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This version of zsh has two ways of performing completion of words on the
command line. New users of the shell may prefer to use the newer
and more powerful system based on shell functions; this is described
in section Completion System, and the basic shell mechanisms which support
it are described in section Completion Widgets. This chapter describes
the older compctl command.
- compctl [ -CDT ] options [ command ... ]
-
- compctl [ -CDT ] options [ -x pattern options - ... -- ] [ + options [ -x ... -- ] ... [+] ] [ command ... ]
-
- compctl -M match-specs ...
-
- compctl -L [ -CDTM ] [ command ... ]
-
- compctl + command ...
-
Control the editor's completion behavior according to the supplied set
of options. Various editing commands, notably
expand-or-complete-word, usually bound to tab, will
attempt to complete a word typed by the user, while others, notably
delete-char-or-list, usually bound to ^D in EMACS editing
mode, list the possibilities; compctl controls what those
possibilities are. They may for example be filenames (the most common
case, and hence the default), shell variables, or words from a
user-specified list.
Completion of the arguments of a command may be different for each
command or may use the default. The behavior when completing the
command word itself may also be separately specified. These
correspond to the following flags and arguments, all of which (except
for -L) may be combined with any combination of the
options described subsequently in section Option Flags:
- command ...
-
controls completion for the named commands, which must be listed last
on the command line. If completion is attempted for a command with a
pathname containing slashes and no completion definition is found, the
search is retried with the last pathname component. If the command starts
with a =, completion is tried with the pathname of the command.
Any of the command strings may be patterns of the form normally
used for filename generation. These should be be quoted to protect them
from immediate expansion; for example the command string 'foo*'
arranges for completion of the words of any command beginning with
foo. When completion is attempted, all pattern completions are
tried in the reverse order of their definition until one matches. By
default, completion then proceeds as normal, i.e. the shell will try to
generate more matches for the specific command on the command line; this
can be overridden by including -tn in the flags for the pattern
completion.
Note that aliases
are expanded before the command name is determined unless the
COMPLETE_ALIASES option is set. Commands may not be combined
with the -C, -D or -T flags.
- -C
-
controls completion when the command word itself is being completed.
If no compctl -C command has been issued, the names of any
executable command (whether in the path or specific to the shell, such
as aliases or functions) are completed.
- -D
-
controls default completion behavior for the arguments of commands not
assigned any special behavior. If no compctl -D command has
been issued, filenames are completed.
- -T
-
supplies completion flags to be used before any other processing is
done, even before processing for compctls defined for specific
commands. This is especially useful when combined with extended
completion (the -x flag, see section Extended Completion below).
Using this flag you can define default behavior
which will apply to all commands without exception, or you can alter
the standard behavior for all commands. For example, if your access
to the user database is too slow and/or it contains too many users (so
that completion after `~' is too slow to be usable), you can use
compctl -T -x 's[~] C[0,[^/]#]' -k friends -S/ -tn
to complete the strings in the array friends after a `~'.
The C[...] argument is necessary so that this form of ~-completion is
not tried after the directory name is finished.
- -L
-
lists the existing completion behavior in a manner suitable for
putting into a start-up script; the existing behavior is not changed.
Any combination of the above forms, or the -M flag (which must
follow the -L flag), may be specified, otherwise all defined
completions are listed. Any other flags supplied are ignored.
- no argument
-
If no argument is given, compctl lists all defined completions
in an abbreviated form; with a list of options, all completions
with those flags set (not counting extended completion) are listed.
If the + flag is alone and followed immediately by the command
list, the completion behavior for all the commands in the list is reset to
the default. In other words, completion will subsequently use the
options specified by the -D flag.
The form with -M as the first and only option defines global
matching specifications, as described below in section Matching Control.
- [ -fcFBdeaRGovNAIOPZEnbjrzu/ ]
-
- [ -k array ] [ -g globstring ] [ -s subststring ]
-
- [ -K function ] [ -i function ]
-
- [ -Q ] [ -P prefix ] [ -S suffix ]
-
- [ -W file-prefix ] [ -H num pattern ]
-
- [ -q ] [ -X explanation ] [ -Y explanation ]
-
- [ -y func-or-var ] [ -l cmd ] [ -h cmd ] [ -U ]
-
- [ -t continue ] [ -J name ] [ -V name ]
-
- [ -M match-spec ]
-
The remaining options specify the type of command arguments
to look for during completion. Any combination of these flags may be
specified; the result is a sorted list of all the possibilities. The
options are as follows.
These produce completion lists made up by the shell itself:
- -f
-
Filenames and filesystem paths.
- -/
-
Just filesystem paths.
- -c
-
Command names, including aliases, shell functions, builtins
and reserved words.
- -F
-
Function names.
- -B
-
Names of builtin commands.
- -m
-
Names of external commands.
- -w
-
Reserved words.
- -a
-
Alias names.
- -R
-
Names of regular (non-global) aliases.
- -G
-
Names of global aliases.
- -d
-
This can be combined with -F, -B, -w,
-a, -R and -G to get names of disabled
functions, builtins, reserved words or aliases.
- -e
-
This option (to show enabled commands) is in effect by default, but
may be combined with -d; -de in combination with
-F, -B, -w, -a, -R and -G
will complete names of functions, builtins, reserved words or aliases
whether or not they are disabled.
- -o
-
Names of shell options (see
section Options).
- -v
-
Names of any variable defined in the shell.
- -N
-
Names of scalar (non-array) parameters.
- -A
-
Array names.
- -I
-
Names of integer variables.
- -O
-
Names of read-only variables.
- -p
-
Names of parameters used by the shell (including special parameters).
- -Z
-
Names of shell special parameters.
- -E
-
Names of environment variables.
- -n
-
Named directories.
- -b
-
Key binding names.
- -j
-
Job names: the first word of the job leader's command line. This is useful
with the kill builtin.
- -r
-
Names of running jobs.
- -z
-
Names of suspended jobs.
- -u
-
User names.
These have user supplied arguments to determine how the list of
completions is to be made up:
- -k array
-
Names taken from the elements of $array (note that the `$'
does not appear on the command line).
Alternatively, the argument array itself may be a set
of space- or comma-separated values in parentheses, in which any
delimiter may be escaped with a backslash; in this case the argument
should be quoted. For example,
compctl -k "(cputime filesize datasize stacksize
coredumpsize resident descriptors)" limit
- -g globstring
-
The globstring is expanded using filename globbing; it should be
quoted to protect it from immediate expansion. The resulting
filenames are taken as the possible completions. Use `*(/)' instead of
`*/' for directories. The fignore special parameter is not
applied to the resulting files. More than one pattern may be given
separated by blanks. (Note that brace expansion is not part of
globbing. Use the syntax `(either|or)' to match alternatives.)
- -s subststring
-
The subststring is split into words and these words are than
expanded using all shell expansion mechanisms (see
section Expansion). The resulting words are taken as possible
completions. The fignore special parameter is not applied to the
resulting files. Note that -g is faster for filenames.
- -K function
-
Call the given function to get the completions. Unless the name
starts with an underscore, the function is
passed two arguments: the prefix and the suffix of the word on which
completion is to be attempted, in other words those characters before
the cursor position, and those from the cursor position onwards. The
whole command line can be accessed with the -c and -l flags
of the read builtin. The
function should set the variable reply to an array containing
the completions (one completion per element); note that reply
should not be made local to the function. From such a function the
command line can be accessed with the -c and -l flags to
the read builtin. For example,
function whoson { reply=(`users`); }
compctl -K whoson talk
completes only logged-on users after `talk'. Note that `whoson' must
return an array, so `reply=`users`' would be incorrect.
- -i function
-
Like -K, but the function is invoked in a context like that for
completion widgets, see
section The zle Module
for more information.
- -H num pattern
-
The possible completions are taken from the last num history
lines. Only words matching pattern are taken. If num is
zero or negative the whole history is searched and if pattern is
the empty string all words are taken (as with `*'). A typical
use is
compctl -D -f + -H 0 ''
which forces completion to look back in the history list for a word if
no filename matches.
These do not directly specify types of name to be completed, but
manipulate the options that do:
- -Q
-
This instructs the shell not to quote any metacharacters in the possible
completions. Normally the results of a completion are inserted into
the command line with any metacharacters quoted so that they are
interpreted as normal characters. This is appropriate for filenames
and ordinary strings. However, for special effects, such as inserting
a backquoted expression from a completion array (-k) so that
the expression will not be evaluated until the complete line is
executed, this option must be used.
- -P prefix
-
The prefix is inserted just before the completed string; any
initial part already typed will be completed and the whole prefix
ignored for completion purposes. For example,
compctl -j -P "%" kill
inserts a `%' after the kill command and then completes job names.
- -S suffix
-
When a completion is found the suffix is inserted after
the completed string. In the case of menu completion the suffix is
inserted immediately, but it is still possible to cycle through the
list of completions by repeatedly hitting the same key.
- -W file-prefix
-
With directory file-prefix: for command, file, directory and
globbing completion (options -c, -f, -/, -g), the file
prefix is implicitly added in front of the completion. For example,
compctl -/ -W ~/Mail maildirs
completes any subdirectories to any depth beneath the directory
~/Mail, although that prefix does not appear on the command line.
The file-prefix may also be of the form accepted by the -k
flag, i.e. the name of an array or a literal list in parenthesis. In
this case all the directories in the list will be searched for
possible completions.
- -q
-
If used with a suffix as specified by the -S option, this
causes the suffix to be removed if the next character typed is a blank
or does not insert anything or if the suffix consists of only one character
and the next character typed is the same character; this the same rule used
for the AUTO_REMOVE_SLASH option. The option is most useful for list
separators (comma, colon, etc.).
- -l cmd
-
This option restricts the range
of command line words that are considered to be arguments. If
combined with one of the extended completion patterns `p[...]',
`r[...]', or `R[...]' (see section Extended Completion
below) the range is restricted to the range of arguments
specified in the brackets. Completion is then performed as if these
had been given as arguments to the cmd supplied with the
option. If the cmd string is empty the first word in the range
is instead taken as the command name, and command name completion
performed on the first word in the range. For example,
compctl -x 'r[-exec,;]' -l '' -- find
completes arguments between `-exec' and the following `;' (or the end
of the command line if there is no such string) as if they were
a separate command line.
- -h cmd
-
Normally zsh completes quoted strings as a whole. With this option,
completion can be done separately on different parts of such
strings. It works like the -l option but makes the completion code
work on the parts of the current word that are separated by
spaces. These parts are completed as if they were arguments to the
given cmd. If cmd is the empty string, the first part is
completed as a command name, as with -l.
- -U
-
Use the whole list of possible completions, whether or not they
actually match the word on the command line. The word typed so far
will be deleted. This is most useful with a function (given by the
-K option) which can examine the word components passed to it
(or via the read builtin's -c and -l flags) and
use its own criteria to decide what matches. If there is no
completion, the original word is retained. Since the produced
possible completions seldom have interesting common prefixes
and suffixes, menucompletion is started immediately if AUTO_MENU is
set and this flag is used.
- -y func-or-var
-
The list provided by func-or-var is displayed instead of the list
of completions whenever a listing is required; the actual completions
to be inserted are not affected. It can be provided in two
ways. Firstly, if func-or-var begins with a $ it defines a
variable, or if it begins with a left parenthesis a literal
array, which contains the list. A variable may have been set by a
call to a function using the -K option. Otherwise it contains the
name of a function which will be executed to create the list. The
function will be passed as an argument list all matching completions,
including prefixes and suffixes expanded in full, and should set the
array reply to the result. In both cases, the display list will
only be retrieved after a complete list of matches has been created.
Note that the returned list does not have to correspond, even in
length, to the original set of matches, and may be passed as a scalar
instead of an array. No special formatting of characters is
performed on the output in this case; in particular, newlines are
printed literally and if they appear output in columns is suppressed.
- -X explanation
-
Print explanation when trying completion on the current set of
options. A `%n' in this string is replaced by the number of
matches that were added for this explanation string.
The explanation only appears if completion was tried and there was
no unique match, or when listing completions. Explanation strings
will be listed together with the matches of the group specified
together with the -X option (using the -J or -V
option). If the same explanation string is given to multiple -X
options, the string appears only once (for each group) and the number
of matches shown for the `%n' is the total number of all matches
for each of these uses. In any case, the explanation string will only
be shown if there was at least one match added for the explanation
string.
The sequences %B, %b, %S, %s, %U, and %u specify
output attributes (bold, standout, and underline) and %{...%} can
be used to include literal escape sequences as in prompts.
- -Y explanation
-
Identical to -X, except that the explanation first undergoes
expansion following the usual rules for strings in double quotes.
The expansion will be carried out after any functions are called for
the -K or -y options, allowing them to set variables.
- -t continue
-
The continue-string contains a character that specifies which set
of completion flags should be used next. It is useful:
(i) With -T, or when trying a list of pattern completions, when
compctl would usually continue with ordinary processing after
finding matches; this can be suppressed with `-tn'.
(ii) With a list of alternatives separated by +, when compctl
would normally stop when one of the alternatives generates matches. It
can be forced to consider the next set of completions by adding `-t+'
to the flags of the alternative before the `+'.
(iii) In an extended completion list (see below), when compctl would
normally continue until a set of conditions succeeded, then use only
the immediately following flags. With `-t-', compctl will
continue trying extended completions after the next `-'; with
`-tx' it will attempt completion with the default flags, in other
words those before the `-x'.
- -J name
-
This gives the name of the group the matches should be placed in. Groups
are listed and sorted separately; likewise, menucompletion will offer
the matches in the groups in the order in which the groups were
defined. If no group name is explicitly given, the matches are stored in
a group named default. The first time a group name is encountered,
a group with that name is created. After that all matches with the same
group name are stored in that group.
This can be useful with non-exclusive alternative completions. For
example, in
compctl -f -J files -t+ + -v -J variables foo
both files and variables are possible completions, as the -t+ forces
both sets of alternatives before and after the + to be considered at
once. Because of the -J options, however, all files are listed
before all variables.
- -V name
-
Like -J, but matches within the group will not be sorted in listings
nor in menucompletion. These unsorted groups are in a different name
space from the sorted ones, so groups defined as -J files and -V
files are distinct.
- -M match-spec
-
This defines additional matching control specifications that should be used
only when testing words for the list of flags this flag appears in. The format
of the match-spec string is described below in section Matching Control.
- compctl [ -CDT ] options + options [ + ... ] [ + ] command ...
-
The form with `+' specifies alternative options. Completion is
tried with the options before the first `+'. If this produces no
matches completion is tried with the flags after the `+' and so on. If
there are no flags after the last `+' and a match has not been found
up to that point, default completion is tried.
If the list of flags contains a -t with a + character, the next
list of flags is used even if the current list produced matches.
- compctl [ -CDT ] options -x pattern options - ... --
-
[ command ... ]
- compctl [ -CDT ] options [ -x pattern options - ... -- ]
-
[ + options [ -x ... -- ] ... [+] ] [ command ... ]
The form with `-x' specifies extended completion for the
commands given; as shown, it may be combined with alternative
completion using `+'. Each pattern is examined in turn; when a
match is found, the corresponding options, as described in
section Option Flags above, are used to generate possible
completions. If no pattern matches, the options given
before the -x are used.
Note that each pattern should be supplied as a single argument and
should be quoted to prevent expansion of metacharacters by the
shell.
A pattern is built of sub-patterns separated by commas; it
matches if at least one of these sub-patterns matches (they are
`or'ed). These sub-patterns are in turn composed of other
sub-patterns separated by white spaces which match if all of the
sub-patterns match (they are `and'ed). An element of the
sub-patterns is of the form `c[...][...]', where the pairs of
brackets may be repeated as often as necessary, and matches if any of
the sets of brackets match (an `or'). The example below makes this
clearer.
The elements may be any of the following:
- s[string]...
-
Matches if the current word on the command line starts with
one of the strings given in brackets. The string is not removed
and is not part of the completion.
- S[string]...
-
Like s[string] except that the string is part of the
completion.
- p[from,to]...
-
Matches if the number of the current word is between one of
the from and to pairs inclusive. The comma and to
are optional; to defaults to the same value as from. The
numbers may be negative: -n refers to the n'th last word
on the line.
- c[offset,string]...
-
Matches if the string matches the word offset by
offset from the current word position. Usually offset
will be negative.
- C[offset,pattern]...
-
Like c but using pattern matching instead.
- w[index,string]...
-
Matches if the word in position index is equal
to the corresponding string. Note that the word count is made
after any alias expansion.
- W[index,pattern]...
-
Like w but using pattern matching instead.
- n[index,string]...
-
Matches if the current word contains string. Anything up to and
including the indexth occurrence of this string will not be
considered part of the completion, but the rest will. index may
be negative to count from the end: in most cases, index will be
1 or -1. For example,
compctl -s '`users`' -x 'n[1,@]' -k hosts -- talk
will usually complete usernames, but if you insert an @ after the
name, names from the array hosts (assumed to contain hostnames,
though you must make the array yourself) will be completed. Other
commands such as rcp can be handled similarly.
- N[index,string]...
-
Like n except that the string will be
taken as a character class. Anything up to and including the
indexth occurrence of any of the characters in string
will not be considered part of the completion.
- m[min,max]...
-
Matches if the total number of words lies between min and
max inclusive.
- r[str1,str2]...
-
Matches if the cursor is after a word with prefix str1. If there
is also a word with prefix str2 on the command line after the one
matched by str1 it matches
only if the cursor is before this word. If the comma and str2 are
omitted, it matches if the cursor is after a word with prefix str1.
- R[str1,str2]...
-
Like r but using pattern matching instead.
- q[str]...
-
Matches the word currently being completed is in single quotes and the
str begins with the letter `s', or if completion is done in
double quotes and str starts with the letter `d', or if
completion is done in backticks and str starts with a `b'.
It is possible by use of the -M spec flag to specify how the
characters in the string to be completed (referred to here as the
command line) map onto the characters in the list of matches produced by
the completion code (referred to here as the trial completions).
The spec consists of one or more matching descriptions separated by
whitespace. Each description consists of a letter followed by a colon,
then the patterns describing which character sequences on the line match
which character sequences in the trial completion. Any sequence of characters not
handled in this fashion must match exactly, as usual.
The forms of spec understood are as follows. In each case, the
form with an uppercase initial character retains the string already
typed on the command line as the final result of completion, while with
a lowercase initial character the string on the command line is changed
into the corresponding part of the trial completion.
- m:lpat=tpat
-
- M:lpat=tpat
-
Here, lpat is a pattern that matches on the command line,
corresponding to tpat which matches in the trial completion.
- l:anchor|lpat=tpat
-
- L:anchor|lpat=tpat
-
These letters are for patterns that are anchored by another pattern on
the left side. Matching for lpat and tpat is as for m and
M, but the pattern lpat matched on the command line must be
preceeded by the pattern anchor. The anchor can be blank to
anchor the match to the start of the command line string; otherwise the
anchor can occur anywhere, but must match in both the command line and
trial completion strings.
- r:lpat|anchor=tpat
-
- R:lpat|anchor=tpat
-
As l and L with the difference that the command line and trial
completion patterns are anchored on the right side. Here an empty
anchor forces the match to the end of the command line string.
Each lpat, tpat or anchor is either an empty string or
consists of a sequence of literal characters (which may be quoted with a
backslash), question marks, character classes, and correspondence
classes; ordinary shell patterns are not used. Literal characters match
only themselves, question marks match any character, and character
classes are formed as for globbing and match any character in the given
set.
Correspondence classes are defined like character classes, but with two
differences: they are delimited by a pair of braces, and negated classes
are not allowed, so the characters ! and ^ have no special
meaning directly after the opening brace. They indicate that a range of
characters on the line match a range of characters in the trial
completion, but (unlike ordinary character classes) paired according to
the corresponding position in the sequence. For example, to make any
lowercase letter on the line match the corresponding uppercase letter in
the trial completion, you can use `m:{a-z}={A-Z}'. More than one
pair of classes can occur, in which case the first class before the
= corresponds to the first after it, and so on. If one side has
more such classes than the other side, the superfluous classes behave
like normal character classes. In anchor patterns correspondence classes
also behave like normal character classes.
The pattern tpat may also be a single star, `*'. This means
that the pattern on the command line can match any number of characters
in the trial completion. In this case the pattern must be anchored (on
either side); the anchor then determines how much of the trial
completion is to be included -- only the characters up to the next
appearance of the anchor will be matched.
Examples:
The option -o produces option names in all-lowercase form, without
underscores, and without the optional no at the beginning even
though the builtins setopt and unsetopt understand option names
with uppercase letters, underscores, and the optional no. The
following alters the matching rules so that the prefix no and any
underscore are ignored when trying to match the trial completions
generated and uppercase letters on the line match the corresponding
lowercase letters in the words:
compctl -M 'L:|[nN][oO]= M:_= M:{A-Z}={a-z}' \
-o setopt unsetopt
The first part says that the pattern `[nN][oO]' at the beginning
(the empty anchor before the pipe symbol) of the string on the
line matches the empty string in the list of words generated by
completion, so it will be ignored if present. The second part does the
same for an underscore anywhere in the command line string, and the
third part uses correspondence classes so that any
uppercase letter on the line matches the corresponding lowercase
letter in the word. The use of the uppercase forms of the
specification characters (L and M) guarantees that what has
already been typed on the command line (in particular the prefix
no) will not be deleted.
The second example makes completion case insensitive. By using
compctl with the -M option alone this applies to every
completion. This is just the same as in the setopt example, except
here we wish to retain the characters in the list of completions:
compctl -M 'm:{a-z}={A-Z}'
This makes lowercase letters match their uppercase counterparts.
To make uppercase letters match the lowercase forms as well:
compctl -M 'm:{a-zA-Z}={A-Za-z}'
A nice example for the use of * patterns is partial word
completion. Sometimes you would like to make strings like c.s.u
complete to strings like comp.source.unix, i.e. the word on the
command line consists of multiple parts, separated by a dot in this
example, where each part should be completed separately -- note,
however, that the case where each part of the word, i.e. comp,
source and unix in this example, is to be completed separately
is a different problem to be solved by extended completion. The
example can be handled by:
compctl -M 'r:|.=* r:|=*' \
-k '(comp.sources.unix comp.sources.misc ...)' ngroups
The first specification says that lpat is the empty string, while
anchor is a dot; tpat is *, so this can match anything
except for the `.' from the anchor in
the trial completion word. So in c.s.u, the matcher sees c,
followed by the empty string, followed by the anchor `.', and
likewise for the second dot, and replaces the empty strings before the
anchors, giving c[omp].s[ources].u[nix], where
the last part of the completion is just as normal.
The second specification is needed to make this work when the cursor is
in the middle of the string on the command line and the option
COMPLETE_IN_WORD is set. In this case the completion code would
normally try to match trial completions that end with the string as
typed so far, i.e. it will only insert new characters at the cursor
position rather then at the end. However in our example we would like
the code to recognise matches which contain extra characters after the
string on the line (the nix in the example). Hence we say that the
empty string at the end of the string on the line matches any characters
at the end of the trial completion.
More generally, the specification
compctl -M 'r:|[.,_-]=* r:|=*'
allows one to complete words with abbreviations before any of the
characters in the square brackets in any completion. For example, to
complete veryverylongfile.c rather than veryverylongheader.h
with the above in effect, you can just type very.c before attempting
completion.
The form compctl -M that defines global matching actually accepts
any number of specification strings, unlike the case where the -M
option applies only to a particular command. In this case, when
completion is attempted for any command, the code will try the
specifications in order until one matches. This allows one to define
simple and fast matches to be used first, more powerful matchers as a
second choice, and so on.
For example, one can make the code match trial completions that contain
the string on the command line as a substring, not just at the
beginning. Since this might produce more matches than we want,
we arrange for it to be tried only if the matchers described above don't
produce any matches:
compctl -M 'r:|[.,_-]=* r:|=*' 'l:|=* r:|=*'
Here, if the string on the command line is foo.bar, compctl
first tries matching fooanything.baranything, as
with the previous example. If that fails, the two descriptions in the
second string after the -M say that the blanks at the beginning
and end of the string on the command line can match any set of
characters at the beginning or end of the trial completion, so it will
look for anythingfoo.baranything.
compctl -u -x 's[+] c[-1,-f],s[-f+]' \
-g '~/Mail/*(:t)' - 's[-f],c[-1,-f]' -f -- mail
This is to be interpreted as follows:
If the current command is mail, then
if ((the current word begins with + and the previous word is -f)
or (the current word begins with -f+)), then complete the
non-directory part (the `:t' glob modifier) of files in the directory
~/Mail; else
if the current word begins with -f or the previous word was -f, then
complete any file; else
complete user names.
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