Environment Variables

The following displays information about the environment variables that affect xonsh performance in some way. It also lists their default values, if applicable.

General

$HOSTNAME

Automatically set to the name of the current host.

configurable: True

default: <function GeneralSetting.<lambda> at 0x780dd366dbc0>

store_as_str: False

$HOSTTYPE

Automatically set to a string that fully describes the system type on which xonsh is executing.

configurable: True

default: <function GeneralSetting.<lambda> at 0x780dd366dc60>

store_as_str: False

$OLDPWD

Used to represent a previous present working directory.

configurable: False

default: ‘.’

store_as_str: False

$PATH

List of strings representing where to look for executables.

configurable: True

default: On Windows: it is Path value of register’s HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Environment. On Mac OSX: ('/usr/local/bin', '/usr/bin', '/bin', '/usr/sbin', '/sbin') On Linux & on Cygwin & on MSYS, when detected that the distro is like arch, the default PATH is ('/usr/local/sbin', '/usr/local/bin', '/usr/bin', '/usr/bin/site_perl', '/usr/bin/vendor_perl', '/usr/bin/core_perl') and otherwise is ('~/bin', '/usr/local/sbin', '/usr/local/bin', '/usr/sbin','/usr/bin', '/sbin', '/bin', '/usr/games', '/usr/local/games')

store_as_str: False

$PATHEXT

Sequence of extension strings (eg, .EXE) for filtering valid executables by. Each element must be uppercase.

configurable: True

default: []

store_as_str: False

$PWD

Current working directory.

configurable: False

default: os.getcwd()

store_as_str: False

$SHLVL

Shell nesting level typed as integer, mirrors bash’s $SHLVL.

configurable: False

default: 0

store_as_str: False

$TERM

TERM is sometimes set by the terminal emulator. This is used (when valid) to determine whether the terminal emulator can support the selected shell, or whether or not to set the title. Users shouldn’t need to set this themselves. Note that this variable should be set as early as possible in order to ensure it is effective. Here are a few options:

  • Set this from the program that launches xonsh. On POSIX systems, this can be performed by using env, e.g. /usr/bin/env TERM=xterm-color xonsh or similar.

  • From the xonsh command line, namely xonsh -DTERM=xterm-color.

  • In the config file with {"env": {"TERM": "xterm-color"}}.

  • Lastly, in xonshrc with $TERM

Ideally, your terminal emulator will set this correctly but that does not always happen.

configurable: False

default: not defined

store_as_str: False

$UPDATE_OS_ENVIRON

If True os_environ will always be updated when the xonsh environment changes. The environment can be reset to the default value by calling __xonsh__.env.undo_replace_env()

configurable: True

default: False

store_as_str: False

$XDG_CACHE_HOME

The base directory relative to which user-specific non-essential data files should be stored.

configurable: True

default: ~/.cache

store_as_str: False

$XDG_CONFIG_HOME

Open desktop standard configuration home dir. This is the same default as used in the standard.

configurable: False

default: ~/.config

store_as_str: False

$XDG_DATA_DIRS

A list of directories where system level data files are stored.

configurable: True

default: On Windows: [%ProgramData%] (normally C:ProgramData)

On Linux and Unix based systemd it is the same as in open-desktop standard: ['/usr/share', '/usr/local/share']

store_as_str: False

$XDG_DATA_HOME

Open desktop standard data home dir. This is the same default as used in the standard.

configurable: True

default: ~/.local/share

store_as_str: False

$XONSHRC

A list of the locations of run control files, if they exist. User defined run control file will supersede values set in system-wide control file if there is a naming collision. $THREAD_SUBPROCS=None when reading in run control files.

configurable: True

default: ['$XONSH_SYS_CONFIG_DIR/xonshrc', '$XONSH_CONFIG_DIR/xonsh/rc.xsh', '~/.xonshrc']

store_as_str: False

$XONSHRC_DIR

A list of directories, from which all .xsh|.py files will be loaded at startup, sorted in lexographic order. Files in these directories are loaded after any files in XONSHRC.

configurable: True

default: ['$XONSH_SYS_CONFIG_DIR/rc.d', '$XONSH_CONFIG_DIR/rc.d']

store_as_str: False

$XONSH_COLOR_STYLE

Sets the color style for xonsh colors. This is a style name, not a color map. Run xonfig styles to see the available styles.

configurable: True

default: ‘default’

store_as_str: False

$XONSH_CONFIG_DIR

This is the location where xonsh user-level configuration information is stored.

configurable: False

default: $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/xonsh

store_as_str: False

$XONSH_DATA_DIR

This is the location where xonsh data files are stored, such as history, generated completers …

configurable: True

default: $XDG_DATA_HOME/xonsh

store_as_str: False

$XONSH_DEBUG

Sets the xonsh debugging level. This may be an integer or a boolean. Setting it to 1 will get some basic information like input transformation, command replacement. With 2 or a higher number will make more debugging information presented, like PLY parsing messages.

configurable: False

default: 0

store_as_str: False

$XONSH_ENCODING

This is the encoding that xonsh should use for subprocess operations.

configurable: True

default: sys.getdefaultencoding()

store_as_str: False

$XONSH_ENCODING_ERRORS

The flag for how to handle encoding errors should they happen. Any string flag that has been previously registered with Python is allowed. See the ‘Python codecs documentation’ (https://docs.python.org/3/library/codecs.html#error-handlers) for more information and available options.

configurable: True

default: surrogateescape

store_as_str: False

$XONSH_INTERACTIVE

True if xonsh is running interactively, and False otherwise. It’s highly recommended to use this variable in your xonshrc files to split the code execution for interactive and non-interactive modes.

configurable: False

default: True

store_as_str: False

$XONSH_LOGIN

True if xonsh is running as a login shell, and False otherwise.

configurable: False

default: False

store_as_str: False

$XONSH_MODE

A string value representing the current xonsh execution mode: interactive, script_from_file, source, single_command, script_from_stdin.Note! This variable reflects the mode at start time (e.g. script_from_file) or code execution (e.g. source). If you need to gate behavior in an RC file that you plan to source, use $XONSH_INTERACTIVE as the flag instead.

configurable: True

default: ‘interactive’

store_as_str: False

$XONSH_SOURCE

When running a xonsh script, this variable contains the absolute path to the currently executing script’s file.

configurable: False

default: ‘’

store_as_str: False

$XONSH_STORE_STDIN

Whether or not to store the stdin that is supplied to the !() and ![] operators.

configurable: True

default: False

store_as_str: False

$XONSH_STYLE_OVERRIDES

A dictionary containing custom prompt_toolkit/pygments style definitions. The following style definitions are supported:

  • pygments.token.Token - $XONSH_STYLE_OVERRIDES[Token.Keyword] = '#ff0000'

  • pygments token name (string) - $XONSH_STYLE_OVERRIDES['Token.Keyword'] = '#ff0000'

  • ptk style name (string) - $XONSH_STYLE_OVERRIDES['pygments.keyword'] = '#ff0000'

(The rules above are all have the same effect.)

configurable: True

default: {}

store_as_str: False

$XONSH_SYS_CONFIG_DIR

This is the location where xonsh system-level configuration information is stored.

configurable: False

default: On Linux & Mac OSX: '/etc/xonsh' On Windows: '%ALLUSERSPROFILE%\\xonsh'

store_as_str: False

$w*DIRS$

configurable: True

default: not defined

store_as_str: False

$w*PATH$

configurable: True

default: not defined

store_as_str: False

Windows OS

Windows OS specific settings

$ANSICON

This is used on Windows to set the title, if available.

configurable: False

default: not defined

store_as_str: False

$FORCE_POSIX_PATHS

Forces forward slashes (/) on Windows systems when using auto completion if set to anything truthy.

configurable: False

default: False

store_as_str: False

$INTENSIFY_COLORS_ON_WIN

Enhance style colors for readability when using the default terminal (cmd.exe) on Windows. Blue colors, which are hard to read, are replaced with cyan. Other colors are generally replaced by their bright counter parts.

configurable: False

default: True

store_as_str: False

Subprocess Settings

$LAST_RETURN_CODE

Integer return code of the last command. Only updated during interactive use, i.e. not during execution of scripts.

configurable: True

default: 0

store_as_str: False

$RAISE_SUBPROC_ERROR

Whether or not to raise an error if a subprocess (captured or uncaptured) returns a non-zero exit status, which indicates failure. This is most useful in xonsh scripts or modules where failures should cause an end to execution. This is less useful at a terminal. The error that is raised is a subprocess.CalledProcessError.

configurable: True

default: False

store_as_str: False

$THREAD_SUBPROCS

Note: The $XONSH_CAPTURE_ALWAYS variable introduces finer control and you should probably use that instead.

Whether or not to try to run subrocess mode in a Python thread, when trying to capture its output. There are various trade-offs.

If True, xonsh is able capture & store the stdin, stdout, and stderr of threadable subprocesses. The disadvantages are listed in $XONSH_CAPTURE_ALWAYS. The desired effect is often up to the command, user, or use case.

None values are for internal use only and are used to turn off threading when loading xonshrc files. This is done because Bash was automatically placing new xonsh instances in the background at startup when threadable subprocs were used. Please see https://github.com/xonsh/xonsh/pull/3705 for more information.

configurable: True

default: True

store_as_str: False

$XONSH_APPEND_NEWLINE

Append new line when a partial line is preserved in output.

configurable: True

default: $XONSH_INTERACTIVE

store_as_str: False

$XONSH_CAPTURE_ALWAYS

Try to capture output of commands run without explicit capturing. If True, xonsh will capture the output of commands run directly or in ![]``to the session history. Setting to True has the following disadvantages: * Some interactive commands won't work properly (like when ``git invokes an interactive editor).

For more information see discussion at https://github.com/xonsh/xonsh/issues/3672.

  • Stopping these commands with ^Z (i.e. SIGTSTP) is disabled as it causes deadlocked terminals. SIGTSTP may still be issued and only the physical pressing of Ctrl+Z is ignored.

Regardless of this value, commands run in $(), !() or with an IO redirection (> or |) will always be captured. Setting this to True depends on $THREAD_SUBPROCS being True.

configurable: True

default: False

store_as_str: False

$XONSH_PROC_FREQUENCY

The process frequency is the time that xonsh process threads sleep for while running command pipelines. The value has units of seconds [s].

configurable: True

default: 0.0001

store_as_str: False

$XONSH_SUBPROC_CAPTURED_PRINT_STDERR

If True the stderr from captured subproc will be printed automatically.

configurable: True

default: False

store_as_str: False

$XONSH_SUBPROC_OUTPUT_FORMAT

Set output format for subprocess e.g. du $(ls). By default (stream_lines) subprocess operator returns text output. Set list_lines to have list of lines.

configurable: True

default: ‘stream_lines’

store_as_str: False

$XONSH_TRACE_SUBPROC

Set to True or 1 to show arguments list of every executed subprocess command. Use 2 to have a specification. Use 3 to have full specification.

configurable: True

default: False

store_as_str: False

$XONSH_TRACE_SUBPROC_FUNC

A callback function used to format the trace output shown when $XONSH_TRACE_SUBPROC=True.

configurable: True

default: By default it just prints cmds like below.

def tracer(cmds: list, captured: Union[bool, str]):
    print(f"TRACE SUBPROC: {cmds}, captured={captured}", file=sys.stderr)

store_as_str: False

Error Handling Settings

$XONSH_SHOW_TRACEBACK

Controls if a traceback is shown if exceptions occur in the shell. Set to True to always show traceback or False to always hide. If undefined then the traceback is hidden but a notice is shown on how to enable the full traceback.

configurable: True

default: False

store_as_str: False

$XONSH_TRACEBACK_LOGFILE

Specifies a file to store the traceback log to, regardless of whether XONSH_SHOW_TRACEBACK has been set. Its value must be a writable file or None / the empty string if traceback logging is not desired. Logging to a file is not enabled by default.

configurable: True

default: None

store_as_str: False

Jobs Settings

$AUTO_CONTINUE

If True, automatically resume stopped jobs when they are disowned. When stopped jobs are disowned and this option is False, a warning will print information about how to continue the stopped process.

configurable: True

default: False

store_as_str: False

Language and locale settings.

$LANG

Fallback locale setting for systems where it matters

configurable: True

default: ‘C.UTF-8’

store_as_str: False

$LC_COLLATE

configurable: True

default: ‘en_US.UTF-8’

store_as_str: False

$LC_CTYPE

configurable: True

default: ‘en_US.UTF-8’

store_as_str: False

$LC_MESSAGES

configurable: True

default: ‘en_US.UTF-8’

store_as_str: False

$LC_MONETARY

configurable: True

default: ‘en_US.UTF-8’

store_as_str: False

$LC_NUMERIC

configurable: True

default: ‘en_US.UTF-8’

store_as_str: False

$LC_TIME

configurable: True

default: ‘en_US.UTF-8’

store_as_str: False

$XONSH_DATETIME_FORMAT

The format that is used for datetime.strptime() in various places, i.e the history timestamp option.

configurable: True

default: ‘%Y-%m-%d %H:%M’

store_as_str: False

Cache Settings

$COMMANDS_CACHE_SAVE_INTERMEDIATE

If enabled, the CommandsCache is saved between runs and can reduce the startup time.

configurable: True

default: False

store_as_str: False

$ENABLE_COMMANDS_CACHE

command names in a directory are cached when enabled. On some platforms it may not be accurate enough(e.g. Windows, Linux save mtime in seconds). Setting it to False would disable the caching mechanism and may slow down the shell

configurable: True

default: True

store_as_str: False

$XONSH_CACHE_DIR

This is the location where cache files used by xonsh are stored, such as commands-cache…

configurable: True

default: $XDG_CACHE_HOME/xonsh

store_as_str: False

$XONSH_CACHE_EVERYTHING

Controls whether all code (including code entered at the interactive prompt) will be cached.

configurable: True

default: False

store_as_str: False

$XONSH_CACHE_SCRIPTS

Controls whether the code for scripts run from xonsh will be cached (True) or re-compiled each time (False).

configurable: True

default: True

store_as_str: False

cd Behavior

$AUTO_CD

Flag to enable changing to a directory by entering the dirname or full path only (without the cd command).

configurable: True

default: False

store_as_str: False

$AUTO_PUSHD

Flag for automatically pushing directories onto the directory stack.

configurable: True

default: False

store_as_str: False

$CDPATH

A list of paths to be used as roots for a cd, breaking compatibility with Bash, xonsh always prefer an existing relative path.

configurable: True

default: ()

store_as_str: False

$COMPLETE_DOTS

Flag to specify how current and previous directories should be tab completed (‘./’, ‘../’):

  • always Always complete paths with ./ and ../

  • never Never complete paths with ./ and ../

  • matching Complete if path starts with . or ..

configurable: True

default: ‘matching’

store_as_str: False

$DIRSTACK_SIZE

Maximum size of the directory stack.

configurable: True

default: 20

store_as_str: False

$PUSHD_MINUS

Flag for directory pushing functionality. False is the normal behavior.

configurable: True

default: False

store_as_str: False

$PUSHD_SILENT

Whether or not to suppress directory stack manipulation output.

configurable: True

default: False

store_as_str: False

Interpreter Behavior

$DOTGLOB

Globbing files with “*” or “**” will also match dotfiles, or those ‘hidden’ files whose names begin with a literal ‘.’. Such files are filtered out by default.

configurable: True

default: False

store_as_str: False

$EXPAND_ENV_VARS

Toggles whether environment variables are expanded inside of strings in subprocess mode.

configurable: True

default: True

store_as_str: False

$FOREIGN_ALIASES_OVERRIDE

Whether or not foreign aliases should override xonsh aliases with the same name. Note that setting of this must happen in the environment that xonsh was started from. It cannot be set in the .xonshrc as loading of foreign aliases happens before``.xonshrc`` is parsed

configurable: True

default: False

store_as_str: False

$FOREIGN_ALIASES_SUPPRESS_SKIP_MESSAGE

Whether or not foreign aliases should suppress the message that informs the user when a foreign alias has been skipped because it already exists in xonsh.

configurable: True

default: False

store_as_str: False

$GLOB_SORTED

Toggles whether globbing results are manually sorted. If False, the results are returned in arbitrary order.

configurable: True

default: True

store_as_str: False

Xontrib Settings

$XONTRIBS_AUTOLOAD_DISABLED

Controls auto-loading behaviour of xontrib packages at the startup. * Set this to True to disable autoloading completely. * Setting this to a list of xontrib names will block loading those specifically.

configurable: True

default: Xontribs with xonsh.xontrib entrypoint will be loaded automatically by default.

store_as_str: False

Interactive Prompt

$BOTTOM_TOOLBAR

Template string for the bottom toolbar. This may be parametrized in the same way as the $PROMPT variable. Currently, this is only available in the prompt-toolkit shell.

configurable: True

default: ‘’

store_as_str: False

$COLOR_INPUT

Flag for syntax highlighting interactive input.

configurable: True

default: True

store_as_str: False

$COLOR_RESULTS

Flag for syntax highlighting return values.

configurable: True

default: True

store_as_str: False

$DYNAMIC_CWD_ELISION_CHAR

The string used to show a shortened directory in a shortened cwd, e.g. '…'.

configurable: True

default: ‘’

store_as_str: False

$DYNAMIC_CWD_WIDTH

Maximum length in number of characters or as a percentage for the cwd prompt variable. For example, “20” is a twenty character width and “10%” is ten percent of the number of columns available.

configurable: True

default: (inf, ‘c’)

store_as_str: False

$IGNOREEOF

Prevents Ctrl-D from exiting the shell.

configurable: True

default: False

store_as_str: False

$INDENT

Indentation string for multiline input

configurable: True

default: ‘ ‘

store_as_str: False

$LS_COLORS

Color settings for ls command line utility and, with $SHELL_TYPE='prompt_toolkit', file arguments in subprocess mode.

configurable: True

default: *.7z=1;0;31:*.Z=1;0;31:*.aac=0;36:*.ace=1;0;31:*.alz=1;0;31:*.arc=1;0;31:*.arj=1;0;31:*.asf=1;0;35:*.au=0;36:*.avi=1;0;35:*.bmp=1;0;35:*.bz=1;0;31:*.bz2=1;0;31:*.cab=1;0;31:*.cgm=1;0;35:*.cpio=1;0;31:*.deb=1;0;31:*.dl=1;0;35:*.dwm=1;0;31:*.dz=1;0;31:*.ear=1;0;31:*.emf=1;0;35:*.esd=1;0;31:*.flac=0;36:*.flc=1;0;35:*.fli=1;0;35:*.flv=1;0;35:*.gif=1;0;35:*.gl=1;0;35:*.gz=1;0;31:*.jar=1;0;31:*.jpeg=1;0;35:*.jpg=1;0;35:*.lha=1;0;31:*.lrz=1;0;31:*.lz=1;0;31:*.lz4=1;0;31:*.lzh=1;0;31:*.lzma=1;0;31:*.lzo=1;0;31:*.m2v=1;0;35:*.m4a=0;36:*.m4v=1;0;35:*.mid=0;36:*.midi=0;36:*.mjpeg=1;0;35:*.mjpg=1;0;35:*.mka=0;36:*.mkv=1;0;35:*.mng=1;0;35:*.mov=1;0;35:*.mp3=0;36:*.mp4=1;0;35:*.mp4v=1;0;35:*.mpc=0;36:*.mpeg=1;0;35:*.mpg=1;0;35:*.nuv=1;0;35:*.oga=0;36:*.ogg=0;36:*.ogm=1;0;35:*.ogv=1;0;35:*.ogx=1;0;35:*.opus=0;36:*.pbm=1;0;35:*.pcx=1;0;35:*.pgm=1;0;35:*.png=1;0;35:*.ppm=1;0;35:*.qt=1;0;35:*.ra=0;36:*.rar=1;0;31:*.rm=1;0;35:*.rmvb=1;0;35:*.rpm=1;0;31:*.rz=1;0;31:*.sar=1;0;31:*.spx=0;36:*.svg=1;0;35:*.svgz=1;0;35:*.swm=1;0;31:*.t7z=1;0;31:*.tar=1;0;31:*.taz=1;0;31:*.tbz=1;0;31:*.tbz2=1;0;31:*.tga=1;0;35:*.tgz=1;0;31:*.tif=1;0;35:*.tiff=1;0;35:*.tlz=1;0;31:*.txz=1;0;31:*.tz=1;0;31:*.tzo=1;0;31:*.tzst=1;0;31:*.vob=1;0;35:*.war=1;0;31:*.wav=0;36:*.webm=1;0;35:*.wim=1;0;31:*.wmv=1;0;35:*.xbm=1;0;35:*.xcf=1;0;35:*.xpm=1;0;35:*.xspf=0;36:*.xwd=1;0;35:*.xz=1;0;31:*.yuv=1;0;35:*.z=1;0;31:*.zip=1;0;31:*.zoo=1;0;31:*.zst=1;0;31:bd=40;0;33:ca=0;30;41:cd=40;0;33:di=1;0;34:do=1;0;35:ex=1;0;32:ln=1;0;36:mh=0:mi=0:or=40;0;31:ow=0;34;42:pi=40;0;33:rs=0:sg=0;30;43:so=1;0;35:st=0;37;44:su=0;37;41:tw=0;30;42

store_as_str: False

$MULTILINE_PROMPT

Prompt text for 2nd+ lines of input, may be str or function which returns a str.

configurable: True

default: ‘ ‘

store_as_str: False

$MULTILINE_PROMPT_POS

Indicator inserted after the line continuation marks set in $MULTILINE_PROMPT. Can be used to mark the end of a semantic continuation prompt and the beginning of user input (see Semantic Prompts or WezTerm for more details). May be str or function which returns a str.

configurable: True

default: not defined

store_as_str: False

$MULTILINE_PROMPT_PRE

Indicator inserted before the line continuation marks set in $MULTILINE_PROMPT. Can be used to mark the start of a semantic continuation prompt (see Semantic Prompts or WezTerm for more details). May be str or function which returns a str.

configurable: True

default: not defined

store_as_str: False

$PRETTY_PRINT_RESULTS

Flag for “pretty printing” return values.

configurable: True

default: True

store_as_str: False

$PROMPT

The prompt text. May contain keyword arguments which are auto-formatted, see ‘Customizing the Prompt’ at http://xon.sh/tutorial.html#customizing-the-prompt. This value is never inherited from parent processes.

configurable: True

default: xonsh.environ.DEFAULT_PROMPT

store_as_str: False

$PROMPT_FIELDS

Dictionary containing variables to be used when formatting $PROMPT and $TITLE. See ‘Customizing the Prompt’ http://xon.sh/tutorial.html#customizing-the-prompt

configurable: False

default: xonsh.prompt.PROMPT_FIELDS

store_as_str: False

$PROMPT_REFRESH_INTERVAL

Interval (in seconds) to evaluate and update $PROMPT, $RIGHT_PROMPT and $BOTTOM_TOOLBAR. The default is zero (no update). NOTE: $UPDATE_PROMPT_ON_KEYPRESS must be set to True for this variable to take effect.

configurable: True

default: 0.0

store_as_str: False

$PROMPT_TOKENS_FORMATTER

Final processor that receives all tokens in the prompt template. It gives option to format the prompt with different prefix based on other tokens values. Highly useful for implementing something like powerline theme.

configurable: True

default: xonsh.prompt.base.prompt_tokens_formatter_default

store_as_str: False

$RIGHT_PROMPT

Template string for right-aligned text at the prompt. This may be parametrized in the same way as the $PROMPT variable. Currently, this is only available in the prompt-toolkit shell.

configurable: True

default: ‘’

store_as_str: False

$SHELL_TYPE

Which shell is used. Currently two base shell types are supported:

  • readline that is backed by Python’s readline module

  • prompt_toolkit that uses external library of the same name

  • random selects a random shell from the above on startup

  • best selects the most feature-rich shell available on the

    user’s system

To use the prompt_toolkit shell you need to have the prompt_toolkit library installed. To specify which shell should be used, do so in the run control file. It also accepts a class type that inherits from xonsh.shells.base_shell.BaseShell

configurable: True

default: best

store_as_str: False

$SUGGEST_COMMANDS

When a user types an invalid command, xonsh will try to offer suggestions of similar valid commands if this is True.

configurable: True

default: True

store_as_str: False

$SUGGEST_MAX_NUM

xonsh will show at most this many suggestions in response to an invalid command. If negative, there is no limit to how many suggestions are shown.

configurable: True

default: 5

store_as_str: False

$SUGGEST_THRESHOLD

An error threshold. If the Levenshtein distance between the entered command and a valid command is less than this value, the valid command will be offered as a suggestion. Also used for “fuzzy” tab completion of paths.

configurable: True

default: 3

store_as_str: False

$SUPPRESS_BRANCH_TIMEOUT_MESSAGE

Whether or not to suppress branch timeout warning messages when getting {gitstatus} PROMPT_FIELD.

configurable: True

default: False

store_as_str: False

$TITLE

The title text for the window in which xonsh is running. Formatted in the same manner as $PROMPT, see ‘Customizing the Prompt’ http://xon.sh/tutorial.html#customizing-the-prompt.

configurable: True

default: xonsh.environ.DEFAULT_TITLE

store_as_str: False

$UPDATE_PROMPT_ON_KEYPRESS

Disables caching the prompt between commands, so that it would be reevaluated on each keypress. Disabled by default because of the incurred performance penalty.

configurable: True

default: False

store_as_str: False

$VC_BRANCH_TIMEOUT

The timeout (in seconds) for version control branch computations. This is a timeout per subprocess call, so the total time to compute will be larger than this in many cases.

configurable: True

default: 0.1

store_as_str: False

$VC_GIT_INCLUDE_UNTRACKED

Whether or not untracked file changes should count as ‘dirty’ in git.

configurable: True

default: False

store_as_str: False

$VC_HG_SHOW_BRANCH

Whether or not to show the Mercurial branch in the prompt.

configurable: True

default: True

store_as_str: False

$VIRTUAL_ENV

Path to the currently active Python environment.

configurable: False

default: not defined

store_as_str: False

$XONSH_HISTORY_MATCH_ANYWHERE

When searching history from a partial string (by pressing up arrow), match command history anywhere in a given line (not just the start)

configurable: True

default: False

store_as_str: False

$XONSH_STDERR_POSTFIX

A format string, using the same keys and colors as $PROMPT, that is appended whenever stderr is displayed. This may be used in conjunction with $XONSH_STDERR_PREFIX to start the block.For example, to have stderr appear on a red background, the prefix & postfix pair would be “{BACKGROUND_RED}” & “{RESET}”.

configurable: True

default: ‘’

store_as_str: False

$XONSH_STDERR_PREFIX

A format string, using the same keys and colors as $PROMPT, that is prepended whenever stderr is displayed. This may be used in conjunction with $XONSH_STDERR_POSTFIX to close out the block.For example, to have stderr appear on a red background, the prefix & postfix pair would be “{BACKGROUND_RED}” & “{RESET}”.

configurable: True

default: ‘’

store_as_str: False

Prompt Toolkit shell

Only usable with $SHELL_TYPE=prompt_toolkit.

$AUTO_SUGGEST

Enable automatic command suggestions based on history.

Pressing the right arrow key inserts the currently displayed suggestion.

configurable: True

default: True

store_as_str: False

$AUTO_SUGGEST_IN_COMPLETIONS

Places the auto-suggest result as the first option in the completions. This enables you to tab complete the auto-suggestion.

configurable: True

default: False

store_as_str: False

$MOUSE_SUPPORT

Enable mouse support in the prompt_toolkit shell. This allows clicking for positioning the cursor or selecting a completion. In some terminals however, this disables the ability to scroll back through the history of the terminal. Only usable with $SHELL_TYPE=prompt_toolkit

configurable: True

default: False

store_as_str: False

$PROMPT_TOOLKIT_COLOR_DEPTH

The color depth used by prompt toolkit 2. Possible values are: DEPTH_1_BIT, DEPTH_4_BIT, DEPTH_8_BIT, DEPTH_24_BIT colors. Default is an empty string which means that prompt toolkit decide.

configurable: True

default: ‘’

store_as_str: False

$PTK_STYLE_OVERRIDES

A dictionary containing custom prompt_toolkit style definitions. (deprecated)

configurable: True

default: {}

store_as_str: False

$VI_MODE

Flag to enable vi_mode in the prompt_toolkit shell.

configurable: True

default: False

store_as_str: False

$XONSH_AUTOPAIR

Whether Xonsh will auto-insert matching parentheses, brackets, and quotes. Only available under the prompt-toolkit shell.

configurable: True

default: False

store_as_str: False

$XONSH_COPY_ON_DELETE

Whether to copy words/lines to clipboard on deletion (must be set in the run control file).Does not have any effect in vi_mode.Only available under the prompt-toolkit shell.

configurable: True

default: False

store_as_str: False

$XONSH_CTRL_BKSP_DELETION

Delete a word on CTRL-Backspace (like ALT-Backspace). This will only work when your terminal emulator sends \x7f on backspace and \x08 on CTRL-Backspace (which is configurable on most terminal emulators). On windows, the keys are reversed.

configurable: True

default: False

store_as_str: False

$XONSH_USE_SYSTEM_CLIPBOARD

Whether to let the shell use the system clipboard (must be set in the run control file).The main use-case is to fully disable clipboard integration in vi_mode.Only available under the prompt-toolkit shell.

configurable: True

default: True

store_as_str: False

Asynchronous Prompt

Load $PROMPT in background without blocking read-eval loop.

$ASYNC_INVALIDATE_INTERVAL

When ENABLE_ASYNC_PROMPT is True, it may call the redraw frequently. This is to group such calls into one that happens within that timeframe. The number is set in seconds.

configurable: True

default: 0.05

store_as_str: False

$ASYNC_PROMPT_THREAD_WORKERS

Define the number of workers used by the ASYNC_PROMPT’s pool. By default it is the same as defined by Python’s concurrent.futures.ThreadPoolExecutor class.

configurable: True

default: None

store_as_str: False

$ENABLE_ASYNC_PROMPT

When enabled the prompt is rendered using threads. $PROMPT_FIELD that take long will be updated in the background and will not affect prompt speed.

configurable: True

default: False

store_as_str: False

Interactive Prompt History

$HISTCONTROL

A set of strings (comma-separated list in string form) of options that determine what commands are saved to the history list. By default all commands are saved. Options are as follows:

  • ignoredups will not save the command if it matches the previous command

  • ignoreerr will cause any commands that fail (i.e. return non-zero exit status) to not be added to the history list

  • ignorespace will not save the command if it begins with a space

  • erasedups will remove all previous commands that matches and updates the frequency (Note: only supported in sqlite backend)

configurable: True

default: set()

store_as_str: True

$XONSH_HISTORY_BACKEND

Set which history backend to use. Options are: ‘json’, ‘sqlite’, and ‘dummy’. The default is ‘json’. XONSH_HISTORY_BACKEND also accepts a class type that inherits from xonsh.history.base.History, or its instance.

configurable: True

default: ‘json’

store_as_str: False

$XONSH_HISTORY_FILE

Location of history file set by history backend (default) or set by the user.

configurable: False

default: None

store_as_str: False

$XONSH_HISTORY_IGNORE_REGEX

Set a filter criteria for history items using a regular expression. Any matching items will not be retained in the history. Example: $XONSH_HISTORY_IGNORE_REGEX = '(^echo|^.*\#\#\#\s*|.*\#\#\#\s*$)' - skip commands that start from echo or ###, or end from ###.

configurable: True

default: None

store_as_str: False

$XONSH_HISTORY_SAVE_CWD

Save current working directory to the history.

configurable: True

default: True

store_as_str: False

$XONSH_HISTORY_SIGINT_FLUSH

Save history after getting SIGINT (Ctrl+C).

configurable: True

default: True

store_as_str: False

$XONSH_HISTORY_SIZE

Value and units tuple that sets the size of history after garbage collection. Canonical units are:

  • commands for the number of past commands executed,

  • files for the number of history files to keep,

  • s for the number of seconds in the past that are allowed, and

  • b for the number of bytes that history may consume.

Common abbreviations, such as ‘6 months’ or ‘1 GB’ are also allowed.

configurable: True

default: (8128, 'commands') or '8128 commands'

store_as_str: False

$XONSH_STORE_STDOUT

Store the stdout and stderr streams to the history. Requires that XONSH_CAPTURE_ALWAYS is True.

configurable: True

default: False

store_as_str: False

Tab-completion behavior.

$ALIAS_COMPLETIONS_OPTIONS_BY_DEFAULT

If True, xonsh.completers.argparser.ArgparseCompleter based completions will show options (e.g. -h, …) without requesting explicitly with option prefix (e.g. ‘-‘).

configurable: True

default: False

store_as_str: False

$ALIAS_COMPLETIONS_OPTIONS_LONGEST

Whether to show all options or just the longest for the xonsh.completers.argparser.ArgparseCompleter based completions. For example, with -h, --help both denoting help action. If True, then only --help is shown. This is to reduce the noise in generated completions.

configurable: True

default: False

store_as_str: False

$BASH_COMPLETIONS

This is a list (or tuple) of strings that specifies where the bash_completion script may be found. The first valid path will be used. For better performance, bash-completion v2.x is recommended since it lazy-loads individual completion scripts. For both bash-completion v1.x and v2.x, paths of individual completion scripts (like .../completes/ssh) do not need to be included here. The default values are platform dependent, but reasonable. To specify an alternate list, do so in the run control file.

configurable: True

default: Normally this is:

('/usr/share/bash-completion/bash_completion', )

But, on Mac it is:

('/usr/local/share/bash-completion/bash_completion', '/usr/local/etc/bash_completion', '/opt/homebrew/share/bash-completion/bash_completion'),

Other OS-specific defaults may be added in the future.

store_as_str: False

$CASE_SENSITIVE_COMPLETIONS

Sets whether completions should be case sensitive or case insensitive.

configurable: True

default: True on Linux, False otherwise.

store_as_str: False

$CMD_COMPLETIONS_SHOW_DESC

If True, command completions will show description part with path to the binary and alias in case of xonsh functions.

configurable: True

default: False

store_as_str: False

$COMPLETIONS_BRACKETS

Flag to enable/disable inclusion of square brackets and parentheses in Python attribute completions.

configurable: True

default: True

store_as_str: False

$COMPLETION_QUERY_LIMIT

The number of completions to display before the user is asked for confirmation.

configurable: True

default: 100

store_as_str: False

$FUZZY_PATH_COMPLETION

Toggles ‘fuzzy’ matching of paths for tab completion, which is only used as a fallback if no other completions succeed but can be used as a way to adjust for typographical errors. If True, then, e.g., xonhs will match xonsh.

configurable: True

default: True

store_as_str: False

$SUBSEQUENCE_PATH_COMPLETION

Toggles subsequence matching of paths for tab completion. If True, then, e.g., ~/u/ro can match ~/lou/carcolh.

configurable: True

default: True

store_as_str: False

$XONSH_BASH_PATH_OVERRIDE

Override the path used to call bash externally. This allows a user to choose which bash executable to call for source-bash and any bash completions that are configured. This variable overrides the default settings in xonsh.platform.bash_command.

configurable: True

default: None

store_as_str: False

$XONSH_COMPLETER_DIRS

A list of paths where Xonsh searches for command completions. Any completions defined are lazy loaded when needed. The name of the completer file should match that of the completing command. The file should contain a function with the signature xonsh_complete(ctx: CommandContext) -> Iterator[RichCompletion|str].

configurable: True

default: By default, the following paths are searched. 1. $XONSH_CONFIG_DIR/completions - user level completions 2. $XONSH_SYS_CONFIG_DIR/completions - system level completions 3. $XONSH_DATA_DIR/generated_completions - auto generated completers from man pages 4. $XDG_DATA_DIRS/xonsh/vendor_completions - completers from other programs can be placed here.

Other than this, Python package namespace xompletions can be used to put completer modules as well.

store_as_str: False

$XONSH_TRACE_COMPLETIONS

Set to True to show completers invoked and their return values.

configurable: True

default: False

store_as_str: False

Prompt Toolkit tab-completion

$COMPLETIONS_CONFIRM

While tab-completions menu is displayed, press <Enter> to confirm completion instead of running command. This only affects the prompt-toolkit shell.

configurable: True

default: True

store_as_str: False

$COMPLETIONS_DISPLAY

Configure if and how Python completions are displayed by the prompt_toolkit shell.

This option does not affect Bash completions, auto-suggestions, etc.

Changing it at runtime will take immediate effect, so you can quickly disable and enable completions during shell sessions.

  • If $COMPLETIONS_DISPLAY is none or false, do not display those completions.

  • If $COMPLETIONS_DISPLAY is single, display completions in a single column while typing.

  • If $COMPLETIONS_DISPLAY is multi or true, display completions in multiple columns while typing.

  • If $COMPLETIONS_DISPLAY is readline, display completions will emulate the behavior of readline.

These option values are not case- or type-sensitive, so e.g. writing $COMPLETIONS_DISPLAY = None and $COMPLETIONS_DISPLAY = 'none' are equivalent. Only usable with $SHELL_TYPE=prompt_toolkit

configurable: True

default: ‘multi’

store_as_str: False

$COMPLETIONS_MENU_ROWS

Number of rows to reserve for tab-completions menu if $COMPLETIONS_DISPLAY is single or multi. This only affects the prompt-toolkit shell.

configurable: True

default: 5

store_as_str: False

$COMPLETION_IN_THREAD

When generating the completions takes time, it’s better to do this in a background thread. When this is True, background threads is used for completion.

configurable: True

default: False

store_as_str: False

$COMPLETION_MODE

Mode of tab completion in prompt-toolkit shell (only).

‘default’, the default, selects the common prefix of completions on first TAB, then cycles through all completions. ‘menu-complete’ selects the first whole completion on the first TAB, then cycles through the remaining completions, then the common prefix.

configurable: True

default: ‘default’

store_as_str: False

$UPDATE_COMPLETIONS_ON_KEYPRESS

Completions display is evaluated and presented whenever a key is pressed. This avoids the need to press TAB, except to cycle through the possibilities. This currently only affects the prompt-toolkit shell.

configurable: True

default: False

store_as_str: False