Manual Pages for UNIX Darwin command on man zshcompctl

ZSHCOMPCTL(1) ZSHCOMPCTL(1)

NAME

zshcompctl - zsh programmable completion

DESCRIPTION

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 zshcompsys(1), and the basic shell mechanisms which support it are

described in zshcompwid(1). This manual entry describes the older ccoomm-

ppccttll command.

ccoommppccttll [ -CCDDTT ] options [ command ... ]

ccoommppccttll [ -CCDDTT ] options [ -xx pattern options - ... -- ] [ ++ options [

-xx ... -- ] ... [++] ] [ command ... ]

ccoommppccttll -MM match-specs ...

ccoommppccttll -LL [ -CCDDTTMM ] [ command ... ]

ccoommppccttll ++ command ... Control the editor's completion behavior according to the supplied set

of options. Various editing commands, notably eexxppaanndd-oorr-ccoommpplleettee-wwoorrdd,

usually bound to tab, will attempt to complete a word typed by the

user, while others, notably ddeelleettee-cchhaarr-oorr-lliisstt, usually bound to ^D in

EMACS editing mode, list the possibilities; ccoommppccttll 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.

CCOOMMMMAANNDD FFLLAAGGSS

Completion of the arguments of a command may be different for each com-

mand 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 -LL) may be com-

bined with any combination of the options described subsequently in the 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 com-

mand with a pathname containing slashes and no completion defi-

nition 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 pro-

tect them from immediate expansion; for example the command

string ''ffoooo**'' arranges for completion of the words of any com-

mand beginning with ffoooo. When completion is attempted, all pat-

tern completions are tried in the reverse order of their defini-

tion 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 -ttnn in the flags for the pattern completion.

Note that aliases are expanded before the command name is deter-

mined unless the CCOOMMPPLLEETTEEAALLIIAASSEESS option is set. Commands may

not be combined with the -CC, -DD or -TT flags.

-CC controls completion when the command word itself is being com-

pleted. If no ccoommppccttll -CC 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.

-DD controls default completion behavior for the arguments of com-

mands not assigned any special behavior. If no ccoommppccttll -DD com-

mand has been issued, filenames are completed.

-TT supplies completion flags to be used before any other processing

is done, even before processing for ccoommppccttlls defined for spe-

cific commands. This is especially useful when combined with

extended completion (the -xx flag, see the section `Extended Com-

pletion' below). Using this flag you can define default behav-

ior 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 con-

tains too many users (so that completion after `~~' is too slow to be usable), you can use

ccoommppccttll -TT -xx ''ss[[~~]] CC[[00,,[[^^//]]##]]'' -kk ffrriieennddss -SS// -ttnn

to complete the strings in the array ffrriieennddss after a `~~'. The

CC[[......]] argument is necessary so that this form of ~-completion

is not tried after the directory name is finished.

-LL 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 -MM flag

(which must follow the -LL flag), may be specified, otherwise all

defined completions are listed. Any other flags supplied are ignored. no argument If no argument is given, ccoommppccttll 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 -DD flag.

The form with -MM as the first and only option defines global matching

specifications (see zshcompwid). The match specifications given will be used for every completion attempt (only when using ccoommppccttll, not with the new completion system) and are tried in the order in which they are defined until one generates at least one match. E.g.:

ccoommppccttll -MM '''' ''mm::{{aa-zzAA-ZZ}}=={{AA-ZZaa-zz}}''

This will first try completion without any global match specifications (the empty string) and, if that generates no matches, will try case insensitive completion. OOPPTTIIOONN FFLLAAGGSS

[ -ffccFFBBddeeaaRRGGoovvNNAAIIOOPPZZEEnnbbjjrrzzuu//1122 ]

[ -kk array ] [ -gg globstring ] [ -ss subststring ]

[ -KK function ]

[ -QQ ] [ -PP prefix ] [ -SS suffix ]

[ -WW file-prefix ] [ -HH num pattern ]

[ -qq ] [ -XX explanation ] [ -YY explanation ]

[ -yy func-or-var ] [ -ll cmd ] [ -hh cmd ] [ -UU ]

[ -tt continue ] [ -JJ name ] [ -VV name ]

[ -MM 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. SSiimmppllee FFllaaggss These produce completion lists made up by the shell itself:

-ff Filenames and filesystem paths.

-// Just filesystem paths.

-cc Command names, including aliases, shell functions, builtins and

reserved words.

-FF Function names.

-BB Names of builtin commands.

-mm Names of external commands.

-ww Reserved words.

-aa Alias names.

-RR Names of regular (non-global) aliases.

-GG Names of global aliases.

-dd This can be combined with -FF, -BB, -ww, -aa, -RR and -GG to get names

of disabled functions, builtins, reserved words or aliases.

-ee This option (to show enabled commands) is in effect by default,

but may be combined with -dd; -ddee in combination with -FF, -BB, -ww,

-aa, -RR and -GG will complete names of functions, builtins,

reserved words or aliases whether or not they are disabled.

-oo Names of shell options (see zshoptions(1)).

-vv Names of any variable defined in the shell.

-NN Names of scalar (non-array) parameters.

-AA Array names.

-II Names of integer variables.

-OO Names of read-only variables.

-pp Names of parameters used by the shell (including special parame-

ters).

-ZZ Names of shell special parameters.

-EE Names of environment variables.

-nn Named directories.

-bb Key binding names.

-jj Job names: the first word of the job leader's command line.

This is useful with the kkiillll builtin.

-rr Names of running jobs.

-zz Names of suspended jobs.

-uu User names.

FFllaaggss wwiitthh AArrgguummeennttss

These have user supplied arguments to determine how the list of comple-

tions is to be made up:

-kk 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 back-

slash; in this case the argument should be quoted. For example,

ccoommppccttll -kk ""((ccppuuttiimmee ffiilleessiizzee ddaattaassiizzee ssttaacckkssiizzee

ccoorreedduummppssiizzee rreessiiddeenntt ddeessccrriippttoorrss))"" lliimmiitt

-gg 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 ffiiggnnoorree 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 `((eeiitthheerr||oorr))' to match alternatives.)

-ss subststring

The subststring is split into words and these words are than expanded using all shell expansion mechanisms (see zshexpn(1)).

The resulting words are taken as possible completions. The ffiigg-

nnoorree special parameter is not applied to the resulting files.

Note that -gg is faster for filenames.

-KK 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 -cc and -ll flags of the

rreeaadd builtin. The function should set the variable rreeppllyy to an array containing the completions (one completion per element); note that rreeppllyy should not be made local to the function. From

such a function the command line can be accessed with the -cc and

-ll flags to the rreeaadd builtin. For example,

ffuunnccttiioonn wwhhoossoonn {{ rreeppllyy==((``uusseerrss``));; }}

ccoommppccttll -KK wwhhoossoonn ttaallkk

completes only logged-on users after `ttaallkk'. Note that `wwhhoossoonn'

must return an array, so `rreeppllyy==``uusseerrss``' would be incorrect.

-HH 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

ccoommppccttll -DD -ff ++ -HH 00 ''''

which forces completion to look back in the history list for a word if no filename matches. CCoonnttrrooll FFllaaggss

These do not directly specify types of name to be completed, but manip-

ulate the options that do:

-QQ 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 appro-

priate for filenames and ordinary strings. However, for special

effects, such as inserting a backquoted expression from a com-

pletion array (-kk) so that the expression will not be evaluated

until the complete line is executed, this option must be used.

-PP prefix

The prefix is inserted just before the completed string; any

initial part already typed will be completed and the whole pre-

fix ignored for completion purposes. For example,

ccoommppccttll -jj -PP ""%%"" kkiillll

inserts a `%' after the kill command and then completes job

names.

-SS suffix

When a completion is found the suffix is inserted after the com-

pleted 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.

-WW file-prefix

With directory file-prefix: for command, file, directory and

globbing completion (options -cc, -ff, -//, -gg), the file prefix is

implicitly added in front of the completion. For example,

ccoommppccttll -// -WW ~~//MMaaiill mmaaiillddiirrss

completes any subdirectories to any depth beneath the directory ~~//MMaaiill, although that prefix does not appear on the command

line. The file-prefix may also be of the form accepted by the

-kk flag, i.e. the name of an array or a literal list in paren-

thesis. In this case all the directories in the list will be searched for possible completions.

-qq If used with a suffix as specified by the -SS 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 charac-

ter; this the same rule used for the AAUUTTOORREEMMOOVVEESSLLAASSHH option. The option is most useful for list separators (comma, colon, etc.).

-ll 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 `pp[[...]]', `rr[[...]]', or `RR[[...]]' (see the 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 argu-

ments to the cmd supplied with the option. If the cmd string is

empty the first word in the range is instead taken as the com-

mand name, and command name completion performed on the first word in the range. For example,

ccoommppccttll -xx ''rr[[-eexxeecc,,;;]]'' -ll '''' -- ffiinndd

completes arguments between `-eexxeecc' and the following `;;' (or

the end of the command line if there is no such string) as if they were a separate command line.

-hh 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 -ll option but makes the comple-

tion code work on the parts of the current word that are sepa-

rated by spaces. These parts are completed as if they were argu-

ments to the given cmd. If cmd is the empty string, the first

part is completed as a command name, as with -ll.

-UU 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 -KK option) which can examine the word components passed

to it (or via the rreeaadd builtin's -cc and -ll flags) and use its

own criteria to decide what matches. If there is no completion,

the original word is retained. Since the produced possible com-

pletions seldom have interesting common prefixes and suffixes, menu completion is started immediately if AAUUTTOOMMEENNUU is set and this flag is used.

-yy 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 -KK 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 rreeppllyy 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.

-XX explanation

Print explanation when trying completion on the current set of

options. A `%%nn' in this string is replaced by the number of

matches that were added for this explanation string. The expla-

nation 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 -XX option (using the -JJ or -VV option). If the

same explanation string is given to multiple -XX options, the

string appears only once (for each group) and the number of

matches shown for the `%%nn' 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 %%BB, %%bb, %%SS, %%ss, %%UU, and %%uu specify output

attributes (bold, standout, and underline) and %%{{......%%}} can be

used to include literal escape sequences as in prompts.

-YY explanation

Identical to -XX, 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 -KK or -yy options, allowing them to set vari-

ables.

-tt continue

The continue-string contains a character that specifies which

set of completion flags should be used next. It is useful:

(i) With -TT, or when trying a list of pattern completions, when

ccoommppccttll would usually continue with ordinary processing after

finding matches; this can be suppressed with `-ttnn'.

(ii) With a list of alternatives separated by ++, when ccoommppccttll would normally stop when one of the alternatives generates

matches. It can be forced to consider the next set of comple-

tions by adding `-tt++' to the flags of the alternative before the

`++'. (iii) In an extended completion list (see below), when ccoommppccttll would normally continue until a set of conditions succeeded,

then use only the immediately following flags. With `-tt-', ccoomm-

ppccttll will continue trying extended completions after the next

`-'; with `-ttxx' it will attempt completion with the default

flags, in other words those before the `-xx'.

-JJ name

This gives the name of the group the matches should be placed

in. Groups are listed and sorted separately; likewise, menu com-

pletion 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

ccoommppccttll -ff -JJ ffiilleess -tt++ ++ -vv -JJ vvaarriiaabblleess ffoooo

both files and variables are possible completions, as the -tt++

forces both sets of alternatives before and after the ++ to be

considered at once. Because of the -JJ options, however, all

files are listed before all variables.

-VV name

Like -JJ, but matches within the group will not be sorted in

listings nor in menu completion. These unsorted groups are in a different name space from the sorted ones, so groups defined as

-JJ ffiilleess and -VV ffiilleess are distinct.

-11 If given together with the -VV option, makes only consecutive

duplicates in the group be removed. Note that groups with and without this flag are in different name spaces.

-22 If given together with the -JJ or -VV option, makes all duplicates

be kept. Again, groups with and without this flag are in differ-

ent name spaces.

-MM 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 in zshcompwid. AALLTTEERRNNAATTIIVVEE CCOOMMPPLLEETTIIOONN

ccoommppccttll [ -CCDDTT ] options ++ options [ ++ ... ] [ ++ ] command ...

The form with `++' specifies alternative options. Completion is tried

with the options before the first `++'. If this produces no matches com-

pletion 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 -tt

with a ++ character, the next list of flags is used even if the current list produced matches. EEXXTTEENNDDEEDD CCOOMMPPLLEETTIIOONN

ccoommppccttll [ -CCDDTT ] options -xx pattern options - ... --

[ command ... ]

ccoommppccttll [ -CCDDTT ] options [ -xx pattern options - ... -- ]

[ ++ options [ -xx ... -- ] ... [++] ] [ command ... ]

The form with `-xx' 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 cor-

responding options, as described in the section `Option Flags' above, are used to generate possible completions. If no pattern matches, the

options given before the -xx 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: ss[[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. SS[[string]]... Like ss[[string]] except that the string is part of the completion. pp[[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 nega-

tive: -n refers to the n'th last word on the line.

cc[[offset,,string]]... Matches if the string matches the word offset by offset from the current word position. Usually offset will be negative. CC[[offset,,pattern]]... Like cc but using pattern matching instead. ww[[index,,string]]...

Matches if the word in position index is equal to the corre-

sponding string. Note that the word count is made after any alias expansion. WW[[index,,pattern]]... Like ww but using pattern matching instead. nn[[index,,string]]... Matches if the current word contains string. Anything up to and

including the indexth occurrence of this string will not be con-

sidered 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,

ccoommppccttll -ss ''``uusseerrss``'' -xx ''nn[[11,,@@]]'' -kk hhoossttss -- ttaallkk

will usually complete usernames, but if you insert an @@ after

the name, names from the array hosts (assumed to contain host-

names, though you must make the array yourself) will be com-

pleted. Other commands such as rrccpp can be handled similarly. NN[[index,,string]]... Like nn 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. mm[[min,,max]]... Matches if the total number of words lies between min and max inclusive. rr[[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. RR[[str1,,str2]]... Like rr but using pattern matching instead. qq[[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 com-

pletion is done in backticks and str starts with a `b'. EEXXAAMMPPLLEE

ccoommppccttll -uu -xx ''ss[[++]] cc[[-11,,-ff]],,ss[[-ff++]]'' \\

-gg ''~~//MMaaiill//**((::tt))'' - ''ss[[-ff]],,cc[[-11,,-ff]]'' -ff -- mmaaiill

This is to be interpreted as follows: If the current command is mmaaiill, then

if ((the current word begins with ++ and the previous word is -ff)

or (the current word begins with -ff++)), then complete the

non-directory part (the `::tt' glob modifier) of files in the directory

~~//MMaaiill; else

if the current word begins with -ff or the previous word was -ff, then

complete any file; else complete user names. zsh 4.2.3 January 13, 2005 ZSHCOMPCTL(1)