error using custom widget: widgets can only be called when ZLE is active

[Mikel Ward <mikel@mikelward.com>]

Hi


I'm trying to make a keyboard shortcut in Z Shell to expand the previous
word on the command line its canonical path ("realpath") if it's a file.

For example, I have a directory in /etc/apache2/mods-enabled that
contains symlinks to files in /etc/apache2/mods-available.

I want to be able to do:
> cd /etc/apache2/mods-enabled

> ls -l proxy.load<Press ^X />

and have the command change to:
> ls -l /etc/apache2/mods-available/proxy.load


>From what I gather, I can do this using a zle custom widget.  I chose to
call the function implementing it expand-word-path and bind this to ^X /.

For some reason, it doesn't work.  In zsh 4.3.2 on Debian Linux I get an
error that ZLE is inactive, as you can see below.

----------
> expand-word-path()
{
zle backward-word
zle set-mark-command
zle forward-word
zle copy-region-as-kill
file=$(zle yank-pop)
zle -U `realpath $file`
}

> zle -N expand-word-path

> bindkey "^X/" expand-word-path

> ls /etc/apache2/mods-enabled/rewrite.load<^X/>

zle:1: widgets can only be called when ZLE is active
realpath: need at least one filename
Usage:
 realpath [-s|--strip] [-z|--zero] filename ...
 realpath -h|--help
 realpath -v|--version

expand-word-path:zle:7: not enough arguments for -U
----------

The manual says:
    zle widget [ -n num ] [ -N ] args ...
        Invoke the specified widget. This can only be
        done when ZLE is active; normally this will be
        within a user-defined widget.

This suggests to me that ZLE should be active in the context I'm using
it, but clearly it's not.


I've tried searching for other custom widgets, but surprisingly there's
not any out there.


Can anyone suggest what I'm doing wrong or point me to some other custom
widgets that do work?


Thanks


Mike