1ZSHCOMPSYS(1) General Commands Manual ZSHCOMPSYS(1)
2
6 zshcompsys - zsh completion system
7
9 This describes the shell code for the `new' completion system, referred
10 to as compsys. It is written in shell functions based on the features
11 described in zshcompwid(1).
12 The features are contextual, sensitive to the point at which completion
14 is started. Many completions are already provided. For this reason, a
15 user can perform a great many tasks without knowing any details beyond
16 how to initialize the system, which is described below in INITIALIZA‐
17 TION.
18 The context that decides what completion is to be performed may be
20 · an argument or option position: these describe the position on
21 the command line at which completion is requested. For example
22 `first argument to rmdir, the word being completed names a
23 directory';
24 · a special context, denoting an element in the shell's syntax.
27 For example `a word in command position' or `an array sub‐
28 script'.
29 A full context specification contains other elements, as we shall
32 describe.
33 Besides commands names and contexts, the system employs two more con‐
35 cepts, styles and tags. These provide ways for the user to configure
36 the system's behaviour.
37 Tags play a dual role. They serve as a classification system for the
39 matches, typically indicating a class of object that the user may need
40 to distinguish. For example, when completing arguments of the ls com‐
41 mand the user may prefer to try files before directories, so both of
42 these are tags. They also appear as the rightmost element in a context
43 specification.
44 Styles modify various operations of the completion system, such as out‐
46 put formatting, but also what kinds of completers are used (and in what
47 order), or which tags are examined. Styles may accept arguments and
48 are manipulated using the zstyle command described in see zshmod‐
49 ules(1).
50 In summary, tags describe what the completion objects are, and style
52 how they are to be completed. At various points of execution, the com‐
53 pletion system checks what styles and/or tags are defined for the cur‐
54 rent context, and uses that to modify its behavior. The full descrip‐
55 tion of context handling, which determines how tags and other elements
56 of the context influence the behaviour of styles, is described below in
57 COMPLETION SYSTEM CONFIGURATION.
58 When a completion is requested, a dispatcher function is called; see
60 the description of _main_complete in the list of control functions
61 below. This dispatcher decides which function should be called to pro‐
62 duce the completions, and calls it. The result is passed to one or more
63 completers, functions that implement individual completion strategies:
64 simple completion, error correction, completion with error correction,
65 menu selection, etc.
66 More generally, the shell functions contained in the completion system
68 are of two types:
69 · those beginning `comp' are to be called directly; there are only
70 a few of these;
71 · those beginning `_' are called by the completion code. The
74 shell functions of this set, which implement completion behav‐
75 iour and may be bound to keystrokes, are referred to as `wid‐
76 gets'. These proliferate as new completions are required.
77
80 If the system was installed completely, it should be enough to call the
81 shell function compinit from your initialization file; see the next
82 section. However, the function compinstall can be run by a user to
83 configure various aspects of the completion system.
84 Usually, compinstall will insert code into .zshrc, although if that is
86 not writable it will save it in another file and tell you that file's
87 location. Note that it is up to you to make sure that the lines added
88 to .zshrc are actually run; you may, for example, need to move them to
89 an earlier place in the file if .zshrc usually returns early. So long
90 as you keep them all together (including the comment lines at the start
91 and finish), you can rerun compinstall and it will correctly locate and
92 modify these lines. Note, however, that any code you add to this sec‐
93 tion by hand is likely to be lost if you rerun compinstall, although
94 lines using the command `zstyle' should be gracefully handled.
95 The new code will take effect next time you start the shell, or run
97 .zshrc by hand; there is also an option to make them take effect imme‐
98 diately. However, if compinstall has removed definitions, you will
99 need to restart the shell to see the changes.
100 To run compinstall you will need to make sure it is in a directory men‐
102 tioned in your fpath parameter, which should already be the case if zsh
103 was properly configured as long as your startup files do not remove the
104 appropriate directories from fpath. Then it must be autoloaded
105 (`autoload -U compinstall' is recommended). You can abort the instal‐
106 lation any time you are being prompted for information, and your .zshrc
107 will not be altered at all; changes only take place right at the end,
108 where you are specifically asked for confirmation.
109 Use of compinit
111 This section describes the use of compinit to initialize completion for
112 the current session when called directly; if you have run compinstall
113 it will be called automatically from your .zshrc.
114 To initialize the system, the function compinit should be in a direc‐
116 tory mentioned in the fpath parameter, and should be autoloaded
117 (`autoload -U compinit' is recommended), and then run simply as
118 `compinit'. This will define a few utility functions, arrange for all
119 the necessary shell functions to be autoloaded, and will then re-define
120 all widgets that do completion to use the new system. If you use the
121 menu-select widget, which is part of the zsh/complist module, you
122 should make sure that that module is loaded before the call to compinit
123 so that that widget is also re-defined. If completion styles (see
124 below) are set up to perform expansion as well as completion by
125 default, and the TAB key is bound to expand-or-complete, compinit will
126 rebind it to complete-word; this is necessary to use the correct form
127 of expansion.
128 Should you need to use the original completion commands, you can still
130 bind keys to the old widgets by putting a `.' in front of the widget
131 name, e.g. `.expand-or-complete'.
132 To speed up the running of compinit, it can be made to produce a dumped
134 configuration that will be read in on future invocations; this is the
135 default, but can be turned off by calling compinit with the option -D.
136 The dumped file is .zcompdump in the same directory as the startup
137 files (i.e. $ZDOTDIR or $HOME); alternatively, an explicit file name
138 can be given by `compinit -d dumpfile'. The next invocation of
139 compinit will read the dumped file instead of performing a full ini‐
140 tialization.
141 If the number of completion files changes, compinit will recognise this
143 and produce a new dump file. However, if the name of a function or the
144 arguments in the first line of a #compdef function (as described below)
145 change, it is easiest to delete the dump file by hand so that compinit
146 will re-create it the next time it is run. The check performed to see
147 if there are new functions can be omitted by giving the option -C. In
148 this case the dump file will only be created if there isn't one
149 already.
150 The dumping is actually done by another function, compdump, but you
152 will only need to run this yourself if you change the configuration
153 (e.g. using compdef) and then want to dump the new one. The name of
154 the old dumped file will be remembered for this purpose.
155 If the parameter _compdir is set, compinit uses it as a directory where
157 completion functions can be found; this is only necessary if they are
158 not already in the function search path.
159 For security reasons compinit also checks if the completion system
161 would use files not owned by root or by the current user, or files in
162 directories that are world- or group-writable or that are not owned by
163 root or by the current user. If such files or directories are found,
164 compinit will ask if the completion system should really be used. To
165 avoid these tests and make all files found be used without asking, use
166 the option -u, and to make compinit silently ignore all insecure files
167 and directories use the option -i. This security check is skipped
168 entirely when the -C option is given.
169 The security check can be retried at any time by running the function
171 compaudit. This is the same check used by compinit, but when it is
172 executed directly any changes to fpath are made local to the function
173 so they do not persist. The directories to be checked may be passed as
174 arguments; if none are given, compaudit uses fpath and _compdir to find
175 completion system directories, adding missing ones to fpath as neces‐
176 sary. To force a check of exactly the directories currently named in
177 fpath, set _compdir to an empty string before calling compaudit or
178 compinit.
179 The function bashcompinit compatibility with bash's programmable com‐
181 pletion system. When run it will define the functions, compgen and
182 complete which correspond to the bash builtins with the same names. It
183 will then be possible to use completion specifications and functions
184 written for bash.
185 Autoloaded files
187 The convention for autoloaded functions used in completion is that they
188 start with an underscore; as already mentioned, the fpath/FPATH parame‐
189 ter must contain the directory in which they are stored. If zsh was
190 properly installed on your system, then fpath/FPATH automatically con‐
191 tains the required directories for the standard functions.
192 For incomplete installations, if compinit does not find enough files
194 beginning with an underscore (fewer than twenty) in the search path, it
195 will try to find more by adding the directory _compdir to the search
196 path. If that directory has a subdirectory named Base, all subdirecto‐
197 ries will be added to the path. Furthermore, if the subdirectory Base
198 has a subdirectory named Core, compinit will add all subdirectories of
199 the subdirectories is to the path: this allows the functions to be in
200 the same format as in the zsh source distribution.
201 When compinit is run, it searches all such files accessible via
203 fpath/FPATH and reads the first line of each of them. This line should
204 contain one of the tags described below. Files whose first line does
205 not start with one of these tags are not considered to be part of the
206 completion system and will not be treated specially.
207 The tags are:
209 #compdef names... [ -[pP] patterns... [ -N names... ] ]
211 The file will be made autoloadable and the function defined in
212 it will be called when completing names, each of which is either
213 the name of a command whose arguments are to be completed or one
214 of a number of special contexts in the form -context- described
215 below.
216 Each name may also be of the form `cmd=service'. When complet‐
218 ing the command cmd, the function typically behaves as if the
219 command (or special context) service was being completed
220 instead. This provides a way of altering the behaviour of func‐
221 tions that can perform many different completions. It is imple‐
222 mented by setting the parameter $service when calling the func‐
223 tion; the function may choose to interpret this how it wishes,
224 and simpler functions will probably ignore it.
225 If the #compdef line contains one of the options -p or -P, the
227 words following are taken to be patterns. The function will be
228 called when completion is attempted for a command or context
229 that matches one of the patterns. The options -p and -P are
230 used to specify patterns to be tried before or after other com‐
231 pletions respectively. Hence -P may be used to specify default
232 actions.
233 The option -N is used after a list following -p or -P; it speci‐
235 fies that remaining words no longer define patterns. It is pos‐
236 sible to toggle between the three options as many times as nec‐
237 essary.
238 #compdef -k style key-sequences...
240 This option creates a widget behaving like the builtin widget
241 style and binds it to the given key-sequences, if any. The
242 style must be one of the builtin widgets that perform comple‐
243 tion, namely complete-word, delete-char-or-list, expand-or-com‐
244 plete, expand-or-complete-prefix, list-choices, menu-complete,
245 menu-expand-or-complete, or reverse-menu-complete. If the
246 zsh/complist module is loaded (see zshmodules(1)) the widget
247 menu-select is also available.
248 When one of the key-sequences is typed, the function in the file
250 will be invoked to generate the matches. Note that a key will
251 not be re-bound if if it already was (that is, was bound to
252 something other than undefined-key). The widget created has the
253 same name as the file and can be bound to any other keys using
254 bindkey as usual.
255 #compdef -K widget-name style key-sequences ...
257 This is similar to -k except that only one key-sequences argu‐
258 ment may be given for each widget-name style pair. However, the
259 entire set of three arguments may be repeated with a different
260 set of arguments. Note in particular that the widget-name must
261 be distinct in each set. If it does not begin with `_' this
262 will be added. The widget-name should not clash with the name
263 of any existing widget: names based on the name of the function
264 are most useful. For example,
265 #compdef -K _foo_complete complete-word "^X^C" \
267 _foo_list list-choices "^X^D"
268 (all on one line) defines a widget _foo_complete for completion,
270 bound to `^X^C', and a widget _foo_list for listing, bound to
271 `^X^D'.
272 #autoload [ options ]
274 Functions with the #autoload tag are marked for autoloading but
275 are not otherwise treated specially. Typically they are to be
276 called from within one of the completion functions. Any options
277 supplied will be passed to the autoload builtin; a typical use
278 is +X to force the function to be loaded immediately. Note that
279 the -U and -z flags are always added implicitly.
280 The # is part of the tag name and no white space is allowed after it.
282 The #compdef tags use the compdef function described below; the main
283 difference is that the name of the function is supplied implicitly.
284 The special contexts for which completion functions can be defined are:
286 -array-value-
288 The right hand side of an array-assignment (`foo=(...)')
289 -brace-parameter-
291 The name of a parameter expansion within braces (`${...}')
292 -assign-parameter-
294 The name of a parameter in an assignment, i.e. on the left hand
295 side of an `='
296 -command-
298 A word in command position
299 -condition-
301 A word inside a condition (`[[...]]')
302 -default-
304 Any word for which no other completion is defined
305 -equal-
307 A word beginning with an equals sign
308 -first-
310 This is tried before any other completion function. The func‐
311 tion called may set the _compskip parameter to one of various
312 values: all: no further completion is attempted; a string con‐
313 taining the substring patterns: no pattern completion functions
314 will be called; a string containing default: the function for
315 the `-default-' context will not be called, but functions
316 defined for commands will
317 -math- Inside mathematical contexts, such as `((...))'
319 -parameter-
321 The name of a parameter expansion (`$...')
322 -redirect-
324 The word after a redirection operator.
325 -subscript-
327 The contents of a parameter subscript.
328 -tilde-
330 After an initial tilde (`~'), but before the first slash in the
331 word.
332 -value-
334 On the right hand side of an assignment.
335 Default implementations are supplied for each of these contexts. In
337 most cases the context -context- is implemented by a corresponding
338 function _context, for example the context `-tilde-' and the function
339 `_tilde').
340 The contexts -redirect- and -value- allow extra context-specific infor‐
342 mation. (Internally, this is handled by the functions for each context
343 calling the function _dispatch.) The extra information is added sepa‐
344 rated by commas.
345 For the -redirect- context, the extra information is in the form `-re‐
347 direct-,op,command', where op is the redirection operator and command
348 is the name of the command on the line. If there is no command on the
349 line yet, the command field will be empty.
350 For the -value- context, the form is `-value-,name,command', where name
352 is the name of the parameter. In the case of elements of an associa‐
353 tive array, for example `assoc=(key <TAB>', name is expanded to
354 `name-key'. In certain special contexts, such as completing after
355 `make CFLAGS=', the command part gives the name of the command, here
356 make; otherwise it is empty.
357 It is not necessary to define fully specific completions as the func‐
359 tions provided will try to generate completions by progressively
360 replacing the elements with `-default-'. For example, when completing
361 after `foo=<TAB>', _value will try the names `-value-,foo,' (note the
362 empty command part), `-value-,foo,-default-'
363 and`-value-,-default-,-default-', in that order, until it finds a func‐
364 tion to handle the context.
365 As an example:
367 compdef '_files -g "*.log"' '-redirect-,2>,-default-'
369 completes files matching `*.log' after `2> <TAB>' for any command with
371 no more specific handler defined.
372 Also:
374 compdef _foo -value-,-default-,-default-
376 specifies that _foo provides completions for the values of parameters
378 for which no special function has been defined. This is usually han‐
379 dled by the function _value itself.
380 The same lookup rules are used when looking up styles (as described
382 below); for example
383 zstyle ':completion:*:*:-redirect-,2>,*:*' file-patterns '*.log'
385 is another way to make completion after `2> <TAB>' complete files
387 matching `*.log'.
388 Functions
390 The following function is defined by compinit and may be called
391 directly.
392 compdef [ -an ] function names... [ -[pP] patterns... [ -N names... ] ]
394 compdef -d names...
395 compdef -k [ -an ] function style key-sequences...
396 compdef -K [ -an ] function name style key-sequences ...
397 The first form defines the function to call for completion in
398 the given contexts as described for the #compdef tag above.
399 Alternatively, all the arguments may have the form `cmd=ser‐
401 vice'. Here service should already have been defined by
402 `cmd1=service' lines in #compdef files, as described above. The
403 argument for cmd will be completed in the same way as service.
404 The function argument may alternatively be a string containing
406 any shell code. The string will be executed using the eval
407 builtin command to generate completions. This provides a way of
408 avoiding having to define a new completion function. For exam‐
409 ple, to complete files ending in `.h' as arguments to the com‐
410 mand foo:
411 compdef '_files -g "*.h"' foo
413 The option -n prevents any completions already defined for the
415 command or context from being overwritten.
416 The option -d deletes any completion defined for the command or
418 contexts listed.
419 The names may also contain -p, -P and -N options as described
421 for the #compdef tag. The effect on the argument list is iden‐
422 tical, switching between definitions of patterns tried ini‐
423 tially, patterns tried finally, and normal commands and con‐
424 texts.
425 The parameter $_compskip may be set by any function defined for
427 a pattern context. If it is set to a value containing the sub‐
428 string `patterns' none of the pattern-functions will be called;
429 if it is set to a value containing the substring `all', no other
430 function will be called.
431 The form with -k defines a widget with the same name as the
433 function that will be called for each of the key-sequences; this
434 is like the #compdef -k tag. The function should generate the
435 completions needed and will otherwise behave like the builtin
436 widget whose name is given as the style argument. The widgets
437 usable for this are: complete-word, delete-char-or-list,
438 expand-or-complete, expand-or-complete-prefix, list-choices,
439 menu-complete, menu-expand-or-complete, and reverse-menu-com‐
440 plete, as well as menu-select if the zsh/complist module is
441 loaded. The option -n prevents the key being bound if it is
442 already to bound to something other than undefined-key.
443 The form with -K is similar and defines multiple widgets based
445 on the same function, each of which requires the set of three
446 arguments name, style and key-sequences, where the latter two
447 are as for -k and the first must be a unique widget name begin‐
448 ning with an underscore.
449 Wherever applicable, the -a option makes the function autoload‐
451 able, equivalent to autoload -U function.
452 The function compdef can be used to associate existing completion func‐
454 tions with new commands. For example,
455 compdef _pids foo
457 uses the function _pids to complete process IDs for the command foo.
459 Note also the _gnu_generic function described below, which can be used
461 to complete options for commands that understand the `--help' option.
462
464 This section gives a short overview of how the completion system works,
465 and then more detail on how users can configure how and when matches
466 are generated.
467 Overview
469 When completion is attempted somewhere on the command line the comple‐
470 tion system first works out the context. This takes account of a num‐
471 ber of things including the command word (such as `grep' or `zsh') and
472 options to which the current word may be an argument (such as the `-o'
473 option to zsh which takes a shell option as an argument).
474 This context information is condensed into a string consisting of mul‐
476 tiple fields separated by colons, referred to simply as `the context'
477 in the remainder of the documentation. This is used to look up styles,
478 context-sensitive options that can be used to configure the completion
479 system. The context used for lookup may vary during the same call to
480 the completion system.
481 The context string always consists of a fixed set of fields, separated
483 by colons and with a leading colon before the first, in the form :com‐
484 pletion:function:completer:command:argument:tag. These have the fol‐
485 lowing meaning:
486 · The literal string completion, saying that this style is used by
488 the completion system. This distinguishes the context from
489 those used by, for example, zle widgets and ZFTP functions.
490 · The function, if completion is called from a named widget rather
493 than through the normal completion system. Typically this is
494 blank, but it is set by special widgets such as predict-on and
495 the various functions in the Widget directory of the distribu‐
496 tion to the name of that function, often in an abbreviated form.
497 · The completer currently active, the name of the function without
500 the leading underscore and with other underscores converted to
501 hyphens. A `completer' is in overall control of how completion
502 is to be performed; `complete' is the simplest, but other com‐
503 pleters exist to perform related tasks such as correction, or to
504 modify the behaviour of a later completer. See the section
505 `Control Functions' below for more information.
506 · The command or a special -context-, just at it appears following
509 the #compdef tag or the compdef function. Completion functions
510 for commands that have sub-commands usually modify this field to
511 contain the name of the command followed by a minus sign and the
512 sub-command. For example, the completion function for the cvs
513 command sets this field to cvs-add when completing arguments to
514 the add subcommand.
515 · The argument; this indicates which command line or option argu‐
518 ment we are completing. For command arguments this generally
519 takes the form argument-n, where n is the number of the argu‐
520 ment, and for arguments to options the form option-opt-n where n
521 is the number of the argument to option opt. However, this is
522 only the case if the command line is parsed with standard
523 UNIX-style options and arguments, so many completions do not set
524 this.
525 · The tag. As described previously, tags are used to discriminate
528 between the types of matches a completion function can generate
529 in a certain context. Any completion function may use any tag
530 name it likes, but a list of the more common ones is given
531 below.
532 The context is gradually put together as the functions are executed,
535 starting with the main entry point, which adds :completion: and the
536 function element if necessary. The completer then adds the completer
537 element. The contextual completion adds the command and argument
538 options. Finally, the tag is added when the types of completion are
539 known. For example, the context name
540 :completion::complete:dvips:option-o-1:files
542 says that normal completion was attempted as the first argument to the
544 option -o of the command dvips:
545 dvips -o ...
547 and the completion function will generate filenames.
549 Usually completion will be tried for all possible tags in an order
551 given by the completion function. However, this can be altered by
552 using the tag-order style. Completion is then restricted to the list
553 of given tags in the given order.
554 The _complete_help bindable command shows all the contexts and tags
556 available for completion at a particular point. This provides an easy
557 way of finding information for tag-order and other styles. It is
558 described in the section `Bindable Commands' below.
559 Styles determine such things as how the matches are generated, simi‐
561 larly to shell options but with much more control. They can have any
562 number of strings as their value. They are defined with the zstyle
563 builtin command (see zshmodules(1)).
564 When looking up styles the completion system uses full context names,
566 including the tag. Looking up the value of a style therefore consists
567 of two things: the context, which may be matched as a pattern, and the
568 name of the style itself, which must be given exactly.
569 For example, many completion functions can generate matches in a simple
571 and a verbose form and use the verbose style to decide which form
572 should be used. To make all such functions use the verbose form, put
573 zstyle ':completion:*' verbose yes
575 in a startup file (probably .zshrc). This gives the verbose style the
577 value yes in every context inside the completion system, unless that
578 context has a more specific definition. It is best to avoid giving the
579 context as `*' in case the style has some meaning outside the comple‐
580 tion system.
581 Many such general purpose styles can be configured simply by using the
583 compinstall function.
584 A more specific example of the use of the verbose style is by the com‐
586 pletion for the kill builtin. If the style is set, the builtin lists
587 full job texts and process command lines; otherwise it shows the bare
588 job numbers and PIDs. To turn the style off for this use only:
589 zstyle ':completion:*:*:kill:*' verbose no
591 For even more control, the style can use one of the tags `jobs' or
593 `processes'. To turn off verbose display only for jobs:
594 zstyle ':completion:*:*:kill:*:jobs' verbose no
596 The -e option to zstyle even allows completion function code to appear
598 as the argument to a style; this requires some understanding of the
599 internals of completion functions (see see zshcompwid(1))). For exam‐
600 ple,
601 zstyle -e ':completion:*' hosts 'reply=($myhosts)'
603 This forces the value of the hosts style to be read from the variable
605 myhosts each time a host name is needed; this is useful if the value of
606 myhosts can change dynamically. For another useful example, see the
607 example in the description of the file-list style below. This form can
608 be slow and should be avoided for commonly examined styles such as menu
609 and list-rows-first.
610 Note that the order in which styles are defined does not matter; the
612 style mechanism uses the most specific possible match for a particular
613 style to determine the set of values. More precisely, strings are pre‐
614 ferred over patterns (for example, `:completion::complete:foo' is more
615 specific than `:completion::complete:*'), and longer patterns are pre‐
616 ferred over shorter patterns.
617 Style names like those of tags are arbitrary and depend on the comple‐
619 tion function. However, the following two sections list some of the
620 most common tags and styles.
621 Standard Tags
623 Some of the following are only used when looking up particular styles
624 and do not refer to a type of match.
625 accounts
627 used to look up the users-hosts style
628 all-expansions
630 used by the _expand completer when adding the single string con‐
631 taining all possible expansions
632 all-files
634 for the names of all files (as distinct from a particular sub‐
635 set, see the globbed-files tag).
636 arguments
638 for arguments to a command
639 arrays for names of array parameters
641 association-keys
643 for keys of associative arrays; used when completing inside a
644 subscript to a parameter of this type
645 bookmarks
647 when completing bookmarks (e.g. for URLs and the zftp function
648 suite)
649 builtins
651 for names of builtin commands
652 characters
654 for single characters in arguments of commands such as stty.
655 Also used when completing character classes after an opening
656 bracket
657 colormapids
659 for X colormap ids
660 colors for color names
662 commands
664 for names of external commands. Also used by complex commands
665 such as cvs when completing names subcommands.
666 contexts
668 for contexts in arguments to the zstyle builtin command
669 corrections
671 used by the _approximate and _correct completers for possible
672 corrections
673 cursors
675 for cursor names used by X programs
676 default
678 used in some contexts to provide a way of supplying a default
679 when more specific tags are also valid. Note that this tag is
680 used when only the function field of the context name is set
681 descriptions
683 used when looking up the value of the format style to generate
684 descriptions for types of matches
685 devices
687 for names of device special files
688 directories
690 for names of directories
691 directory-stack
693 for entries in the directory stack
694 displays
696 for X display names
697 domains
699 for network domains
700 expansions
702 used by the _expand completer for individual words (as opposed
703 to the complete set of expansions) resulting from the expansion
704 of a word on the command line
705 extensions
707 for X server extensions
708 file-descriptors
710 for numbers of open file descriptors
711 files the generic file-matching tag used by functions completing file‐
713 names
714 fonts for X font names
716 fstypes
718 for file system types (e.g. for the mount command)
719 functions
721 names of functions -- normally shell functions, although certain
722 commands may understand other kinds of function
723 globbed-files
725 for filenames when the name has been generated by pattern match‐
726 ing
727 groups for names of user groups
729 history-words
731 for words from the history
732 hosts for hostnames
734 indexes
736 for array indexes
737 jobs for jobs (as listed by the `jobs' builtin)
739 interfaces
741 for network interfaces
742 keymaps
744 for names of zsh keymaps
745 keysyms
747 for names of X keysyms
748 libraries
750 for names of system libraries
751 limits for system limits
753 local-directories
755 for names of directories that are subdirectories of the current
756 working directory when completing arguments of cd and related
757 builtin commands (compare path-directories)
758 manuals
760 for names of manual pages
761 mailboxes
763 for e-mail folders
764 maps for map names (e.g. NIS maps)
766 messages
768 used to look up the format style for messages
769 modifiers
771 for names of X modifiers
772 modules
774 for modules (e.g. zsh modules)
775 my-accounts
777 used to look up the users-hosts style
778 named-directories
780 for named directories (you wouldn't have guessed that, would
781 you?)
782 names for all kinds of names
784 newsgroups
786 for USENET groups
787 nicknames
789 for nicknames of NIS maps
790 options
792 for command options
793 original
795 used by the _approximate, _correct and _expand completers when
796 offering the original string as a match
797 other-accounts
799 used to look up the users-hosts style
800 other-files
802 for the names of any non-directory files. This is used instead
803 of all-files when the list-dirs-first style is in effect.
804 packages
806 for packages (e.g. rpm or installed Debian packages)
807 parameters
809 for names of parameters
810 path-directories
812 for names of directories found by searching the cdpath array
813 when completing arguments of cd and related builtin commands
814 (compare local-directories)
815 paths used to look up the values of the expand, ambiguous and spe‐
817 cial-dirs styles
818 pods for perl pods (documentation files)
820 ports for communication ports
822 prefixes
824 for prefixes (like those of a URL)
825 printers
827 for print queue names
828 processes
830 for process identifiers
831 processes-names
833 used to look up the command style when generating the names of
834 processes for killall
835 sequences
837 for sequences (e.g. mh sequences)
838 sessions
840 for sessions in the zftp function suite
841 signals
843 for signal names
844 strings
846 for strings (e.g. the replacement strings for the cd builtin
847 command)
848 styles for styles used by the zstyle builtin command
850 suffixes
852 for filename extensions
853 tags for tags (e.g. rpm tags)
855 targets
857 for makefile targets
858 time-zones
860 for time zones (e.g. when setting the TZ parameter)
861 types for types of whatever (e.g. address types for the xhost command)
863 urls used to look up the urls and local styles when completing URLs
865 users for usernames
867 values for one of a set of values in certain lists
869 variant
871 used by _pick_variant to look up the command to run when deter‐
872 mining what program is installed for a particular command name.
873 visuals
875 for X visuals
876 warnings
878 used to look up the format style for warnings
879 widgets
881 for zsh widget names
882 windows
884 for IDs of X windows
885 zsh-options
887 for shell options
888 Standard Styles
890 Note that the values of several of these styles represent boolean val‐
891 ues. Any of the strings `true', `on', `yes', and `1' can be used for
892 the value `true' and any of the strings `false', `off', `no', and `0'
893 for the value `false'. The behavior for any other value is undefined
894 except where explicitly mentioned. The default value may be either
895 true or false if the style is not set.
896 Some of these styles are tested first for every possible tag corre‐
898 sponding to a type of match, and if no style was found, for the default
899 tag. The most notable styles of this type are menu, list-colors and
900 styles controlling completion listing such as list-packed and
901 last-prompt). When tested for the default tag, only the function field
902 of the context will be set so that a style using the default tag will
903 normally be defined along the lines of:
904 zstyle ':completion:*:default' menu ...
906 accept-exact
908 This is tested for the default tag in addition to the tags valid
909 for the current context. If it is set to `true' and any of the
910 trial matches is the same as the string on the command line,
911 this match will immediately be accepted (even if it would other‐
912 wise be considered ambiguous).
913 When completing pathnames (where the tag used is `paths') this
915 style accepts any number of patterns as the value in addition to
916 the boolean values. Pathnames matching one of these patterns
917 will be accepted immediately even if the command line contains
918 some more partially typed pathname components and these match no
919 file under the directory accepted.
920 This style is also used by the _expand completer to decide if
922 words beginning with a tilde or parameter expansion should be
923 expanded. For example, if there are parameters foo and foobar,
924 the string `$foo' will only be expanded if accept-exact is set
925 to `true'; otherwise the completion system will be allowed to
926 complete $foo to $foobar. If the style is set to `continue',
927 _expand will add the expansion as a match and the completion
928 system will also be allowed to continue.
929 accept-exact-dirs
931 This is used by filename completion. Unlike accept-exact it is
932 a boolean. By default, filename completion examines all compo‐
933 nents of a path to see if there are completions of that compo‐
934 nent, even if the component matches an existing directory. For
935 example, when completion after /usr/bin/, the function examines
936 possible completions to /usr.
937 When this style is true, any prefix of a path that matches an
939 existing directory is accepted without any attempt to complete
940 it further. Hence, in the given example, the path /usr/bin/ is
941 accepted immediately and completion tried in that directory.
942 add-space
944 This style is used by the _expand completer. If it is true (the
945 default), a space will be inserted after all words resulting
946 from the expansion, or a slash in the case of directory names.
947 If the value is `file', the completer will only add a space to
948 names of existing files. Either a boolean true or the value
949 `file' may be combined with `subst', in which case the completer
950 will not add a space to words generated from the expansion of a
951 substitution of the form `$(...)' or `${...}'.
952 The _prefix completer uses this style as a simple boolean value
954 to decide if a space should be inserted before the suffix.
955 ambiguous
957 This applies when completing non-final components of filename
958 paths, in other words those with a trailing slash. If it is
959 set, the cursor is left after the first ambiguous component,
960 even if menu completion is in use. The style is always tested
961 with the paths tag.
962 assign-list
964 When completing after an equals sign that is being treated as an
965 assignment, the completion system normally completes only one
966 filename. In some cases the value may be a list of filenames
967 separated by colons, as with PATH and similar parameters. This
968 style can be set to a list of patterns matching the names of
969 such parameters.
970 The default is to complete lists when the word on the line
972 already contains a colon.
973 auto-description
975 If set, this style's value will be used as the description for
976 options that are not described by the completion functions, but
977 that have exactly one argument. The sequence `%d' in the value
978 will be replaced by the description for this argument. Depend‐
979 ing on personal preferences, it may be useful to set this style
980 to something like `specify: %d'. Note that this may not work
981 for some commands.
982 avoid-completer
984 This is used by the _all_matches completer to decide if the
985 string consisting of all matches should be added to the list
986 currently being generated. Its value is a list of names of com‐
987 pleters. If any of these is the name of the completer that gen‐
988 erated the matches in this completion, the string will not be
989 added.
990 The default value for this style is `_expand _old_list _correct
992 _approximate', i.e. it contains the completers for which a
993 string with all matches will almost never be wanted.
994 cache-path
996 This style defines the path where any cache files containing
997 dumped completion data are stored. It defaults to `$ZDOT‐
998 DIR/.zcompcache', or `$HOME/.zcompcache' if $ZDOTDIR is not
999 defined. The completion cache will not be used unless the
1000 use-cache style is set.
1001 cache-policy
1003 This style defines the function that will be used to determine
1004 whether a cache needs rebuilding. See the section on the
1005 _cache_invalid function below.
1006 call-command
1008 This style is used in the function for commands such as make and
1009 ant where calling the command directly to generate matches suf‐
1010 fers problems such as being slow or, as in the case of make can
1011 potentially causes actions in the makefile to be executed. If it
1012 is set to `true' the command is called to generate matches. The
1013 default value of this style is `false'.
1014 command
1016 In many places, completion functions need to call external com‐
1017 mands to generate the list of completions. This style can be
1018 used to override the command that is called in some such cases.
1019 The elements of the value are joined with spaces to form a com‐
1020 mand line to execute. The value can also start with a hyphen,
1021 in which case the usual command will be added to the end; this
1022 is most useful for putting `builtin' or `command' in front to
1023 make sure the appropriate version of a command is called, for
1024 example to avoid calling a shell function with the same name as
1025 an external command.
1026 As an example, the completion function for process IDs uses this
1028 style with the processes tag to generate the IDs to complete and
1029 the list of processes to display (if the verbose style is
1030 `true'). The list produced by the command should look like the
1031 output of the ps command. The first line is not displayed, but
1032 is searched for the string `PID' (or `pid') to find the position
1033 of the process IDs in the following lines. If the line does not
1034 contain `PID', the first numbers in each of the other lines are
1035 taken as the process IDs to complete.
1036 Note that the completion function generally has to call the
1038 specified command for each attempt to generate the completion
1039 list. Hence care should be taken to specify only commands that
1040 take a short time to run, and in particular to avoid any that
1041 may never terminate.
1042 command-path
1044 This is a list of directories to search for commands to com‐
1045 plete. The default for this style is the value of the special
1046 parameter path.
1047 commands
1049 This is used by the function completing sub-commands for the
1050 system initialisation scripts (residing in /etc/init.d or some‐
1051 where not too far away from that). Its values give the default
1052 commands to complete for those commands for which the completion
1053 function isn't able to find them out automatically. The default
1054 for this style are the two strings `start' and `stop'.
1055 complete
1057 This is used by the _expand_alias function when invoked as a
1058 bindable command. If it set to `true' and the word on the com‐
1059 mand line is not the name of an alias, matching alias names will
1060 be completed.
1061 complete-options
1063 This is used by the completer for cd, chdir and pushd. For
1064 these commands a - is used to introduce a directory stack entry
1065 and completion of these is far more common than completing
1066 options. Hence unless the value of this style is true options
1067 will not be completed, even after an initial -. If it is true,
1068 options will be completed after an initial - unless there is a
1069 preceding -- on the command line.
1070 completer
1072 The strings given as the value of this style provide the names
1073 of the completer functions to use. The available completer func‐
1074 tions are described in the section `Control Functions' below.
1075 Each string may be either the name of a completer function or a
1077 string of the form `function:name'. In the first case the com‐
1078 pleter field of the context will contain the name of the com‐
1079 pleter without the leading underscore and with all other under‐
1080 scores replaced by hyphens. In the second case the function is
1081 the name of the completer to call, but the context will contain
1082 the user-defined name in the completer field of the context. If
1083 the name starts with a hyphen, the string for the context will
1084 be build from the name of the completer function as in the first
1085 case with the name appended to it. For example:
1086 zstyle ':completion:*' completer _complete _complete:-foo
1088 Here, completion will call the _complete completer twice, once
1090 using `complete' and once using `complete-foo' in the completer
1091 field of the context. Normally, using the same completer more
1092 than once only makes sense when used with the `functions:name'
1093 form, because otherwise the context name will be the same in all
1094 calls to the completer; possible exceptions to this rule are the
1095 _ignored and _prefix completers.
1096 The default value for this style is `_complete _ignored': only
1098 completion will be done, first using the ignored-patterns style
1099 and the $fignore array and then without ignoring matches.
1100 condition
1102 This style is used by the _list completer function to decide if
1103 insertion of matches should be delayed unconditionally. The
1104 default is `true'.
1105 delimiters
1107 This style is used when adding a delimiter for use with history
1108 modifiers or glob qualifiers that have delimited arguments. It
1109 is an array of preferred delimiters to add. Non-special charac‐
1110 ters are preferred as the completion system may otherwise become
1111 confused. The default list is :, +, /, -, %. The list may be
1112 empty to force a delimiter to be typed.
1113 disabled
1115 If this is set to `true', the _expand_alias completer and bind‐
1116 able command will try to expand disabled aliases, too. The
1117 default is `false'.
1118 domains
1120 A list of names of network domains for completion. If this is
1121 not set, domain names will be taken from the file
1122 /etc/resolv.conf.
1123 environ
1125 The environ style is used when completing for `sudo'. It is set
1126 to an array of `VAR=value' assignments to be exported into the
1127 local environment before the completion for the target command
1128 is invoked.
1129 zstyle :complete:sudo: environ \
1130 PATH="/sbin:/usr/sbin:$PATH" HOME="/root"
1131 expand This style is used when completing strings consisting of multi‐
1133 ple parts, such as path names.
1134 If one of its values is the string `prefix', the partially typed
1136 word from the line will be expanded as far as possible even if
1137 trailing parts cannot be completed.
1138 If one of its values is the string `suffix', matching names for
1140 components after the first ambiguous one will also be added.
1141 This means that the resulting string is the longest unambiguous
1142 string possible. However, menu completion can be used to cycle
1143 through all matches.
1144 fake This style may be set for any completion context. It specifies
1146 additional strings that will always be completed in that con‐
1147 text. The form of each string is `value:description'; the colon
1148 and description may be omitted, but any literal colons in value
1149 must be quoted with a backslash. Any description provided is
1150 shown alongside the value in completion listings.
1151 It is important to use a sufficiently restrictive context when
1153 specifying fake strings. Note that the styles fake-files and
1154 fake-parameters provide additional features when completing
1155 files or parameters.
1156 fake-always
1158 This works identically to the fake style except that the
1159 ignored-patterns style is not applied to it. This makes it pos‐
1160 sible to override a set of matches completely by setting the
1161 ignored patterns to `*'.
1162 The following shows a way of supplementing any tag with arbi‐
1164 trary data, but having it behave for display purposes like a
1165 separate tag. In this example we use the features of the
1166 tag-order style to divide the named-directories tag into two
1167 when performing completion with the standard completer complete
1168 for arguments of cd. The tag named-directories-normal behaves
1169 as normal, but the tag named-directories-mine contains a fixed
1170 set of directories. This has the effect of adding the match
1171 group `extra directories' with the given completions.
1172 zstyle ':completion::complete:cd:*' tag-order \
1174 'named-directories:-mine:extra\ directories
1175 named-directories:-normal:named\ directories *'
1176 zstyle ':completion::complete:cd:*:named-directories-mine' \
1177 fake-always mydir1 mydir2
1178 zstyle ':completion::complete:cd:*:named-directories-mine' \
1179 ignored-patterns '*'
1180 fake-files
1182 This style is used when completing files and looked up without a
1183 tag. Its values are of the form `dir:names...'. This will add
1184 the names (strings separated by spaces) as possible matches when
1185 completing in the directory dir, even if no such files really
1186 exist. The dir may be a pattern; pattern characters or colons
1187 in dir should be quote with a backslash to be treated literally.
1188 This can be useful on systems that support special filesystems
1190 whose top-level pathnames can not be listed or generated with
1191 glob patterns. It can also be used for directories for which
1192 one does not have read permission.
1193 The pattern form can be used to add a certain `magic' entry to
1195 all directories on a particular filing system.
1196 fake-parameters
1198 This is used by the completion function for parameter names.
1199 Its values are names of parameters that might not yet be set but
1200 should be completed nonetheless. Each name may also be followed
1201 by a colon and a string specifying the type of the parameter
1202 (like `scalar', `array' or `integer'). If the type is given,
1203 the name will only be completed if parameters of that type are
1204 required in the particular context. Names for which no type is
1205 specified will always be completed.
1206 file-list
1208 This style controls whether files completed using the standard
1209 builtin mechanism are to be listed with a long list similar to
1210 ls -l. Note that this feature uses the shell module zsh/stat
1211 for file information; this loads the builtin stat which will
1212 replace any external stat executable. To avoid this the follow‐
1213 ing code can be included in an initialization file:
1214 zmodload -i zsh/stat
1216 disable stat
1217 The style may either be set to a true value (or `all'), or one
1219 of the values `insert' or `list', indicating that files are to
1220 be listed in long format in all circumstances, or when attempt‐
1221 ing to insert a file name, or when listing file names without
1222 attempting to insert one.
1223 More generally, the value may be an array of any of the above
1225 values, optionally followed by =num. If num is present it gives
1226 the maximum number of matches for which long listing style will
1227 be used. For example,
1228 zstyle ':completion:*' file-list list=20 insert=10
1230 specifies that long format will be used when listing up to 20
1232 files or inserting a file with up to 10 matches (assuming a
1233 listing is to be shown at all, for example on an ambiguous com‐
1234 pletion), else short format will be used.
1235 zstyle -e ':completion:*' file-list '(( ${+NUMERIC} )) && reply=(true)'
1237 specifies that long format will be used any time a numeric argu‐
1239 ment is supplied, else short format.
1240 file-patterns
1242 This is used by the standard function for completing filenames,
1243 _files. If the style is unset up to three tags are offered,
1244 `globbed-files',`directories' and `all-files', depending on the
1245 types of files expected by the caller of _files. The first two
1246 (`globbed-files' and `directories') are normally offered
1247 together to make it easier to complete files in sub-directories.
1248 The file-patterns style provides alternatives to the default
1250 tags, which are not used. Its value consists of elements of the
1251 form `pattern:tag'; each string may contain any number of such
1252 specifications separated by spaces.
1253 The pattern is a pattern that is to be used to generate file‐
1255 names. Any occurrence of the sequence `%p' is replaced by any
1256 pattern(s) passed by the function calling _files. Colons in the
1257 pattern must be preceded by a backslash to make them distin‐
1258 guishable from the colon before the tag. If more than one pat‐
1259 tern is needed, the patterns can be given inside braces, sepa‐
1260 rated by commas.
1261 The tags of all strings in the value will be offered by _files
1263 and used when looking up other styles. Any tags in the same
1264 word will be offered at the same time and before later words.
1265 If no `:tag' is given the `files' tag will be used.
1266 The tag may also be followed by an optional second colon and a
1268 description, which will be used for the `%d' in the value of the
1269 format style (if that is set) instead of the default description
1270 supplied by the completion function. If the description given
1271 here contains itself a `%d', that is replaced with the descrip‐
1272 tion supplied by the completion function.
1273 For example, to make the rm command first complete only names of
1275 object files and then the names of all files if there is no
1276 matching object file:
1277 zstyle ':completion:*:*:rm:*' file-patterns \
1279 '*.o:object-files' '%p:all-files'
1280 To alter the default behaviour of file completion -- offer files
1282 matching a pattern and directories on the first attempt, then
1283 all files -- to offer only matching files on the first attempt,
1284 then directories, and finally all files:
1285 zstyle ':completion:*' file-patterns \
1287 '%p:globbed-files' '*(-/):directories' '*:all-files'
1288 This works even where there is no special pattern: _files
1290 matches all files using the pattern `*' at the first step and
1291 stops when it sees this pattern. Note also it will never try a
1292 pattern more than once for a single completion attempt.
1293 During the execution of completion functions, the EXTENDED_GLOB
1295 option is in effect, so the characters `#', `~' and `^' have
1296 special meanings in the patterns.
1297 file-sort
1299 The standard filename completion function uses this style with‐
1300 out a tag to determine in which order the names should be
1301 listed; menu completion will cycle through them in the same
1302 order. The possible values are: `size' to sort by the size of
1303 the file; `links' to sort by the number of links to the file;
1304 `modification' (or `time' or `date') to sort by the last modifi‐
1305 cation time; `access' to sort by the last access time; and
1306 `inode' (or `change') to sort by the last inode change time. If
1307 the style is set to any other value, or is unset, files will be
1308 sorted alphabetically by name. If the value contains the string
1309 `reverse', sorting is done in the opposite order. If the value
1310 contains the string `follow', timestamps are associated with the
1311 targets of symbolic links; the default is to use the timestamps
1312 of the links themselves.
1313 filter This is used by the LDAP plugin for e-mail address completion to
1315 specify the attributes to match against when filtering entries.
1316 So for example, if the style is set to `sn', matching is done
1317 against surnames. Standard LDAP filtering is used so normal
1318 completion matching is bypassed. If this style is not set, the
1319 LDAP plugin is skipped. You may also need to set the command
1320 style to specify how to connect to your LDAP server.
1321 force-list
1323 This forces a list of completions to be shown at any point where
1324 listing is done, even in cases where the list would usually be
1325 suppressed. For example, normally the list is only shown if
1326 there are at least two different matches. By setting this style
1327 to `always', the list will always be shown, even if there is
1328 only a single match that will immediately be accepted. The
1329 style may also be set to a number. In this case the list will
1330 be shown if there are at least that many matches, even if they
1331 would all insert the same string.
1332 This style is tested for the default tag as well as for each tag
1334 valid for the current completion. Hence the listing can be
1335 forced only for certain types of match.
1336 format If this is set for the descriptions tag, its value is used as a
1338 string to display above matches in completion lists. The
1339 sequence `%d' in this string will be replaced with a short
1340 description of what these matches are. This string may also
1341 contain the following sequences to specify output attributes, as
1342 described in the section EXPANSION OF PROMPT SEQUENCES in zsh‐
1343 misc(1): `%B', `%S', `%U', `%F', `%K' and their lower case coun‐
1344 terparts, as well as `%{...%}'. `%F', `%K' and `%{...%}' take
1345 arguments in the same form as prompt expansion. Note that the
1346 %G sequence is not available; an argument to `%{' should be used
1347 instead.
1348 The style is tested with each tag valid for the current comple‐
1350 tion before it is tested for the descriptions tag. Hence dif‐
1351 ferent format strings can be defined for different types of
1352 match.
1353 Note also that some completer functions define additional
1355 `%'-sequences. These are described for the completer functions
1356 that make use of them.
1357 Some completion functions display messages that may be cus‐
1359 tomised by setting this style for the messages tag. Here, the
1360 `%d' is replaced with a message given by the completion func‐
1361 tion.
1362 Finally, the format string is looked up with the warnings tag,
1364 for use when no matches could be generated at all. In this case
1365 the `%d' is replaced with the descriptions for the matches that
1366 were expected separated by spaces. The sequence `%D' is
1367 replaced with the same descriptions separated by newlines.
1368 It is possible to use printf-style field width specifiers with
1370 `%d' and similar escape sequences. This is handled by the zfor‐
1371 mat builtin command from the zsh/zutil module, see zshmod‐
1372 ules(1).
1373 glob This is used by the _expand completer. If it is set to `true'
1375 (the default), globbing will be attempted on the words resulting
1376 from a previous substitution (see the substitute style) or else
1377 the original string from the line.
1378 global If this is set to `true' (the default), the _expand_alias com‐
1380 pleter and bindable command will try to expand global aliases.
1381 group-name
1383 The completion system can group different types of matches,
1384 which appear in separate lists. This style can be used to give
1385 the names of groups for particular tags. For example, in com‐
1386 mand position the completion system generates names of builtin
1387 and external commands, names of aliases, shell functions and
1388 parameters and reserved words as possible completions. To have
1389 the external commands and shell functions listed separately:
1390 zstyle ':completion:*:*:-command-:*:commands' group-name commands
1392 zstyle ':completion:*:*:-command-:*:functions' group-name functions
1393 As a consequence, any match with the same tag will be displayed
1395 in the same group.
1396 If the name given is the empty string the name of the tag for
1398 the matches will be used as the name of the group. So, to have
1399 all different types of matches displayed separately, one can
1400 just set:
1401 zstyle ':completion:*' group-name ''
1403 All matches for which no group name is defined will be put in a
1405 group named -default-.
1406 group-order
1408 This style is additional to the group-name style to specify the
1409 order for display of the groups defined by that style (compare
1410 tag-order, which determines which completions appear at all).
1411 The groups named are shown in the given order; any other groups
1412 are shown in the order defined by the completion function.
1413 For example, to have names of builtin commands, shell functions
1415 and external commands appear in that order when completing in
1416 command position:
1417 zstyle ':completion:*:*:-command-:*' group-order \
1419 builtins functions commands
1420 groups A list of names of UNIX groups. If this is not set, group names
1422 are taken from the YP database or the file `/etc/group'.
1423 hidden If this is set to true, matches for the given context will not
1425 be listed, although any description for the matches set with the
1426 format style will be shown. If it is set to `all', not even the
1427 description will be displayed.
1428 Note that the matches will still be completed; they are just not
1430 shown in the list. To avoid having matches considered as possi‐
1431 ble completions at all, the tag-order style can be modified as
1432 described below.
1433 hosts A list of names of hosts that should be completed. If this is
1435 not set, hostnames are taken from the file `/etc/hosts'.
1436 hosts-ports
1438 This style is used by commands that need or accept hostnames and
1439 network ports. The strings in the value should be of the form
1440 `host:port'. Valid ports are determined by the presence of
1441 hostnames; multiple ports for the same host may appear.
1442 ignore-line
1444 This is tested for each tag valid for the current completion.
1445 If it is set to `true', none of the words that are already on
1446 the line will be considered as possible completions. If it is
1447 set to `current', the word the cursor is on will not be consid‐
1448 ered as a possible completion. The value `current-shown' is
1449 similar but only applies if the list of completions is currently
1450 shown on the screen. Finally, if the style is set to `other',
1451 no word apart from the current one will be considered as a pos‐
1452 sible completion.
1453 The values `current' and `current-shown' are a bit like the
1455 opposite of the accept-exact style: only strings with missing
1456 characters will be completed.
1457 Note that you almost certainly don't want to set this to `true'
1459 or `other' for a general context such as `:completion:*'. This
1460 is because it would disallow completion of, for example, options
1461 multiple times even if the command in question accepts the
1462 option more than once.
1463 ignore-parents
1465 The style is tested without a tag by the function completing
1466 pathnames in order to determine whether to ignore the names of
1467 directories already mentioned in the current word, or the name
1468 of the current working directory. The value must include one or
1469 both of the following strings:
1470 parent The name of any directory whose path is already contained
1472 in the word on the line is ignored. For example, when
1473 completing after foo/../, the directory foo will not be
1474 considered a valid completion.
1475 pwd The name of the current working directory will not be
1477 completed; hence, for example, completion after ../ will
1478 not use the name of the current directory.
1479 In addition, the value may include one or both of:
1481 .. Ignore the specified directories only when the word on
1483 the line contains the substring `../'.
1484 directory
1486 Ignore the specified directories only when names of
1487 directories are completed, not when completing names of
1488 files.
1489 Excluded values act in a similar fashion to values of the
1491 ignored-patterns style, so they can be restored to consideration
1492 by the _ignored completer.
1493 extra-verbose
1495 If set, the completion listing is more verbose at the cost of a
1496 probable decrease in completion speed. Completion performance
1497 will suffer if this style is set to `true'.
1498 ignored-patterns
1500 A list of patterns; any trial completion matching one of the
1501 patterns will be excluded from consideration. The _ignored com‐
1502 pleter can appear in the list of completers to restore the
1503 ignored matches. This is a more configurable version of the
1504 shell parameter $fignore.
1505 Note that the EXTENDED_GLOB option is set during the execution
1507 of completion functions, so the characters `#', `~' and `^' have
1508 special meanings in the patterns.
1509 insert This style is used by the _all_matches completer to decide
1511 whether to insert the list of all matches unconditionally
1512 instead of adding the list as another match.
1513 insert-ids
1515 When completing process IDs, for example as arguments to the
1516 kill and wait builtins the name of a command may be converted to
1517 the appropriate process ID. A problem arises when the process
1518 name typed is not unique. By default (or if this style is set
1519 explicitly to `menu') the name will be converted immediately to
1520 a set of possible IDs, and menu completion will be started to
1521 cycle through them.
1522 If the value of the style is `single', the shell will wait until
1524 the user has typed enough to make the command unique before con‐
1525 verting the name to an ID; attempts at completion will be unsuc‐
1526 cessful until that point. If the value is any other string,
1527 menu completion will be started when the string typed by the
1528 user is longer than the common prefix to the corresponding IDs.
1529 insert-tab
1531 If this is set to `true', the completion system will insert a
1532 TAB character (assuming that was used to start completion)
1533 instead of performing completion when there is no non-blank
1534 character to the left of the cursor. If it is set to `false',
1535 completion will be done even there.
1536 The value may also contain the substrings `pending' or `pend‐
1538 ing=val'. In this case, the typed character will be inserted
1539 instead of staring completion when there is unprocessed input
1540 pending. If a val is given, completion will not be done if
1541 there are at least that many characters of unprocessed input.
1542 This is often useful when pasting characters into a terminal.
1543 Note however, that it relies on the $PENDING special parameter
1544 from the zsh/zle module being set properly which is not guaran‐
1545 teed on all platforms.
1546 The default value of this style is `true' except for completion
1548 within vared builtin command where it is `false'.
1549 insert-unambiguous
1551 This is used by the _match and _approximate completers. These
1552 completers are often used with menu completion since the word
1553 typed may bear little resemblance to the final completion. How‐
1554 ever, if this style is `true', the completer will start menu
1555 completion only if it could find no unambiguous initial string
1556 at least as long as the original string typed by the user.
1557 In the case of the _approximate completer, the completer field
1559 in the context will already have been set to one of correct-num
1560 or approximate-num, where num is the number of errors that were
1561 accepted.
1562 In the case of the _match completer, the style may also be set
1564 to the string `pattern'. Then the pattern on the line is left
1565 unchanged if it does not match unambiguously.
1566 keep-prefix
1568 This style is used by the _expand completer. If it is `true',
1569 the completer will try to keep a prefix containing a tilde or
1570 parameter expansion. Hence, for example, the string `~/f*'
1571 would be expanded to `~/foo' instead of `/home/user/foo'. If
1572 the style is set to `changed' (the default), the prefix will
1573 only be left unchanged if there were other changes between the
1574 expanded words and the original word from the command line. Any
1575 other value forces the prefix to be expanded unconditionally.
1576 The behaviour of expand when this style is true is to cause
1578 _expand to give up when a single expansion with the restored
1579 prefix is the same as the original; hence any remaining com‐
1580 pleters may be called.
1581 last-prompt
1583 This is a more flexible form of the ALWAYS_LAST_PROMPT option.
1584 If it is true, the completion system will try to return the cur‐
1585 sor to the previous command line after displaying a completion
1586 list. It is tested for all tags valid for the current comple‐
1587 tion, then the default tag. The cursor will be moved back to
1588 the previous line if this style is `true' for all types of
1589 match. Note that unlike the ALWAYS_LAST_PROMPT option this is
1590 independent of the numeric prefix argument.
1591 known-hosts-files
1593 This style should contain a list of files to search for host
1594 names and (if the use-ip style is set) IP addresses in a format
1595 compatible with ssh known_hosts files. If it is not set, the
1596 files /etc/ssh/ssh_known_hosts and ~/.ssh/known_hosts are used.
1597 list This style is used by the _history_complete_word bindable com‐
1599 mand. If it is set to `true' it has no effect. If it is set to
1600 `false' matches will not be listed. This overrides the setting
1601 of the options controlling listing behaviour, in particular
1602 AUTO_LIST. The context always starts with `:completion:his‐
1603 tory-words'.
1604 list-colors
1606 If the zsh/complist module is loaded, this style can be used to
1607 set color specifications. This mechanism replaces the use of
1608 the ZLS_COLORS and ZLS_COLOURS parameters described in the sec‐
1609 tion `The zsh/complist Module' in zshmodules(1), but the syntax
1610 is the same.
1611 If this style is set for the default tag, the strings in the
1613 value are taken as specifications that are to be used every‐
1614 where. If it is set for other tags, the specifications are used
1615 only for matches of the type described by the tag. For this to
1616 work best, the group-name style must be set to an empty string.
1617 In addition to setting styles for specific tags, it is also pos‐
1619 sible to use group names specified explicitly by the group-name
1620 tag together with the `(group)' syntax allowed by the ZLS_COLORS
1621 and ZLS_COLOURS parameters and simply using the default tag.
1622 It is possible to use any color specifications already set up
1624 for the GNU version of the ls command:
1625 zstyle ':completion:*:default' list-colors ${(s.:.)LS_COLORS}
1627 The default colors are the same as for the GNU ls command and
1629 can be obtained by setting the style to an empty string (i.e.
1630 '').
1631 list-dirs-first
1633 This is used by file completion. If set, directories to be com‐
1634 pleted are listed separately from and before completion for
1635 other files, regardless of tag ordering. In addition, the tag
1636 other-files is used in place of all-files for the remaining
1637 files, to indicate that no directories are presented with that
1638 tag.
1639 list-grouped
1641 If this style is `true' (the default), the completion system
1642 will try to make certain completion listings more compact by
1643 grouping matches. For example, options for commands that have
1644 the same description (shown when the verbose style is set to
1645 `true') will appear as a single entry. However, menu selection
1646 can be used to cycle through all the matches.
1647 list-packed
1649 This is tested for each tag valid in the current context as well
1650 as the default tag. If it is set to `true', the corresponding
1651 matches appear in listings as if the LIST_PACKED option were
1652 set. If it is set to `false', they are listed normally.
1653 list-prompt
1655 If this style is set for the default tag, completion lists that
1656 don't fit on the screen can be scrolled (see the description of
1657 the zsh/complist module in zshmodules(1)). The value, if not
1658 the empty string, will be displayed after every screenful and
1659 the shell will prompt for a key press; if the style is set to
1660 the empty string, a default prompt will be used.
1661 The value may contain the escape sequences: `%l' or `%L', which
1663 will be replaced by the number of the last line displayed and
1664 the total number of lines; `%m' or `%M', the number of the last
1665 match shown and the total number of matches; and `%p' and `%P',
1666 `Top' when at the beginning of the list, `Bottom' when at the
1667 end and the position shown as a percentage of the total length
1668 otherwise. In each case the form with the uppercase letter will
1669 be replaced by a string of fixed width, padded to the right
1670 with spaces, while the lowercase form will be replaced by a
1671 variable width string. As in other prompt strings, the escape
1672 sequences `%S', `%s', `%B', `%b', `%U', `%u' for entering and
1673 leaving the display modes standout, bold and underline, and
1674 `%F', `%f', `%K', `%k' for changing the foreground background
1675 colour, are also available, as is the form `%{...%}' for enclos‐
1676 ing escape sequences which display with zero (or, with a numeric
1677 argument, some other) width.
1678 After deleting this prompt the variable LISTPROMPT should be
1680 unset for the the removal to take effect.
1681 list-rows-first
1683 This style is tested in the same way as the list-packed style
1684 and determines whether matches are to be listed in a rows-first
1685 fashion as if the LIST_ROWS_FIRST option were set.
1686 list-suffixes
1688 This style is used by the function that completes filenames. If
1689 it is true, and completion is attempted on a string containing
1690 multiple partially typed pathname components, all ambiguous com‐
1691 ponents will be shown. Otherwise, completion stops at the first
1692 ambiguous component.
1693 list-separator
1695 The value of this style is used in completion listing to sepa‐
1696 rate the string to complete from a description when possible
1697 (e.g. when completing options). It defaults to `--' (two
1698 hyphens).
1699 local This is for use with functions that complete URLs for which the
1701 corresponding files are available directly from the filing sys‐
1702 tem. Its value should consist of three strings: a hostname, the
1703 path to the default web pages for the server, and the directory
1704 name used by a user placing web pages within their home area.
1705 For example:
1707 zstyle ':completion:*' local toast \
1709 /var/http/public/toast public_html
1710 Completion after `http://toast/stuff/' will look for files in
1712 the directory /var/http/public/toast/stuff, while completion
1713 after `http://toast/~yousir/' will look for files in the direc‐
1714 tory ~yousir/public_html.
1715 mail-directory
1717 If set, zsh will assume that mailbox files can be found in the
1718 directory specified. It defaults to `~/Mail'.
1719 match-original
1721 This is used by the _match completer. If it is set to only,
1722 _match will try to generate matches without inserting a `*' at
1723 the cursor position. If set to any other non-empty value, it
1724 will first try to generate matches without inserting the `*' and
1725 if that yields no matches, it will try again with the `*'
1726 inserted. If it is unset or set to the empty string, matching
1727 will only be performed with the `*' inserted.
1728 matcher
1730 This style is tested separately for each tag valid in the cur‐
1731 rent context. Its value is added to any match specifications
1732 given by the matcher-list style. It should be in the form
1733 described in the section `Completion Matching Control' in zsh‐
1734 compwid(1).
1735 matcher-list
1737 This style can be set to a list of match specifications that are
1738 to be applied everywhere. Match specifications are described in
1739 the section `Completion Matching Control' in zshcompwid(1). The
1740 completion system will try them one after another for each com‐
1741 pleter selected. For example, to try first simple completion
1742 and, if that generates no matches, case-insensitive completion:
1743 zstyle ':completion:*' matcher-list '' 'm:{a-zA-Z}={A-Za-z}'
1745 By default each specification replaces the previous one; how‐
1747 ever, if a specification is prefixed with +, it is added to the
1748 existing list. Hence it is possible to create increasingly gen‐
1749 eral specifications without repetition:
1750 zstyle ':completion:*' matcher-list '' '+m{a-Z}={A-Z}' '+m{A-Z}={a-z}'
1752 It is possible to create match specifications valid for particu‐
1754 lar completers by using the third field of the context. For
1755 example, to use the completers _complete and _prefix but only
1756 allow case-insensitive completion with _complete:
1757 zstyle ':completion:*' completer _complete _prefix
1759 zstyle ':completion:*:complete:*' matcher-list \
1760 '' 'm:{a-zA-Z}={A-Za-z}'
1761 User-defined names, as explained for the completer style, are
1763 available. This makes it possible to try the same completer
1764 more than once with different match specifications each time.
1765 For example, to try normal completion without a match specifica‐
1766 tion, then normal completion with case-insensitive matching,
1767 then correction, and finally partial-word completion:
1768 zstyle ':completion:*' completer _complete _correct _complete:foo
1770 zstyle ':completion:*:complete:*' matcher-list \
1771 '' 'm:{a-zA-Z}={A-Za-z}'
1772 zstyle ':completion:*:foo:*' matcher-list \
1773 'm:{a-zA-Z}={A-Za-z} r:|[-_./]=* r:|=*'
1774 If the style is unset in any context no match specification is
1776 applied. Note also that some completers such as _correct and
1777 _approximate do not use the match specifications at all, though
1778 these completers will only ever called once even if the
1779 matcher-list contains more than one element.
1780 Where multiple specifications are useful, note that the entire
1782 completion is done for each element of matcher-list, which can
1783 quickly reduce the shell's performance. As a rough rule of
1784 thumb, one to three strings will give acceptable performance.
1785 On the other hand, putting multiple space-separated values into
1786 the same string does not have an appreciable impact on perfor‐
1787 mance.
1788 If there is no current matcher or it is empty, and the option
1790 NO_CASE_GLOB is in effect, the matching for files is performed
1791 case-insensitively in any case. However, any matcher must
1792 explicitly specify case-insensitive matching if that is
1793 required.
1794 max-errors
1796 This is used by the _approximate and _correct completer func‐
1797 tions to determine the maximum number of errors to allow. The
1798 completer will try to generate completions by first allowing one
1799 error, then two errors, and so on, until either a match or
1800 matches were found or the maximum number of errors given by this
1801 style has been reached.
1802 If the value for this style contains the string `numeric', the
1804 completer function will take any numeric argument as the maximum
1805 number of errors allowed. For example, with
1806 zstyle ':completion:*:approximate:::' max-errors 2 numeric
1808 two errors are allowed if no numeric argument is given, but with
1810 a numeric argument of six (as in `ESC-6 TAB'), up to six errors
1811 are accepted. Hence with a value of `0 numeric', no correcting
1812 completion will be attempted unless a numeric argument is given.
1813 If the value contains the string `not-numeric', the completer
1815 will not try to generate corrected completions when given a
1816 numeric argument, so in this case the number given should be
1817 greater than zero. For example, `2 not-numeric' specifies that
1818 correcting completion with two errors will usually be performed,
1819 but if a numeric argument is given, correcting completion will
1820 not be performed.
1821 The default value for this style is `2 numeric'.
1823 max-matches-width
1825 This style is used to determine the trade off between the width
1826 of the display used for matches and the width used for their
1827 descriptions when the verbose style is in effect. The value
1828 gives the number of display columns to reserve for the matches.
1829 The default is half the width of the screen.
1830 This has the most impact when several matches have the same
1832 description and so will be grouped together. Increasing the
1833 style will allow more matches to be grouped together; decreasing
1834 it will allow more of the description to be visible.
1835 menu If this is true in the context of any of the tags defined for
1837 the current completion menu completion will be used. The value
1838 for a specific tag will take precedence over that for the
1839 `default' tag.
1840 If none of the values found in this way is true but at least one
1842 is set to `auto', the shell behaves as if the AUTO_MENU option
1843 is set.
1844 If one of the values is explicitly set to false, menu completion
1846 will be explicitly turned off, overriding the MENU_COMPLETE
1847 option and other settings.
1848 In the form `yes=num', where `yes' may be any of the true values
1850 (`yes', `true', `on' and `1'), menu completion will be turned on
1851 if there are at least num matches. In the form `yes=long', menu
1852 completion will be turned on if the list does not fit on the
1853 screen. This does not activate menu completion if the widget
1854 normally only lists completions, but menu completion can be
1855 activated in that case with the value `yes=long-list' (Typi‐
1856 cally, the value `select=long-list' described later is more use‐
1857 ful as it provides control over scrolling.)
1858 Similarly, with any of the `false' values (as in `no=10'), menu
1860 completion will not be used if there are num or more matches.
1861 The value of this widget also controls menu selection, as imple‐
1863 mented by the zsh/complist module. The following values may
1864 appear either alongside or instead of the values above.
1865 If the value contains the string `select', menu selection will
1867 be started unconditionally.
1868 In the form `select=num', menu selection will only be started if
1870 there are at least num matches. If the values for more than one
1871 tag provide a number, the smallest number is taken.
1872 Menu selection can be turned off explicitly by defining a value
1874 containing the string`no-select'.
1875 It is also possible to start menu selection only if the list of
1877 matches does not fit on the screen by using the value
1878 `select=long'. To start menu selection even if the current wid‐
1879 get only performs listing, use the value `select=long-list'.
1880 To turn on menu completion or menu selection when a there are a
1882 certain number of matches or the list of matches does not fit on
1883 the screen, both of `yes=' and `select=' may be given twice,
1884 once with a number and once with `long' or `long-list'.
1885 Finally, it is possible to activate two special modes of menu
1887 selection. The word `interactive' in the value causes interac‐
1888 tive mode to be entered immediately when menu selection is
1889 started; see the description of the zsh/complist module in zsh‐
1890 modules(1) for a description of interactive mode. Including the
1891 string `search' does the same for incremental search mode. To
1892 select backward incremental search, include the string
1893 `search-backward'.
1894 muttrc If set, gives the location of the mutt configuration file. It
1896 defaults to `~/.muttrc'.
1897 numbers
1899 This is used with the jobs tag. If it is `true', the shell will
1900 complete job numbers instead of the shortest unambiguous prefix
1901 of the job command text. If the value is a number, job numbers
1902 will only be used if that many words from the job descriptions
1903 are required to resolve ambiguities. For example, if the value
1904 is `1', strings will only be used if all jobs differ in the
1905 first word on their command lines.
1906 old-list
1908 This is used by the _oldlist completer. If it is set to
1909 `always', then standard widgets which perform listing will
1910 retain the current list of matches, however they were generated;
1911 this can be turned off explicitly with the value `never', giving
1912 the behaviour without the _oldlist completer. If the style is
1913 unset, or any other value, then the existing list of completions
1914 is displayed if it is not already; otherwise, the standard com‐
1915 pletion list is generated; this is the default behaviour of
1916 _oldlist. However, if there is an old list and this style con‐
1917 tains the name of the completer function that generated the
1918 list, then the old list will be used even if it was generated by
1919 a widget which does not do listing.
1920 For example, suppose you type ^Xc to use the _correct_word wid‐
1922 get, which generates a list of corrections for the word under
1923 the cursor. Usually, typing ^D would generate a standard list
1924 of completions for the word on the command line, and show that.
1925 With _oldlist, it will instead show the list of corrections
1926 already generated.
1927 As another example consider the _match completer: with the
1929 insert-unambiguous style set to `true' it inserts only a common
1930 prefix string, if there is any. However, this may remove parts
1931 of the original pattern, so that further completion could pro‐
1932 duce more matches than on the first attempt. By using the
1933 _oldlist completer and setting this style to _match, the list of
1934 matches generated on the first attempt will be used again.
1935 old-matches
1937 This is used by the _all_matches completer to decide if an old
1938 list of matches should be used if one exists. This is selected
1939 by one of the `true' values or by the string `only'. If the
1940 value is `only', _all_matches will only use an old list and
1941 won't have any effect on the list of matches currently being
1942 generated.
1943 If this style is set it is generally unwise to call the
1945 _all_matches completer unconditionally. One possible use is for
1946 either this style or the completer style to be defined with the
1947 -e option to zstyle to make the style conditional.
1948 old-menu
1950 This is used by the _oldlist completer. It controls how menu
1951 completion behaves when a completion has already been inserted
1952 and the user types a standard completion key such as TAB. The
1953 default behaviour of _oldlist is that menu completion always
1954 continues with the existing list of completions. If this style
1955 is set to `false', however, a new completion is started if the
1956 old list was generated by a different completion command; this
1957 is the behaviour without the _oldlist completer.
1958 For example, suppose you type ^Xc to generate a list of correc‐
1960 tions, and menu completion is started in one of the usual ways.
1961 Usually, or with this style set to false, typing TAB at this
1962 point would start trying to complete the line as it now appears.
1963 With _oldlist, it instead continues to cycle through the list of
1964 corrections.
1965 original
1967 This is used by the _approximate and _correct completers to
1968 decide if the original string should be added as a possible com‐
1969 pletion. Normally, this is done only if there are at least two
1970 possible corrections, but if this style is set to `true', it is
1971 always added. Note that the style will be examined with the
1972 completer field in the context name set to correct-num or
1973 approximate-num, where num is the number of errors that were
1974 accepted.
1975 packageset
1977 This style is used when completing arguments of the Debian
1978 `dpkg' program. It contains an override for the default package
1979 set for a given context. For example,
1980 zstyle ':completion:*:complete:dpkg:option--status-1:*' \
1982 packageset avail
1983 causes available packages, rather than only installed packages,
1985 to be completed for `dpkg --status'.
1986 path The function that completes color names uses this style with the
1988 colors tag. The value should be the pathname of a file contain‐
1989 ing color names in the format of an X11 rgb.txt file. If the
1990 style is not set but this file is found in one of various stan‐
1991 dard locations it will be used as the default.
1992 pine-directory
1994 If set, specifies the directory containing PINE mailbox files.
1995 There is no default, since recursively searching this directory
1996 is inconvenient for anyone who doesn't use PINE.
1997 ports A list of Internet service names (network ports) to complete.
1999 If this is not set, service names are taken from the file
2000 `/etc/services'.
2001 prefix-hidden
2003 This is used for certain completions which share a common pre‐
2004 fix, for example command options beginning with dashes. If it
2005 is `true', the prefix will not be shown in the list of matches.
2006 The default value for this style is `false'.
2008 prefix-needed
2010 This, too, is used for matches with a common prefix. If it is
2011 set to `true' this common prefix must be typed by the user to
2012 generate the matches. In the case of command options, this
2013 means that the initial `-', `+', or `--' must be typed explic‐
2014 itly before option names will be completed.
2015 The default value for this style is `true'.
2017 preserve-prefix
2019 This style is used when completing path names. Its value should
2020 be a pattern matching an initial prefix of the word to complete
2021 that should be left unchanged under all circumstances. For
2022 example, on some Unices an initial `//' (double slash) has a
2023 special meaning; setting this style to the string `//' will pre‐
2024 serve it. As another example, setting this style to `?:/' under
2025 Cygwin would allow completion after `a:/...' and so on.
2026 range This is used by the _history completer and the _history_com‐
2028 plete_word bindable command to decide which words should be com‐
2029 pleted.
2030 If it is a singe number, only the last N words from the history
2032 will be completed.
2033 If it is a range of the form `max:slice', the last slice words
2035 will be completed; then if that yields no matches, the slice
2036 words before those will be tried and so on. This process stops
2037 either when at least one match was been found, or max words have
2038 been tried.
2039 The default is to complete all words from the history at once.
2041 regular
2043 This style is used by the _expand_alias completer and bindable
2044 command. If set to `true' (the default), regular aliases will
2045 be expanded but only in command position. If it is set to
2046 `false', regular aliases will never be expanded. If it is set
2047 to `always', regular aliases will be expanded even if not in
2048 command position.
2049 rehash If this is set when completing external commands, the internal
2051 list (hash) of commands will be updated for each search by issu‐
2052 ing the rehash command. There is a speed penalty for this which
2053 is only likely to be noticeable when directories in the path
2054 have slow file access.
2055 remote-access
2057 If set to false, certain commands will be prevented from making
2058 Internet connections to retrieve remote information. This
2059 includes the completion for the CVS command.
2060 It is not always possible to know if connections are in fact to
2062 a remote site, so some may be prevented unnecessarily.
2063 remove-all-dups
2065 The _history_complete_word bindable command and the _history
2066 completer use this to decide if all duplicate matches should be
2067 removed, rather than just consecutive duplicates.
2068 select-prompt
2070 If this is set for the default tag, its value will be displayed
2071 during menu selection (see the menu style above) when the com‐
2072 pletion list does not fit on the screen as a whole. The same
2073 escapes as for the list-prompt style are understood, except that
2074 the numbers refer to the match or line the mark is on. A
2075 default prompt is used when the value is the empty string.
2076 select-scroll
2078 This style is tested for the default tag and determines how a
2079 completion list is scrolled during a menu selection (see the
2080 menu style above) when the completion list does not fit on the
2081 screen as a whole. If the value is `0' (zero), the list is
2082 scrolled by half-screenfuls; if it is a positive integer, the
2083 list is scrolled by the given number of lines; if it is a nega‐
2084 tive number, the list is scrolled by a screenful minus the abso‐
2085 lute value of the given number of lines. The default is to
2086 scroll by single lines.
2087 separate-sections
2089 This style is used with the manuals tag when completing names of
2090 manual pages. If it is `true', entries for different sections
2091 are added separately using tag names of the form `manual.X',
2092 where X is the section number. When the group-name style is
2093 also in effect, pages from different sections will appear sepa‐
2094 rately. This style is also used similarly with the words style
2095 when completing words for the dict command. It allows words from
2096 different dictionary databases to be added separately. The
2097 default for this style is `false'.
2098 show-completer
2100 Tested whenever a new completer is tried. If it is true, the
2101 completion system outputs a progress message in the listing area
2102 showing what completer is being tried. The message will be
2103 overwritten by any output when completions are found and is
2104 removed after completion is finished.
2105 single-ignored
2107 This is used by the _ignored completer when there is only one
2108 match. If its value is `show', the single match will be dis‐
2109 played but not inserted. If the value is `menu', then the sin‐
2110 gle match and the original string are both added as matches and
2111 menu completion is started, making it easy to select either of
2112 them.
2113 sort Many completion widgets call _description at some point which
2115 decides whether the matches are added sorted or unsorted (often
2116 indirectly via _wanted or _requested). This style can be set
2117 explicitly to one of the usual true or false values as an over‐
2118 ride. If it is not set for the context, the standard behaviour
2119 of the calling widget is used.
2120 The style is tested first against the full context including the
2122 tag, and if that fails to produce a value against the context
2123 without the tag.
2124 If the calling widget explicitly requests unsorted matches, this
2126 is usually honoured. However, the default (unsorted) behaviour
2127 of completion for the command history may be overridden by set‐
2128 ting the style to true.
2129 In the _expand completer, if it is set to `true', the expansions
2131 generated will always be sorted. If it is set to `menu', then
2132 the expansions are only sorted when they are offered as single
2133 strings but not in the string containing all possible expan‐
2134 sions.
2135 special-dirs
2137 Normally, the completion code will not produce the directory
2138 names `.' and `..' as possible completions. If this style is
2139 set to `true', it will add both `.' and `..' as possible comple‐
2140 tions; if it is set to `..', only `..' will be added.
2141 The following example sets special-dirs to `..' when the current
2143 prefix is empty, is a single `.', or consists only of a path
2144 beginning with `../'. Otherwise the value is `false'.
2145 zstyle -e ':completion:*' special-dirs \
2147 '[[ $PREFIX = (../)#(|.|..) ]] && reply=(..)'
2148 squeeze-slashes
2150 If set to `true', sequences of slashes in filename paths (for
2151 example in `foo//bar') will be treated as a single slash. This
2152 is the usual behaviour of UNIX paths. However, by default the
2153 file completion function behaves as if there were a `*' between
2154 the slashes.
2155 stop If set to `true', the _history_complete_word bindable command
2157 will stop once when reaching the beginning or end of the his‐
2158 tory. Invoking _history_complete_word will then wrap around to
2159 the opposite end of the history. If this style is set to
2160 `false' (the default), _history_complete_word will loop immedi‐
2161 ately as in a menu completion.
2162 strip-comments
2164 If set to `true', this style causes non-essential comment text
2165 to be removed from completion matches. Currently it is only
2166 used when completing e-mail addresses where it removes any dis‐
2167 play name from the addresses, cutting them down to plain
2168 user@host form.
2169 subst-globs-only
2171 This is used by the _expand completer. If it is set to `true',
2172 the expansion will only be used if it resulted from globbing;
2173 hence, if expansions resulted from the use of the substitute
2174 style described below, but these were not further changed by
2175 globbing, the expansions will be rejected.
2176 The default for this style is `false'.
2178 substitute
2180 This boolean style controls whether the _expand completer will
2181 first try to expand all substitutions in the string (such as
2182 `$(...)' and `${...}').
2183 The default is `true'.
2185 suffix This is used by the _expand completer if the word starts with a
2187 tilde or contains a parameter expansion. If it is set to
2188 `true', the word will only be expanded if it doesn't have a suf‐
2189 fix, i.e. if it is something like `~foo' or `$foo' rather than
2190 `~foo/' or `$foo/bar', unless that suffix itself contains char‐
2191 acters eligible for expansion. The default for this style is
2192 `true'.
2193 tag-order
2195 This provides a mechanism for sorting how the tags available in
2196 a particular context will be used.
2197 The values for the style are sets of space-separated lists of
2199 tags. The tags in each value will be tried at the same time; if
2200 no match is found, the next value is used. (See the file-pat‐
2201 terns style for an exception to this behavior.)
2202 For example:
2204 zstyle ':completion:*:complete:-command-:*' tag-order \
2206 'commands functions'
2207 specifies that completion in command position first offers
2209 external commands and shell functions. Remaining tags will be
2210 tried if no completions are found.
2211 In addition to tag names, each string in the value may take one
2213 of the following forms:
2214 - If any value consists of only a hyphen, then only the
2216 tags specified in the other values are generated. Nor‐
2217 mally all tags not explicitly selected are tried last if
2218 the specified tags fail to generate any matches. This
2219 means that a single value consisting only of a single
2220 hyphen turns off completion.
2221 ! tags...
2223 A string starting with an exclamation mark specifies
2224 names of tags that are not to be used. The effect is the
2225 same as if all other possible tags for the context had
2226 been listed.
2227 tag:label ...
2229 Here, tag is one of the standard tags and label is an
2230 arbitrary name. Matches are generated as normal but the
2231 name label is used in contexts instead of tag. This is
2232 not useful in words starting with !.
2233 If the label starts with a hyphen, the tag is prepended
2235 to the label to form the name used for lookup. This can
2236 be used to make the completion system try a certain tag
2237 more than once, supplying different style settings for
2238 each attempt; see below for an example.
2239 tag:label:description
2241 As before, but description will replace the `%d' in the
2242 value of the format style instead of the default descrip‐
2243 tion supplied by the completion function. Spaces in the
2244 description must be quoted with a backslash. A `%d'
2245 appearing in description is replaced with the description
2246 given by the completion function.
2247 In any of the forms above the tag may be a pattern or several
2249 patterns in the form `{pat1,pat2...}'. In this case all match‐
2250 ing tags will be used except for any given explicitly in the
2251 same string.
2252 One use of these features is to try one tag more than once, set‐
2254 ting other styles differently on each attempt, but still to use
2255 all the other tags without having to repeat them all. For exam‐
2256 ple, to make completion of function names in command position
2257 ignore all the completion functions starting with an underscore
2258 the first time completion is tried:
2259 zstyle ':completion:*:*:-command-:*' tag-order \
2261 'functions:-non-comp *' functions
2262 zstyle ':completion:*:functions-non-comp' ignored-patterns '_*'
2263 On the first attempt, all tags will be offered but the functions
2265 tag will be replaced by functions-non-comp. The ignored-pat‐
2266 terns style is set for this tag to exclude functions starting
2267 with an underscore. If there are no matches, the second value
2268 of the tag-order style is used which completes functions using
2269 the default tag, this time presumably including all function
2270 names.
2271 The matches for one tag can be split into different groups. For
2273 example:
2274 zstyle ':completion:*' tag-order \
2276 'options:-long:long\ options
2277 options:-short:short\ options
2278 options:-single-letter:single\ letter\ options'
2279 zstyle ':completion:*:options-long' ignored-patterns '[-+](|-|[^-]*)'
2281 zstyle ':completion:*:options-short' ignored-patterns '--*' '[-+]?'
2282 zstyle ':completion:*:options-single-letter' ignored-patterns '???*'
2283 With the group-names style set, options beginning with `--',
2285 options beginning with a single `-' or `+' but containing multi‐
2286 ple characters, and single-letter options will be displayed in
2287 separate groups with different descriptions.
2288 Another use of patterns is to try multiple match specifications
2290 one after another. The matcher-list style offers something sim‐
2291 ilar, but it is tested very early in the completion system and
2292 hence can't be set for single commands nor for more specific
2293 contexts. Here is how to try normal completion without any
2294 match specification and, if that generates no matches, try again
2295 with case-insensitive matching, restricting the effect to argu‐
2296 ments of the command foo:
2297 zstyle ':completion:*:*:foo:*' tag-order '*' '*:-case'
2299 zstyle ':completion:*-case' matcher 'm:{a-z}={A-Z}'
2300 First, all the tags offered when completing after foo are tried
2302 using the normal tag name. If that generates no matches, the
2303 second value of tag-order is used, which tries all tags again
2304 except that this time each has -case appended to its name for
2305 lookup of styles. Hence this time the value for the matcher
2306 style from the second call to zstyle in the example is used to
2307 make completion case-insensitive.
2308 It is possible to use the -e option of the zstyle builtin com‐
2310 mand to specify conditions for the use of particular tags. For
2311 example:
2312 zstyle -e '*:-command-:*' tag-order '
2314 if [[ -n $PREFIX$SUFFIX ]]; then
2315 reply=( )
2316 else
2317 reply=( - )
2318 fi'
2319 Completion in command position will be attempted only if the
2321 string typed so far is not empty. This is tested using the PRE‐
2322 FIX special parameter; see zshcompwid for a description of
2323 parameters which are special inside completion widgets. Setting
2324 reply to an empty array provides the default behaviour of trying
2325 all tags at once; setting it to an array containing only a
2326 hyphen disables the use of all tags and hence of all comple‐
2327 tions.
2328 If no tag-order style has been defined for a context, the
2330 strings `(|*-)argument-* (|*-)option-* values' and `options'
2331 plus all tags offered by the completion function will be used to
2332 provide a sensible default behavior that causes arguments
2333 (whether normal command arguments or arguments of options) to be
2334 completed before option names for most commands.
2335 urls This is used together with the the urls tag by functions com‐
2337 pleting URLs.
2338 If the value consists of more than one string, or if the only
2340 string does not name a file or directory, the strings are used
2341 as the URLs to complete.
2342 If the value contains only one string which is the name of a
2344 normal file the URLs are taken from that file (where the URLs
2345 may be separated by white space or newlines).
2346 Finally, if the only string in the value names a directory, the
2348 directory hierarchy rooted at this directory gives the comple‐
2349 tions. The top level directory should be the file access
2350 method, such as `http', `ftp', `bookmark' and so on. In many
2351 cases the next level of directories will be a filename. The
2352 directory hierarchy can descend as deep as necessary.
2353 For example,
2355 zstyle ':completion:*' urls ~/.urls
2357 mkdir -p ~/.urls/ftp/ftp.zsh.org/pub/development
2358 allows completion of all the components of the URL
2360 ftp://ftp.zsh.org/pub/development after suitable commands such
2361 as `netscape' or `lynx'. Note, however, that access methods and
2362 files are completed separately, so if the hosts style is set
2363 hosts can be completed without reference to the urls style.
2364 See the description in the function _urls itself for more infor‐
2366 mation (e.g. `more $^fpath/_urls(N)').
2367 use-cache
2369 If this is set, the completion caching layer is activated for
2370 any completions which use it (via the _store_cache,
2371 _retrieve_cache, and _cache_invalid functions). The directory
2372 containing the cache files can be changed with the cache-path
2373 style.
2374 use-compctl
2376 If this style is set to a string not equal to false, 0, no, and
2377 off, the completion system may use any completion specifications
2378 defined with the compctl builtin command. If the style is
2379 unset, this is done only if the zsh/compctl module is loaded.
2380 The string may also contain the substring `first' to use comple‐
2381 tions defined with `compctl -T', and the substring `default' to
2382 use the completion defined with `compctl -D'.
2383 Note that this is only intended to smooth the transition from
2385 compctl to the new completion system and may disappear in the
2386 future.
2387 Note also that the definitions from compctl will only be used if
2389 there is no specific completion function for the command in
2390 question. For example, if there is a function _foo to complete
2391 arguments to the command foo, compctl will never be invoked for
2392 foo. However, the compctl version will be tried if foo only
2393 uses default completion.
2394 use-ip By default, the function _hosts that completes host names strips
2396 IP addresses from entries read from host databases such as NIS
2397 and ssh files. If this style is true, the corresponding IP
2398 addresses can be completed as well. This style is not use in
2399 any context where the hosts style is set; note also it must be
2400 set before the cache of host names is generated (typically the
2401 first completion attempt).
2402 use-perl
2404 Various parts of the function system use awk to extract words
2405 from files or command output as this universally available.
2406 However, many versions of awk have arbitrary limits on the size
2407 of input. If this style is set, perl will be used instead.
2408 This is almost always preferable if perl is available on your
2409 system.
2410 Currently this is only used in completions for `make', but it
2412 may be extended depending on authorial frustration.
2413 users This may be set to a list of usernames to be completed. If it
2415 is not set all usernames will be completed. Note that if it is
2416 set only that list of users will be completed; this is because
2417 on some systems querying all users can take a prohibitive amount
2418 of time.
2419 users-hosts
2421 The values of this style should be of the form `user@host' or
2422 `user:host'. It is used for commands that need pairs of user-
2423 and hostnames. These commands will complete usernames from this
2424 style (only), and will restrict subsequent hostname completion
2425 to hosts paired with that user in one of the values of the
2426 style.
2427 It is possible to group values for sets of commands which allow
2429 a remote login, such as rlogin and ssh, by using the my-accounts
2430 tag. Similarly, values for sets of commands which usually refer
2431 to the accounts of other people, such as talk and finger, can be
2432 grouped by using the other-accounts tag. More ambivalent com‐
2433 mands may use the accounts tag.
2434 users-hosts-ports
2436 Like users-hosts but used for commands like telnet and contain‐
2437 ing strings of the form `user@host:port'.
2438 verbose
2440 If set, as it is by default, the completion listing is more ver‐
2441 bose. In particular many commands show descriptions for options
2442 if this style is `true'.
2443 word This is used by the _list completer, which prevents the inser‐
2445 tion of completions until a second completion attempt when the
2446 line has not changed. The normal way of finding out if the line
2447 has changed is to compare its entire contents between the two
2448 occasions. If this style is true, the comparison is instead
2449 performed only on the current word. Hence if completion is per‐
2450 formed on another word with the same contents, completion will
2451 not be delayed.
2452
2454 The initialization script compinit redefines all the widgets which per‐
2455 form completion to call the supplied widget function _main_complete.
2456 This function acts as a wrapper calling the so-called `completer' func‐
2457 tions that generate matches. If _main_complete is called with argu‐
2458 ments, these are taken as the names of completer functions to be called
2459 in the order given. If no arguments are given, the set of functions to
2460 try is taken from the completer style. For example, to use normal com‐
2461 pletion and correction if that doesn't generate any matches:
2462 zstyle ':completion:*' completer _complete _correct
2464 after calling compinit. The default value for this style is `_complete
2466 _ignored', i.e. normally only ordinary completion is tried, first with
2467 the effect of the ignored-patterns style and then without it. The
2468 _main_complete function uses the return status of the completer func‐
2469 tions to decide if other completers should be called. If the return
2470 status is zero, no other completers are tried and the _main_complete
2471 function returns.
2472 If the first argument to _main_complete is a single hyphen, the argu‐
2474 ments will not be taken as names of completers. Instead, the second
2475 argument gives a name to use in the completer field of the context and
2476 the other arguments give a command name and arguments to call to gener‐
2477 ate the matches.
2478 The following completer functions are contained in the distribution,
2480 although users may write their own. Note that in contexts the leading
2481 underscore is stripped, for example basic completion is performed in
2482 the context `:completion::complete:...'.
2483 _all_matches
2485 This completer can be used to add a string consisting of all
2486 other matches. As it influences later completers it must appear
2487 as the first completer in the list. The list of all matches is
2488 affected by the avoid-completer and old-matches styles described
2489 above.
2490 It may be useful to use the _generic function described below to
2492 bind _all_matches to its own keystroke, for example:
2493 zle -C all-matches complete-word _generic
2495 bindkey '^Xa' all-matches
2496 zstyle ':completion:all-matches:*' old-matches only
2497 zstyle ':completion:all-matches::::' completer _all_matches
2498 Note that this does not generate completions by itself: first
2500 use any of the standard ways of generating a list of comple‐
2501 tions, then use ^Xa to show all matches. It is possible instead
2502 to add a standard completer to the list and request that the
2503 list of all matches should be directly inserted:
2504 zstyle ':completion:all-matches::::' completer _all_matches _complete
2506 zstyle ':completion:all-matches:*' insert true
2507 In this case the old-matches style should not be set.
2509 _approximate
2511 This is similar to the basic _complete completer but allows the
2512 completions to undergo corrections. The maximum number of
2513 errors can be specified by the max-errors style; see the
2514 description of approximate matching in zshexpn(1) for how errors
2515 are counted. Normally this completer will only be tried after
2516 the normal _complete completer:
2517 zstyle ':completion:*' completer _complete _approximate
2519 This will give correcting completion if and only if normal com‐
2521 pletion yields no possible completions. When corrected comple‐
2522 tions are found, the completer will normally start menu comple‐
2523 tion allowing you to cycle through these strings.
2524 This completer uses the tags corrections and original when gen‐
2526 erating the possible corrections and the original string. The
2527 format style for the former may contain the additional sequences
2528 `%e' and `%o' which will be replaced by the number of errors
2529 accepted to generate the corrections and the original string,
2530 respectively.
2531 The completer progressively increases the number of errors
2533 allowed up to the limit by the max-errors style, hence if a com‐
2534 pletion is found with one error, no completions with two errors
2535 will be shown, and so on. It modifies the completer name in the
2536 context to indicate the number of errors being tried: on the
2537 first try the completer field contains `approximate-1', on the
2538 second try `approximate-2', and so on.
2539 When _approximate is called from another function, the number of
2541 errors to accept may be passed with the -a option. The argument
2542 is in the same format as the max-errors style, all in one
2543 string.
2544 Note that this completer (and the _correct completer mentioned
2546 below) can be quite expensive to call, especially when a large
2547 number of errors are allowed. One way to avoid this is to set
2548 up the completer style using the -e option to zstyle so that
2549 some completers are only used when completion is attempted a
2550 second time on the same string, e.g.:
2551 zstyle -e ':completion:*' completer '
2553 if [[ $_last_try != "$HISTNO$BUFFER$CURSOR" ]]; then
2554 _last_try="$HISTNO$BUFFER$CURSOR"
2555 reply=(_complete _match _prefix)
2556 else
2557 reply=(_ignored _correct _approximate)
2558 fi'
2559 This uses the HISTNO parameter and the BUFFER and CURSOR special
2561 parameters that are available inside zle and completion widgets
2562 to find out if the command line hasn't changed since the last
2563 time completion was tried. Only then are the _ignored, _correct
2564 and _approximate completers called.
2565 _complete
2567 This completer generates all possible completions in a con‐
2568 text-sensitive manner, i.e. using the settings defined with the
2569 compdef function explained above and the current settings of all
2570 special parameters. This gives the normal completion behaviour.
2571 To complete arguments of commands, _complete uses the utility
2573 function _normal, which is in turn responsible for finding the
2574 particular function; it is described below. Various contexts of
2575 the form -context- are handled specifically. These are all men‐
2576 tioned above as possible arguments to the #compdef tag.
2577 Before trying to find a function for a specific context, _com‐
2579 plete checks if the parameter `compcontext' is set. Setting
2580 `compcontext' allows the usual completion dispatching to be
2581 overridden which is useful in places such as a function that
2582 uses vared for input. If it is set to an array, the elements are
2583 taken to be the possible matches which will be completed using
2584 the tag `values' and the description `value'. If it is set to an
2585 associative array, the keys are used as the possible completions
2586 and the values (if non-empty) are used as descriptions for the
2587 matches. If `compcontext' is set to a string containing colons,
2588 it should be of the form `tag:descr:action'. In this case the
2589 tag and descr give the tag and description to use and the action
2590 indicates what should be completed in one of the forms accepted
2591 by the _arguments utility function described below.
2592 Finally, if `compcontext' is set to a string without colons, the
2594 value is taken as the name of the context to use and the func‐
2595 tion defined for that context will be called. For this purpose,
2596 there is a special context named -command-line- that completes
2597 whole command lines (commands and their arguments). This is not
2598 used by the completion system itself but is nonetheless handled
2599 when explicitly called.
2600 _correct
2602 Generate corrections, but not completions, for the current word;
2603 this is similar to _approximate but will not allow any number of
2604 extra characters at the cursor as that completer does. The
2605 effect is similar to spell-checking. It is based on _approxi‐
2606 mate, but the completer field in the context name is correct.
2607 For example, with:
2609 zstyle ':completion:::::' completer _complete _correct _approximate
2611 zstyle ':completion:*:correct:::' max-errors 2 not-numeric
2612 zstyle ':completion:*:approximate:::' max-errors 3 numeric
2613 correction will accept up to two errors. If a numeric argument
2615 is given, correction will not be performed, but correcting com‐
2616 pletion will be, and will accept as many errors as given by the
2617 numeric argument. Without a numeric argument, first correction
2618 and then correcting completion will be tried, with the first one
2619 accepting two errors and the second one accepting three errors.
2620 When _correct is called as a function, the number of errors to
2622 accept may be given following the -a option. The argument is in
2623 the same form a values to the accept style, all in one string.
2624 This completer function is intended to be used without the
2626 _approximate completer or, as in the example, just before it.
2627 Using it after the _approximate completer is useless since
2628 _approximate will at least generate the corrected strings gener‐
2629 ated by the _correct completer -- and probably more.
2630 _expand
2632 This completer function does not really perform completion, but
2633 instead checks if the word on the command line is eligible for
2634 expansion and, if it is, gives detailed control over how this
2635 expansion is done. For this to happen, the completion system
2636 needs to be invoked with complete-word, not expand-or-complete
2637 (the default binding for TAB), as otherwise the string will be
2638 expanded by the shell's internal mechanism before the completion
2639 system is started. Note also this completer should be called
2640 before the _complete completer function.
2641 The tags used when generating expansions are all-expansions for
2643 the string containing all possible expansions, expansions when
2644 adding the possible expansions as single matches and original
2645 when adding the original string from the line. The order in
2646 which these strings are generated, if at all, can be controlled
2647 by the group-order and tag-order styles, as usual.
2648 The format string for all-expansions and for expansions may con‐
2650 tain the sequence `%o' which will be replaced by the original
2651 string from the line.
2652 The kind of expansion to be tried is controlled by the substi‐
2654 tute, glob and subst-globs-only styles.
2655 It is also possible to call _expand as a function, in which case
2657 the different modes may be selected with options: -s for substi‐
2658 tute, -g for glob and -o for subst-globs-only.
2659 _expand_alias
2661 If the word the cursor is on is an alias, it is expanded and no
2662 other completers are called. The types of aliases which are to
2663 be expanded can be controlled with the styles regular, global
2664 and disabled.
2665 This function is also a bindable command, see the section `Bind‐
2667 able Commands' below.
2668 _history
2670 Complete words from the shell's command history. This com‐
2671 pleter can be controlled by the remove-all-dups, and sort styles
2672 as for the _history_complete_word bindable command, see the sec‐
2673 tion `Bindable Commands' below and the section `Completion Sys‐
2674 tem Configuration' above.
2675 _ignored
2677 The ignored-patterns style can be set to a list of patterns
2678 which are compared against possible completions; matching ones
2679 are removed. With this completer those matches can be rein‐
2680 stated, as if no ignored-patterns style were set. The completer
2681 actually generates its own list of matches; which completers are
2682 invoked is determined in the same way as for the _prefix com‐
2683 pleter. The single-ignored style is also available as described
2684 above.
2685 _list This completer allows the insertion of matches to be delayed
2687 until completion is attempted a second time without the word on
2688 the line being changed. On the first attempt, only the list of
2689 matches will be shown. It is affected by the styles condition
2690 and word, see the section `Completion System Configuration'
2691 above.
2692 _match This completer is intended to be used after the _complete com‐
2694 pleter. It behaves similarly but the string on the command line
2695 may be a pattern to match against trial completions. This gives
2696 the effect of the GLOB_COMPLETE option.
2697 Normally completion will be performed by taking the pattern from
2699 the line, inserting a `*' at the cursor position and comparing
2700 the resulting pattern with the possible completions generated.
2701 This can be modified with the match-original style described
2702 above.
2703 The generated matches will be offered in a menu completion
2705 unless the insert-unambiguous style is set to `true'; see the
2706 description above for other options for this style.
2707 Note that matcher specifications defined globally or used by the
2709 completion functions (the styles matcher-list and matcher) will
2710 not be used.
2711 _menu This completer was written as simple example function to show
2713 how menu completion can be enabled in shell code. However, it
2714 has the notable effect of disabling menu selection which can be
2715 useful with _generic based widgets. It should be used as the
2716 first completer in the list. Note that this is independent of
2717 the setting of the MENU_COMPLETE option and does not work with
2718 the other menu completion widgets such as reverse-menu-complete,
2719 or accept-and-menu-complete.
2720 _oldlist
2722 This completer controls how the standard completion widgets
2723 behave when there is an existing list of completions which may
2724 have been generated by a special completion (i.e. a sepa‐
2725 rately-bound completion command). It allows the ordinary com‐
2726 pletion keys to continue to use the list of completions thus
2727 generated, instead of producing a new list of ordinary contex‐
2728 tual completions. It should appear in the list of completers
2729 before any of the widgets which generate matches. It uses two
2730 styles: old-list and old-menu, see the section `Completion Sys‐
2731 tem Configuration' above.
2732 _prefix
2734 This completer can be used to try completion with the suffix
2735 (everything after the cursor) ignored. In other words, the suf‐
2736 fix will not be considered to be part of the word to complete.
2737 The effect is similar to the expand-or-complete-prefix command.
2738 The completer style is used to decide which other completers are
2740 to be called to generate matches. If this style is unset, the
2741 list of completers set for the current context is used --
2742 except, of course, the _prefix completer itself. Furthermore,
2743 if this completer appears more than once in the list of com‐
2744 pleters only those completers not already tried by the last
2745 invocation of _prefix will be called.
2746 For example, consider this global completer style:
2748 zstyle ':completion:*' completer \
2750 _complete _prefix _correct _prefix:foo
2751 Here, the _prefix completer tries normal completion but ignoring
2753 the suffix. If that doesn't generate any matches, and neither
2754 does the call to the _correct completer after it, _prefix will
2755 be called a second time and, now only trying correction with the
2756 suffix ignored. On the second invocation the completer part of
2757 the context appears as `foo'.
2758 To use _prefix as the last resort and try only normal completion
2760 when it is invoked:
2761 zstyle ':completion:*' completer _complete ... _prefix
2763 zstyle ':completion::prefix:*' completer _complete
2764 The add-space style is also respected. If it is set to `true'
2766 then _prefix will insert a space between the matches generated
2767 (if any) and the suffix.
2768 Note that this completer is only useful if the COMPLETE_IN_WORD
2770 option is set; otherwise, the cursor will be moved to the end of
2771 the current word before the completion code is called and hence
2772 there will be no suffix.
2773 _user_expand
2775 This completer behaves similarly to the _expand completer but
2776 instead performs expansions defined by users. The styles
2777 add-space and sort styles specific to the _expand completer are
2778 usable with _user_expand in addition to other styles handled
2779 more generally by the completion system. The tag all-expansions
2780 is also available.
2781 The expansion depends on the array style user-expand being
2783 defined for the current context; remember that the context for
2784 completers is less specific than that for contextual completion
2785 as the full context has not yet been determined. Elements of
2786 the array may have one of the following forms:
2787 $hash
2788 hash is the name of an associative array. Note this is
2790 not a full parameter expression, merely a $, suitably
2791 quoted to prevent immediate expansion, followed by the
2792 name of an associative array. If the trial expansion
2793 word matches a key in hash, the resulting expansion is
2794 the corresponding value.
2795 _func
2796 _func is the name of a shell function whose name must
2798 begin with _ but is not otherwise special to the comple‐
2799 tion system. The function is called with the trial word
2800 as an argument. If the word is to be expanded, the func‐
2801 tion should set the array reply to a list of expansions.
2802 The return status of the function is irrelevant.
2804 In addition to the context-dependent completions provided, which are
2805 expected to work in an intuitively obvious way, there are a few widgets
2806 implementing special behaviour which can be bound separately to keys.
2807 The following is a list of these and their default bindings.
2808 _bash_completions
2810 This function is used by two widgets, _bash_complete-word and
2811 _bash_list-choices. It exists to provide compatibility with
2812 completion bindings in bash. The last character of the binding
2813 determines what is completed: `!', command names; `$', environ‐
2814 ment variables; `@', host names; `/', file names; `~' user
2815 names. In bash, the binding preceded by `\e' gives completion,
2816 and preceded by `^X' lists options. As some of these bindings
2817 clash with standard zsh bindings, only `\e~' and `^X~' are bound
2818 by default. To add the rest, the following should be added to
2819 .zshrc after compinit has been run:
2820 for key in '!' '$' '@' '/' '~'; do
2822 bindkey "\e$key" _bash_complete-word
2823 bindkey "^X$key" _bash_list-choices
2824 done
2825 This includes the bindings for `~' in case they were already
2827 bound to something else; the completion code does not override
2828 user bindings.
2829 _correct_filename (^XC)
2831 Correct the filename path at the cursor position. Allows up to
2832 six errors in the name. Can also be called with an argument to
2833 correct a filename path, independently of zle; the correction is
2834 printed on standard output.
2835 _correct_word (^Xc)
2837 Performs correction of the current argument using the usual con‐
2838 textual completions as possible choices. This stores the string
2839 `correct-word' in the function field of the context name and
2840 then calls the _correct completer.
2841 _expand_alias (^Xa)
2843 This function can be used as a completer and as a bindable com‐
2844 mand. It expands the word the cursor is on if it is an alias.
2845 The types of alias expanded can be controlled with the styles
2846 regular, global and disabled.
2847 When used as a bindable command there is one additional feature
2849 that can be selected by setting the complete style to `true'.
2850 In this case, if the word is not the name of an alias,
2851 _expand_alias tries to complete the word to a full alias name
2852 without expanding it. It leaves the cursor directly after the
2853 completed word so that invoking _expand_alias once more will
2854 expand the now-complete alias name.
2855 _expand_word (^Xe)
2857 Performs expansion on the current word: equivalent to the stan‐
2858 dard expand-word command, but using the _expand completer.
2859 Before calling it, the function field of the context is set to
2860 `expand-word'.
2861 _generic
2863 This function is not defined as a widget and not bound by
2864 default. However, it can be used to define a widget and will
2865 then store the name of the widget in the function field of the
2866 context and call the completion system. This allows custom com‐
2867 pletion widgets with their own set of style settings to be
2868 defined easily. For example, to define a widget that performs
2869 normal completion and starts menu selection:
2870 zle -C foo complete-word _generic
2872 bindkey '...' foo
2873 zstyle ':completion:foo:*' menu yes select=1
2874 Note in particular that the completer style may be set for the
2876 context in order to change the set of functions used to generate
2877 possible matches. If _generic is called with arguments, those
2878 are passed through to _main_complete as the list of completers
2879 in place of those defined by the completer style.
2880 _history_complete_word (\e/)
2882 Complete words from the shell's command history. This uses the
2883 list, remove-all-dups, sort, and stop styles.
2884 _most_recent_file (^Xm)
2886 Complete the name of the most recently modified file matching
2887 the pattern on the command line (which may be blank). If given
2888 a numeric argument N, complete the Nth most recently modified
2889 file. Note the completion, if any, is always unique.
2890 _next_tags (^Xn)
2892 This command alters the set of matches used to that for the next
2893 tag, or set of tags, either as given by the tag-order style or
2894 as set by default; these matches would otherwise not be avail‐
2895 able. Successive invocations of the command cycle through all
2896 possible sets of tags.
2897 _read_comp (^X^R)
2899 Prompt the user for a string, and use that to perform completion
2900 on the current word. There are two possibilities for the
2901 string. First, it can be a set of words beginning `_', for
2902 example `_files -/', in which case the function with any argu‐
2903 ments will be called to generate the completions. Unambiguous
2904 parts of the function name will be completed automatically (nor‐
2905 mal completion is not available at this point) until a space is
2906 typed.
2907 Second, any other string will be passed as a set of arguments to
2909 compadd and should hence be an expression specifying what should
2910 be completed.
2911 A very restricted set of editing commands is available when
2913 reading the string: `DEL' and `^H' delete the last character;
2914 `^U' deletes the line, and `^C' and `^G' abort the function,
2915 while `RET' accepts the completion. Note the string is used
2916 verbatim as a command line, so arguments must be quoted in
2917 accordance with standard shell rules.
2918 Once a string has been read, the next call to _read_comp will
2920 use the existing string instead of reading a new one. To force
2921 a new string to be read, call _read_comp with a numeric argu‐
2922 ment.
2923 _complete_debug (^X?)
2925 This widget performs ordinary completion, but captures in a tem‐
2926 porary file a trace of the shell commands executed by the com‐
2927 pletion system. Each completion attempt gets its own file. A
2928 command to view each of these files is pushed onto the editor
2929 buffer stack.
2930 _complete_help (^Xh)
2932 This widget displays information about the context names, the
2933 tags, and the completion functions used when completing at the
2934 current cursor position. If given a numeric argument other than
2935 1 (as in `ESC-2 ^Xh'), then the styles used and the contexts for
2936 which they are used will be shown, too.
2937 Note that the information about styles may be incomplete; it
2939 depends on the information available from the completion func‐
2940 tions called, which in turn is determined by the user's own
2941 styles and other settings.
2942 _complete_help_generic
2944 Unlike other commands listed here, this must be created as a
2945 normal ZLE widget rather than a completion widget (i.e. with zle
2946 -N). It is used for generating help with a widget bound to the
2947 _generic widget that is described above.
2948 If this widget is created using the name of the function, as it
2950 is by default, then when executed it will read a key sequence.
2951 This is expected to be bound to a call to a completion function
2952 that uses the _generic widget. That widget will be executed,
2953 and information provided in the same format that the _com‐
2954 plete_help widget displays for contextual completion.
2955 If the widget's name contains debug, for example if it is cre‐
2957 ated as `zle -N _complete_debug_generic _complete_help_generic',
2958 it will read and execute the keystring for a generic widget as
2959 before, but then generate debugging information as done by _com‐
2960 plete_debug for contextual completion.
2961 If the widget's name contains noread, it will not read a
2963 keystring but instead arrange that the next use of a generic
2964 widget run in the same shell will have the effect as described
2965 above.
2966 The widget works by setting the shell parameter
2968 ZSH_TRACE_GENERIC_WIDGET which is read by _generic. Unsetting
2969 the parameter cancels any pending effect of the noread form.
2970 For example, after executing the following:
2972 zle -N _complete_debug_generic _complete_help_generic
2974 bindkey '^x:' _complete_debug_generic
2975 typing `C-x :' followed by the key sequence for a generic widget
2977 will cause trace output for that widget to be saved to a file.
2978 _complete_tag (^Xt)
2980 This widget completes symbol tags created by the etags or ctags
2981 programmes (note there is no connection with the completion sys‐
2982 tem's tags) stored in a file TAGS, in the format used by etags,
2983 or tags, in the format created by ctags. It will look back up
2984 the path hierarchy for the first occurrence of either file; if
2985 both exist, the file TAGS is preferred. You can specify the
2986 full path to a TAGS or tags file by setting the parameter $TAGS‐
2987 FILE or $tagsfile respectively. The corresponding completion
2988 tags used are etags and vtags, after emacs and vi respectively.
2989
2991 Descriptions follow for utility functions that may be useful when writ‐
2992 ing completion functions. If functions are installed in subdirecto‐
2993 ries, most of these reside in the Base subdirectory. Like the example
2994 functions for commands in the distribution, the utility functions gen‐
2995 erating matches all follow the convention of returning status zero if
2996 they generated completions and non-zero if no matching completions
2997 could be added.
2998 Two more features are offered by the _main_complete function. The
3000 arrays compprefuncs and comppostfuncs may contain names of functions
3001 that are to be called immediately before or after completion has been
3002 tried. A function will only be called once unless it explicitly rein‐
3003 serts itself into the array.
3004 _all_labels [ -x ] [ -12VJ ] tag name descr [ command args ... ]
3006 This is a convenient interface to the _next_label function
3007 below, implementing the loop shown in the _next_label example.
3008 The command and its arguments are called to generate the
3009 matches. The options stored in the parameter name will automat‐
3010 ically be inserted into the args passed to the command. Nor‐
3011 mally, they are put directly after the command, but if one of
3012 the args is a single hyphen, they are inserted directly before
3013 that. If the hyphen is the last argument, it will be removed
3014 from the argument list before the command is called. This
3015 allows _all_labels to be used in almost all cases where the
3016 matches can be generated by a single call to the compadd builtin
3017 command or by a call to one of the utility functions.
3018 For example:
3020 local expl
3022 ...
3023 if _requested foo; then
3024 ...
3025 _all_labels foo expl '...' compadd ... - $matches
3026 fi
3027 Will complete the strings from the matches parameter, using com‐
3029 padd with additional options which will take precedence over
3030 those generated by _all_labels.
3031 _alternative [ -C name ] spec ...
3033 This function is useful in simple cases where multiple tags are
3034 available. Essentially it implements a loop like the one
3035 described for the _tags function below.
3036 The tags to use and the action to perform if a tag is requested
3038 are described using the specs which are of the form:
3039 `tag:descr:action'. The tags are offered using _tags and if the
3040 tag is requested, the action is executed with the given descrip‐
3041 tion descr. The actions are those accepted by the _arguments
3042 function (described below), excluding the `->state' and `=...'
3043 forms.
3044 For example, the action may be a simple function call:
3046 _alternative \
3048 'users:user:_users' \
3049 'hosts:host:_hosts'
3050 offers usernames and hostnames as possible matches, generated by
3052 the _users and _hosts functions respectively.
3053 Like _arguments, this functions uses _all_labels to execute the
3055 actions, which will loop over all sets of tags. Special han‐
3056 dling is only required if there is an additional valid tag, for
3057 example inside a function called from _alternative.
3058 Like _tags this function supports the -C option to give a dif‐
3060 ferent name for the argument context field.
3061 _arguments [ -nswWACRS ] [ -O name ] [ -M matchspec ] [ : ] spec ...
3063 This function can be used to give a complete specification for
3064 completion for a command whose arguments follow standard UNIX
3065 option and argument conventions. The following forms specify
3066 individual sets of options and arguments; to avoid ambiguity,
3067 these may be separated from the options to _arguments itself by
3068 a single colon. Options to _arguments itself must be in sepa‐
3069 rate words, i.e. -s -w, not -sw.
3070 With the option -n, _arguments sets the parameter NORMARG to the
3072 position of the first normal argument in the $words array, i.e.
3073 the position after the end of the options. If that argument has
3074 not been reached, NORMARG is set to -1. The caller should
3075 declare `integer NORMARG' if the -n option is passed; otherwise
3076 the parameter is not used.
3077 n:message:action
3079 n::message:action
3080 This describes the n'th normal argument. The message
3081 will be printed above the matches generated and the
3082 action indicates what can be completed in this position
3083 (see below). If there are two colons before the message
3084 the argument is optional. If the message contains only
3085 white space, nothing will be printed above the matches
3086 unless the action adds an explanation string itself.
3087 :message:action
3089 ::message:action
3090 Similar, but describes the next argument, whatever number
3091 that happens to be. If all arguments are specified in
3092 this form in the correct order the numbers are unneces‐
3093 sary.
3094 *:message:action
3096 *::message:action
3097 *:::message:action
3098 This describes how arguments (usually non-option argu‐
3099 ments, those not beginning with - or +) are to be com‐
3100 pleted when neither of the first two forms was provided.
3101 Any number of arguments can be completed in this fashion.
3102 With two colons before the message, the words special
3104 array and the CURRENT special parameter are modified to
3105 refer only to the normal arguments when the action is
3106 executed or evaluated. With three colons before the mes‐
3107 sage they are modified to refer only to the normal argu‐
3108 ments covered by this description.
3109 optspec
3111 optspec:...
3112 This describes an option. The colon indicates handling
3113 for one or more arguments to the option; if it is not
3114 present, the option is assumed to take no arguments.
3115 By default, options are multi-character name, one `-word'
3117 per option. With -s, options may be single characters,
3118 with more than one option per word, although words start‐
3119 ing with two hyphens, such as `--prefix', are still con‐
3120 sidered complete option names. This is suitable for
3121 standard GNU options.
3122 The combination of -s with -w allows single-letter
3124 options to be combined in a single word even if one or
3125 more of the options take arguments. For example, if -a
3126 takes an argument, with no -s `-ab' is considered as a
3127 single (unhandled) option; with -s -ab is an option with
3128 the argument `b'; with both -s and -w, -ab may be the
3129 option -a and the option -b with arguments still to come.
3130 The option -W takes this a stage further: it is possible
3132 to complete single-letter options even after an argument
3133 that occurs in the same word. However, it depends on the
3134 action performed whether options will really be completed
3135 at this point. For more control, use a utility function
3136 like _guard as part of the action.
3137 The following forms are available for the initial opt‐
3139 spec, whether or not the option has arguments.
3140 *optspec
3142 Here optspec is one of the remaining forms below.
3143 This indicates the following optspec may be
3144 repeated. Otherwise if the corresponding option
3145 is already present on the command line to the left
3146 of the cursor it will not be offered again.
3147 -optname
3149 +optname
3150 In the simplest form the optspec is just the
3151 option name beginning with a minus or a plus sign,
3152 such as `-foo'. The first argument for the option
3153 (if any) must follow as a separate word directly
3154 after the option.
3155 Either of `-+optname' and `+-optname' can be used
3157 to specify that -optname and +optname are both
3158 valid.
3159 In all the remaining forms, the leading `-' may be
3161 replaced by or paired with `+' in this way.
3162 -optname-
3164 The first argument of the option must come
3165 directly after the option name in the same word.
3166 For example, `-foo-:...' specifies that the com‐
3167 pleted option and argument will look like
3168 `-fooarg'.
3169 -optname+
3171 The first argument may appear immediately after
3172 optname in the same word, or may appear as a sepa‐
3173 rate word after the option. For example,
3174 `-foo+:...' specifies that the completed option
3175 and argument will look like either `-fooarg' or
3176 `-foo arg'.
3177 -optname=
3179 The argument may appear as the next word, or in
3180 same word as the option name provided that it is
3181 separated from it by an equals sign, for example
3182 `-foo=arg' or `-foo arg'.
3183 -optname=-
3185 The argument to the option must appear after an
3186 equals sign in the same word, and may not be given
3187 in the next argument.
3188 optspec[explanation]
3190 An explanation string may be appended to any of
3191 the preceding forms of optspec by enclosing it in
3192 brackets, as in `-q[query operation]'.
3193 The verbose style is used to decide whether the
3195 explanation strings are displayed with the option
3196 in a completion listing.
3197 If no bracketed explanation string is given but
3199 the auto-description style is set and only one
3200 argument is described for this optspec, the value
3201 of the style is displayed, with any appearance of
3202 the sequence `%d' in it replaced by the message of
3203 the first optarg that follows the optspec; see
3204 below.
3205 It is possible for options with a literal `+' or `=' to appear,
3207 but that character must be quoted, for example `-\+'.
3208 Each optarg following an optspec must take one of the following
3210 forms:
3211 :message:action
3213 ::message:action
3214 An argument to the option; message and action are treated
3215 as for ordinary arguments. In the first form, the argu‐
3216 ment is mandatory, and in the second form it is optional.
3217 This group may be repeated for options which take multi‐
3219 ple arguments. In other words, :message1:action1:mes‐
3220 sage2:action2 specifies that the option takes two argu‐
3221 ments.
3222 :*pattern:message:action
3224 :*pattern::message:action
3225 :*pattern:::message:action
3226 This describes multiple arguments. Only the last optarg
3227 for an option taking multiple arguments may be given in
3228 this form. If the pattern is empty (i.e., :*:), all the
3229 remaining words on the line are to be completed as
3230 described by the action; otherwise, all the words up to
3231 and including a word matching the pattern are to be com‐
3232 pleted using the action.
3233 Multiple colons are treated as for the `*:...' forms for
3235 ordinary arguments: when the message is preceded by two
3236 colons, the words special array and the CURRENT special
3237 parameter are modified during the execution or evaluation
3238 of the action to refer only to the words after the
3239 option. When preceded by three colons, they are modified
3240 to refer only to the words covered by this description.
3241 Any literal colon in an optname, message, or action must be preceded by
3243 a backslash, `\:'.
3244 Each of the forms above may be preceded by a list in parentheses of
3246 option names and argument numbers. If the given option is on the com‐
3247 mand line, the options and arguments indicated in parentheses will not
3248 be offered. For example, `(-two -three 1)-one:...' completes the
3249 option `-one'; if this appears on the command line, the options -two
3250 and -three and the first ordinary argument will not be completed after
3251 it. `(-foo):...' specifies an ordinary argument completion; -foo will
3252 not be completed if that argument is already present.
3253 Other items may appear in the list of excluded options to indicate var‐
3255 ious other items that should not be applied when the current specifica‐
3256 tion is matched: a single star (*) for the rest arguments (i.e. a spec‐
3257 ification of the form `*:...'); a colon (:) for all normal
3258 (non-option-) arguments; and a hyphen (-) for all options. For exam‐
3259 ple, if `(*)' appears before an option and the option appears on the
3260 command line, the list of remaining arguments (those shown in the above
3261 table beginning with `*:') will not be completed.
3262 To aid in reuse of specifications, it is possible to precede any of the
3264 forms above with `!'; then the form will no longer be completed,
3265 although if the option or argument appears on the command line they
3266 will be skipped as normal. The main use for this is when the arguments
3267 are given by an array, and _arguments is called repeatedly for more
3268 specific contexts: on the first call `_arguments $global_options' is
3269 used, and on subsequent calls `_arguments !$^global_options'.
3270 In each of the forms above the action determines how completions should
3272 be generated. Except for the `->string' form below, the action will be
3273 executed by calling the _all_labels function to process all tag labels.
3274 No special handling of tags is needed unless a function call introduces
3275 a new one.
3276 The forms for action are as follows.
3278 (single unquoted space)
3280 This is useful where an argument is required but it is not pos‐
3281 sible or desirable to generate matches for it. The message will
3282 be displayed but no completions listed. Note that even in this
3283 case the colon at the end of the message is needed; it may only
3284 be omitted when neither a message nor an action is given.
3285 (item1 item2 ...)
3287 One of a list of possible matches, for example:
3288 :foo:(foo bar baz)
3290 ((item1\:desc1 ...))
3292 Similar to the above, but with descriptions for each possible
3293 match. Note the backslash before the colon. For example,
3294 :foo:((a\:bar b\:baz))
3296 The matches will be listed together with their descriptions if
3298 the description style is set with the values tag in the context.
3299 ->string
3301 In this form, _arguments processes the arguments and options and
3302 then returns control to the calling function with parameters set
3303 to indicate the state of processing; the calling function then
3304 makes its own arrangements for generating completions. For
3305 example, functions that implement a state machine can use this
3306 type of action.
3307 Where _arguments encounters a `->string', it will strip all
3309 leading and trailing whitespace from string and set the array
3310 state to the set of all stringss for which an action is to be
3311 performed.
3312 By default and in common with all other well behaved completion
3314 functions, _arguments returns status zero if it was able to add
3315 matches and non-zero otherwise. However, if the -R option is
3316 given, _arguments will instead return a status of 300 to indi‐
3317 cate that $state is to be handled.
3318 In addition to $state, _arguments also sets the global parame‐
3320 ters `context', `line' and `opt_args' as described below, and
3321 does not reset any changes made to the special parameters such
3322 as PREFIX and words. This gives the calling function the choice
3323 of resetting these parameters or propagating changes in them.
3324 A function calling _arguments with at least one action contain‐
3326 ing a `->string' therefore must declare appropriate local param‐
3327 eters:
3328 local context state line
3330 typeset -A opt_args
3331 to avoid _arguments from altering the global environment.
3333 {eval-string}
3335 A string in braces is evaluated as shell code to generate
3336 matches. If the eval-string itself does not begin with an open‐
3337 ing parenthesis or brace it is split into separate words before
3338 execution.
3339 = action
3341 If the action starts with `= ' (an equals sign followed by a
3342 space), _arguments will insert the contents of the argument
3343 field of the current context as the new first element in the
3344 words special array and increment the value of the CURRENT spe‐
3345 cial parameter. This has the effect of inserting a dummy word
3346 onto the completion command line while not changing the point at
3347 which completion is taking place.
3348 This is most useful with one of the specifiers that restrict the
3350 words on the command line on which the action is to operate (the
3351 two- and three-colon forms above). One particular use is when
3352 an action itself causes _arguments on a restricted range; it is
3353 necessary to use this trick to insert an appropriate command
3354 name into the range for the second call to _arguments to be able
3355 to parse the line.
3356 word...
3358 word...
3359 This covers all forms other than those above. If the action
3360 starts with a space, the remaining list of words will be invoked
3361 unchanged.
3362 Otherwise it will be invoked with some extra strings placed
3364 after the first word; these are to be passed down as options to
3365 the compadd builtin. They ensure that the state specified by
3366 _arguments, in particular the descriptions of options and argu‐
3367 ments, is correctly passed to the completion command. These
3368 additional arguments are taken from the array parameter `expl';
3369 this will be set up before executing the action and hence may be
3370 referred to inside it, typically in an expansion of the form
3371 `$expl[@]' which preserves empty elements of the array.
3372 During the performance of the action the array `line' will be set to
3374 the command name and normal arguments from the command line, i.e. the
3375 words from the command line excluding all options and their arguments.
3376 Options are stored in the associative array `opt_args' with option
3377 names as keys and their arguments as the values. For options that have
3378 more than one argument these are given as one string, separated by
3379 colons. All colons in the original arguments are preceded with back‐
3380 slashes.
3381 The parameter `context' is set when returning to the calling function
3383 to perform an action of the form `->string'. It is set to an array of
3384 elements corresponding to the elements of $state. Each element is a
3385 suitable name for the argument field of the context: either a string of
3386 the form `option-opt-n' for the n'th argument of the option -opt, or a
3387 string of the form `argument-n' for the n'th argument. For `rest'
3388 arguments, that is those in the list at the end not handled by posi‐
3389 tion, n is the string `rest'. For example, when completing the argu‐
3390 ment of the -o option, the name is `option-o-1', while for the second
3391 normal (non-option-) argument it is `argument-2'.
3392 Furthermore, during the evaluation of the action the context name in
3394 the curcontext parameter is altered to append the same string that is
3395 stored in the context parameter.
3396 It is possible to specify multiple sets of options and arguments with
3398 the sets separated by single hyphens. The specifications before the
3399 first hyphen (if any) are shared by all the remaining sets. The first
3400 word in every other set provides a name for the set which may appear in
3401 exclusion lists in specifications, either alone or before one of the
3402 possible values described above. In the second case a `-' should
3403 appear between this name and the remainder.
3404 For example:
3406 _arguments \
3408 -a \
3409 - set1 \
3410 -c \
3411 - set2 \
3412 -d \
3413 ':arg:(x2 y2)'
3414 This defines two sets. When the command line contains the option `-c',
3416 the `-d' option and the argument will not be considered possible com‐
3417 pletions. When it contains `-d' or an argument, the option `-c' will
3418 not be considered. However, after `-a' both sets will still be consid‐
3419 ered valid.
3420 If the name given for one of the mutually exclusive sets is of the form
3422 `(name)' then only one value from each set will ever be completed; more
3423 formally, all specifications are mutually exclusive to all other speci‐
3424 fications in the same set. This is useful for defining multiple sets
3425 of options which are mutually exclusive and in which the options are
3426 aliases for each other. For example:
3427 _arguments \
3429 -a -b \
3430 - '(compress)' \
3431 {-c,--compress}'[compress]' \
3432 - '(uncompress)' \
3433 {-d,--decompress}'[decompress]'
3434 As the completion code has to parse the command line separately for
3436 each set this form of argument is slow and should only be used when
3437 necessary. A useful alternative is often an option specification with
3438 rest-arguments (as in `-foo:*:...'); here the option -foo swallows up
3439 all remaining arguments as described by the optarg definitions.
3440 The options -S and -A are available to simplify the specifications for
3442 commands with standard option parsing. With -S, no option will be com‐
3443 pleted after a `--' appearing on its own on the line; this argument
3444 will otherwise be ignored; hence in the line
3445 foobar -a -- -b
3447 the `-a' is considered an option but the `-b' is considered an argu‐
3449 ment, while the `--' is considered to be neither.
3450 With -A, no options will be completed after the first non-option argu‐
3452 ment on the line. The -A must be followed by a pattern matching all
3453 strings which are not to be taken as arguments. For example, to make
3454 _arguments stop completing options after the first normal argument, but
3455 ignoring all strings starting with a hyphen even if they are not
3456 described by one of the optspecs, the form is `-A "-*"'.
3457 The option `-O name' specifies the name of an array whose elements will
3459 be passed as arguments to functions called to execute actions. For
3460 example, this can be used to pass the same set of options for the com‐
3461 padd builtin to all actions.
3462 The option `-M spec' sets a match specification to use to completion
3464 option names and values. It must appear before the first argument
3465 specification. The default is `r:|[_-]=* r:|=*': this allows partial
3466 word completion after `_' and `-', for example `-f-b' can be completed
3467 to `-foo-bar'.
3468 The option -C tells _arguments to modify the curcontext parameter for
3470 an action of the form `->state'. This is the standard parameter used
3471 to keep track of the current context. Here it (and not the context
3472 array) should be made local to the calling function to avoid passing
3473 back the modified value and should be initialised to the current value
3474 at the start of the function:
3475 local curcontext="$curcontext"
3477 This is useful where it is not possible for multiple states to be valid
3479 together.
3480 The option `--' allows _arguments to work out the names of long options
3482 that support the `--help' option which is standard in many GNU com‐
3483 mands. The command word is called with the argument `--help' and the
3484 output examined for option names. Clearly, it can be dangerous to pass
3485 this to commands which may not support this option as the behaviour of
3486 the command is unspecified.
3487 In addition to options, `_arguments --' will try to deduce the types of
3489 arguments available for options when the form `--opt=val' is valid. It
3490 is also possible to provide hints by examining the help text of the
3491 command and adding specifiers of the form `pattern:message:action';
3492 note that normal _arguments specifiers are not used. The pattern is
3493 matched against the help text for an option, and if it matches the mes‐
3494 sage and action are used as for other argument specifiers. For exam‐
3495 ple:
3496 _arguments -- '*\*:toggle:(yes no)' \
3498 '*=FILE*:file:_files' \
3499 '*=DIR*:directory:_files -/' \
3500 '*=PATH*:directory:_files -/'
3501 Here, `yes' and `no' will be completed as the argument of options whose
3503 description ends in a star; file names will be completed for options
3504 that contain the substring `=FILE' in the description; and directories
3505 will be completed for options whose description contains `=DIR' or
3506 `=PATH'. The last three are in fact the default and so need not be
3507 given explicitly, although it is possible to override the use of these
3508 patterns. A typical help text which uses this feature is:
3509 -C, --directory=DIR change to directory DIR
3511 so that the above specifications will cause directories to be completed
3513 after `--directory', though not after `-C'.
3514 Note also that _arguments tries to find out automatically if the argu‐
3516 ment for an option is optional. This can be specified explicitly by
3517 doubling the colon before the message.
3518 If the pattern ends in `(-)', this will removed from the pattern and
3520 the action will be used only directly after the `=', not in the next
3521 word. This is the behaviour of a normal specification defined with the
3522 form `=-'.
3523 The `_arguments --' can be followed by the option `-i patterns' to give
3525 patterns for options which are not to be completed. The patterns can
3526 be given as the name of an array parameter or as a literal list in
3527 parentheses. For example,
3528 _arguments -- -i \
3530 "(--(en|dis)able-FEATURE*)"
3531 will cause completion to ignore the options `--enable-FEATURE' and
3533 `--disable-FEATURE' (this example is useful with GNU configure).
3534 The `_arguments --' form can also be followed by the option `-s pair'
3536 to describe option aliases. Each pair consists of a pattern and a
3537 replacement. For example, some configure-scripts describe options only
3538 as `--enable-foo', but also accept `--disable-foo'. To allow comple‐
3539 tion of the second form:
3540 _arguments -- -s "(#--enable- --disable-)"
3542 Here is a more general example of the use of _arguments:
3544 _arguments '-l+:left border:' \
3546 '-format:paper size:(letter A4)' \
3547 '*-copy:output file:_files::resolution:(300 600)' \
3548 ':postscript file:_files -g \*.\(ps\|eps\)' \
3549 '*:page number:'
3550 This describes three options: `-l', `-format', and `-copy'. The first
3552 takes one argument described as `left border' for which no completion
3553 will be offered because of the empty action. Its argument may come
3554 directly after the `-l' or it may be given as the next word on the
3555 line.
3556 The `-format' option takes one argument in the next word, described as
3558 `paper size' for which only the strings `letter' and `A4' will be com‐
3559 pleted.
3560 The `-copy' option may appear more than once on the command line and
3562 takes two arguments. The first is mandatory and will be completed as a
3563 filename. The second is optional (because of the second colon before
3564 the description `resolution') and will be completed from the strings
3565 `300' and `600'.
3566 The last two descriptions say what should be completed as arguments.
3568 The first describes the first argument as a `postscript file' and makes
3569 files ending in `ps' or `eps' be completed. The last description gives
3570 all other arguments the description `page numbers' but does not offer
3571 completions.
3572 _cache_invalid cache_identifier
3574 This function returns status zero if the completions cache cor‐
3575 responding to the given cache identifier needs rebuilding. It
3576 determines this by looking up the cache-policy style for the
3577 current context. This should provide a function name which is
3578 run with the full path to the relevant cache file as the only
3579 argument.
3580 Example:
3582 _example_caching_policy () {
3584 # rebuild if cache is more than a week old
3585 local -a oldp
3586 oldp=( "$1"(Nmw+1) )
3587 (( $#oldp ))
3588 }
3589 _call_function return name [ args ... ]
3591 If a function name exists, it is called with the arguments args.
3592 The return argument gives the name of a parameter in which the
3593 return status from the function name; if return is empty or a
3594 single hyphen it is ignored.
3595 The return status of _call_function itself is zero if the func‐
3597 tion name exists and was called and non-zero otherwise.
3598 _call_program tag string ...
3600 This function provides a mechanism for the user to override the
3601 use of an external command. It looks up the command style with
3602 the supplied tag. If the style is set, its value is used as the
3603 command to execute. The strings from the call to _call_program,
3604 or from the style if set, are concatenated with spaces between
3605 them and the resulting string is evaluated. The return status
3606 is the return status of the command called.
3607 _combination [ -s pattern ] tag style spec ... field opts ...
3609 This function is used to complete combinations of values, for
3610 example pairs of hostnames and usernames. The style argument
3611 gives the style which defines the pairs; it is looked up in a
3612 context with the tag specified.
3613 The style name consists of field names separated by hyphens, for
3615 example `users-hosts-ports'. For each field for a value is
3616 already known, a spec of the form `field=pattern' is given. For
3617 example, if the command line so far specifies a user `pws', the
3618 argument `users=pws' should appear.
3619 The next argument with no equals sign is taken as the name of
3621 the field for which completions should be generated (presumably
3622 not one of the fields for which the value is known).
3623 The matches generated will be taken from the value of the style.
3625 These should contain the possible values for the combinations in
3626 the appropriate order (users, hosts, ports in the example
3627 above). The different fields the values for the different
3628 fields are separated by colons. This can be altered with the
3629 option -s to _combination which specifies a pattern. Typically
3630 this is a character class, as for example `-s "[:@]"' in the
3631 case of the users-hosts style. Each `field=pattern' specifi‐
3632 cation restricts the completions which apply to elements of the
3633 style with appropriately matching fields.
3634 If no style with the given name is defined for the given tag, or
3636 if none of the strings in style's value match, but a function
3637 name of the required field preceded by an underscore is defined,
3638 that function will be called to generate the matches. For exam‐
3639 ple, if there is no `users-hosts-ports' or no matching hostname
3640 when a host is required, the function `_hosts' will automati‐
3641 cally be called.
3642 If the same name is used for more than one field, in both the
3644 `field=pattern' and the argument that gives the name of the
3645 field to be completed, the number of the field (starting with
3646 one) may be given after the fieldname, separated from it by a
3647 colon.
3648 All arguments after the required field name are passed to com‐
3650 padd when generating matches from the style value, or to the
3651 functions for the fields if they are called.
3652 _describe [ -oO | -t tag ] descr name1 [ name2 ] opts ... -- ...
3654 This function associates completions with descriptions. Multi‐
3655 ple groups separated by -- can be supplied, potentially with
3656 different completion options opts.
3657 The descr is taken as a string to display above the matches if
3659 the format style for the descriptions tag is set. This is fol‐
3660 lowed by one or two names of arrays followed by options to pass
3661 to compadd. The first array contains the possible completions
3662 with their descriptions in the form `completion:description'.
3663 Any literal colons in completion must be quoted with a back‐
3664 slash. If a second array is given, it should have the same num‐
3665 ber of elements as the first; in this case the corresponding
3666 elements are added as possible completions instead of the com‐
3667 pletion strings from the first array. The completion list will
3668 retain the descriptions from the first array. Finally, a set of
3669 completion options can appear.
3670 If the option `-o' appears before the first argument, the
3672 matches added will be treated as names of command options (N.B.
3673 not shell options), typically following a `-', `--' or `+' on
3674 the command line. In this case _describe uses the prefix-hid‐
3675 den, prefix-needed and verbose styles to find out if the strings
3676 should be added as completions and if the descriptions should be
3677 shown. Without the `-o' option, only the verbose style is used
3678 to decide how descriptions are shown. If `-O' is used instead
3679 of `-O', command options are completed as above but _describe
3680 will not handle the prefix-needed style.
3681 With the -t option a tag can be specified. The default is `val‐
3683 ues' or, if the -o option is given, `options'.
3684 If selected by the list-grouped style, strings with the same
3686 description will appear together in the list.
3687 _describe uses the _all_labels function to generate the matches,
3689 so it does not need to appear inside a loop over tag labels.
3690 _description [ -x ] [ -12VJ ] tag name descr [ spec ... ]
3692 This function is not to be confused with the previous one; it is
3693 used as a helper function for creating options to compadd. It
3694 is buried inside many of the higher level completion functions
3695 and so often does not need to be called directly.
3696 The styles listed below are tested in the current context using
3698 the given tag. The resulting options for compadd are put into
3699 the array named name (this is traditionally `expl', but this
3700 convention is not enforced). The description for the corre‐
3701 sponding set of matches is passed to the function in descr.
3702 The styles tested are: format, hidden, matcher, ignored-patterns
3704 and group-name. The format style is first tested for the given
3705 tag and then for the descriptions tag if no value was found,
3706 while the remainder are only tested for the tag given as the
3707 first argument. The function also calls _setup which tests some
3708 more styles.
3709 The string returned by the format style (if any) will be modi‐
3711 fied so that the sequence `%d' is replaced by the descr given as
3712 the third argument without any leading or trailing white space.
3713 If, after removing the white space, the descr is the empty
3714 string, the format style will not be used and the options put
3715 into the name array will not contain an explanation string to be
3716 displayed above the matches.
3717 If _description is called with more than three arguments, the
3719 additional specs should be of the form `char:str'. These supply
3720 escape sequence replacements for the format style: every appear‐
3721 ance of `%char' will be replaced by string.
3722 If the -x option is given, the description will be passed to
3724 compadd using the -x option instead of the default -X. This
3725 means that the description will be displayed even if there are
3726 no corresponding matches.
3727 The options placed in the array name take account of the
3729 group-name style, so matches are placed in a separate group
3730 where necessary. The group normally has its elements sorted (by
3731 passing the option -J to compadd), but if an option starting
3732 with `-V', `-J', `-1', or `-2' is passed to _description, that
3733 option will be included in the array. Hence it is possible for
3734 the completion group to be unsorted by giving the option `-V',
3735 `-1V', or `-2V'.
3736 In most cases, the function will be used like this:
3738 local expl
3740 _description files expl file
3741 compadd "$expl[@]" - "$files[@]"
3742 Note the use of the parameter expl, the hyphen, and the list of
3744 matches. Almost all calls to compadd within the completion sys‐
3745 tem use a similar format; this ensures that user-specified
3746 styles are correctly passed down to the builtins which implement
3747 the internals of completion.
3748 _dispatch context string ...
3750 This sets the current context to context and looks for comple‐
3751 tion functions to handle this context by hunting through the
3752 list of command names or special contexts (as described above
3753 for compdef) given as string .... The first completion function
3754 to be defined for one of the contexts in the list is used to
3755 generate matches. Typically, the last string is -default- to
3756 cause the function for default completion to be used as a fall‐
3757 back.
3758 The function sets the parameter $service to the string being
3760 tried, and sets the context/command field (the fourth) of the
3761 $curcontext parameter to the context given as the first argu‐
3762 ment.
3763 _files The function _files calls _path_files with all the arguments it
3765 was passed except for -g and -/. The use of these two options
3766 depends on the setting of the file-patterns style.
3767 This function accepts the full set of options allowed by
3769 _path_files, described below.
3770 _gnu_generic
3772 This function is a simple wrapper around the _arguments function
3773 described above. It can be used to determine automatically the
3774 long options understood by commands that produce a list when
3775 passed the option `--help'. It is intended to be used as a
3776 top-level completion function in its own right. For example, to
3777 enable option completion for the commands foo and bar, use
3778 compdef _gnu_generic foo bar
3780 after the call to compinit.
3782 The completion system as supplied is conservative in its use of
3784 this function, since it is important to be sure the command
3785 understands the option `--help'.
3786 _guard [ options ] pattern descr
3788 This function is intended to be used in the action for the spec‐
3789 ifications passed to _arguments and similar functions. It
3790 returns immediately with a non-zero return status if the string
3791 to be completed does not match the pattern. If the pattern
3792 matches, the descr is displayed; the function then returns sta‐
3793 tus zero if the word to complete is not empty, non-zero other‐
3794 wise.
3795 The pattern may be preceded by any of the options understood by
3797 compadd that are passed down from _description, namely -M, -J,
3798 -V, -1, -2, -n, -F and -X. All of these options will be
3799 ignored. This fits in conveniently with the argument-passing
3800 conventions of actions for _arguments.
3801 As an example, consider a command taking the options -n and
3803 -none, where -n must be followed by a numeric value in the same
3804 word. By using:
3805 _arguments '-n-: :_guard "[0-9]#" "numeric value"' '-none'
3807 _arguments can be made to both display the message `numeric
3809 value' and complete options after `-n<TAB>'. If the `-n' is
3810 already followed by one or more digits (the pattern passed to
3811 _guard) only the message will be displayed; if the `-n' is fol‐
3812 lowed by another character, only options are completed.
3813 _message [ -r12 ] [ -VJ group ] descr
3815 _message -e [ tag ] descr
3816 The descr is used in the same way as the third argument to the
3817 _description function, except that the resulting string will
3818 always be shown whether or not matches were generated. This is
3819 useful for displaying a help message in places where no comple‐
3820 tions can be generated.
3821 The format style is examined with the messages tag to find a
3823 message; the usual tag, descriptions, is used only if the style
3824 is not set with the former.
3825 If the -r option is given, no style is used; the descr is taken
3827 literally as the string to display. This is most useful when
3828 the descr comes from a pre-processed argument list which already
3829 contains an expanded description.
3830 The -12VJ options and the group are passed to compadd and hence
3832 determine the group the message string is added to.
3833 The second form gives a description for completions with the tag
3835 tag to be shown even if there are no matches for that tag. The
3836 tag can be omitted and if so the tag is taken from the parameter
3837 $curtag; this is maintained by the completion system and so is
3838 usually correct.
3839 _multi_parts sep array
3841 The argument sep is a separator character. The array may be
3842 either the name of an array parameter or a literal array in the
3843 form `(foo bar)', a parenthesised list of words separated by
3844 whitespace. The possible completions are the strings from the
3845 array. However, each chunk delimited by sep will be completed
3846 separately. For example, the _tar function uses `_multi_parts /
3847 patharray' to complete partial file paths from the given array
3848 of complete file paths.
3849 The -i option causes _multi_parts to insert a unique match even
3851 if that requires multiple separators to be inserted. This is
3852 not usually the expected behaviour with filenames, but certain
3853 other types of completion, for example those with a fixed set of
3854 possibilities, may be more suited to this form.
3855 Like other utility functions, this function accepts the `-V',
3857 `-J', `-1', `-2', `-n', `-f', `-X', `-M', `-P', `-S', `-r',
3858 `-R', and `-q' options and passes them to the compadd builtin.
3859 _next_label [ -x ] [ -12VJ ] tag name descr [ options ... ]
3861 This function is used to implement the loop over different tag
3862 labels for a particular tag as described above for the tag-order
3863 style. On each call it checks to see if there are any more tag
3864 labels; if there is it returns status zero, otherwise non-zero.
3865 As this function requires a current tag to be set, it must
3866 always follow a call to _tags or _requested.
3867 The -x12VJ options and the first three arguments are passed to
3869 the _description function. Where appropriate the tag will be
3870 replaced by a tag label in this call. Any description given in
3871 the tag-order style is preferred to the descr passed to
3872 _next_label.
3873 The options given after the descr are set in the parameter given
3875 by name, and hence are to be passed to compadd or whatever func‐
3876 tion is called to add the matches.
3877 Here is a typical use of this function for the tag foo. The
3879 call to _requested determines if tag foo is required at all; the
3880 loop over _next_label handles any labels defined for the tag in
3881 the tag-order style.
3882 local expl ret=1
3884 ...
3885 if _requested foo; then
3886 ...
3887 while _next_label foo expl '...'; do
3888 compadd "$expl[@]" ... && ret=0
3889 done
3890 ...
3891 fi
3892 return ret
3893 _normal
3895 This is the standard function called to handle completion out‐
3896 side any special -context-. It is called both to complete the
3897 command word and also the arguments for a command. In the sec‐
3898 ond case, _normal looks for a special completion for that com‐
3899 mand, and if there is none it uses the completion for the
3900 -default- context.
3901 A second use is to reexamine the command line specified by the
3903 $words array and the $CURRENT parameter after those have been
3904 modified. For example, the function _precommand, which com‐
3905 pletes after pre-command specifiers such as nohup, removes the
3906 first word from the words array, decrements the CURRENT parame‐
3907 ter, then calls _normal again. The effect is that `nohup cmd
3908 ...' is treated in the same way as `cmd ...'.
3909 If the command name matches one of the patterns given by one of
3911 the options -p or -P to compdef, the corresponding completion
3912 function is called and then the parameter _compskip is checked.
3913 If it is set completion is terminated at that point even if no
3914 matches have been found. This is the same effect as in the
3915 -first- context.
3916 _options
3918 This can be used to complete the names of shell options. It
3919 provides a matcher specification that ignores a leading `no',
3920 ignores underscores and allows upper-case letters to match their
3921 lower-case counterparts (for example, `glob', `noglob',
3922 `NO_GLOB' are all completed). Any arguments are propagated to
3923 the compadd builtin.
3924 _options_set and _options_unset
3926 These functions complete only set or unset options, with the
3927 same matching specification used in the _options function.
3928 Note that you need to uncomment a few lines in the _main_com‐
3930 plete function for these functions to work properly. The lines
3931 in question are used to store the option settings in effect
3932 before the completion widget locally sets the options it needs.
3933 Hence these functions are not generally used by the completion
3934 system.
3935 _parameters
3937 This is used to complete the names of shell parameters.
3938 The option `-g pattern' limits the completion to parameters
3940 whose type matches the pattern. The type of a parameter is that
3941 shown by `print ${(t)param}', hence judicious use of `*' in pat‐
3942 tern is probably necessary.
3943 All other arguments are passed to the compadd builtin.
3945 _path_files
3947 This function is used throughout the completion system to com‐
3948 plete filenames. It allows completion of partial paths. For
3949 example, the string `/u/i/s/sig' may be completed to
3950 `/usr/include/sys/signal.h'.
3951 The options accepted by both _path_files and _files are:
3953 -f Complete all filenames. This is the default.
3955 -/ Specifies that only directories should be completed.
3957 -g pattern
3959 Specifies that only files matching the pattern should be
3960 completed.
3961 -W paths
3963 Specifies path prefixes that are to be prepended to the
3964 string from the command line to generate the filenames
3965 but that should not be inserted as completions nor shown
3966 in completion listings. Here, paths may be the name of
3967 an array parameter, a literal list of paths enclosed in
3968 parentheses or an absolute pathname.
3969 -F ignored-files
3971 This behaves as for the corresponding option to the com‐
3972 padd builtin. It gives direct control over which file‐
3973 names should be ignored. If the option is not present,
3974 the ignored-patterns style is used.
3975 Both _path_files and _files also accept the following options
3977 which are passed to compadd: `-J', `-V', `-1', `-2', `-n', `-X',
3978 `-M', `-P', `-S', `-q', `-r', and `-R'.
3979 Finally, the _path_files function uses the styles expand,
3981 ambiguous, special-dirs, list-suffixes and file-sort described
3982 above.
3983 _pick_variant [ -c command ] [ -r name ] label=pattern ... label [ args
3985 ... ]
3986 This function is used to resolve situations where a single com‐
3987 mand name requires more than one type of handling, either
3988 because it has more than one variant or because there is a name
3989 clash between two different commands.
3990 The command to run is taken from the first element of the array
3992 words unless this is overridden by the option -c. This command
3993 is run and its output is compared with a series of patterns.
3994 Arguments to be passed to the command can be specified at the
3995 end after all the other arguments. The patterns to try in order
3996 are given by the arguments label=pattern; if the output of `com‐
3997 mand args ...' contains pattern, then label is selected as the
3998 label for the command variant. If none of the patterns match,
3999 the final command label is selected and status 1 is returned.
4000 If the `-r name' is given, the label picked is stored in the
4002 parameter named name.
4003 The results are also cached in the _cmd_variant associative
4005 array indexed by the name of the command run.
4006 _regex_arguments name spec ...
4008 This function generates a completion function name which matches
4009 the specifications spec ..., a set of regular expressions as
4010 described below. After running _regex_arguments, the function
4011 name should be called as a normal completion function. The pat‐
4012 tern to be matched is given by the contents of the words array
4013 up to the current cursor position joined together with null
4014 characters; no quotation is applied.
4015 The arguments are grouped as sets of alternatives separated by
4017 `|', which are tried one after the other until one matches.
4018 Each alternative consists of a one or more specifications which
4019 are tried left to right, with each pattern matched being
4020 stripped in turn from the command line being tested, until all
4021 of the group succeeds or until one fails; in the latter case,
4022 the next alternative is tried. This structure can be repeated
4023 to arbitrary depth by using parentheses; matching proceeds from
4024 inside to outside.
4025 A special procedure is applied if no test succeeds but the
4027 remaining command line string contains no null character (imply‐
4028 ing the remaining word is the one for which completions are to
4029 be generated). The completion target is restricted to the
4030 remaining word and any actions for the corresponding patterns
4031 are executed. In this case, nothing is stripped from the com‐
4032 mand line string. The order of evaluation of the actions can be
4033 determined by the tag-order style; the various formats supported
4034 by _alternative can be used in action. The descr is used for
4035 setting up the array parameter expl.
4036 Specification arguments take one of following forms, in which
4038 metacharacters such as `(', `)', `#' and `|' should be quoted.
4039 /pattern/ [%lookahead%] [-guard] [:tag:descr:action]
4041 This is a single primitive component. The function tests
4042 whether the combined pattern `(#b)((#B)pattern)looka‐
4043 head*' matches the command line string. If so, `guard'
4044 is evaluated and its return status is examined to deter‐
4045 mine if the test has succeeded. The pattern string `[]'
4046 is guaranteed never to match. The lookahead is not
4047 stripped from the command line before the next pattern is
4048 examined.
4049 The argument starting with : is used in the same manner
4051 as an argument to _alternative.
4052 A component is used as follows: pattern is tested to see
4054 if the component already exists on the command line. If
4055 it does, any following specifications are examined to
4056 find something to complete. If a component is reached
4057 but no such pattern exists yet on the command line, the
4058 string containing the action is used to generate matches
4059 to insert at that point.
4060 /pattern/+ [%lookahead%] [-guard] [:tag:descr:action]
4062 This is similar to `/pattern/ ...' but the left part of
4063 the command line string (i.e. the part already matched by
4064 previous patterns) is also considered part of the comple‐
4065 tion target.
4066 /pattern/- [%lookahead%] [-guard] [:tag:descr:action]
4068 This is similar to `/pattern/ ...' but the actions of the
4069 current and previously matched patterns are ignored even
4070 if the following `pattern' matches the empty string.
4071 ( spec )
4073 Parentheses may be used to groups specs; note each paren‐
4074 thesis is a single argument to _regex_arguments.
4075 spec # This allows any number of repetitions of spec.
4077 spec spec
4079 The two specs are to be matched one after the other as
4080 described above.
4081 spec | spec
4083 Either of the two specs can be matched.
4084 The function _regex_words can be used as a helper function to
4086 generate matches for a set of alternative words possibly with
4087 their own arguments as a command line argument.
4088 Examples:
4090 _regex_arguments _tst /$'[^\0]#\0'/ \
4092 /$'[^\0]#\0'/ :'compadd aaa'
4093 This generates a function _tst that completes aaa as its only
4095 argument. The tag and description for the action have been
4096 omitted for brevity (this works but is not recommended in normal
4097 use). The first component matches the command word, which is
4098 arbitrary; the second matches any argument. As the argument is
4099 also arbitrary, any following component would not depend on aaa
4100 being present.
4101 _regex_arguments _tst /$'[^\0]#\0'/ \
4103 /$'aaa\0'/ :'compadd aaa'
4104 This is a more typical use; it is similar, but any following
4106 patterns would only match if aaa was present as the first argu‐
4107 ment.
4108 _regex_arguments _tst /$'[^\0]#\0'/ \( \
4110 /$'aaa\0'/ :'compadd aaa' \
4111 /$'bbb\0'/ :'compadd bbb' \) \#
4112 In this example, an indefinite number of command arguments may
4114 be completed. Odd arguments are completed as aaa and even argu‐
4115 ments as bbb. Completion fails unless the set of aaa and bbb
4116 arguments before the current one is matched correctly.
4117 _regex_arguments _tst /$'[^\0]#\0'/ \
4119 \( /$'aaa\0'/ :'compadd aaa' \| \
4120 /$'bbb\0'/ :'compadd bbb' \) \#
4121 This is similar, but either aaa or bbb may be completed for any
4123 argument. In this case _regex_words could be used to generate a
4124 suitable expression for the arguments.
4125 _regex_words tag description spec ...
4127 This function can be used to generate arguments for the
4128 _regex_arguments command which may be inserted at any point
4129 where a set of rules is expected. The tag and description give
4130 a standard tag and description pertaining to the current con‐
4131 text. Each spec contains two or three arguments separated by a
4132 colon: note that there is no leading colon in this case.
4133 Each spec gives one of a set of words that may be completed at
4135 this point, together with arguments. It is thus roughly equiva‐
4136 lent to the _arguments function when used in normal (non-regex)
4137 completion.
4138 The part of the spec before the first colon is the word to be
4140 completed. This may contain a *; the entire word, before and
4141 after the * is completed, but only the text before the * is
4142 required for the context to be matched, so that further argu‐
4143 ments may be completed after the abbreviated form.
4144 The second part of spec is a description for the word being com‐
4146 pleted.
4147 The optional third part of the spec describes how words follow‐
4149 ing the one being completed are themselves to be completed. It
4150 will be evaluated in order to avoid problems with quoting. This
4151 means that typically it contains a reference to an array con‐
4152 taining previously generated regex arguments.
4153 The option -t term specifies a terminator for the word instead
4155 of the usual space. This is handled as an auto-removable suffix
4156 in the manner of the option -s sep to _values.
4157 The result of the processing by _regex_words is placed in the
4159 array reply, which should be made local to the calling function.
4160 If the set of words and arguments may be matched repeatedly, a #
4161 should be appended to the generated array at that point.
4162 For example:
4164 local -a reply
4166 _regex_words mydb-commands 'mydb commands' \
4167 'add:add an entry to mydb:$mydb_add_cmds' \
4168 'show:show entries in mydb'
4169 _regex_arguments _mydb "$reply[@]"
4170 _mydb "$@"
4171 This shows a completion function for a command mydb which takes
4173 two command arguments, add and show. show takes no arguments,
4174 while the arguments for add have already been prepared in an
4175 array mydb_add_cmds, quite possibly by a previous call to
4176 _regex_words.
4177 _requested [ -x ] [ -12VJ ] tag [ name descr [ command args ... ] ]
4179 This function is called to decide whether a tag already regis‐
4180 tered by a call to _tags (see below) has been requested by the
4181 user and hence completion should be performed for it. It
4182 returns status zero if the tag is requested and non-zero other‐
4183 wise. The function is typically used as part of a loop over
4184 different tags as follows:
4185 _tags foo bar baz
4187 while _tags; do
4188 if _requested foo; then
4189 ... # perform completion for foo
4190 fi
4191 ... # test the tags bar and baz in the same way
4192 ... # exit loop if matches were generated
4193 done
4194 Note that the test for whether matches were generated is not
4196 performed until the end of the _tags loop. This is so that the
4197 user can set the tag-order style to specify a set of tags to be
4198 completed at the same time.
4199 If name and descr are given, _requested calls the _description
4201 function with these arguments together with the options passed
4202 to _requested.
4203 If command is given, the _all_labels function will be called
4205 immediately with the same arguments. In simple cases this makes
4206 it possible to perform the test for the tag and the matching in
4207 one go. For example:
4208 local expl ret=1
4210 _tags foo bar baz
4211 while _tags; do
4212 _requested foo expl 'description' \
4213 compadd foobar foobaz && ret=0
4214 ...
4215 (( ret )) || break
4216 done
4217 If the command is not compadd, it must nevertheless be prepared
4219 to handle the same options.
4220 _retrieve_cache cache_identifier
4222 This function retrieves completion information from the file
4223 given by cache_identifier, stored in a directory specified by
4224 the cache-path style which defaults to ~/.zcompcache. The
4225 return status is zero if retrieval was successful. It will only
4226 attempt retrieval if the use-cache style is set, so you can call
4227 this function without worrying about whether the user wanted to
4228 use the caching layer.
4229 See _store_cache below for more details.
4231 _sep_parts
4233 This function is passed alternating arrays and separators as
4234 arguments. The arrays specify completions for parts of strings
4235 to be separated by the separators. The arrays may be the names
4236 of array parameters or a quoted list of words in parentheses.
4237 For example, with the array `hosts=(ftp news)' the call
4238 `_sep_parts '(foo bar)' @ hosts' will complete the string `f'
4239 to `foo' and the string `b@n' to `bar@news'.
4240 This function accepts the compadd options `-V', `-J', `-1',
4242 `-2', `-n', `-X', `-M', `-P', `-S', `-r', `-R', and `-q' and
4243 passes them on to the compadd builtin used to add the matches.
4244 _setup tag [ group ]
4246 This function sets up the special parameters used by the comple‐
4247 tion system appropriately for the tag given as the first argu‐
4248 ment. It uses the styles list-colors, list-packed,
4249 list-rows-first, last-prompt, accept-exact, menu and force-list.
4250 The optional group supplies the name of the group in which the
4252 matches will be placed. If it is not given, the tag is used as
4253 the group name.
4254 This function is called automatically from _description and
4256 hence is not normally called explicitly.
4257 _store_cache cache_identifier params ...
4259 This function, together with _retrieve_cache and _cache_invalid,
4260 implements a caching layer which can be used in any completion
4261 function. Data obtained by costly operations are stored in
4262 parameters; this function then dumps the values of those parame‐
4263 ters to a file. The data can then be retrieved quickly from
4264 that file via _retrieve_cache, even in different instances of
4265 the shell.
4266 The cache_identifier specifies the file which the data should be
4268 dumped to. The file is stored in a directory specified by the
4269 cache-path style which defaults to ~/.zcompcache. The remaining
4270 params arguments are the parameters to dump to the file.
4271 The return status is zero if storage was successful. The func‐
4273 tion will only attempt storage if the use-cache style is set, so
4274 you can call this function without worrying about whether the
4275 user wanted to use the caching layer.
4276 The completion function may avoid calling _retrieve_cache when
4278 it already has the completion data available as parameters.
4279 However, in that case it should call _cache_invalid to check
4280 whether the data in the parameters and in the cache are still
4281 valid.
4282 See the _perl_modules completion function for a simple example
4284 of the usage of the caching layer.
4285 _tags [ [ -C name ] tags ... ]
4287 If called with arguments, these are taken to be the names of
4288 tags valid for completions in the current context. These tags
4289 are stored internally and sorted by using the tag-order style.
4290 Next, _tags is called repeatedly without arguments from the same
4292 completion function. This successively selects the first, sec‐
4293 ond, etc. set of tags requested by the user. The return status
4294 is zero if at least one of the tags is requested and non-zero
4295 otherwise. To test if a particular tag is to be tried, the
4296 _requested function should be called (see above).
4297 If `-C name' is given, name is temporarily stored in the argu‐
4299 ment field (the fifth) of the context in the curcontext parame‐
4300 ter during the call to _tags; the field is restored on exit.
4301 This allows _tags to use a more specific context without having
4302 to change and reset the curcontext parameter (which has the same
4303 effect).
4304 _values [ -O name ] [ -s sep ] [ -S sep ] [ -wC ] desc spec ...
4306 This is used to complete arbitrary keywords (values) and their
4307 arguments, or lists of such combinations.
4308 If the first argument is the option `-O name', it will be used
4310 in the same way as by the _arguments function. In other words,
4311 the elements of the name array will be passed to compadd when
4312 executing an action.
4313 If the first argument (or the first argument after `-O name') is
4315 `-s', the next argument is used as the character that separates
4316 multiple values. This character is automatically added after
4317 each value in an auto-removable fashion (see below); all values
4318 completed by `_values -s' appear in the same word on the command
4319 line, unlike completion using _arguments. If this option is not
4320 present, only a single value will be completed per word.
4321 Normally, _values will only use the current word to determine
4323 which values are already present on the command line and hence
4324 are not to be completed again. If the -w option is given, other
4325 arguments are examined as well.
4326 The first non-option argument is used as a string to print as a
4328 description before listing the values.
4329 All other arguments describe the possible values and their argu‐
4331 ments in the same format used for the description of options by
4332 the _arguments function (see above). The only differences are
4333 that no minus or plus sign is required at the beginning, values
4334 can have only one argument, and the forms of action beginning
4335 with an equal sign are not supported.
4336 The character separating a value from its argument can be set
4338 using the option -S (like -s, followed by the character to use
4339 as the separator in the next argument). By default the equals
4340 sign will be used as the separator between values and arguments.
4341 Example:
4343 _values -s , 'description' \
4345 '*foo[bar]' \
4346 '(two)*one[number]:first count:' \
4347 'two[another number]::second count:(1 2 3)'
4348 This describes three possible values: `foo', `one', and `two'.
4350 The first is described as `bar', takes no argument and may
4351 appear more than once. The second is described as `number', may
4352 appear more than once, and takes one mandatory argument
4353 described as `first count'; no action is specified, so it will
4354 not be completed. The `(two)' at the beginning says that if the
4355 value `one' is on the line, the value `two' will no longer be
4356 considered a possible completion. Finally, the last value
4357 (`two') is described as `another number' and takes an optional
4358 argument described as `second count' for which the completions
4359 (to appear after an `=') are `1', `2', and `3'. The _values
4360 function will complete lists of these values separated by com‐
4361 mas.
4362 Like _arguments, this function temporarily adds another context
4364 name component to the arguments element (the fifth) of the cur‐
4365 rent context while executing the action. Here this name is just
4366 the name of the value for which the argument is completed.
4367 The style verbose is used to decide if the descriptions for the
4369 values (but not those for the arguments) should be printed.
4370 The associative array val_args is used to report values and
4372 their arguments; this works similarly to the opt_args associa‐
4373 tive array used by _arguments. Hence the function calling _val‐
4374 ues should declare the local parameters state, line, context and
4375 val_args:
4376 local context state line
4378 typeset -A val_args
4379 when using an action of the form `->string'. With this function
4381 the context parameter will be set to the name of the value whose
4382 argument is to be completed.
4383 Note also that _values normally adds the character used as the
4385 separator between values as an auto-removable suffix (similar to
4386 a `/' after a directory). However, this is not possible for a
4387 `->string' action as the matches for the argument are generated
4388 by the calling function. To get the usual behaviour, the the
4389 calling function can add the separator x as a suffix by passing
4390 the options `-qS x' either directly or indirectly to compadd.
4391 The option -C is treated in the same way as it is by _arguments.
4393 In that case the parameter curcontext should be made local
4394 instead of context (as described above).
4395 _wanted [ -x ] [ -C name ] [ -12VJ ] tag name descr command args ...
4397 In many contexts, completion can only generate one particular
4398 set of matches, usually corresponding to a single tag. However,
4399 it is still necessary to decide whether the user requires
4400 matches of this type. This function is useful in such a case.
4401 The arguments to _wanted are the same as those to _requested,
4403 i.e. arguments to be passed to _description. However, in this
4404 case the command is not optional; all the processing of tags,
4405 including the loop over both tags and tag labels and the genera‐
4406 tion of matches, is carried out automatically by _wanted.
4407 Hence to offer only one tag and immediately add the correspond‐
4409 ing matches with the given description:
4410 local expl
4412 _wanted tag expl 'description' \
4413 compadd matches...
4414 Note that, as for _requested, the command must be able to accept
4416 options to be passed down to compadd.
4417 Like _tags this function supports the -C option to give a dif‐
4419 ferent name for the argument context field. The -x option has
4420 the same meaning as for _description.
4421
4423 In the source distribution, the files are contained in various subdi‐
4424 rectories of the Completion directory. They may have been installed in
4425 the same structure, or into one single function directory. The follow‐
4426 ing is a description of the files found in the original directory
4427 structure. If you wish to alter an installed file, you will need to
4428 copy it to some directory which appears earlier in your fpath than the
4429 standard directory where it appears.
4430 Base The core functions and special completion widgets automatically
4432 bound to keys. You will certainly need most of these, though
4433 will probably not need to alter them. Many of these are docu‐
4434 mented above.
4435 Zsh Functions for completing arguments of shell builtin commands and
4437 utility functions for this. Some of these are also used by
4438 functions from the Unix directory.
4439 Unix Functions for completing arguments of external commands and
4441 suites of commands. They may need modifying for your system,
4442 although in many cases some attempt is made to decide which ver‐
4443 sion of a command is present. For example, completion for the
4444 mount command tries to determine the system it is running on,
4445 while completion for many other utilities try to decide whether
4446 the GNU version of the command is in use, and hence whether the
4447 --help option is supported.
4448 X, AIX, BSD, ...
4450 Completion and utility function for commands available only on
4451 some systems. These are not arranged hierarchically, so, for
4452 example, both the Linux and Debian directories, as well as the X
4453 directory, may be useful on your system.
4454zsh 4.3.10 June 1, 2009 ZSHCOMPSYS(1)