zzapper wrote:
> I guess this must be an old chestnut for this NG.
> But is there any reason why global aliases are not/could be tab expandable?

With global aliases, it is always worth considering using bindkey -s
instead. This expands the string immediately without needing a tab or
space.

So for example:
  bindkey -s 'Im' '| more'

It is then more important to choose combinations that you won't really
want to type. I used to prefix them with the ¬ that's on a UK keyboard
but I don't use a UK keyboard anymore.

An advantage of bindkey -s is that they can be used as abbreviations for
things that appear in the middle of a string. Common glob qualifiers,
for example:
  bindkey -s '\m' "(#qu$EUID)"
  bindkey -s '\p' '(../)##'

Given how popular global aliases for piping to the pager are, I'm
surprised we don't have a PIPENULLCMD. I'm guessing it is because the
shell has always allowed you to continue on a new line after a pipe but
maybe that isn't so important in an interactive shell.

The following works. You can still use |\ if you want continuation. Can
anyone foresee a problem with using it?  Any ideas on improvements such as
making the pager not appear in the history or on the terminal?
  zle-line-init () {
    local state=${(%):-%_}
    [[ $state = pipe && $PREBUFFER != *\\? ]] && zle -U $'less\n'
  }

Oliver