[prev] [next] [up] [top] News about ZSH
For details of the changes, see the release notes.
2022-05-14 : Release 5.9
Security and bug fix release with several feature additions. zsh 5.9 is dedicated to the memory of Sven Guckes.
2022-04-08 : New zsh logo
A new logo has been contributed to the project. Samples and a style guide are at https://github.com/Zsh-art/logo. We are very grateful to Justin Dorfman and Reblaze.
2022-02-12 : Release 5.8.1
Security and bug fix release.
2021-05-19 : IRC moved to libera.chat
The Zsh presence on IRC has followed the open source crowd and moved to libera.chat, away from Freenode.
2021-05-06 : zsh.org fails failed to resolve
zsh.org does not resolve in DNS. Consequently, email to *@zsh.org bounces and the official archives are down. We're looking into the issue. In the meantime, the unofficial #zsh channel on freenode remains available. Update: Fixed.
2020-08-04 : Mailing lists are were down
The zsh-workers@zsh.org and zsh-users@zsh.org mailing lists are currently bouncing. We are aware of the issue and working on it. Update: Fixed.
2020-02-15 : Release 5.8
Security and bug fix release with a few user visible additions.
2019-02-03 : Release 5.7.1
Minor bug fix release.
2019-01-24 : Release 5.7
Bug fix release with a few user visible additions.
2018-09-12 : Release 5.6.2
Minor bug fix release.
2018-09-08 : Release 5.6.1
Minor bug fix release.
2018-09-03 : Release 5.6
Security and bug fix release with a few user visible additions.
2018-04-16 : Release 5.5.1
Minor bug fix release.
2018-04-08 : Release 5.5
Bug fix release with a few user visible additions.
2017-11-11 : Pull requests for completion functions now accepted
For completion functions, github pull requests are now officially accepted. Sending completion function patches to the mailing list will also continue to be perfectly acceptable.
2017-09-21 : Release 5.4.2
Update to 5.4.1, fixing some problems found quickly.
2017-08-07 : Release 5.4.1
Bug fix release with a few minor feature additions and some backwards incompatibilities.
2017-08-07 : Release 5.4
Not released.
2016-12-21 : Release 5.3.1
Minor bug fix release.
2016-12-12 : Release 5.3
Bug fix release with a few minor feature additions.
2015-12-02 : Release 5.2
Bug fix release with a few minor feature additions.
2015-09-11 : Release 5.1.1
Minor bug fix release.
2015-08-30 : Release 5.1
Add support for genuine assignment syntax after keywords such as "local" and "typeset". Text pasted within X terminals is safer as it appears as characters rather than raw input (so in particular you need to hit Return to execute it). There are also many bug fixes, notably better protection against race conditions in interrupts, as well as enhancements to completion functions.
2015-05-31 : Release 5.0.8
Many improvements to vi-editing mode such as support for Vim style text objects and visual mode. Support for global aliases for certain syntactic tokens. Also contains minor features, improved completion functions and bug fixes.
2014-10-08 : Release 5.0.7
Fix a possible security vulnerability by disabling the evaluation of certain variables imported from the environment. This could be exploited if zsh is running with elevated privileges and an attacker can control the environment (e.g. sudo without evn_reset). Also contains minor features and bug fixes.
2014-08-29 : Release 5.0.6
New prompt expansions, new operators for array zipping, globbing in conditionals with EXTENDED_GLOB. Also contains bug fixes and improved completion functions.
2014-01-06 : Release 5.0.5
New option to force floating point constants, individual pattern characters can be disabled, custom editing widgets when editing variables with vared, improved options to omit certain commands from history files (but keep them in the internal history), new option to remove space after RPROMPT.
Releases 5.0.3 and 5.0.4 were replaced with 5.0.5 because they contained serious bugs.
2012-12-21 : Release 5.0.2
Minor bug fix release.
2012-12-20 : Release 5.0.1
Bug fix release with some minor new features.
2012-07-24 : Release 5.0.0
This is a stable release containing a number of improvements over the 4.2 series. For details of the changes, see the release notes. (Most of these changes are already included in 4.3.17.)
2012-02-23 : Release 4.3.17
Complete fixes from last release.
2012-02-20 : Release 4.3.16
Bug fix release. Contains fixes for possible speed regression introduced in 4.3.15 (new option HASH_EXECUTABLES_ONLY) and improvements to (bash) completion and shell emulation mode.
2011-12-17 : Release 4.3.15
Fix a POSIX compatibility related bug which might cause a subshell to hang.
2011-12-06 : Release 4.3.14
Bug fixes for last release.
2011-11-30 : Release 4.3.13
Many bug fixes and improvements to functions.
2011-05-31 : Release 4.3.12
Improved error handling in POSIX emulation, ${NAME:OFFSET:LENGTH} syntax supports negative LENGTHs, new parameter expansion flag (g:opts:) which escapes sequences like the echo and print builtins, the region_highlight array is now updated dynamically as the command line is edited and the zsh/parameter module has a new array $usergroups which contains the names of system groups.
2010-12-20 : Release 4.3.11
Improved parameter expansion (${NAME:OFFSET} and ${NAME:OFFSET:LENGTH} for substrings and subarrays, (D) abbreviated directories, (Z) enhanced (z), {3..9..2} step in brace expansion, (P) adds word before each match), additional styles for zle_highlight ('suffix' for trailing /, 'special' for invalid multibyte chars), new option HIST_LEX_WORDS to perform "correct" splitting of history lines (not only on whitespace), multiple new POSIX_ options to improve POSIX compliance and an improved SUN_KEYBOARD_HACK which is now called KEYBOARD_HACK.
2009-06-01 : Release 4.3.10
Bug fixes and some minor improvements.
2008-11-03 : Release 4.3.9
Improved multibyte support on MacOS, updated prompt system and better debug support.
2008-08-29 : Zsh for Symbian OS.
Symbian has released a port of Zsh, together with telnetd, onto Symbian OS using its P.I.P.S. layer. The combination of Zsh and a telnet daemon running on a real phone or emulator allows users to launch a Unix-like shell from a PC running a generic telnet client, over a pre-established TCP/IP connection. More information at http://developer.symbian.com/wiki/display/pub/P.I.P.S.
2008-04-02 : Release 4.3.6
Contains mostly bug fixes, but there are some small improvements. No incompatibilities with previous versions are known.
2008-02-04 : Releases 4.2.7 and 4.3.5
The stable (4.2.7) release was actually out in December containing various bug fixes and completion improvements backported from the development branch. 4.3.5 contains both bugfixes and improvements. Further progress has been made in support for multibyte character sets. In most cases, this is thought to be stable, although a few glitches remain. Combining characters are still not supported. There have been enhancements to the module system to allow selective loading. There is a new module for access to the curses screen manipulation package.
2007-04-19 : Release 4.3.4
This now contains most of the planned support for multibyte characters. There are still some problems notably with Unicode combining characters and composition of characters (notably on MacOS).
2006-03-02 : Release 4.3.2
This is a bug-fix release for two minor build problems that some users experienced.
2006-02-28 : Release 4.3.1
This is the first release of the 4.3 series, which contains initial support for multibyte characters in the shell's line editor (in particular UTF-8, although any character set supported by the system library is usable). Please read the appropriate sections of the file INSTALL as this support might not be turned on by default on some systems where it can be used. The release also contains a few enhancements to shell syntax and supplied functions, as well as numerous bug fixes. See the file NEWS for more detail. There are only a few unavoidable incompatibilities with previous versions, mostly to enhance compatibility with other shells and standards; see the README file.
2005-12-05 : Release 4.2.6
This is a bug fix release for the stable 4.2 series. A new development version 4.3.1 will be released soon, containing support in the line editor for multibyte character sets such as UTF-8.
2005-04-06 : Release 4.2.5
This is a bug fix release for the stable 4.2 series. It fixes a few configuration problems, notably on Mac OS X, as well as a number of other minor issues. There are also some upgrades to completion functions. Upgrading from 4.2.4 should not cause any incompatibilities.
2005-02-08 : Work starts on Unicode support
Work has now begun on what has recently become the most requested feature: support for multibyte character sets. Initial changes are focussing on the line editor (ZLE). In advance of this commencing, 4.2.2 was released. Further bug fixes to the 4.2 series are taking place on a branch and once there is something useful to test, a 4.3 series will begin. The latest stable release is now actually 4.2.4: there were a few bugs and compilation issues which needed fixing.
2004-12-16 : Zsh book published
Last month, a book titled From Bash to Z Shell: Conquering the Command Line was published and it is now available. It covers zsh in detail. More information and a sample chapter is available on the publisher's web page. You can also read reviews on Amazon.
2004-08-13 : Release 4.2.1
This adds a number of minor new features along with bug fixes. For more information, see the detailed changelog.
2004-03-19 : Release 4.2.0
This is a stable release containing a number of improvements over the 4.0 series. For details of the changes, see the release notes or detailed changelog.
2003-12-18 : Release 4.0.8
This is a maintenance release of the stable 4.0 series. Most of the changes are bug fixes. There are some local improvements to various completion functions too. The 4.0.9 release which followed shortly after fixed a compile problem so if you have 4.0.8, there is not need to upgrade.

This is likely to be the last 4.0 release. After 4.1.2, there will be a 4.2.0 as the 4.1 line looks stable. The detailed changelog for the 4.0 series is available.

2003-07-04 : qconfirm enabled on mailing lists
Due to the excessive amount on Viruses getting through on the mailing lists, qconfirm has now been enabled for them. This means that if you don't subscribe, you will have to confirm any messages you send. Apologies for this inconvenience.
2003-06-19 : Releases 4.1.1 & 4.0.7
Not one but two new releases. Changes in 4.0.7 are mostly bug fixes with some enhancements to completion functions. 4.1.1 is the first full release of the 4.1 branch. For those who haven't been following development all that closely, 4.1.1 has been a long while in gestation and should be relatively stable. Unless you are particularly paranoid, it is probably reasonable to upgrade from 4.0.
2002-08-14 : Release 4.0.6
This is a maintenance release of the stable 4.0 series. The majority of changes are bug fixes or minor enhancements to the function based completion system.
2002-08-08 : New zsh wiki
Thanks to Bruno Bonfils, there is now a wiki about zsh. Anyone can add information (that being the purpose of a wiki) into the website.
2001-10-26 : Release 4.0.4
This is a maintenance release of the stable 4.0 series. A large number of small bugfixes have been made covering the whole shell. There are very few user-visible changes, mostly minor enhancements to the completion function system. Some configuration and compilation issues have been addressed to improve compatibility with AIX, MacOS X/Darwin, and QNX Neutrino.
2001-10-15 : Daily CVS snapshots now available
It is now possible to download daily snapshots of the zsh source which are taken from the CVS respository. Details on where to get them are on the page for cvs related stuff (switched to Git).
2001-06-27 : Release 4.0.2
This is a maintenance release for the (stable) 4.0 branch. Most of the changes are bug fixes, including a fix for a bug which caused the test suite to fail. On fully supported systems, all tests should now pass.

There is one new feature: the option KSH_TYPESET provides compatibility with other shells for assignment arguments of `typeset', `export' and related builtins.

Work has also started on the 4.1 branch. New features include `for' loops taking multiple parameter names before the `in' or left parenthesis, each of which takes one word from the list on each iteration.

2001-06-01 : Release 4.0.1
Version 4.0.1 of zsh, has been released. This is a stable release with many enhancements over the previous stable release, particulary in the areas of completion, line editing, modularity and parameter substitution.
2000-06-05 : Release 3.1.9
Version 3.1.8 and 3.1.9 are primarily bug fix releases.

2000-05-31 : Release 3.1.7
The new improved Zsh, now with more features than ever before is available from Zsh distributions sites. The beta branch is recommended for anyone wanting all these extra features at the expense of having to cope with a few obscure bugs. This is intended to be the last 3.1 release before 4.0. See the detailed changelog.

2000-05-16 : Release 3.0.8
Maintenance release 3.0.8 is available from Zsh distributions sites. See the detailed changelog.

2000-04-03 : Use of SourceForge
We are now making use of SourceForge. This means that we now have an official CVS repository. See our summary page there.

1999-10-19 : Release 3.0.7
Maintenance release 3.0.7 is available from Zsh distribution sites.

1999-08-01 : Releases 3.0.6 & 3.1.6
Yes, not one but two releases.
> Version 3.0.6 is out. After just under two years since the last release, a major effort by Bart Schaefer brings this well loved and bugfixed version to the public. This stable version is recommended for the hardy production sites that need the proven stability of the 3.0 series.
> Version 3.1.6 is also available. Peter Stephenson has brought you the latest development version of Zsh. Now with more features than ever, 3.1.6 does it all...well, nearly... This beta version is recommended for everyone who is wanting the shell with the most... something.

1999-06-29 : The New Maintainers
Head's up! There is not one new Zsh co-ordinator - there are two!
> Bart Schaefer has rolled up his sleaves and is taking on the nitty gritty of the next (and maybe final) maintenance release for the 3.0 series, to provide you with a more stable, less bug-prone shell. (They're not bugs, they're just undocumented features)
> Peter Stephenson is down in the dirt, cleaning off the mud from the next series of the shell you love. With binary modules, it can be everything you could want it to be, even your new FTP client! (Put it up to your ear and you can hear the sea)

1999-02-26 : Zefram (Andrew Main) Lives
After a period of walkabout, Zefram - the Zsh co-ordinator - reemerges from the desert and proclaims life for Zsh.

1999-02-22 : 3.1 development branch is firing
Peter Stephenson (pro tem. co-ordinator) and Sven Wischnowsky are way out in front with new ideas and masses of new contributions. The rest of the Zsh workers crew aren't disgracing themselves either. Peter is making releases available from his own pages. Joining the zsh-workers mailing list is a must to follow all this development so there won't be links to them here - get the announcements on zsh-workers.

1999-02-11 : www.zsh.org mailing list archive up
The mailing list archive at www.zsh.org is resynchronised with the lists and actively tracking.

1999-01-27 : Mailing List location changes
The mailing list has changed its address. See the Mailing List page for new information. The archive on www.zsh.org will be down until teething problems are sorted out.

Version 3.1 in beta test release.
Work on version 3.1 of zsh is well underway, with the major new feature being support for binary modules. There is a preliminary version, but you should join the zsh-worker mailing list before you consider downloading it. Preliminary tests using ELF on Linux, SunOS, and Solaris have been encouraging; the hardest part will be to make it portable. Some ideas on portability issues are being borrowed from version 5 of perl. Version 3.1.5 of zsh was released October 30 1998.

Version 3.0.5 released!
Version 3.0.5 of zsh was released September 26 1997.

Version 2.5
This version is still available, but it is deprecated and its continued use is strongly discouraged.
Disclaimer Last modified: 2022-05-14