${(D)…}: Reverse filename expansion

(D) assumes that the scalar or array variable contains file paths. It replaces the prefix of these paths with placeholders like ~ and escapes the remainder of the path.

Links

• Zsh manual on parameter expansion flags
• Zsh manual on filename expansion

Examples

Print shortened, escaped filepath

1 2 3 4 5

path="$HOME/temp/file with spaces.txt" echo "File path: ${(D)path}" paths=("$HOME/file1.txt" "$HOME/file2.txt") echo "File paths: " ${(D)paths}

Output:

1 2	File path: ~/temp/file\ with\ spaces.txt File paths: ~/file1.txt ~/file2.txt