How do I use zsh's zle_highlight to highlight only “|”?

Question

I am currently using zle_highlight in zsh to highlight the entire command line. However, I also hope I could highlight "|" using a different more discerning style.

After googling for a while, I found no solution. Could anyone help?

Answer 1

You can't do that with just zle_highlight. It controls the appearance of UI elements (e.g. the region, or the incremental search text), not of normal text.

You can do this with the experimental zsh syntax highlighting plugin. By default, it highlights keywords and command names, which may be enough. To highlight |, try something like

ZSH_HIGHLIGHT_HIGHLIGHTERS+=(pattern)
ZSH_HIGHLIGHT_PATTERNS+=('\|' fg=magenta,bold)

but note that this highlights all | characters everywhere, not just the ones that are pipes.