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zshcompwid(1) - phpMan
ZSHCOMPWID(1) General Commands Manual ZSHCOMPWID(1)
NAME
zshcompwid - zsh completion widgets
DESCRIPTION
The shell's programmable completion mechanism can be manipulated in two ways; here the
low-level features supporting the newer, function-based mechanism are defined. A complete
set of shell functions based on these features is described in zshcompsys(1), and users
with no interest in adding to that system (or, potentially, writing their own -- see dic‐
tionary entry for `hubris') should skip the current section. The older system based on
the compctl builtin command is described in zshcompctl(1).
Completion widgets are defined by the -C option to the zle builtin command provided by the
zsh/zle module (see zshzle(1)). For example,
zle -C complete expand-or-complete completer
defines a widget named `complete'. The second argument is the name of any of the builtin
widgets that handle completions: complete-word, expand-or-complete, expand-or-com‐
plete-prefix, menu-complete, menu-expand-or-complete, reverse-menu-complete, list-choices,
or delete-char-or-list. Note that this will still work even if the widget in question has
been re-bound.
When this newly defined widget is bound to a key using the bindkey builtin command defined
in the zsh/zle module (see zshzle(1)), typing that key will call the shell function `com‐
pleter'. This function is responsible for generating the possible matches using the
builtins described below. As with other ZLE widgets, the function is called with its
standard input closed.
Once the function returns, the completion code takes over control again and treats the
matches in the same manner as the specified builtin widget, in this case expand-or-com‐
plete.
COMPLETION SPECIAL PARAMETERS
The parameters ZLE_REMOVE_SUFFIX_CHARS and ZLE_SPACE_SUFFIX_CHARS are used by the comple‐
tion mechanism, but are not special. See Parameters Used By The Shell in zshparam(1).
Inside completion widgets, and any functions called from them, some parameters have spe‐
cial meaning; outside these functions they are not special to the shell in any way. These
parameters are used to pass information between the completion code and the completion
widget. Some of the builtin commands and the condition codes use or change the current
values of these parameters. Any existing values will be hidden during execution of com‐
pletion widgets; except for compstate, the parameters are reset on each function exit
(including nested function calls from within the completion widget) to the values they had
when the function was entered.
CURRENT
This is the number of the current word, i.e. the word the cursor is currently on in
the words array. Note that this value is only correct if the ksharrays option is
not set.
IPREFIX
Initially this will be set to the empty string. This parameter functions like PRE‐
FIX; it contains a string which precedes the one in PREFIX and is not considered
part of the list of matches. Typically, a string is transferred from the beginning
of PREFIX to the end of IPREFIX, for example:
IPREFIX=${PREFIX%%\=*}=
PREFIX=${PREFIX#*=}
causes the part of the prefix up to and including the first equal sign not to be
treated as part of a matched string. This can be done automatically by the compset
builtin, see below.
ISUFFIX
As IPREFIX, but for a suffix that should not be considered part of the matches;
note that the ISUFFIX string follows the SUFFIX string.
PREFIX Initially this will be set to the part of the current word from the beginning of
the word up to the position of the cursor; it may be altered to give a common pre‐
fix for all matches.
QIPREFIX
This parameter is read-only and contains the quoted string up to the word being
completed. E.g. when completing `"foo', this parameter contains the double quote.
If the -q option of compset is used (see below), and the original string was `"foo
bar' with the cursor on the `bar', this parameter contains `"foo '.
QISUFFIX
Like QIPREFIX, but containing the suffix.
SUFFIX Initially this will be set to the part of the current word from the cursor position
to the end; it may be altered to give a common suffix for all matches. It is most
useful when the option COMPLETE_IN_WORD is set, as otherwise the whole word on the
command line is treated as a prefix.
compstate
This is an associative array with various keys and values that the completion code
uses to exchange information with the completion widget. The keys are:
all_quotes
The -q option of the compset builtin command (see below) allows a quoted
string to be broken into separate words; if the cursor is on one of those
words, that word will be completed, possibly invoking `compset -q' recur‐
sively. With this key it is possible to test the types of quoted strings
which are currently broken into parts in this fashion. Its value contains
one character for each quoting level. The characters are a single quote or
a double quote for strings quoted with these characters, a dollars sign for
strings quoted with $'...' and a backslash for strings not starting with a
quote character. The first character in the value always corresponds to the
innermost quoting level.
context
This will be set by the completion code to the overall context in which com‐
pletion is attempted. Possible values are:
array_value
when completing inside the value of an array parameter assignment; in
this case the words array contains the words inside the parentheses.
brace_parameter
when completing the name of a parameter in a parameter expansion
beginning with ${. This context will also be set when completing
parameter flags following ${(; the full command line argument is pre‐
sented and the handler must test the value to be completed to ascer‐
tain that this is the case.
assign_parameter
when completing the name of a parameter in a parameter assignment.
command
when completing for a normal command (either in command position or
for an argument of the command).
condition
when completing inside a `[[...]]' conditional expression; in this
case the words array contains only the words inside the conditional
expression.
math when completing in a mathematical environment such as a `((...))'
construct.
parameter
when completing the name of a parameter in a parameter expansion
beginning with $ but not ${.
redirect
when completing after a redirection operator.
subscript
when completing inside a parameter subscript.
value when completing the value of a parameter assignment.
exact Controls the behaviour when the REC_EXACT option is set. It will be set to
accept if an exact match would be accepted, and will be unset otherwise.
If it was set when at least one match equal to the string on the line was
generated, the match is accepted.
exact_string
The string of an exact match if one was found, otherwise unset.
ignored
The number of words that were ignored because they matched one of the pat‐
terns given with the -F option to the compadd builtin command.
insert This controls the manner in which a match is inserted into the command line.
On entry to the widget function, if it is unset the command line is not to
be changed; if set to unambiguous, any prefix common to all matches is to be
inserted; if set to automenu-unambiguous, the common prefix is to be
inserted and the next invocation of the completion code may start menu com‐
pletion (due to the AUTO_MENU option being set); if set to menu or automenu
menu completion will be started for the matches currently generated (in the
latter case this will happen because the AUTO_MENU is set). The value may
also contain the string `tab' when the completion code would normally not
really do completion, but only insert the TAB character.
On exit it may be set to any of the values above (where setting it to the
empty string is the same as unsetting it), or to a number, in which case the
match whose number is given will be inserted into the command line. Nega‐
tive numbers count backward from the last match (with `-1' selecting the
last match) and out-of-range values are wrapped around, so that a value of
zero selects the last match and a value one more than the maximum selects
the first. Unless the value of this key ends in a space, the match is
inserted as in a menu completion, i.e. without automatically appending a
space.
Both menu and automenu may also specify the number of the match to insert,
given after a colon. For example, `menu:2' says to start menu completion,
beginning with the second match.
Note that a value containing the substring `tab' makes the matches generated
be ignored and only the TAB be inserted.
Finally, it may also be set to all, which makes all matches generated be
inserted into the line.
insert_positions
When the completion system inserts an unambiguous string into the line,
there may be multiple places where characters are missing or where the char‐
acter inserted differs from at least one match. The value of this key con‐
tains a colon separated list of all these positions, as indexes into the
command line.
last_prompt
If this is set to a non-empty string for every match added, the completion
code will move the cursor back to the previous prompt after the list of com‐
pletions has been displayed. Initially this is set or unset according to
the ALWAYS_LAST_PROMPT option.
list This controls whether or how the list of matches will be displayed. If it
is unset or empty they will never be listed; if its value begins with list,
they will always be listed; if it begins with autolist or ambiguous, they
will be listed when the AUTO_LIST or LIST_AMBIGUOUS options respectively
would normally cause them to be.
If the substring force appears in the value, this makes the list be shown
even if there is only one match. Normally, the list would be shown only if
there are at least two matches.
The value contains the substring packed if the LIST_PACKED option is set. If
this substring is given for all matches added to a group, this group will
show the LIST_PACKED behavior. The same is done for the LIST_ROWS_FIRST
option with the substring rows.
Finally, if the value contains the string explanations, only the explanation
strings, if any, will be listed and if it contains messages, only the mes‐
sages (added with the -x option of compadd) will be listed. If it contains
both explanations and messages both kinds of explanation strings will be
listed. It will be set appropriately on entry to a completion widget and
may be changed there.
list_lines
This gives the number of lines that are needed to display the full list of
completions. Note that to calculate the total number of lines to display
you need to add the number of lines needed for the command line to this
value, this is available as the value of the BUFFERLINES special parameter.
list_max
Initially this is set to the value of the LISTMAX parameter. It may be set
to any other value; when the widget exits this value will be used in the
same way as the value of LISTMAX.
nmatches
The number of matches generated and accepted by the completion code so far.
old_insert
On entry to the widget this will be set to the number of the match of an old
list of completions that is currently inserted into the command line. If no
match has been inserted, this is unset.
As with old_list, the value of this key will only be used if it is the
string keep. If it was set to this value by the widget and there was an old
match inserted into the command line, this match will be kept and if the
value of the insert key specifies that another match should be inserted,
this will be inserted after the old one.
old_list
This is set to yes if there is still a valid list of completions from a pre‐
vious completion at the time the widget is invoked. This will usually be
the case if and only if the previous editing operation was a completion wid‐
get or one of the builtin completion functions. If there is a valid list
and it is also currently shown on the screen, the value of this key is
shown.
After the widget has exited the value of this key is only used if it was set
to keep. In this case the completion code will continue to use this old
list. If the widget generated new matches, they will not be used.
parameter
The name of the parameter when completing in a subscript or in the value of
a parameter assignment.
pattern_insert
Normally this is set to menu, which specifies that menu completion will be
used whenever a set of matches was generated using pattern matching. If it
is set to any other non-empty string by the user and menu completion is not
selected by other option settings, the code will instead insert any common
prefix for the generated matches as with normal completion.
pattern_match
Locally controls the behaviour given by the GLOB_COMPLETE option. Initially
it is set to `*' if and only if the option is set. The completion widget
may set it to this value, to an empty string (which has the same effect as
unsetting it), or to any other non-empty string. If it is non-empty,
unquoted metacharacters on the command line will be treated as patterns; if
it is `*', then additionally a wildcard `*' is assumed at the cursor posi‐
tion; if it is empty or unset, metacharacters will be treated literally.
Note that the matcher specifications given to the compadd builtin command
are not used if this is set to a non-empty string.
quote When completing inside quotes, this contains the quotation character (i.e.
either a single quote, a double quote, or a backtick). Otherwise it is
unset.
quoting
When completing inside single quotes, this is set to the string single;
inside double quotes, the string double; inside backticks, the string back‐
tick. Otherwise it is unset.
redirect
The redirection operator when completing in a redirection position, i.e. one
of <, >, etc.
restore
This is set to auto before a function is entered, which forces the special
parameters mentioned above (words, CURRENT, PREFIX, IPREFIX, SUFFIX, and
ISUFFIX) to be restored to their previous values when the function exits.
If a function unsets it or sets it to any other string, they will not be
restored.
to_end Specifies the occasions on which the cursor is moved to the end of a string
when a match is inserted. On entry to a widget function, it may be single
if this will happen when a single unambiguous match was inserted or match if
it will happen any time a match is inserted (for example, by menu comple‐
tion; this is likely to be the effect of the ALWAYS_TO_END option).
On exit, it may be set to single as above. It may also be set to always, or
to the empty string or unset; in those cases the cursor will be moved to the
end of the string always or never respectively. Any other string is treated
as match.
unambiguous
This key is read-only and will always be set to the common (unambiguous)
prefix the completion code has generated for all matches added so far.
unambiguous_cursor
This gives the position the cursor would be placed at if the common prefix
in the unambiguous key were inserted, relative to the value of that key. The
cursor would be placed before the character whose index is given by this
key.
unambiguous_positions
This contains all positions where characters in the unambiguous string are
missing or where the character inserted differs from at least one of the
matches. The positions are given as indexes into the string given by the
value of the unambiguous key.
vared If completion is called while editing a line using the vared builtin, the
value of this key is set to the name of the parameter given as an argument
to vared. This key is only set while a vared command is active.
words This array contains the words present on the command line currently being edited.
COMPLETION BUILTIN COMMANDS
compadd [ -akqQfenUld12C ] [ -F array ]
[ -P prefix ] [ -S suffix ]
[ -p hidden-prefix ] [ -s hidden-suffix ]
[ -i ignored-prefix ] [ -I ignored-suffix ]
[ -W file-prefix ] [ -d array ]
[ -J name ] [ -V name ] [ -X explanation ] [ -x message ]
[ -r remove-chars ] [ -R remove-func ]
[ -D array ] [ -O array ] [ -A array ]
[ -E number ]
[ -M match-spec ] [ -- ] [ words ... ]
This builtin command can be used to add matches directly and control all the infor‐
mation the completion code stores with each possible match. The return status is
zero if at least one match was added and non-zero if no matches were added.
The completion code breaks the string to complete into seven fields in the order:
<ipre><apre><hpre><word><hsuf><asuf><isuf>
The first field is an ignored prefix taken from the command line, the contents of
the IPREFIX parameter plus the string given with the -i option. With the -U option,
only the string from the -i option is used. The field <apre> is an optional prefix
string given with the -P option. The <hpre> field is a string that is considered
part of the match but that should not be shown when listing completions, given with
the -p option; for example, functions that do filename generation might specify a
common path prefix this way. <word> is the part of the match that should appear in
the list of completions, i.e. one of the words given at the end of the compadd com‐
mand line. The suffixes <hsuf>, <asuf> and <isuf> correspond to the prefixes
<hpre>, <apre> and <ipre> and are given by the options -s, -S and -I, respectively.
The supported flags are:
-P prefix
This gives a string to be inserted before the given words. The string given
is not considered as part of the match and any shell metacharacters in it
will not be quoted when the string is inserted.
-S suffix
Like -P, but gives a string to be inserted after the match.
-p hidden-prefix
This gives a string that should be inserted into the command line before the
match but that should not appear in the list of matches. Unless the -U
option is given, this string must be matched as part of the string on the
command line.
-s hidden-suffix
Like `-p', but gives a string to insert after the match.
-i ignored-prefix
This gives a string to insert into the command line just before any string
given with the `-P' option. Without `-P' the string is inserted before the
string given with `-p' or directly before the match.
-I ignored-suffix
Like -i, but gives an ignored suffix.
-a With this flag the words are taken as names of arrays and the possible
matches are their values. If only some elements of the arrays are needed,
the words may also contain subscripts, as in `foo[2,-1]'.
-k With this flag the words are taken as names of associative arrays and the
possible matches are their keys. As for -a, the words may also contain sub‐
scripts, as in `foo[(R)*bar*]'.
-d array
This adds per-match display strings. The array should contain one element
per word given. The completion code will then display the first element
instead of the first word, and so on. The array may be given as the name of
an array parameter or directly as a space-separated list of words in paren‐
theses.
If there are fewer display strings than words, the leftover words will be
displayed unchanged and if there are more display strings than words, the
leftover display strings will be silently ignored.
-l This option only has an effect if used together with the -d option. If it is
given, the display strings are listed one per line, not arrayed in columns.
-o This option only has an effect if used together with the -d option. If it
is given, the order of the output is determined by the match strings; oth‐
erwise it is determined by the display strings (i.e. the strings given by
the -d option).
-J name
Gives the name of the group of matches the words should be stored in.
-V name
Like -J but naming an unsorted group. These are in a different name space
than groups created with the -J flag.
-1 If given together with the -V option, makes only consecutive duplicates in
the group be removed. If combined with the -J option, this has no visible
effect. Note that groups with and without this flag are in different name
spaces.
-2 If given together with the -J or -V option, makes all duplicates be kept.
Again, groups with and without this flag are in different name spaces.
-X explanation
The explanation string will be printed with the list of matches, above the
group currently selected.
-x message
Like -X, but the message will be printed even if there are no matches in the
group.
-q The suffix given with -S will be automatically 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.
-r remove-chars
This is a more versatile form of the -q option. The suffix given with -S or
the slash automatically added after completing directories will be automati‐
cally removed if the next character typed inserts one of the characters
given in the remove-chars. This string is parsed as a characters class and
understands the backslash sequences used by the print command. For example,
`-r "a-z\t"' removes the suffix if the next character typed inserts a lower
case character or a TAB, and `-r "^0-9"' removes the suffix if the next
character typed inserts anything but a digit. One extra backslash sequence
is understood in this string: `\-' stands for all characters that insert
nothing. Thus `-S "=" -q' is the same as `-S "=" -r "= \t\n\-"'.
This option may also be used without the -S option; then any automatically
added space will be removed when one of the characters in the list is typed.
-R remove-func
This is another form of the -r option. When a suffix has been inserted and
the completion accepted, the function remove-func will be called after the
next character typed. It is passed the length of the suffix as an argument
and can use the special parameters available in ordinary (non-completion)
zle widgets (see zshzle(1)) to analyse and modify the command line.
-f If this flag is given, all of the matches built from words are marked as
being the names of files. They are not required to be actual filenames, but
if they are, and the option LIST_TYPES is set, the characters describing the
types of the files in the completion lists will be shown. This also forces a
slash to be added when the name of a directory is completed.
-e This flag can be used to tell the completion code that the matches added are
parameter names for a parameter expansion. This will make the
AUTO_PARAM_SLASH and AUTO_PARAM_KEYS options be used for the matches.
-W file-prefix
This string is a pathname that will be prepended to each of the matches
formed by the given words together with any prefix specified by the -p
option to form a complete filename for testing. Hence it is only useful if
combined with the -f flag, as the tests will not otherwise be performed.
-F array
Specifies an array containing patterns. Words matching one of these patterns
are ignored, i.e. not considered to be possible matches.
The array may be the name of an array parameter or a list of literal pat‐
terns enclosed in parentheses and quoted, as in `-F "(*?.o *?.h)"'. If the
name of an array is given, the elements of the array are taken as the pat‐
terns.
-Q This flag instructs the completion code not to quote any metacharacters in
the words when inserting them into the command line.
-M match-spec
This gives local match specifications as described below in the section
`Completion Matching Control'. This option may be given more than once. In
this case all match-specs given are concatenated with spaces between them to
form the specification string to use. Note that they will only be used if
the -U option is not given.
-n Specifies that the words added are to be used as possible matches, but are
not to appear in the completion listing.
-U If this flag is given, all words given will be accepted and no matching will
be done by the completion code. Normally this is used in functions that do
the matching themselves.
-O array
If this option is given, the words are not added to the set of possible com‐
pletions. Instead, matching is done as usual and all of the words given as
arguments that match the string on the command line will be stored in the
array parameter whose name is given as array.
-A array
As the -O option, except that instead of those of the words which match
being stored in array, the strings generated internally by the completion
code are stored. For example, with a matching specification of `-M
"L:|no="', the string `nof' on the command line and the string `foo' as one
of the words, this option stores the string `nofoo' in the array, whereas
the -O option stores the `foo' originally given.
-D array
As with -O, the words are not added to the set of possible completions.
Instead, the completion code tests whether each word in turn matches what is
on the line. If the nth word does not match, the nth element of the array
is removed. Elements for which the corresponding word is matched are
retained.
-C This option adds a special match which expands to all other matches when
inserted into the line, even those that are added after this option is used.
Together with the -d option it is possible to specify a string that should
be displayed in the list for this special match. If no string is given, it
will be shown as a string containing the strings that would be inserted for
the other matches, truncated to the width of the screen.
-E This option adds number empty matches after the words have been added. An
empty match takes up space in completion listings but will never be inserted
in the line and can't be selected with menu completion or menu selection.
This makes empty matches only useful to format completion lists and to make
explanatory string be shown in completion lists (since empty matches can be
given display strings with the -d option). And because all but one empty
string would otherwise be removed, this option implies the -V and -2 options
(even if an explicit -J option is given).
-
-- This flag ends the list of flags and options. All arguments after it will be
taken as the words to use as matches even if they begin with hyphens.
Except for the -M flag, if any of these flags is given more than once, the first
one (and its argument) will be used.
compset -p number
compset -P [ number ] pattern
compset -s number
compset -S [ number ] pattern
compset -n begin [ end ]
compset -N beg-pat [ end-pat ]
compset -q
This command simplifies modification of the special parameters, while its return
status allows tests on them to be carried out.
The options are:
-p number
If the contents of the PREFIX parameter is longer than number characters,
the first number characters are removed from it and appended to the contents
of the IPREFIX parameter.
-P [ number ] pattern
If the value of the PREFIX parameter begins with anything that matches the
pattern, the matched portion is removed from PREFIX and appended to IPREFIX.
Without the optional number, the longest match is taken, but if number is
given, anything up to the numberth match is moved. If the number is nega‐
tive, the numberth longest match is moved. For example, if PREFIX contains
the string `a=b=c', then compset -P '*\=' will move the string `a=b=' into
the IPREFIX parameter, but compset -P 1 '*\=' will move only the string
`a='.
-s number
As -p, but transfer the last number characters from the value of SUFFIX to
the front of the value of ISUFFIX.
-S [ number ] pattern
As -P, but match the last portion of SUFFIX and transfer the matched portion
to the front of the value of ISUFFIX.
-n begin [ end ]
If the current word position as specified by the parameter CURRENT is
greater than or equal to begin, anything up to the beginth word is removed
from the words array and the value of the parameter CURRENT is decremented
by begin.
If the optional end is given, the modification is done only if the current
word position is also less than or equal to end. In this case, the words
from position end onwards are also removed from the words array.
Both begin and end may be negative to count backwards from the last element
of the words array.
-N beg-pat [ end-pat ]
If one of the elements of the words array before the one at the index given
by the value of the parameter CURRENT matches the pattern beg-pat, all ele‐
ments up to and including the matching one are removed from the words array
and the value of CURRENT is changed to point to the same word in the changed
array.
If the optional pattern end-pat is also given, and there is an element in
the words array matching this pattern, the parameters are modified only if
the index of this word is higher than the one given by the CURRENT parameter
(so that the matching word has to be after the cursor). In this case, the
words starting with the one matching end-pat are also removed from the words
array. If words contains no word matching end-pat, the testing and modifica‐
tion is performed as if it were not given.
-q The word currently being completed is split on spaces into separate words,
respecting the usual shell quoting conventions. The resulting words are
stored in the words array, and CURRENT, PREFIX, SUFFIX, QIPREFIX, and QISUF‐
FIX are modified to reflect the word part that is completed.
In all the above cases the return status is zero if the test succeeded and the
parameters were modified and non-zero otherwise. This allows one to use this
builtin in tests such as:
if compset -P '*\='; then ...
This forces anything up to and including the last equal sign to be ignored by the
completion code.
compcall [ -TD ]
This allows the use of completions defined with the compctl builtin from within
completion widgets. The list of matches will be generated as if one of the
non-widget completion functions (complete-word, etc.) had been called, except that
only compctls given for specific commands are used. To force the code to try com‐
pletions defined with the -T option of compctl and/or the default completion
(whether defined by compctl -D or the builtin default) in the appropriate places,
the -T and/or -D flags can be passed to compcall.
The return status can be used to test if a matching compctl definition was found.
It is non-zero if a compctl was found and zero otherwise.
Note that this builtin is defined by the zsh/compctl module.
COMPLETION CONDITION CODES
The following additional condition codes for use within the [[ ... ]] construct are avail‐
able in completion widgets. These work on the special parameters. All of these tests can
also be performed by the compset builtin, but in the case of the condition codes the con‐
tents of the special parameters are not modified.
-prefix [ number ] pattern
true if the test for the -P option of compset would succeed.
-suffix [ number ] pattern
true if the test for the -S option of compset would succeed.
-after beg-pat
true if the test of the -N option with only the beg-pat given would succeed.
-between beg-pat end-pat
true if the test for the -N option with both patterns would succeed.
COMPLETION MATCHING CONTROL
It is possible by use of the -M option of the compadd builtin command 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). Note that this is not used if the command line contains a glob
pattern and the GLOB_COMPLETE option is set or the pattern_match of the compstate special
association is set to a non-empty string.
The match-spec given as the argument to the -M option (see `Completion Builtin Commands'
above) consists of one or more matching descriptions separated by whitespace. Each
description consists of a letter followed by a colon and then the patterns describing
which character sequences on the line match which character sequences in the trial comple‐
tion. Any sequence of characters not handled in this fashion must match exactly, as
usual.
The forms of match-spec understood are as follows. In each case, the form with an upper
case initial character retains the string already typed on the command line as the final
result of completion, while with a lower case 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:lanchor|lpat=tpat
L:lanchor|lpat=tpat
l:lanchor||ranchor=tpat
L:lanchor||ranchor=tpat
b:lpat=tpat
B: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 preceded by the pattern lanchor. The lanchor 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.
If no lpat is given but a ranchor is, this matches the gap between substrings
matched by lanchor and ranchor. Unlike lanchor, the ranchor only needs to match the
trial completion string.
The b and B forms are similar to l and L with an empty anchor, but need to match
only the beginning of the trial completion or the word on the command line, respec‐
tively.
r:lpat|ranchor=tpat
R:lpat|ranchor=tpat
r:lanchor||ranchor=tpat
R:lanchor||ranchor=tpat
e:lpat=tpat
E:lpat=tpat
As l, L, b and B, with the difference that the command line and trial completion
patterns are anchored on the right side. Here an empty ranchor and the e and E
forms force the match to the end of the trial completion or 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 ASCII lower case letter on the line match the corre‐
sponding upper case letter in the trial completion, you can use `m:{a-z}={A-Z}' (however,
see below for the recommended form for this). 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 nor‐
mal character classes.
The standard `[:name:]' forms described for standard shell patterns, see the section FILE‐
NAME GENERATION in zshexpn(1), may appear in correspondence classes as well as normal
character classes. The only special behaviour in correspondence classes is if the form on
the left and the form on the right are each one of [:upper:], [:lower:]. In these cases
the character in the word and the character on the line must be the same up to a differ‐
ence in case. Hence to make any lower case character on the line match the corresponding
upper case character in the trial completion you can use `m:{[:lower:]}={[:upper:]}'.
Although the matching system does not yet handle multibyte characters, this is likely to
be a future extension, at which point this syntax will handle arbitrary alphabets; hence
this form, rather than the use of explicit ranges, is the recommended form. In other
cases `[:name:]' forms are allowed. If the two forms on the left and right are the same,
the characters must match exactly. In remaining cases, the corresponding tests are
applied to both characters, but they are not otherwise constrained; any matching character
in one set goes with any matching character in the other set: this is equivalent to the
behaviour of ordinary character classes.
The pattern tpat may also be one or two stars, `*' or `**'. 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); in the case of a single star, 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. With two stars, substrings
matched by the anchor can be matched, too.
Examples:
The keys of the options association defined by the parameter module are the option names
in all-lower-case form, without underscores, and without the optional no at the beginning
even though the builtins setopt and unsetopt understand option names with upper case let‐
ters, 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 upper case letters on the line match the corresponding lower case letters in
the words:
compadd -M 'L:|[nN][oO]= M:_= M:{[:upper:]}={[:lower:]}' - \
${(k)options}
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 correspon‐
dence classes so that any upper case letter on the line matches the corresponding lower
case letter in the word. The use of the upper case 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.
Note that the use of L in the first part means that it matches only when at the beginning
of both the command line string and the trial completion. I.e., the string `_NO_f' would
not be completed to `_NO_foo', nor would `NONO_f' be completed to `NONO_foo' because of
the leading underscore or the second `NO' on the line which makes the pattern fail even
though they are otherwise ignored. To fix this, one would use `B:[nN][oO]=' instead of the
first part. As described above, this matches at the beginning of the trial completion,
independent of other characters or substrings at the beginning of the command line word
which are ignored by the same or other match-specs.
The second example makes completion case insensitive. This is just the same as in the
option example, except here we wish to retain the characters in the list of completions:
compadd -M 'm:{[:lower:]}={[:upper:]}' ...
This makes lower case letters match their upper case counterparts. To make upper case
letters match the lower case forms as well:
compadd -M 'm:{[:lower:][:upper:]}={[:upper:][:lower:]}' ...
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
from separate sets of matches is a different problem to be solved by the implementation of
the completion widget. The example can be handled by:
compadd -M 'r:|.=* r:|=*' \
- comp.sources.unix comp.sources.misc ...
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.
With the pattern shown above, the string `c.u' could not be completed to
`comp.sources.unix' because the single star means that no dot (matched by the anchor) can
be skipped. By using two stars as in `r:|.=**', however, `c.u' could be completed to
`comp.sources.unix'. This also shows that in some cases, especially if the anchor is a
real pattern, like a character class, the form with two stars may result in more matches
than one would like.
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 than
at the end. However in our example we would like the code to recognise matches which con‐
tain 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
compadd -M 'r:|[.,_-]=* r:|=*' ...
allows one to complete words with abbreviations before any of the characters in the square
brackets. 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 specifications with both a left and a right anchor are useful to complete partial
words whose parts are not separated by some special character. For example, in some places
strings have to be completed that are formed `LikeThis' (i.e. the separate parts are
determined by a leading upper case letter) or maybe one has to complete strings with
trailing numbers. Here one could use the simple form with only one anchor as in:
compadd -M 'r:|[[:upper:]0-9]=* r:|=*' LikeTHIS FooHoo 5foo123 5bar234
But with this, the string `H' would neither complete to `FooHoo' nor to `LikeTHIS' because
in each case there is an upper case letter before the `H' and that is matched by the
anchor. Likewise, a `2' would not be completed. In both cases this could be changed by
using `r:|[[:upper:]0-9]=**', but then `H' completes to both `LikeTHIS' and `FooHoo' and a
`2' matches the other strings because characters can be inserted before every upper case
letter and digit. To avoid this one would use:
compadd -M 'r:[^[:upper:]0-9]||[[:upper:]0-9]=** r:|=*' \
LikeTHIS FooHoo foo123 bar234
By using these two anchors, a `H' matches only upper case `H's that are immediately pre‐
ceded by something matching the left anchor `[^[:upper:]0-9]'. The effect is, of course,
that `H' matches only the string `FooHoo', a `2' matches only `bar234' and so on.
When using the completion system (see zshcompsys(1)), users can define match specifica‐
tions that are to be used for specific contexts by using the matcher and matcher-list
styles. The values for the latter will be used everywhere.
COMPLETION WIDGET EXAMPLE
The first step is to define the widget:
zle -C complete complete-word complete-files
Then the widget can be bound to a key using the bindkey builtin command:
bindkey '^X\t' complete
After that the shell function complete-files will be invoked after typing control-X and
TAB. The function should then generate the matches, e.g.:
complete-files () { compadd - * }
This function will complete files in the current directory matching the current word.
zsh 5.0.7 October 7, 2014 ZSHCOMPWID(1)
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