Make zsh use readline instead of zle?

Question

Is there a way to make zsh use readline reading /etc/inputrc and ~/.inputrc instead of zle module?

I keep my command-line key bindings in inputrc to be applied globally to all other "shells" who use it like those of sqlite, mysql etc.

I think zsh should be compatible with bash and offer such an option.

I've also noticed such behaviour in `fish` shell ignoring `readline`. — , Jun 25 '17 at 21:02
This is not possible at the moment and I doubt that it ever will be. — Adaephon, Jun 25 '17 at 23:48

score 6 · Answer 1 · answered Jun 25 '17 at 22:39

No, zsh doesn't support readline. Zle has richer functionality than readline (especially for completion, history search, vi mode, …), it wouldn't be possible to implement all of zsh's features on top of readline without almost completely rewriting them. So don't expect someone to implement this.

If you want your .inputrc to mostly apply in zsh, I think you'd be better off writing a parser for .inputrc and converting the key bindings to zsh as applicable.

This is the behavior I am looking for. Has it been done before? — cbarrick, Dec 26 '17 at 00:01

Make zsh use readline instead of zle?

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