Zsh Auto-Return on Paste

Author: erics, Posted January 17th, 2025 at 9:20:32am

Have you ever found yourself frustrated when copying and pasting commands in the Apple terminal no longer behaves as expected? If you used to work with Bash on older macOS versions, you might recall that pasting a command into the terminal automatically executed it—no extra steps required. However, with the switch to Zsh as the default shell in newer macOS versions, this behavior has changed. Now, pasting doesn’t automatically press return, and that can feel like an unnecessary hurdle.

The reason for this change lies in how Zsh and terminal emulators handle pasted content. Specifically, it’s due to a feature called bracketed paste mode, which prevents commands from executing immediately upon being pasted. While this feature is useful for security and preventing accidental execution, it’s not always convenient. Fortunately, you can adjust Zsh to restore the old behavior and automatically press return after a paste.

If you’d like to go back to the simpler behavior of pasting and executing commands automatically, you can disable bracketed paste mode. This reverts Zsh to behave more like Bash in this regard.

Here’s how to disable Bracketed Paste Mode:

Open your .zshrc file in a text editor:

Add the following line to disable bracketed paste mode:

Save the file and reload your configuration to apply the change:

With this change, Zsh will no longer block the automatic execution of pasted commands.

By following these steps, you can bring back the seamless pasting experience you enjoyed with Bash. Whether you’re writing scripts, testing commands, or just trying to save time, this small adjustment can make a big difference in your workflow. Happy coding!

Categories: How-To's, Technology Tags: auto-return, Copy, copy-and-paste, Enter, Exec, Execute, howto, paste, Return, run, tips, zsh