color scheme. Fix: Install
Zsh >= 5.7.1 and use a terminal with truecolor support. Verify with print -P '%F{#ff0000}red%f'.

If the terminal can display fewer than 256 colors, configuration wizard preselects Lean style with
8 colors. All other styles require at least 256 colors. Fix: Use a terminal with 256 color support
and make sure that TERM environment variable is set correctly. Verify with
print $terminfo[colors].

If there is no UTF-8 locale on the system, configuration wizard won't offer prompt styles that use
Unicode characters. Fix: Install a UTF-8 locale. Verify with locale -a.

Another case in which configuration wizard may not offer Unicode prompt styles is when the
MULTIBYTE shell option is disabled. Fix: Enable the MULTIBYTE option, or rather don't disable
it (this option is enabled in Zsh by default). Verify with print -r -- ${options[MULTIBYTE]}.

When MULTIBYTE is enabled and a UTF-8 locale is available, the first few questions asked by the
configuration wizard assess capabilities of the terminal font. If your answers indicate that some
glyphs don't render correctly, configuration wizard won't offer prompt styles that use them. Fix:
Restart your terminal and install
the recommended font. Verify by running
p10k configure and checking that all glyphs render correctly.

Cannot install the recommended font Copy Section

Once you download the recommended font,
you can install it just like any other font. Google "how to install fonts on your OS".

Extra or missing spaces in prompt compared to Powerlevel9k Copy Section

tl;dr: Add ZLE_RPROMPT_INDENT=0 and POWERLEVEL9K_LEGACY_ICON_SPACING=true to ~/.zshrc to get
the same prompt spacing as in Powerlevel9k.

When using Powerlevel10k with a Powerlevel9k config, you might get additional spaces in prompt here
and there. These come in two flavors.

Extra space without background on the right side of right prompt

tl;dr: Add ZLE_RPROMPT_INDENT=0 to ~/.zshrc to get rid of that space.

From Zsh documentation:

ZLE_RPROMPT_INDENT <S>

If set, used to give the indentation between the right hand side of the right prompt in the line
editor as given by RPS1 or RPROMPT and the right hand side of the screen. If not set, the
value 1 is used.

Typically this will be used to set the value to 0 so that the prompt appears flush with the
right hand side of the screen.

Powerlevel10k respects this parameter. If you set ZLE_RPROMPT_INDENT=1 (or leave it unset, which
is the same thing as setting it to 1), you'll get an empty space to the right of right prompt. If
you set ZLE_RPROMPT_INDENT=0, your prompt will go to the edge of the terminal. This is how it
works in every theme except Powerlevel9k.

Powerlevel9k issue: powerlevel9k#1292.
It's been fixed in the development branch of Powerlevel9k but the fix hasn't yet made it to
master.

Add ZLE_RPROMPT_INDENT=0 to ~/.zshrc to get the same spacing on the right edge of prompt as in
Powerlevel9k.

Note: Several versions of Zsh have bugs that get triggered when you set ZLE_RPROMPT_INDENT=0.
Powerlevel10k can work around these bugs when using powerline prompt style. If you notice visual
artifacts in prompt, or wrong cursor position, try removing ZLE_RPROMPT_INDENT from ~/.zshrc.

Extra or missing spaces around icons

tl;dr: Add POWERLEVEL9K_LEGACY_ICON_SPACING=true to ~/.zshrc to get the same spacing around
icons as in Powerlevel9k.

Spacing around icons in Powerlevel9k is inconsistent.

This inconsistency is a constant source of annoyance, so it was fixed in Powerlevel10k. You can add
POWERLEVEL9K_LEGACY_ICON_SPACING=true to ~/.zshrc to get the same spacing around icons as in
Powerlevel9k.

Note: It's not a good idea to define POWERLEVEL9K_LEGACY_ICON_SPACING when using
p10k configure.

Weird things happen after typing `source ~/.zshrc` Copy Section

It's almost always a bad idea to run source ~/.zshrc, whether you are using Powerlevel10k or not.
This command may result in random errors, misbehaving code and progressive slowdown of Zsh.

If you've made changes to ~/.zshrc or to files sourced by it, restart Zsh to apply them. The most
reliable way to do this is to type exit and then start a new Zsh session. You can also use
exec zsh. While not exactly equivalent to complete Zsh restart, this command is much more reliable
than source ~/.zshrc.

Transient prompt stops working after some time Copy Section

See weird things happen after typing source ~/.zshrc.

Cannot make Powerlevel10k work with my plugin manager Copy Section

If the installation instructions didn't work for you, try disabling your current
theme (so that you end up with no theme) and then installing Powerlevel10k manually.

1. Disable the current theme in your framework / plugin manager.

• oh-my-zsh: Open ~/.zshrc and remove the line that sets ZSH_THEME. It might look like this:
  ZSH_THEME="powerlevel9k/powerlevel9k".
• zplug: Open ~/.zshrc and remove the zplug command that refers to your current theme. For
  example, if you are currently using Powerlevel9k, look for
  zplug bhilburn/powerlevel9k, use:powerlevel9k.zsh-theme.
• prezto: Open ~/.zpreztorc and put zstyle :prezto:module:prompt theme off in it. Remove
  any other command that sets theme such as zstyle :prezto:module:prompt theme powerlevel9k.
• antigen: Open ~/.zshrc and remove the line that sets antigen theme. It might look like
  this: antigen theme powerlevel9k/powerlevel9k.

2. Install Powerlevel10k manually.

git clone --depth=1 https://github.com/romkatv/powerlevel10k.git ~/powerlevel10k
echo 'source ~/powerlevel10k/powerlevel10k.zsh-theme' >>~/.zshrc

This method of installation won't make anything slower or otherwise sub-par.

Directory is difficult to see in prompt when using Rainbow style Copy Section

In Rainbow style the current working directory is shown with bright white text on blue background.
The white is fixed and always looks the same but the appearance of "blue" is defined by your
terminal color palette. If it's very light, it may be difficult to see white text on it.

There are several ways to fix this.

• Type p10k configure and choose a more readable prompt style.
• Change terminal color palette. Try Tango Dark
  or Solarized Dark, or change just the "blue" color.
• Change directory background and/or foreground color.
  The parameters you are looking for are called POWERLEVEL9K_DIR_BACKGROUND,
  POWERLEVEL9K_DIR_FOREGROUND, POWERLEVEL9K_DIR_SHORTENED_FOREGROUND,
  POWERLEVEL9K_DIR_ANCHOR_FOREGROUND and POWERLEVEL9K_DIR_ANCHOR_BOLD. You can find them in
  ~/.p10k.zsh.

Related: Incorrect foreground color in VSCode Terminal.

Incorrect foreground color in VSCode Terminal Copy Section

By default, VSCode Terminal may arbitrarily replace the foreground color of your choice with a
different color. This behavior can be
turned off in
VSCode settings.

Horrific mess when resizing terminal window Copy Section

When you resize a terminal window horizontally back and forth a few times, you might see this ugly
picture.

tl;dr: This issue arises when a terminal reflows Zsh prompt upon resizing. It isn't specific to
Powerlevel10k. See mitigation.

Note: This section used to say
that the problem is caused by a bug in Zsh. While it's true that it's possible to avoid the problem
in many circumstances by modifying Zsh, it cannot be completely resolved this way. Thus it's unfair
to pin the blame on Zsh.

The anatomy of the problem

The issue is manifested when the vertical distance between the start of the current prompt and the
cursor (henceforth VD) changes when the terminal window is resized.

When a terminal window gets shrunk horizontally, there are two ways for a terminal to handle long
lines that no longer fit: reflow or truncate.

Terminal content before shrinking:

Terminal reflows text when shrinking:

Terminal truncates text when shrinking:

Reflowing strategy can change the height of terminal content. If such content happens to be between
the start of the current prompt and the cursor, Zsh will print prompt on the wrong line. Truncation
strategy never changes the height of terminal content, so it doesn't trigger this issue.

Let's see how the issue plays out in slow motion. We'll start by launching zsh -f and pasting
the following code:

function pause() { read -s }
functions -M pause 0

reset
print -l {1..3}
setopt prompt_subst
PROMPT=$'${$((pause()))+}left>${(pl.$((COLUMNS-12))..-.)}<right\n> '

When PROMPT gets expanded, it calls pause to let us observe the state of the terminal. Here's
the initial state:

Zsh keeps track of the cursor position relative to the start of the current prompt. In this case it
knows that the cursor is one line below. When we shrink the terminal window, it looks like this:

At this point the terminal sends SIGWINCH to Zsh to notify it about changes in the terminal
dimensions. Note that this signal is sent after the content of the terminal has been reflown.

When Zsh receives SIGWINCH, it attempts to erase the current prompt and print it anew. It goes to
the position where it thinks the current prompt is -- one line above the cursor (!) -- erases all
terminal content that follows and prints reexpanded prompt there. However, after resizing prompt is
no longer one line above the cursor. It's two lines above! Zsh ends up printing new prompt one line
too low.

In this case we ended up with unwanted junk content because VD has increased. When you make
terminal window wider, VD can also decrease, which would result in the new prompt being printed
higher than intended, potentially erasing useful content in the process.

Here are a few more examples where shrinking terminal window increased VD.

• Simple one-line left prompt with right prompt. No prompt_subst. Note that the cursor is below
  the prompt line (hit ESC-ENTER to get it there).
  
• Simple one-line left prompt. No prompt_subst, no right prompt. Here VD is bound to increase
  upon terminal shrinking due to the command line wrapping around.
  

Zsh patch

This Zsh patch fixes the issue on some
terminals. The idea behind the patch is to use sc (save cursor) terminal capability before
printing prompt and rc (restore cursor) to move cursor back to the original position when prompt
needs to be refreshed.

The patch works only on terminals that reflow saved cursor position together with text when the
terminal window is resized. The patch has no observable effect on terminals that don't reflow text
on resize (both patched and unpatched Zsh behave correctly) and on terminals that reflow text but
not the saved cursor position (both patched and unpatched Zsh redraw prompt at the same incorrect
position). In other words, the patch fixes the resizing issue on some terminals while keeping the
behavior unchanged on others.

There are two alternative approaches to patching Zsh that may seem to work at first glance but in
fact don't:

• Instead of sc, use u7 terminal capability to query the current cursor position and then cup
  to go back to it. This doesn't work because the absolute position of the start of the current
  prompt changes when text gets reflown.
• Recompute VD based on new terminal dimensions before attempting to refresh prompt. This doesn't
  work because Zsh doesn't know whether terminal reflows text or truncates it. If Zsh could somehow
  know that the terminal reflows text, this approach still wouldn't work on terminals that
  continuously reflow text and rapid-fire SIGWINCH when the window is being resized. In such
  environment real terminal dimensions go out of sync with what Zsh thinks the dimensions are.

There is no ETA for the patch making its way into upstream Zsh. See discussion.

Mitigation

There are a few mitigation options for this issue.

• Use kitty terminal version >= 0.24.0 and enable terminal-shell
  integration in Powerlevel10k by defining POWERLEVEL9K_TERM_SHELL_INTEGRATION=true in
  ~/.p10k.zsh.
• Apply the patch and rebuild Zsh from source. It won't help if you are using Alacritty,
  kitty or some other terminal that reflows text on resize but doesn't reflow saved cursor position.
  On such terminals the patch will have no visible effect.
• Disable text reflowing on window resize in terminal settings. If your terminal doesn't have this
  setting, try a different terminal.
• Avoid long lines between the start of prompt and cursor.
  1. Disable ruler with POWERLEVEL9K_SHOW_RULER=false.
  2. Disable prompt connection with POWERLEVEL9K_MULTILINE_FIRST_PROMPT_GAP_CHAR=' '.
  3. Disable right frame with POWERLEVEL9K_MULTILINE_FIRST_PROMPT_SUFFIX='',
     POWERLEVEL9K_MULTILINE_NEWLINE_PROMPT_SUFFIX='' and
     POWERLEVEL9K_MULTILINE_LAST_PROMPT_SUFFIX=''.
  4. Set POWERLEVEL9K_RIGHT_PROMPT_ELEMENTS=(). Right prompt on the last prompt line will cause
     resizing issues only when the cursor is below it. This isn't very common, so you might want to
     keep some elements in POWERLEVEL9K_RIGHT_PROMPT_ELEMENTS provided that none of them are
     succeeded by newline.

Icons cut off in Konsole Copy Section

When using Konsole with a non-monospace font, icons may be cut off on the right side. Here
"non-monospace" refers to any font with glyphs wider than a single column, or wider than two columns
for glyphs designated as "wide" in the Unicode standard.

The last line on the screenshot shows a cut off Arch Linux logo.

There are several mitigation options for this issue.

1. Use a different terminal. Konsole is the only terminal that exhibits this behavior.
2. Use a monospace font.
3. Manually add an extra space after the icon that gets cut off. For example, if the content of
   os_icon prompt segment gets cut off, open ~/.p10k.zsh, search for
   POWERLEVEL9K_OS_ICON_CONTENT_EXPANSION and change it as follows:

typeset -g POWERLEVEL9K_OS_ICON_CONTENT_EXPANSION='${P9K_CONTENT} '  # extra space at the end

4. Use a different icon that is monospace. For example, if Arch Linux logo gets cut off, add
   the following parameter to ~/.p10k.zsh:

typeset -g POWERLEVEL9K_LINUX_ARCH_ICON='Arch'  # plain "Arch" in place of a logo

5. Disable the display of the icon that gets cut off. For example, if the content of
   os_icon prompt segment gets cut off, open ~/.p10k.zsh and remove os_icon from
   POWERLEVEL9K_LEFT_PROMPT_ELEMENTS and POWERLEVEL9K_RIGHT_PROMPT_ELEMENTS.

Note: Non-monospace fonts are not officially supported by Konsole.

Arch Linux logo has a dot in the bottom right corner Copy Section

Some fonts have this incorrect dotted icon in bold typeface. There are two ways to fix this issue.

1. Use a font with a correct Arch Linux logo in bold typeface. For example,
   the recommended Powerlevel10k font.
2. Display the icon in regular (non-bold) typeface. To do this, open ~/.p10k.zsh, search for
   POWERLEVEL9K_OS_ICON_CONTENT_EXPANSION and remove %B from its value.

typeset -g POWERLEVEL9K_OS_ICON_CONTENT_EXPANSION='${P9K_CONTENT}'  # not bold

Incorrect git status in prompt Copy Section

Powerlevel10k uses gitstatusd to inspect the state of git
repositories. The project relies on the libgit2 library, which
has some gaps in its implementation. Under some conditions, this may result in discrepancies between
the real state of a git repository (reflected by git status) and what gets shown in the
Powerlevel10k prompt.

Most notably, libgit2 does not support skipHash.
If you see incorrect git status in prompt, run git config -l and check whether skipHash is
enabled. If it is, consider disabling it. Keep in mind that skipHash may be implicitly enabled
when activating certain git features, such as manyFiles.

File: gitstatus/docs/listdir.md Copy Chapter

Fast directory listing

In order to find untracked files in a git repository, gitstatusd needs to list the
contents of every directory. gitstatusd does it 27% faster than a reasonable implementation that a
seasoned C/C++ practitioner might write. This document explains the optimizations that went into it.
As directory listing is a common operation, many other projects can benefit from applying these
optimizations.

v1 Copy Chapter

Given a path to a directory, ListDir() must produce the list of files in that directory. Moreover,
the list must be sorted lexicographically to enable fast comparison with Git index.

The following C++ implementation gets the job done. For simplicity, it returns an empty list on
error.

vector<string> ListDir(const char* dirname) {
  vector<string> entries;
  if (DIR* dir = opendir(dirname)) {
    while (struct dirent* ent = (errno = 0, readdir(dir))) {
      if (!Dots(ent->d_name)) entries.push_back(ent->d_name);
    }
    if (errno) entries.clear();
    sort(entries.begin(), entries.end());
    closedir(dir);
  }
  return entries;
}

Every directory has entries "." and "..", which we aren't interested in. We filter them out with
a helper function Dots().

bool Dots(const char* s) { return s[0] == '.' && (!s[1] || (s[1] == '.' && !s[2])); }

To check how fast ListDir() performs, we can run it many times on a typical directory. One million
runs on a directory with 32 files with 16-character names takes 12.7 seconds.

v2 Copy Chapter

Experienced C++ practitioners will scoff at our implementation of ListDir(). If it's meant to be
efficient, returning vector<string> is an unaffordable convenience. To avoid heap allocations we
can use a simple arena that will allow us to reuse memory between different ListDir() calls.

(Changed and added lines are marked with comments.)

void ListDir(const char* dirname, string& arena, vector<char*>& entries) {  // +
  entries.clear();                                                          // +
  if (DIR* dir = opendir(dirname)) {
    arena.clear();                                                          // +
    while (struct dirent* ent = (errno = 0, readdir(dir))) {
      if (!Dots(ent->d_name)) {
        entries.push_back(reinterpret_cast<char*>(arena.size()));           // +
        arena.append(ent->d_name, strlen(ent->d_name) + 1);                 // +
      }
    }
    if (errno) entries.clear();
    for (char*& p : entries) p = &arena[reinterpret_cast<size_t>(p)];      // +
    sort(entries.begin(), entries.end(),                                   // +
         [](const char* a, const char* b) { return strcmp(a, b) < 0; });   // +
    closedir(dir);
  }
}

To make performance comparison easier, we can normalize them relative to the baseline. v1 will get
performance score of 100. A twice-as-fast alternative will be 200.

Avoiding heap allocations makes ListDir() 12.7% faster. Not bad. As an added bonus, those casts
will fend off the occasional frontend developer who accidentally wanders into the codebase.

v3 Copy Chapter

opendir() is an expensive call whose performance is linear in the number of subdirectories in the
path because it needs to perform a lookup for every one of them. We can replace it with openat(),
which takes a file descriptor to the parent directory and a name of the subdirectory. Just a single
lookup, less CPU time. This optimization assumes that callers already have a descriptor to the
parent directory, which is indeed the case for gitstatusd, and is often the case in other
applications that traverse filesystem.

void ListDir(int parent_fd, const char* dirname, string& arena, vector<char*>& entries) {   // +
  entries.clear();
  int dir_fd = openat(parent_fd, dirname, O_NOATIME | O_RDONLY | O_DIRECTORY | O_CLOEXEC);  // +
  if (dir_fd < 0) return;                                                                   // +
  if (DIR* dir = fdopendir(dir_fd)) {
    arena.clear();
    while (struct dirent* ent = (errno = 0, readdir(dir))) {
      if (!Dots(ent->d_name)) {
        entries.push_back(reinterpret_cast<char*>(arena.size()));
        arena.append(ent->d_name, strlen(ent->d_name) + 1);
      }
    }
    if (errno) entries.clear();
    for (char*& p : entries) p = &arena[reinterpret_cast<size_t>(p)];
    sort(entries.begin(), entries.end(),
         [](const char* a, const char* b) { return strcmp(a, b) < 0; });
    closedir(dir);
  } else {                                                                                  // +
    close(dir_fd);                                                                          // +
  }                                                                                         // +
}

This is worth about 3.5% in speed.

v4 Copy Chapter

Copying file names to the arena isn't free but it doesn't seem like we can avoid it. Poking around
we can see that the POSIX API we are using is implemented on Linux on top of getdents64 system
call. Its documentation isn't very encouraging:

These are not the interfaces you are interested in.  Look at
readdir(3) for the POSIX-conforming C library interface.  This page
documents the bare kernel system call interfaces.

Note: There are no glibc wrappers for these system calls.

Hmm... The API looks like something we can take advantage of, so let's try it anyway.

First, we'll need a simple Arena class that can allocate 8KB blocks of memory.

class Arena {
 public:
  enum { kBlockSize = 8 << 10 };

  char* Alloc() {
    if (cur_ == blocks_.size()) blocks_.emplace_back(kBlockSize, 0);
    return blocks_[cur_++].data();
  }

  void Clear() { cur_ = 0; }

 private:
  size_t cur_ = 0;
  vector<string> blocks_;
};

Next, we need to define struct dirent64_t ourselves because there is no wrapper for the system
call we are about to use.

struct dirent64_t {
  ino64_t d_ino;
  off64_t d_off;
  unsigned short d_reclen;
  unsigned char d_type;
  char d_name[];
};

Finally we can get to the implementation of ListDir().

void ListDir(int parent_fd, Arena& arena, vector<char*>& entries) {                       // +
  entries.clear();
  int dir_fd = openat(parent_fd, dirname, O_NOATIME | O_RDONLY | O_DIRECTORY | O_CLOEXEC);
  if (dir_fd < 0) return;
  arena.Clear();                                                                          // +
  while (true) {                                                                          // +
    char* buf = arena.Alloc();                                                            // +
    int n = syscall(SYS_getdents64, dir_fd, buf, Arena::kBlockSize);                      // +
    if (n <= 0) {                                                                         // +
      if (n) entries.clear();                                                             // +
      break;                                                                              // +
    }                                                                                     // +
    for (int pos = 0; pos < n;) {                                                         // +
      auto* ent = reinterpret_cast<dirent64_t*>(buf + pos);                               // +
      if (!Dots(ent->d_name)) entries.push_back(ent->d_name);                             // +
      pos += ent->d_reclen;                                                               // +
    }                                                                                     // +
  }                                                                                       // +
  sort(entries.begin(), entries.end(),
       [](const char* a, const char* b) { return strcmp(a, b) < 0; });
  close(dir_fd);
}

How are we doing with this one?

Solid 20% speedup. Worth the trouble. Unfortunately, we now have just one reinterpret_cast instead
of two, and it's not nearly as scary-looking. Hopefully with the next iteration we can get back some
of that evil vibe of low-level code.

As a bonus, every element in entries has d_type at offset -1. This can be useful to the callers
that need to distinguish between regular files and directories (gitstatusd, in fact, needs this).
Note how ListDir() implements this feature at zero cost, as a lucky accident of dirent64_t
memory layout.

v5 Copy Chapter

The CPU profile of ListDir() reveals that almost all userspace CPU time is spent in strcmp().
Digging into the source code of std::sort() we can see that it uses Insertion Sort for short
collections. Our 32-element vector falls under the threshold. Insertion Sort makes O(N^2)
comparisons, hence a lot of CPU time in strcmp(). Switching to qsort() or
Timsort is of no use as all good sorting algorithms fall
back to Insertion Sort.

If we cannot make fewer comparisons, perhaps we can make each of them faster? strcmp() compares
characters one at a time. It cannot read ahead as it can be illegal to touch memory past the first
null byte. But we know that it's safe to read a few extra bytes past the end of d_name for every
entry except the last in the buffer. And since we own the buffer, we can overallocate it so that
reading past the end of the last entry is also safe.

Combining these ideas with the fact that file names on Linux are at most 255 bytes long, we can
invoke getdents64() like this:

int n = syscall(SYS_getdents64, dir_fd, buf, Arena::kBlockSize - 256);

And then compare entries like this:

[](const char* a, const char* b) { return memcmp(a, b, 255) < 0; }

This version doesn't give any speedup compared to the previous but it opens an avenue for another
optimization. The pointers we pass to memcmp() aren't aligned. To be more specific, their
numerical values are N * 8 + 3 for some N. When given such a pointer, memcmp() will check the
first 5 bytes one by one, and only then switch to comparing 8 bytes at a time. If we can handle the
first 5 bytes ourselves, we can pass aligned memory to memcmp() and take full advantage of its
vectorized loop.

Here's the implementation:

/* Detailed source-code truncated for AI context efficiency. */

This is for Little Endian architecture. Big Endian doesn't need ByteSwap64(), so it'll be a bit
faster.

Fast and respectably arcane.

Conclusion Copy Chapter

Through a series of incremental improvements we've sped up directory listing by 43.3% compared to a
naive implementation (v1) and 27.2% compared to a reasonable implementation that a seasoned C/C++
practitioner might write (v2).

However, these numbers are based on an artificial benchmark while the real judge is always the real
code. Our goal was to speed up gitstatusd. Benchmark was just a tool. Thankfully, the different
versions of ListDir() have the same comparative performance within gitstatusd as in the benchmark.
In truth, the directory chosen for the benchmark wasn't arbitrary. It was picked by sampling
gitstatusd when it runs on chromium git repository.

The final version of ListDir() spends 97% of its CPU time in the kernel. If we assume that it
makes the minimum possible number of system calls and these calls are optimal (true to the best
of my knowledge), it puts the upper bound on possible future performance improvements at just 3%.
There is almost nothing left in ListDir() to optimize.

(The CPU profile was created with gperftools and
rendered with pprof).

File: gitstatus/README.md Copy Chapter

gitstatus

• THE PROJECT HAS VERY LIMITED SUPPORT
• NO NEW FEATURES ARE IN THE WORKS
• MOST BUGS WILL GO UNFIXED

gitstatus is a 10x faster alternative to git status and git describe. Its primary use
case is to enable fast git prompt in interactive shells.

Heavy lifting is done by gitstatusd -- a custom binary written in C++. It comes with Zsh and
Bash bindings for integration with shell.

Table of Contents Copy Chapter

1. Using from Zsh
2. Using from Bash
3. Using from other shells
4. How it works
5. Benchmarks
6. Why fast
7. Requirements
8. Compiling
9. License

Using from Zsh Copy Chapter

The easiest way to take advantage of gitstatus from Zsh is to use a theme that's already integrated
with it. For example, Powerlevel10k is a flexible and
fast theme with first-class gitstatus integration. If you install Powerlevel10k, you don't need to
install gitstatus.

For those who wish to use gitstatus without a theme, there is
gitstatus.prompt.zsh. Install it as follows:

git clone --depth=1 https://github.com/romkatv/gitstatus.git ~/gitstatus
echo 'source ~/gitstatus/gitstatus.prompt.zsh' >>! ~/.zshrc

Users in China can use the official mirror on gitee.com for faster download.
中国大陆用户可以使用 gitee.com 上的官方镜像加速下载.

git clone --depth=1 https://gitee.com/romkatv/gitstatus.git ~/gitstatus
echo 'source ~/gitstatus/gitstatus.prompt.zsh' >>! ~/.zshrc

Alternatively, if you have Homebrew installed:

brew install romkatv/gitstatus/gitstatus
echo "source $(brew --prefix)/opt/gitstatus/gitstatus.prompt.zsh" >>! ~/.zshrc

(If you choose this option, replace ~/gitstatus with $(brew --prefix)/opt/gitstatus/gitstatus
in all code snippets below.)

Make sure to disable your current theme if you have one.

This will give you a basic yet functional prompt with git status in it. It's
over 10x faster than any alternative that can give you comparable prompt. In order
to customize it, set PROMPT and/or RPROMPT at the end of ~/.zshrc after sourcing
gitstatus.prompt.zsh. Insert ${GITSTATUS_PROMPT} where you want git status to go. For example:

source ~/gitstatus/gitstatus.prompt.zsh

PROMPT='%~%# '               # left prompt: directory followed by %/# (normal/root)
RPROMPT='$GITSTATUS_PROMPT'  # right prompt: git status

The expansion of ${GITSTATUS_PROMPT} can contain the following bits:

$GITSTATUS_PROMPT_LEN tells you how long $GITSTATUS_PROMPT is when printed to the console.
gitstatus.prompt.zsh has an example of using it to truncate the current
directory.

If you'd like to change the format of git status, or want to have greater control over the
process of assembling PROMPT, you can copy and modify parts of
gitstatus.prompt.zsh instead of sourcing the script. Your ~/.zshrc
might look something like this:

source ~/gitstatus/gitstatus.plugin.zsh

function my_set_prompt() {
  PROMPT='%~%# '
  RPROMPT=''

  if gitstatus_query MY && [[ $VCS_STATUS_RESULT == ok-sync ]]; then
    RPROMPT=${${VCS_STATUS_LOCAL_BRANCH:-@${VCS_STATUS_COMMIT}}//\%/%%}  # escape %
    (( VCS_STATUS_NUM_STAGED    )) && RPROMPT+='+'
    (( VCS_STATUS_NUM_UNSTAGED  )) && RPROMPT+='!'
    (( VCS_STATUS_NUM_UNTRACKED )) && RPROMPT+='?'
  fi

  setopt no_prompt_{bang,subst} prompt_percent  # enable/disable correct prompt expansions
}

gitstatus_stop 'MY' && gitstatus_start -s -1 -u -1 -c -1 -d -1 'MY'
autoload -Uz add-zsh-hook
add-zsh-hook precmd my_set_prompt

This snippet is sourcing gitstatus.plugin.zsh rather than gitstatus.prompt.zsh. The former
defines low-level bindings that communicate with gitstatusd over pipes. The latter is a simple
script that uses these bindings to assemble git prompt.

Unlike Powerlevel10k, code based on
gitstatus.prompt.zsh is communicating with gitstatusd synchronously. This
can make your prompt slow when working in a large git repository or on a slow machine. To avoid
this problem, call gitstatus_query asynchronously as documented in
gitstatus.plugin.zsh. This can be quite challenging.

Using from Bash Copy Chapter

The easiest way to take advantage of gitstatus from Bash is via
gitstatus.prompt.sh. Install it as follows:

git clone --depth=1 https://github.com/romkatv/gitstatus.git ~/gitstatus
echo 'source ~/gitstatus/gitstatus.prompt.sh' >> ~/.bashrc

Users in China can use the official mirror on gitee.com for faster download.
中国大陆用户可以使用 gitee.com 上的官方镜像加速下载.

git clone --depth=1 https://gitee.com/romkatv/gitstatus.git ~/gitstatus
echo 'source ~/gitstatus/gitstatus.prompt.sh' >> ~/.bashrc

Alternatively, if you have Homebrew installed:

brew install romkatv/gitstatus/gitstatus
echo "source $(brew --prefix)/opt/gitstatus/gitstatus.prompt.sh" >> ~/.bashrc

(If you choose this option, replace ~/gitstatus with $(brew --prefix)/opt/gitstatus/gitstatus
in all code snippets below.)

This will give you a basic yet functional prompt with git status in it. It's
over 10x faster than any alternative that can give you comparable prompt.

In order to customize your prompt, set PS1 at the end of ~/.bashrc after sourcing
gitstatus.prompt.sh. Insert ${GITSTATUS_PROMPT} where you want git status to go. For example:

source ~/gitstatus/gitstatus.prompt.sh

PS1='\w ${GITSTATUS_PROMPT}\n\$ ' # directory followed by git status and $/# (normal/root)

The expansion of ${GITSTATUS_PROMPT} can contain the following bits:

If you'd like to change the format of git status, or want to have greater control over the
process of assembling PS1, you can copy and modify parts of
gitstatus.prompt.sh instead of sourcing the script. Your ~/.bashrc might
look something like this:

source ~/gitstatus/gitstatus.plugin.sh

function my_set_prompt() {
  PS1='\w'

  if gitstatus_query && [[ "$VCS_STATUS_RESULT" == ok-sync ]]; then
    if [[ -n "$VCS_STATUS_LOCAL_BRANCH" ]]; then
      PS1+=" ${VCS_STATUS_LOCAL_BRANCH//\\/\\\\}"  # escape backslash
    else
      PS1+=" @${VCS_STATUS_COMMIT//\\/\\\\}"       # escape backslash
    fi
    (( VCS_STATUS_HAS_STAGED"    )) && PS1+='+'
    (( VCS_STATUS_HAS_UNSTAGED"  )) && PS1+='!'
    (( VCS_STATUS_HAS_UNTRACKED" )) && PS1+='?'
  fi

  PS1+='\n\$ '

  shopt -u promptvars  # disable expansion of '$(...)' and the like
}

gitstatus_stop && gitstatus_start
PROMPT_COMMAND=my_set_prompt

This snippet is sourcing gitstatus.plugin.sh rather than gitstatus.prompt.sh. The former
defines low-level bindings that communicate with gitstatusd over pipes. The latter is a simple
script that uses these bindings to assemble git prompt.

Note: Bash bindings, unlike Zsh bindings, don't support asynchronous calls.

Using from other shells Copy Chapter

If there are no gitstatusd bindings for your shell, you'll need to get your hands dirty.
Use the existing bindings for inspiration; run gitstatusd --help or read the same thing in
options.cc.

How it works Copy Chapter

gitstatusd reads requests from stdin and prints responses to stdout. Requests contain an ID and
a directory. Responses contain the same ID and machine-readable git status for the directory.
gitstatusd keeps some state in memory for the directories it has seen in order to serve future
requests faster.

Zsh bindings and Bash bindings start gitstatusd in
the background and communicate with it via pipes. Themes such as
Powerlevel10k use these bindings to put git status in
PROMPT.

Note that gitstatus cannot be used as a drop-in replacement for git status command as it doesn't
produce output in the same format. It does perform the same computation though.

Benchmarks Copy Chapter

The following benchmark results were obtained on Intel i9-7900X running Ubuntu 18.04 in
a clean chromium repository synced to 9394e49a. The
repository was checked out to an ext4 filesystem on M.2 SSD.

Three functionally equivalent tools for computing git status were benchmarked:

• gitstatusd
• git with core.untrackedcache enabled and core.fsmonitor disabled
• lg2 -- a demo/example executable from libgit2 that
  implements a subset of git functionality on top of libgit2 API; for the purposes of this
  benchmark the subset is sufficient to generate the same data as the other tools

Every tool was benchmark in cold and hot conditions. For git the first run in a repository was
considered cold, with the following runs considered hot. lg2 was patched to compute results twice
in a single invocation without freeing the repository in between; the second run was considered hot.
The same patching was not done for git because git cannot be easily modified to refresh inmemory
index state between invocations; in fact, this limitation is one of the primary reasons developers
use libgit2. gitstatusd was benchmarked similarly to lg2 with two result computations in the
same invocation.

Two commands were benchmarked: status and describe.

Status Copy Section

In this benchmark all tools were computing the equivalent of git status. Lower numbers are better.

gitstatusd is substantially faster than the alternatives, especially on hot runs. Note that hot runs
are of primary importance to the main use case of gitstatus in interactive shells.

The performance of git status fluctuated wildly in this benchmarks for reasons unknown to the
author. Moreover, performance is sticky -- once git status settles around a number, it stays
there for a long time. Numbers as diverse as 295, 352, 663 and 730 had been observed on hot runs on
the same repository. The number in the table is the lowest (fastest or best) that git status had
shown.

Describe Copy Section

In this benchmark all tools were computing the equivalent of git describe --tags --exact-match
to find tags that resolve to the same commit as HEAD. Lower numbers are better.

gitstatusd is once again faster than the alternatives, more so on hot runs.

Why fast Copy Chapter

Since gitstatusd doesn't have to print all staged/unstaged/untracked files but only report
whether there are any, it can terminate repository scan early. It can also remember which files
were dirty on the previous run and check them first on the next run to avoid the scan entirely if
the files are still dirty. However, the benchmarks above were performed in a clean repository where
these shortcuts do not trigger. All benchmarked tools had to do the same work -- check the status
of every file in the index to see if it has changed, check every directory for newly created files,
etc. And yet, gitstatusd came ahead by a large margin. This section describes what it does that
makes it so fast.

Most of the following comparisons are done against libgit2 rather than git because of the author's
familiarity with the former but not the with latter. libgit2 has clean, well-documented APIs and an
elegant implementation, which makes it so much easier to work with and to analyze performance
bottlenecks.

Summary for the impatient Copy Section

Under the benchmark conditions described above, the equivalent of libgit2's
git_diff_index_to_workdir (the most expensive part of status command) is 46.3 times faster in
gitstatusd. The speedup comes from the following sources.

• gitstatusd uses more efficient data structures and algorithms and employs performance-conscious
  coding style throughout the codebase. This reduces CPU time in userspace by 32x compared to libgit2.
• gitstatusd uses less expensive system calls and makes fewer of them. This reduces CPU time spent
  in kernel by 1.9x.
• gitstatusd can utilize multiple cores to scan index and workdir in parallel with almost perfect
  scaling. This reduces total run time by 12.4x while having virtually no effect on total CPU time.

Problem statement Copy Section

The most resource-intensive part of the status command is finding the difference between index
and workdir (git_diff_index_to_workdir in libgit2). Index is a list of all files in the git
repository with their last modification times. This is an obvious simplification but it suffices for
this exposition. On disk, index is stored sorted by file path. Here's an example of git index:

This list needs to be compared to the list of files in the working directory. If any of the files
listed in the index are missing from the workdir or have different last modification time, they are
"unstaged" in gitstatusd parlance. If you run git status, they'll be shown as "changes not staged
for commit". Thus, any implementation of status command has to call stat() or one of its
variants on every file in the index.

In addition, all files in the working directory for which there is no entry in the index at all are
"untracked". git status will show them as "untracked files". Finding untracked files requires some
form of work directory traversal.

Single-threaded scan Copy Section

Let's see how git_diff_index_to_workdir from libgit2 accomplishes these tasks. Here's its CPU
profile from 200 hot runs over chromium repository.

(The CPU profile was created with gperftools and
rendered with pprof).

We can see __GI__lxstat taking a lot of time. This is the stat() call for every file in the
index. We can also identify __opendir, __readdir and __GI___close_nocancel -- glibc wrappers
for reading the contents of a directory. This is for finding untracked files. Out of the total 232
seconds, 111 seconds -- or 47.7% -- was spent on these calls. The rest is computation -- comparing
strings, sorting arrays, etc.

Now let's take a look at the CPU profile of gitstatusd on the same task.

The first impression is that this profile looks pruned. This isn't an artifact. The profile was
generated with the same tools and the same flags as the profile of libgit2.

Since both profiles were generated from the same workload, absolute numbers can be compared. We can
see that gitstatusd took 62 seconds in total compared to libgit2's 232 seconds. System calls at the
core of the algorithm are clearly visible. __GI___fxstatat is a flavor of stat(), and the other
three calls -- __libc_openat64, __libc_close and __GI___fxstat are responsible for opening
directories and finding untracked files. Notice that there is almost nothing else in the profile
apart from these calls. The rest of the code accounts for 3.77 seconds of CPU time -- 32 times less
than in libgit2.

So, one reason gitstatusd is fast is that it has efficient diffing code -- very little time is spent
outside of kernel. However, if we look closely, we can notice that system calls in gitstatusd are
also faster than in libgit2. For example, libgit2 spent 72.07 seconds in __GI__lxstat while
gitstatusd spent only 48.82 seconds in __GI___fxstatat. There are two reasons for this difference.
First, libgit2 makes more stat() calls than is strictly required. It's not necessary to stat
directories because index only has files. There are 25k directories in chromium repository (and 300k
files) -- that's 25k stat() calls that could be avoided. The second reason is that libgit2 and
gitstatusd use different flavors of stat(). libgit2 uses lstat(), which takes a path to the file
as input. Its performance is linear in the number of subdirectories in the path because it needs to
perform a lookup for every one of them and to check permissions. gitstatusd uses fstatat(), which
takes a file descriptor to the parent directory and a name of the file. Just a single lookup, less
CPU time.

Similarly to lstat() vs fstatat(), it's faster to open files and directories with openat()
from the parent directory file descriptor than with regular open() that accepts full file path.
gitstatusd takes advantage of openat() to open directories as fast as possible. It opens about 90%
of the directories (this depends on the actual directory structure of the repository) from the
immediate parent -- the most efficient way -- and the remaining 10% it opens from the repository's
root directory. The reason it's done this way is to keep the maximum number of simultaneously open
file descriptors bounded. libgit2 can have O(repository depth) simultaneously open file descriptors,
which may be OK for a single-threaded application but can balloon to a large number when scans are
done by many threads simultaneously, like in gitstatusd.

There is no equivalent to __opendir or __readdir in the gitstatusd profile because it uses the
equivalent of untracked cache from
git. On the first scan of the workdir gitstatusd lists all files just like libgit2. But, unlike
libgit2, it remembers the last modification time of every directory along with the list of
untracked files under it. On the next scan, gitstatusd can skip listing files in directories whose
last modification time hasn't changed.

To summarize, here's what gitstatusd was doing when the CPU profile was captured:

1. __libc_openat64: Open every directory for which there are files in the index.
2. __GI___fxstat: Check last modification time of the directory. Since it's the same as on the
   last scan, this directory has the same list of untracked files as before, which is empty (the
   repository is clean).
3. __GI___fxstatat: Check last modification time for every file in the index that belongs to this
   directory.
4. __libc_close: Close the file descriptor to the directory.

Here's how the very first scan of a repository looks like in gitstatusd:

(Some glibc functions are mislabel on this profile. explicit_bzero and __nss_passwd_lookup are
in reality strcmp and memcmp.)

This is a superset of the previous -- hot -- profile, with an extra syscall and string sorting for
directory listing. gitstatusd uses getdents64 Linux system call directly, bypassing the glibc
wrapper that libgit2 uses. This is 23% faster. The details of this optimization can be found in a
separate document.

Multithreading Copy Section

The diffing algorithm in gitstatusd was designed from the ground up with the intention of using it
concurrently from multiple threads. With a fast SSD, status is CPU bound, so taking advantage of
all available CPU cores is an obvious way to yield results faster.

gitstatusd exhibits almost perfect scaling from multithreading. Engaging all cores allows it to
produce results 12.4 times faster than in single-threaded execution. This is on Intel i9-7900X with
10 cores (20 with hyperthreading) with single-core frequency of 4.3GHz and all-core frequency of
4.0GHz.

Note: git status also uses all available cores in some parts of its algorithm while lg2 does
everything in a single thread.

Postprocessing Copy Section

Once the difference between the index and the workdir is found, we have a list of candidates --
files that may be unstaged or untracked. To make the final judgement, these files need to be checked
against .gitignore rules and a few other things.

gitstatusd uses patched libgit2 for this step. This fork
adds several optimizations that make libgit2 faster. The patched libgit2 performs more than twice
as fast in the benchmark as the original even without changes in the user code (that is, in the
code that uses the libgit2 APIs). The fork also adds several API extensions, most notable of which
is the support for multi-threaded scans. If lg2 status is modified to take advantage of these
extensions, it outperforms the original libgit2 by a factor of 18. Lastly, the fork fixes a score of
bugs, most of which become apparent only when using libgit2 from multiple threads.

WARNING: Changes to libgit2 are extensive but the testing they underwent isn't. It is
not recommended to use the patched libgit2 in production.

Requirements Copy Chapter

• To compile: binutils, cmake, gcc, g++, git and GNU make.
• To run: Linux, macOS, FreeBSD, Android, WSL, Cygwin or MSYS2.

Compiling Copy Chapter

There are prebuilt gitstatusd binaries in releases. When using the official shell bindings
provided by gitstatus, the right binary for your architecture gets downloaded automatically.

If prebuilt binaries don't work for you, you'll need to get your hands dirty.

Compiling for personal use Copy Section

git clone --depth=1 https://github.com/romkatv/gitstatus.git
cd gitstatus
./build -w -s -d docker

Users in China can use the official mirror on gitee.com for faster download.
中国大陆用户可以使用 gitee.com 上的官方镜像加速下载.

git clone --depth=1 https://gitee.com/romkatv/gitstatus.git
cd gitstatus
./build -w -s -d docker

• If it says that -d docker is not supported on your OS, remove this flag.
• If it says that -s is not supported on your OS, remove this flag.
• If it tell you to install docker but you cannot or don't want to, remove -d docker.
• If it says that some command is missing, install it.

If everything goes well, the newly built binary will appear in ./usrbin. It'll be picked up
by shell bindings automatically.

When you update shell bindings, they may refuse to work with the binary you've built earlier. In
this case you'll need to rebuild.

If you are using gitstatus through Powerlevel10k, the
instructions are the same except that you don't need to clone gitstatus. Instead, change your
current directory to /path/to/powerlevel10k/gitstatus (/path/to/powerlevel10k is the directory
where you've installed Powerlevel10k) and run ./build -w -s -d docker from there as described
above.

Compiling for distribution Copy Section

It's currently neither easy nor recommended to package and distribute gitstatus. There are no
instructions you can follow that would allow you to easily update your package when new versions of
gitstatus are released. This may change in the future but not soon.

License Copy Chapter

GNU General Public License v3.0. See LICENSE. Contributions are covered by the same
license.