zsh issue : have the most recents files or directories near to the prompt and suggested most recent files or directories

Question

On MacOS Big Sur 11.3, here is my .zshrc. I would like to get the newest files or directories near to the prompt (sorted from the most recent up to the oldest ones).

For the moment, I make test with the following command alias of ls :

The issue is that when I press TAB after a "l" which is actually the alias:

alias l='grc -es --colour=auto ls --color -Gh -C -lrt'

grc is a tool to colorify the files.

Here my current config in ~/.zshrc :

# ZSH completion
autoload -Uz compinit
compinit

# Colorize completions using default `ls` colors.
zstyle ':completion:*' list-colors "${(s.:.)LS_COLORS}"

# Zsh reverse auto-completion
zmodload zsh/complist

# To get new binaries into PATH
zstyle ':completion:*' rehash true

# Completion
zstyle ':completion:*:complete:(ls|cd|cp|mv|vim|cat|more|tail|head|open):*' file-sort date reverse

bindkey '^[[Z' menu-complete

If I do a FIRST l + space + TAB, I have the following suggestion :

If I type a SECOND pushing on TAB, I want a correct listing ordered from oldest to newest files automatically like this :

Finally, I want that a THIRD TAB pushing suggests the most recent file or directory (that I can browse with SHIFT + TAB)

in my case from figure above, the first suggestion that should appear is filenme_2.

But currently, the first suggestion with a THIRD TAB is the oldest one : this is not what I want.

Maybe there is something to do like adding :

bindkey '^\t' reverse-menu-complete or something slightly different but I can't succeed since with this bindkey, I have the suggestion as soon as I have pushed the FIRST TAB.

Answer 1

To list files sorted by creation/birth date/time, you can use:

ls -lt --time=birth

So all the suggestions should be ordered from the newest to the oldest

alias l='grc -es --colour=auto ls -lt --time=birth --color -Gh -C -lrt'

Also if you like colorful output in your console you can check colorls