Put a command in history without executing it

Question

In bash, if I have a command on the line, and I press Alt–# (with the cursor anywhere on the line), it adds a # to the front of the line, commenting it out, ‘executes’ it (which does nothing since it’s now commented out), and puts it into the history. It’s really useful for when I type some or all of a command and realise I need to run another command first and come back to that one later.

How can I do the same operation in zsh? The commenting-out isn’t important: all I care about is that the command doesn’t happen right now, but can be retrieved from history later.

zsh

How can I do the same operation in zsh? The commenting-out isn't important: all I care about is that the command doesn't happen right now, but can be retrieved from history later.

Dennis · Accepted Answer

Three options:

zsh has the keyboard shortcut Alt + Q by default that pushes the current line.

Use it like this:

Type command.    
Press Alt + Q.
Execute othercommand.
command will reappear.

Technically, this doesn't put it in the history. Also, if you need to execute another command before command, you have to press Alt + Q again.
Also by default, the keyboard shortcuts Ctrl + U and Ctrl + Y cut and yank (paste) the current line.

Use them like this:

Type command.    
Press Ctrl + U.
Execute othercommand.
Press Ctrl + Y.
command will reappear.

This would work in bash as well and it uses its own clipboard, i.e., they contents of the clipboard managed by Ctrl + (Shift +) C / V and select / middle-click will remain unaltered.
Last but not least, you can permanently enable comments on the command-line by executing

echo setopt interactivecomments >> ~/.zshrc

Alt + # doesn't work here, but Ctrl + A / Home, #, Enter achieves the same result.

To see all available keyboard shortcuts, execute

bindkey

pjboro · Answer

If you're using vi mode, then press ESC to enter normal mode, and then Shift+3 (#). This will put the commented out command in history.

Mike · Answer

A widgetification of @mpy's answer, add this to your .zshrc

to-history() { print -S $BUFFER ; BUFFER= }
zle -N to-history
bindkey 'œ' to-history

Note: œ is what I get on a Mac for alt/option-q, adjust for your terminal

mpy · Answer

Option four (as an answer to the title of the question, not its explanation ;-):

print -S "this line goes to the history"

Excerpt from zshbuiltins(1): "print -S Place  the  results in the history list instead of on the standard output.  In this case only a single argument is
                     allowed; it will be split into words as if it were a full shell command line.  The effect is  similar  to  reading
                     the line from a history file with the HIST_LEX_WORDS option active."

Put a command in history without executing it

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