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 provides compatibility with bash's program‐
181 mable completion system. When run it will define the functions, comp‐
182 gen and complete which correspond to the bash builtins with the same
183 names. It will then be possible to use completion specifications and
184 functions 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 to the path: this allows the functions to be in the
200 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 name ... [ -{p|P} pattern ... [ -N name ... ] ]
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-sequence ...
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 it already was (that is, was bound to some‐
252 thing 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-sequence [ name style seq ... ]
257 This is similar to -k except that only one key-sequence argument
258 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 (`name=(...)')
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 be.
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 on the left hand side of the assignment.
353 In the case of elements of an associative array, for example
354 `assoc=(key <TAB>', name is expanded to `name-key'. In certain special
355 contexts, such as completing after `make CFLAGS=', the command part
356 gives the name of the command, here 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 [ -ane ] function name ... [ -{p|P} pattern ... [ -N name ...]]
394 compdef -d name ...
395 compdef -k [ -an ] function style key-sequence [ key-sequence ... ]
396 compdef -K [ -an ] function name style key-seq [ name style seq ... ]
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 almost any shell code. If the string contains an equal sign,
407 the above will take precedence. The option -e may be used to
408 specify the first argument is to be evaluated as shell code even
409 if it contains an equal sign. The string will be executed using
410 the eval builtin command to generate completions. This provides
411 a way of avoiding having to define a new completion function.
412 For example, to complete files ending in `.h' as arguments to
413 the command foo:
414 compdef '_files -g "*.h"' foo
416 The option -n prevents any completions already defined for the
418 command or context from being overwritten.
419 The option -d deletes any completion defined for the command or
421 contexts listed.
422 The names may also contain -p, -P and -N options as described
424 for the #compdef tag. The effect on the argument list is iden‐
425 tical, switching between definitions of patterns tried ini‐
426 tially, patterns tried finally, and normal commands and con‐
427 texts.
428 The parameter $_compskip may be set by any function defined for
430 a pattern context. If it is set to a value containing the sub‐
431 string `patterns' none of the pattern-functions will be called;
432 if it is set to a value containing the substring `all', no other
433 function will be called. Setting $_compskip in this manner is
434 of particular utility when using the -p option, as otherwise the
435 dispatcher will move on to additional functions (likely the
436 default one) after calling the pattern-context one, which can
437 mangle the display of completion possibilities if not handled
438 properly.
439 The form with -k defines a widget with the same name as the
441 function that will be called for each of the key-sequences; this
442 is like the #compdef -k tag. The function should generate the
443 completions needed and will otherwise behave like the builtin
444 widget whose name is given as the style argument. The widgets
445 usable for this are: complete-word, delete-char-or-list,
446 expand-or-complete, expand-or-complete-prefix, list-choices,
447 menu-complete, menu-expand-or-complete, and reverse-menu-com‐
448 plete, as well as menu-select if the zsh/complist module is
449 loaded. The option -n prevents the key being bound if it is
450 already to bound to something other than undefined-key.
451 The form with -K is similar and defines multiple widgets based
453 on the same function, each of which requires the set of three
454 arguments name, style and key-sequence, where the latter two are
455 as for -k and the first must be a unique widget name beginning
456 with an underscore.
457 Wherever applicable, the -a option makes the function autoload‐
459 able, equivalent to autoload -U function.
460 The function compdef can be used to associate existing completion func‐
462 tions with new commands. For example,
463 compdef _pids foo
465 uses the function _pids to complete process IDs for the command foo.
467 Note also the _gnu_generic function described below, which can be used
469 to complete options for commands that understand the `--help' option.
470
472 This section gives a short overview of how the completion system works,
473 and then more detail on how users can configure how and when matches
474 are generated.
475 Overview
477 When completion is attempted somewhere on the command line the comple‐
478 tion system begins building the context. The context represents every‐
479 thing that the shell knows about the meaning of the command line and
480 the significance of the cursor position. This takes account of a num‐
481 ber of things including the command word (such as `grep' or `zsh') and
482 options to which the current word may be an argument (such as the `-o'
483 option to zsh which takes a shell option as an argument).
484 The context starts out very generic ("we are beginning a completion")
486 and becomes more specific as more is learned ("the current word is in a
487 position that is usually a command name" or "the current word might be
488 a variable name" and so on). Therefore the context will vary during
489 the same call to the completion system.
490 This context information is condensed into a string consisting of mul‐
492 tiple fields separated by colons, referred to simply as `the context'
493 in the remainder of the documentation. Note that a user of the comple‐
494 tion system rarely needs to compose a context string, unless for exam‐
495 ple a new function is being written to perform completion for a new
496 command. What a user may need to do is compose a style pattern, which
497 is matched against a context when needed to look up context-sensitive
498 options that configure the completion system.
499 The next few paragraphs explain how a context is composed within the
501 completion function suite. Following that is discussion of how styles
502 are defined. Styles determine such things as how the matches are gen‐
503 erated, similarly to shell options but with much more control. They
504 are defined with the zstyle builtin command (see zshmodules(1)).
505 The context string always consists of a fixed set of fields, separated
507 by colons and with a leading colon before the first. Fields which are
508 not yet known are left empty, but the surrounding colons appear anyway.
509 The fields are always in the order :completion:function:completer:com‐
510 mand:argument:tag. These have the following meaning:
511 · The literal string completion, saying that this style is used by
513 the completion system. This distinguishes the context from
514 those used by, for example, zle widgets and ZFTP functions.
515 · The function, if completion is called from a named widget rather
518 than through the normal completion system. Typically this is
519 blank, but it is set by special widgets such as predict-on and
520 the various functions in the Widget directory of the distribu‐
521 tion to the name of that function, often in an abbreviated form.
522 · The completer currently active, the name of the function without
525 the leading underscore and with other underscores converted to
526 hyphens. A `completer' is in overall control of how completion
527 is to be performed; `complete' is the simplest, but other com‐
528 pleters exist to perform related tasks such as correction, or to
529 modify the behaviour of a later completer. See the section
530 `Control Functions' below for more information.
531 · The command or a special -context-, just at it appears following
534 the #compdef tag or the compdef function. Completion functions
535 for commands that have sub-commands usually modify this field to
536 contain the name of the command followed by a minus sign and the
537 sub-command. For example, the completion function for the cvs
538 command sets this field to cvs-add when completing arguments to
539 the add subcommand.
540 · The argument; this indicates which command line or option argu‐
543 ment we are completing. For command arguments this generally
544 takes the form argument-n, where n is the number of the argu‐
545 ment, and for arguments to options the form option-opt-n where n
546 is the number of the argument to option opt. However, this is
547 only the case if the command line is parsed with standard
548 UNIX-style options and arguments, so many completions do not set
549 this.
550 · The tag. As described previously, tags are used to discriminate
553 between the types of matches a completion function can generate
554 in a certain context. Any completion function may use any tag
555 name it likes, but a list of the more common ones is given
556 below.
557 The context is gradually put together as the functions are executed,
560 starting with the main entry point, which adds :completion: and the
561 function element if necessary. The completer then adds the completer
562 element. The contextual completion adds the command and argument
563 options. Finally, the tag is added when the types of completion are
564 known. For example, the context name
565 :completion::complete:dvips:option-o-1:files
567 says that normal completion was attempted as the first argument to the
569 option -o of the command dvips:
570 dvips -o ...
572 and the completion function will generate filenames.
574 Usually completion will be tried for all possible tags in an order
576 given by the completion function. However, this can be altered by
577 using the tag-order style. Completion is then restricted to the list
578 of given tags in the given order.
579 The _complete_help bindable command shows all the contexts and tags
581 available for completion at a particular point. This provides an easy
582 way of finding information for tag-order and other styles. It is
583 described in the section `Bindable Commands' below.
584 When looking up styles the completion system uses full context names,
586 including the tag. Looking up the value of a style therefore consists
587 of two things: the context, which is matched to the most specific (best
588 fitting) style pattern, and the name of the style itself, which must be
589 matched exactly. The following examples demonstrate that style pat‐
590 terns may be loosely defined for styles that apply broadly, or as
591 tightly defined as desired for styles that apply in narrower circum‐
592 stances.
593 For example, many completion functions can generate matches in a simple
595 and a verbose form and use the verbose style to decide which form
596 should be used. To make all such functions use the verbose form, put
597 zstyle ':completion:*' verbose yes
599 in a startup file (probably .zshrc). This gives the verbose style the
601 value yes in every context inside the completion system, unless that
602 context has a more specific definition. It is best to avoid giving the
603 context as `*' in case the style has some meaning outside the comple‐
604 tion system.
605 Many such general purpose styles can be configured simply by using the
607 compinstall function.
608 A more specific example of the use of the verbose style is by the com‐
610 pletion for the kill builtin. If the style is set, the builtin lists
611 full job texts and process command lines; otherwise it shows the bare
612 job numbers and PIDs. To turn the style off for this use only:
613 zstyle ':completion:*:*:kill:*:*' verbose no
615 For even more control, the style can use one of the tags `jobs' or
617 `processes'. To turn off verbose display only for jobs:
618 zstyle ':completion:*:*:kill:*:jobs' verbose no
620 The -e option to zstyle even allows completion function code to appear
622 as the argument to a style; this requires some understanding of the
623 internals of completion functions (see see zshcompwid(1))). For exam‐
624 ple,
625 zstyle -e ':completion:*' hosts 'reply=($myhosts)'
627 This forces the value of the hosts style to be read from the variable
629 myhosts each time a host name is needed; this is useful if the value of
630 myhosts can change dynamically. For another useful example, see the
631 example in the description of the file-list style below. This form can
632 be slow and should be avoided for commonly examined styles such as menu
633 and list-rows-first.
634 Note that the order in which styles are defined does not matter; the
636 style mechanism uses the most specific possible match for a particular
637 style to determine the set of values. More precisely, strings are pre‐
638 ferred over patterns (for example, `:completion::complete:::foo' is
639 more specific than `:completion::complete:::*'), and longer patterns
640 are preferred over shorter patterns.
641 A good rule of thumb is that any completion style pattern that needs to
643 include more than one wildcard (*) and that does not end in a tag name,
644 should include all six colons (:), possibly surrounding additional
645 wildcards.
646 Style names like those of tags are arbitrary and depend on the comple‐
648 tion function. However, the following two sections list some of the
649 most common tags and styles.
650 Standard Tags
652 Some of the following are only used when looking up particular styles
653 and do not refer to a type of match.
654 accounts
656 used to look up the users-hosts style
657 all-expansions
659 used by the _expand completer when adding the single string con‐
660 taining all possible expansions
661 all-files
663 for the names of all files (as distinct from a particular sub‐
664 set, see the globbed-files tag).
665 arguments
667 for arguments to a command
668 arrays for names of array parameters
670 association-keys
672 for keys of associative arrays; used when completing inside a
673 subscript to a parameter of this type
674 bookmarks
676 when completing bookmarks (e.g. for URLs and the zftp function
677 suite)
678 builtins
680 for names of builtin commands
681 characters
683 for single characters in arguments of commands such as stty.
684 Also used when completing character classes after an opening
685 bracket
686 colormapids
688 for X colormap ids
689 colors for color names
691 commands
693 for names of external commands. Also used by complex commands
694 such as cvs when completing names subcommands.
695 contexts
697 for contexts in arguments to the zstyle builtin command
698 corrections
700 used by the _approximate and _correct completers for possible
701 corrections
702 cursors
704 for cursor names used by X programs
705 default
707 used in some contexts to provide a way of supplying a default
708 when more specific tags are also valid. Note that this tag is
709 used when only the function field of the context name is set
710 descriptions
712 used when looking up the value of the format style to generate
713 descriptions for types of matches
714 devices
716 for names of device special files
717 directories
719 for names of directories -- local-directories is used instead
720 when completing arguments of cd and related builtin commands
721 when the cdpath array is set
722 directory-stack
724 for entries in the directory stack
725 displays
727 for X display names
728 domains
730 for network domains
731 email-plugin
733 for email addresses from the `_email-plugin' backend of
734 _email_addresses
735 expansions
737 used by the _expand completer for individual words (as opposed
738 to the complete set of expansions) resulting from the expansion
739 of a word on the command line
740 extensions
742 for X server extensions
743 file-descriptors
745 for numbers of open file descriptors
746 files the generic file-matching tag used by functions completing file‐
748 names
749 fonts for X font names
751 fstypes
753 for file system types (e.g. for the mount command)
754 functions
756 names of functions -- normally shell functions, although certain
757 commands may understand other kinds of function
758 globbed-files
760 for filenames when the name has been generated by pattern match‐
761 ing
762 groups for names of user groups
764 history-words
766 for words from the history
767 hosts for hostnames
769 indexes
771 for array indexes
772 jobs for jobs (as listed by the `jobs' builtin)
774 interfaces
776 for network interfaces
777 keymaps
779 for names of zsh keymaps
780 keysyms
782 for names of X keysyms
783 libraries
785 for names of system libraries
786 limits for system limits
788 local-directories
790 for names of directories that are subdirectories of the current
791 working directory when completing arguments of cd and related
792 builtin commands (compare path-directories) -- when the cdpath
793 array is unset, directories is used instead
794 manuals
796 for names of manual pages
797 mailboxes
799 for e-mail folders
800 maps for map names (e.g. NIS maps)
802 messages
804 used to look up the format style for messages
805 modifiers
807 for names of X modifiers
808 modules
810 for modules (e.g. zsh modules)
811 my-accounts
813 used to look up the users-hosts style
814 named-directories
816 for named directories (you wouldn't have guessed that, would
817 you?)
818 names for all kinds of names
820 newsgroups
822 for USENET groups
823 nicknames
825 for nicknames of NIS maps
826 options
828 for command options
829 original
831 used by the _approximate, _correct and _expand completers when
832 offering the original string as a match
833 other-accounts
835 used to look up the users-hosts style
836 other-files
838 for the names of any non-directory files. This is used instead
839 of all-files when the list-dirs-first style is in effect.
840 packages
842 for packages (e.g. rpm or installed Debian packages)
843 parameters
845 for names of parameters
846 path-directories
848 for names of directories found by searching the cdpath array
849 when completing arguments of cd and related builtin commands
850 (compare local-directories)
851 paths used to look up the values of the expand, ambiguous and spe‐
853 cial-dirs styles
854 pods for perl pods (documentation files)
856 ports for communication ports
858 prefixes
860 for prefixes (like those of a URL)
861 printers
863 for print queue names
864 processes
866 for process identifiers
867 processes-names
869 used to look up the command style when generating the names of
870 processes for killall
871 sequences
873 for sequences (e.g. mh sequences)
874 sessions
876 for sessions in the zftp function suite
877 signals
879 for signal names
880 strings
882 for strings (e.g. the replacement strings for the cd builtin
883 command)
884 styles for styles used by the zstyle builtin command
886 suffixes
888 for filename extensions
889 tags for tags (e.g. rpm tags)
891 targets
893 for makefile targets
894 time-zones
896 for time zones (e.g. when setting the TZ parameter)
897 types for types of whatever (e.g. address types for the xhost command)
899 urls used to look up the urls and local styles when completing URLs
901 users for usernames
903 values for one of a set of values in certain lists
905 variant
907 used by _pick_variant to look up the command to run when deter‐
908 mining what program is installed for a particular command name.
909 visuals
911 for X visuals
912 warnings
914 used to look up the format style for warnings
915 widgets
917 for zsh widget names
918 windows
920 for IDs of X windows
921 zsh-options
923 for shell options
924 Standard Styles
926 Note that the values of several of these styles represent boolean val‐
927 ues. Any of the strings `true', `on', `yes', and `1' can be used for
928 the value `true' and any of the strings `false', `off', `no', and `0'
929 for the value `false'. The behavior for any other value is undefined
930 except where explicitly mentioned. The default value may be either
931 `true' or `false' if the style is not set.
932 Some of these styles are tested first for every possible tag corre‐
934 sponding to a type of match, and if no style was found, for the default
935 tag. The most notable styles of this type are menu, list-colors and
936 styles controlling completion listing such as list-packed and
937 last-prompt. When tested for the default tag, only the function field
938 of the context will be set so that a style using the default tag will
939 normally be defined along the lines of:
940 zstyle ':completion:*:default' menu ...
942 accept-exact
944 This is tested for the default tag in addition to the tags valid
945 for the current context. If it is set to `true' and any of the
946 trial matches is the same as the string on the command line,
947 this match will immediately be accepted (even if it would other‐
948 wise be considered ambiguous).
949 When completing pathnames (where the tag used is `paths') this
951 style accepts any number of patterns as the value in addition to
952 the boolean values. Pathnames matching one of these patterns
953 will be accepted immediately even if the command line contains
954 some more partially typed pathname components and these match no
955 file under the directory accepted.
956 This style is also used by the _expand completer to decide if
958 words beginning with a tilde or parameter expansion should be
959 expanded. For example, if there are parameters foo and foobar,
960 the string `$foo' will only be expanded if accept-exact is set
961 to `true'; otherwise the completion system will be allowed to
962 complete $foo to $foobar. If the style is set to `continue',
963 _expand will add the expansion as a match and the completion
964 system will also be allowed to continue.
965 accept-exact-dirs
967 This is used by filename completion. Unlike accept-exact it is
968 a boolean. By default, filename completion examines all compo‐
969 nents of a path to see if there are completions of that compo‐
970 nent, even if the component matches an existing directory. For
971 example, when completion after /usr/bin/, the function examines
972 possible completions to /usr.
973 When this style is `true', any prefix of a path that matches an
975 existing directory is accepted without any attempt to complete
976 it further. Hence, in the given example, the path /usr/bin/ is
977 accepted immediately and completion tried in that directory.
978 This style is also useful when completing after directories that
980 magically appear when referenced, such as ZFS .zfs directories
981 or NetApp .snapshot directories. When the style is set the
982 shell does not check for the existence of the directory within
983 the parent directory.
984 If you wish to inhibit this behaviour entirely, set the
986 path-completion style (see below) to `false'.
987 add-space
989 This style is used by the _expand completer. If it is `true'
990 (the default), a space will be inserted after all words result‐
991 ing from the expansion, or a slash in the case of directory
992 names. If the value is `file', the completer will only add a
993 space to names of existing files. Either a boolean `true' or
994 the value `file' may be combined with `subst', in which case the
995 completer will not add a space to words generated from the
996 expansion of a substitution of the form `$(...)' or `${...}'.
997 The _prefix completer uses this style as a simple boolean value
999 to decide if a space should be inserted before the suffix.
1000 ambiguous
1002 This applies when completing non-final components of filename
1003 paths, in other words those with a trailing slash. If it is
1004 set, the cursor is left after the first ambiguous component,
1005 even if menu completion is in use. The style is always tested
1006 with the paths tag.
1007 assign-list
1009 When completing after an equals sign that is being treated as an
1010 assignment, the completion system normally completes only one
1011 filename. In some cases the value may be a list of filenames
1012 separated by colons, as with PATH and similar parameters. This
1013 style can be set to a list of patterns matching the names of
1014 such parameters.
1015 The default is to complete lists when the word on the line
1017 already contains a colon.
1018 auto-description
1020 If set, this style's value will be used as the description for
1021 options that are not described by the completion functions, but
1022 that have exactly one argument. The sequence `%d' in the value
1023 will be replaced by the description for this argument. Depend‐
1024 ing on personal preferences, it may be useful to set this style
1025 to something like `specify: %d'. Note that this may not work
1026 for some commands.
1027 avoid-completer
1029 This is used by the _all_matches completer to decide if the
1030 string consisting of all matches should be added to the list
1031 currently being generated. Its value is a list of names of com‐
1032 pleters. If any of these is the name of the completer that gen‐
1033 erated the matches in this completion, the string will not be
1034 added.
1035 The default value for this style is `_expand _old_list _correct
1037 _approximate', i.e. it contains the completers for which a
1038 string with all matches will almost never be wanted.
1039 cache-path
1041 This style defines the path where any cache files containing
1042 dumped completion data are stored. It defaults to `$ZDOT‐
1043 DIR/.zcompcache', or `$HOME/.zcompcache' if $ZDOTDIR is not
1044 defined. The completion cache will not be used unless the
1045 use-cache style is set.
1046 cache-policy
1048 This style defines the function that will be used to determine
1049 whether a cache needs rebuilding. See the section on the
1050 _cache_invalid function below.
1051 call-command
1053 This style is used in the function for commands such as make and
1054 ant where calling the command directly to generate matches suf‐
1055 fers problems such as being slow or, as in the case of make can
1056 potentially cause actions in the makefile to be executed. If it
1057 is set to `true' the command is called to generate matches. The
1058 default value of this style is `false'.
1059 command
1061 In many places, completion functions need to call external com‐
1062 mands to generate the list of completions. This style can be
1063 used to override the command that is called in some such cases.
1064 The elements of the value are joined with spaces to form a com‐
1065 mand line to execute. The value can also start with a hyphen,
1066 in which case the usual command will be added to the end; this
1067 is most useful for putting `builtin' or `command' in front to
1068 make sure the appropriate version of a command is called, for
1069 example to avoid calling a shell function with the same name as
1070 an external command.
1071 As an example, the completion function for process IDs uses this
1073 style with the processes tag to generate the IDs to complete and
1074 the list of processes to display (if the verbose style is
1075 `true'). The list produced by the command should look like the
1076 output of the ps command. The first line is not displayed, but
1077 is searched for the string `PID' (or `pid') to find the position
1078 of the process IDs in the following lines. If the line does not
1079 contain `PID', the first numbers in each of the other lines are
1080 taken as the process IDs to complete.
1081 Note that the completion function generally has to call the
1083 specified command for each attempt to generate the completion
1084 list. Hence care should be taken to specify only commands that
1085 take a short time to run, and in particular to avoid any that
1086 may never terminate.
1087 command-path
1089 This is a list of directories to search for commands to com‐
1090 plete. The default for this style is the value of the special
1091 parameter path.
1092 commands
1094 This is used by the function completing sub-commands for the
1095 system initialisation scripts (residing in /etc/init.d or some‐
1096 where not too far away from that). Its values give the default
1097 commands to complete for those commands for which the completion
1098 function isn't able to find them out automatically. The default
1099 for this style are the two strings `start' and `stop'.
1100 complete
1102 This is used by the _expand_alias function when invoked as a
1103 bindable command. If set to `true' and the word on the command
1104 line is not the name of an alias, matching alias names will be
1105 completed.
1106 complete-options
1108 This is used by the completer for cd, chdir and pushd. For
1109 these commands a - is used to introduce a directory stack entry
1110 and completion of these is far more common than completing
1111 options. Hence unless the value of this style is `true' options
1112 will not be completed, even after an initial -. If it is
1113 `true', options will be completed after an initial - unless
1114 there is a preceding -- on the command line.
1115 completer
1117 The strings given as the value of this style provide the names
1118 of the completer functions to use. The available completer func‐
1119 tions are described in the section `Control Functions' below.
1120 Each string may be either the name of a completer function or a
1122 string of the form `function:name'. In the first case the com‐
1123 pleter field of the context will contain the name of the com‐
1124 pleter without the leading underscore and with all other under‐
1125 scores replaced by hyphens. In the second case the function is
1126 the name of the completer to call, but the context will contain
1127 the user-defined name in the completer field of the context. If
1128 the name starts with a hyphen, the string for the context will
1129 be build from the name of the completer function as in the first
1130 case with the name appended to it. For example:
1131 zstyle ':completion:*' completer _complete _complete:-foo
1133 Here, completion will call the _complete completer twice, once
1135 using `complete' and once using `complete-foo' in the completer
1136 field of the context. Normally, using the same completer more
1137 than once only makes sense when used with the `functions:name'
1138 form, because otherwise the context name will be the same in all
1139 calls to the completer; possible exceptions to this rule are the
1140 _ignored and _prefix completers.
1141 The default value for this style is `_complete _ignored': only
1143 completion will be done, first using the ignored-patterns style
1144 and the $fignore array and then without ignoring matches.
1145 condition
1147 This style is used by the _list completer function to decide if
1148 insertion of matches should be delayed unconditionally. The
1149 default is `true'.
1150 delimiters
1152 This style is used when adding a delimiter for use with history
1153 modifiers or glob qualifiers that have delimited arguments. It
1154 is an array of preferred delimiters to add. Non-special charac‐
1155 ters are preferred as the completion system may otherwise become
1156 confused. The default list is :, +, /, -, %. The list may be
1157 empty to force a delimiter to be typed.
1158 disabled
1160 If this is set to `true', the _expand_alias completer and bind‐
1161 able command will try to expand disabled aliases, too. The
1162 default is `false'.
1163 domains
1165 A list of names of network domains for completion. If this is
1166 not set, domain names will be taken from the file
1167 /etc/resolv.conf.
1168 environ
1170 The environ style is used when completing for `sudo'. It is set
1171 to an array of `VAR=value' assignments to be exported into the
1172 local environment before the completion for the target command
1173 is invoked.
1174 zstyle ':completion:*:sudo::' environ \
1175 PATH="/sbin:/usr/sbin:$PATH" HOME="/root"
1176 expand This style is used when completing strings consisting of multi‐
1178 ple parts, such as path names.
1179 If one of its values is the string `prefix', the partially typed
1181 word from the line will be expanded as far as possible even if
1182 trailing parts cannot be completed.
1183 If one of its values is the string `suffix', matching names for
1185 components after the first ambiguous one will also be added.
1186 This means that the resulting string is the longest unambiguous
1187 string possible. However, menu completion can be used to cycle
1188 through all matches.
1189 fake This style may be set for any completion context. It specifies
1191 additional strings that will always be completed in that con‐
1192 text. The form of each string is `value:description'; the colon
1193 and description may be omitted, but any literal colons in value
1194 must be quoted with a backslash. Any description provided is
1195 shown alongside the value in completion listings.
1196 It is important to use a sufficiently restrictive context when
1198 specifying fake strings. Note that the styles fake-files and
1199 fake-parameters provide additional features when completing
1200 files or parameters.
1201 fake-always
1203 This works identically to the fake style except that the
1204 ignored-patterns style is not applied to it. This makes it pos‐
1205 sible to override a set of matches completely by setting the
1206 ignored patterns to `*'.
1207 The following shows a way of supplementing any tag with arbi‐
1209 trary data, but having it behave for display purposes like a
1210 separate tag. In this example we use the features of the
1211 tag-order style to divide the named-directories tag into two
1212 when performing completion with the standard completer complete
1213 for arguments of cd. The tag named-directories-normal behaves
1214 as normal, but the tag named-directories-mine contains a fixed
1215 set of directories. This has the effect of adding the match
1216 group `extra directories' with the given completions.
1217 zstyle ':completion::complete:cd:*' tag-order \
1219 'named-directories:-mine:extra\ directories
1220 named-directories:-normal:named\ directories *'
1221 zstyle ':completion::complete:cd:*:named-directories-mine' \
1222 fake-always mydir1 mydir2
1223 zstyle ':completion::complete:cd:*:named-directories-mine' \
1224 ignored-patterns '*'
1225 fake-files
1227 This style is used when completing files and looked up without a
1228 tag. Its values are of the form `dir:names...'. This will add
1229 the names (strings separated by spaces) as possible matches when
1230 completing in the directory dir, even if no such files really
1231 exist. The dir may be a pattern; pattern characters or colons
1232 in dir should be quoted with a backslash to be treated liter‐
1233 ally.
1234 This can be useful on systems that support special file systems
1236 whose top-level pathnames can not be listed or generated with
1237 glob patterns (but see accept-exact-dirs for a more general way
1238 of dealing with this problem). It can also be used for directo‐
1239 ries for which one does not have read permission.
1240 The pattern form can be used to add a certain `magic' entry to
1242 all directories on a particular file system.
1243 fake-parameters
1245 This is used by the completion function for parameter names.
1246 Its values are names of parameters that might not yet be set but
1247 should be completed nonetheless. Each name may also be followed
1248 by a colon and a string specifying the type of the parameter
1249 (like `scalar', `array' or `integer'). If the type is given,
1250 the name will only be completed if parameters of that type are
1251 required in the particular context. Names for which no type is
1252 specified will always be completed.
1253 file-list
1255 This style controls whether files completed using the standard
1256 builtin mechanism are to be listed with a long list similar to
1257 ls -l. Note that this feature uses the shell module zsh/stat
1258 for file information; this loads the builtin stat which will
1259 replace any external stat executable. To avoid this the follow‐
1260 ing code can be included in an initialization file:
1261 zmodload -i zsh/stat
1263 disable stat
1264 The style may either be set to a `true' value (or `all'), or one
1266 of the values `insert' or `list', indicating that files are to
1267 be listed in long format in all circumstances, or when attempt‐
1268 ing to insert a file name, or when listing file names without
1269 attempting to insert one.
1270 More generally, the value may be an array of any of the above
1272 values, optionally followed by =num. If num is present it gives
1273 the maximum number of matches for which long listing style will
1274 be used. For example,
1275 zstyle ':completion:*' file-list list=20 insert=10
1277 specifies that long format will be used when listing up to 20
1279 files or inserting a file with up to 10 matches (assuming a
1280 listing is to be shown at all, for example on an ambiguous com‐
1281 pletion), else short format will be used.
1282 zstyle -e ':completion:*' file-list \
1284 '(( ${+NUMERIC} )) && reply=(true)'
1285 specifies that long format will be used any time a numeric argu‐
1287 ment is supplied, else short format.
1288 file-patterns
1290 This is used by the standard function for completing filenames,
1291 _files. If the style is unset up to three tags are offered,
1292 `globbed-files',`directories' and `all-files', depending on the
1293 types of files expected by the caller of _files. The first two
1294 (`globbed-files' and `directories') are normally offered
1295 together to make it easier to complete files in sub-directories.
1296 The file-patterns style provides alternatives to the default
1298 tags, which are not used. Its value consists of elements of the
1299 form `pattern:tag'; each string may contain any number of such
1300 specifications separated by spaces.
1301 The pattern is a pattern that is to be used to generate file‐
1303 names. Any occurrence of the sequence `%p' is replaced by any
1304 pattern(s) passed by the function calling _files. Colons in the
1305 pattern must be preceded by a backslash to make them distin‐
1306 guishable from the colon before the tag. If more than one pat‐
1307 tern is needed, the patterns can be given inside braces, sepa‐
1308 rated by commas.
1309 The tags of all strings in the value will be offered by _files
1311 and used when looking up other styles. Any tags in the same
1312 word will be offered at the same time and before later words.
1313 If no `:tag' is given the `files' tag will be used.
1314 The tag may also be followed by an optional second colon and a
1316 description, which will be used for the `%d' in the value of the
1317 format style (if that is set) instead of the default description
1318 supplied by the completion function. If the description given
1319 here contains itself a `%d', that is replaced with the descrip‐
1320 tion supplied by the completion function.
1321 For example, to make the rm command first complete only names of
1323 object files and then the names of all files if there is no
1324 matching object file:
1325 zstyle ':completion:*:*:rm:*:*' file-patterns \
1327 '*.o:object-files' '%p:all-files'
1328 To alter the default behaviour of file completion -- offer files
1330 matching a pattern and directories on the first attempt, then
1331 all files -- to offer only matching files on the first attempt,
1332 then directories, and finally all files:
1333 zstyle ':completion:*' file-patterns \
1335 '%p:globbed-files' '*(-/):directories' '*:all-files'
1336 This works even where there is no special pattern: _files
1338 matches all files using the pattern `*' at the first step and
1339 stops when it sees this pattern. Note also it will never try a
1340 pattern more than once for a single completion attempt.
1341 During the execution of completion functions, the EXTENDED_GLOB
1343 option is in effect, so the characters `#', `~' and `^' have
1344 special meanings in the patterns.
1345 file-sort
1347 The standard filename completion function uses this style with‐
1348 out a tag to determine in which order the names should be
1349 listed; menu completion will cycle through them in the same
1350 order. The possible values are: `size' to sort by the size of
1351 the file; `links' to sort by the number of links to the file;
1352 `modification' (or `time' or `date') to sort by the last modifi‐
1353 cation time; `access' to sort by the last access time; and
1354 `inode' (or `change') to sort by the last inode change time. If
1355 the style is set to any other value, or is unset, files will be
1356 sorted alphabetically by name. If the value contains the string
1357 `reverse', sorting is done in the opposite order. If the value
1358 contains the string `follow', timestamps are associated with the
1359 targets of symbolic links; the default is to use the timestamps
1360 of the links themselves.
1361 file-split-chars
1363 A set of characters that will cause all file completions for the
1364 given context to be split at the point where any of the charac‐
1365 ters occurs. A typical use is to set the style to :; then
1366 everything up to and including the last : in the string so far
1367 is ignored when completing files. As this is quite
1368 heavy-handed, it is usually preferable to update completion
1369 functions for contexts where this behaviour is useful.
1370 filter The ldap plugin of email address completion (see
1372 _email_addresses) uses this style to specify the attributes to
1373 match against when filtering entries. So for example, if the
1374 style is set to `sn', matching is done against surnames. Stan‐
1375 dard LDAP filtering is used so normal completion matching is
1376 bypassed. If this style is not set, the LDAP plugin is skipped.
1377 You may also need to set the command style to specify how to
1378 connect to your LDAP server.
1379 force-list
1381 This forces a list of completions to be shown at any point where
1382 listing is done, even in cases where the list would usually be
1383 suppressed. For example, normally the list is only shown if
1384 there are at least two different matches. By setting this style
1385 to `always', the list will always be shown, even if there is
1386 only a single match that will immediately be accepted. The
1387 style may also be set to a number. In this case the list will
1388 be shown if there are at least that many matches, even if they
1389 would all insert the same string.
1390 This style is tested for the default tag as well as for each tag
1392 valid for the current completion. Hence the listing can be
1393 forced only for certain types of match.
1394 format If this is set for the descriptions tag, its value is used as a
1396 string to display above matches in completion lists. The
1397 sequence `%d' in this string will be replaced with a short
1398 description of what these matches are. This string may also
1399 contain the following sequences to specify output attributes as
1400 described in the section EXPANSION OF PROMPT SEQUENCES in zsh‐
1401 misc(1): `%B', `%S', `%U', `%F', `%K' and their lower case coun‐
1402 terparts, as well as `%{...%}'. `%F', `%K' and `%{...%}' take
1403 arguments in the same form as prompt expansion. Note that the
1404 sequence `%G' is not available; an argument to `%{' should be
1405 used instead.
1406 The style is tested with each tag valid for the current comple‐
1408 tion before it is tested for the descriptions tag. Hence dif‐
1409 ferent format strings can be defined for different types of
1410 match.
1411 Note also that some completer functions define additional
1413 `%'-sequences. These are described for the completer functions
1414 that make use of them.
1415 Some completion functions display messages that may be cus‐
1417 tomised by setting this style for the messages tag. Here, the
1418 `%d' is replaced with a message given by the completion func‐
1419 tion.
1420 Finally, the format string is looked up with the warnings tag,
1422 for use when no matches could be generated at all. In this case
1423 the `%d' is replaced with the descriptions for the matches that
1424 were expected separated by spaces. The sequence `%D' is
1425 replaced with the same descriptions separated by newlines.
1426 It is possible to use printf-style field width specifiers with
1428 `%d' and similar escape sequences. This is handled by the zfor‐
1429 mat builtin command from the zsh/zutil module, see zshmod‐
1430 ules(1).
1431 glob This is used by the _expand completer. If it is set to `true'
1433 (the default), globbing will be attempted on the words resulting
1434 from a previous substitution (see the substitute style) or else
1435 the original string from the line.
1436 global If this is set to `true' (the default), the _expand_alias com‐
1438 pleter and bindable command will try to expand global aliases.
1439 group-name
1441 The completion system can group different types of matches,
1442 which appear in separate lists. This style can be used to give
1443 the names of groups for particular tags. For example, in com‐
1444 mand position the completion system generates names of builtin
1445 and external commands, names of aliases, shell functions and
1446 parameters and reserved words as possible completions. To have
1447 the external commands and shell functions listed separately:
1448 zstyle ':completion:*:*:-command-:*:commands' \
1450 group-name commands
1451 zstyle ':completion:*:*:-command-:*:functions' \
1452 group-name functions
1453 As a consequence, any match with the same tag will be displayed
1455 in the same group.
1456 If the name given is the empty string the name of the tag for
1458 the matches will be used as the name of the group. So, to have
1459 all different types of matches displayed separately, one can
1460 just set:
1461 zstyle ':completion:*' group-name ''
1463 All matches for which no group name is defined will be put in a
1465 group named -default-.
1466 group-order
1468 This style is additional to the group-name style to specify the
1469 order for display of the groups defined by that style (compare
1470 tag-order, which determines which completions appear at all).
1471 The groups named are shown in the given order; any other groups
1472 are shown in the order defined by the completion function.
1473 For example, to have names of builtin commands, shell functions
1475 and external commands appear in that order when completing in
1476 command position:
1477 zstyle ':completion:*:*:-command-:*:*' group-order \
1479 builtins functions commands
1480 groups A list of names of UNIX groups. If this is not set, group names
1482 are taken from the YP database or the file `/etc/group'.
1483 hidden If this is set to `true', matches for the given context will not
1485 be listed, although any description for the matches set with the
1486 format style will be shown. If it is set to `all', not even the
1487 description will be displayed.
1488 Note that the matches will still be completed; they are just not
1490 shown in the list. To avoid having matches considered as possi‐
1491 ble completions at all, the tag-order style can be modified as
1492 described below.
1493 hosts A list of names of hosts that should be completed. If this is
1495 not set, hostnames are taken from the file `/etc/hosts'.
1496 hosts-ports
1498 This style is used by commands that need or accept hostnames and
1499 network ports. The strings in the value should be of the form
1500 `host:port'. Valid ports are determined by the presence of
1501 hostnames; multiple ports for the same host may appear.
1502 ignore-line
1504 This is tested for each tag valid for the current completion.
1505 If it is set to `true', none of the words that are already on
1506 the line will be considered as possible completions. If it is
1507 set to `current', the word the cursor is on will not be consid‐
1508 ered as a possible completion. The value `current-shown' is
1509 similar but only applies if the list of completions is currently
1510 shown on the screen. Finally, if the style is set to `other',
1511 all words on the line except for the current one will be
1512 excluded from the possible completions.
1513 The values `current' and `current-shown' are a bit like the
1515 opposite of the accept-exact style: only strings with missing
1516 characters will be completed.
1517 Note that you almost certainly don't want to set this to `true'
1519 or `other' for a general context such as `:completion:*'. This
1520 is because it would disallow completion of, for example, options
1521 multiple times even if the command in question accepts the
1522 option more than once.
1523 ignore-parents
1525 The style is tested without a tag by the function completing
1526 pathnames in order to determine whether to ignore the names of
1527 directories already mentioned in the current word, or the name
1528 of the current working directory. The value must include one or
1529 both of the following strings:
1530 parent The name of any directory whose path is already contained
1532 in the word on the line is ignored. For example, when
1533 completing after foo/../, the directory foo will not be
1534 considered a valid completion.
1535 pwd The name of the current working directory will not be
1537 completed; hence, for example, completion after ../ will
1538 not use the name of the current directory.
1539 In addition, the value may include one or both of:
1541 .. Ignore the specified directories only when the word on
1543 the line contains the substring `../'.
1544 directory
1546 Ignore the specified directories only when names of
1547 directories are completed, not when completing names of
1548 files.
1549 Excluded values act in a similar fashion to values of the
1551 ignored-patterns style, so they can be restored to consideration
1552 by the _ignored completer.
1553 extra-verbose
1555 If set, the completion listing is more verbose at the cost of a
1556 probable decrease in completion speed. Completion performance
1557 will suffer if this style is set to `true'.
1558 ignored-patterns
1560 A list of patterns; any trial completion matching one of the
1561 patterns will be excluded from consideration. The _ignored com‐
1562 pleter can appear in the list of completers to restore the
1563 ignored matches. This is a more configurable version of the
1564 shell parameter $fignore.
1565 Note that the EXTENDED_GLOB option is set during the execution
1567 of completion functions, so the characters `#', `~' and `^' have
1568 special meanings in the patterns.
1569 insert This style is used by the _all_matches completer to decide
1571 whether to insert the list of all matches unconditionally
1572 instead of adding the list as another match.
1573 insert-ids
1575 When completing process IDs, for example as arguments to the
1576 kill and wait builtins the name of a command may be converted to
1577 the appropriate process ID. A problem arises when the process
1578 name typed is not unique. By default (or if this style is set
1579 explicitly to `menu') the name will be converted immediately to
1580 a set of possible IDs, and menu completion will be started to
1581 cycle through them.
1582 If the value of the style is `single', the shell will wait until
1584 the user has typed enough to make the command unique before con‐
1585 verting the name to an ID; attempts at completion will be unsuc‐
1586 cessful until that point. If the value is any other string,
1587 menu completion will be started when the string typed by the
1588 user is longer than the common prefix to the corresponding IDs.
1589 insert-tab
1591 If this is set to `true', the completion system will insert a
1592 TAB character (assuming that was used to start completion)
1593 instead of performing completion when there is no non-blank
1594 character to the left of the cursor. If it is set to `false',
1595 completion will be done even there.
1596 The value may also contain the substrings `pending' or `pend‐
1598 ing=val'. In this case, the typed character will be inserted
1599 instead of starting completion when there is unprocessed input
1600 pending. If a val is given, completion will not be done if
1601 there are at least that many characters of unprocessed input.
1602 This is often useful when pasting characters into a terminal.
1603 Note however, that it relies on the $PENDING special parameter
1604 from the zsh/zle module being set properly which is not guaran‐
1605 teed on all platforms.
1606 The default value of this style is `true' except for completion
1608 within vared builtin command where it is `false'.
1609 insert-unambiguous
1611 This is used by the _match and _approximate completers. These
1612 completers are often used with menu completion since the word
1613 typed may bear little resemblance to the final completion. How‐
1614 ever, if this style is `true', the completer will start menu
1615 completion only if it could find no unambiguous initial string
1616 at least as long as the original string typed by the user.
1617 In the case of the _approximate completer, the completer field
1619 in the context will already have been set to one of correct-num
1620 or approximate-num, where num is the number of errors that were
1621 accepted.
1622 In the case of the _match completer, the style may also be set
1624 to the string `pattern'. Then the pattern on the line is left
1625 unchanged if it does not match unambiguously.
1626 gain-privileges
1628 If set to true, this style enables the use of commands like sudo
1629 or doas to gain extra privileges when retrieving information for
1630 completion. This is only done when a command such as sudo
1631 appears on the command-line. To force the use of, e.g. sudo or
1632 to override any prefix that might be added due to gain-privi‐
1633 leges, the command style can be used with a value that begins
1634 with a hyphen.
1635 keep-prefix
1637 This style is used by the _expand completer. If it is `true',
1638 the completer will try to keep a prefix containing a tilde or
1639 parameter expansion. Hence, for example, the string `~/f*'
1640 would be expanded to `~/foo' instead of `/home/user/foo'. If
1641 the style is set to `changed' (the default), the prefix will
1642 only be left unchanged if there were other changes between the
1643 expanded words and the original word from the command line. Any
1644 other value forces the prefix to be expanded unconditionally.
1645 The behaviour of _expand when this style is `true' is to cause
1647 _expand to give up when a single expansion with the restored
1648 prefix is the same as the original; hence any remaining com‐
1649 pleters may be called.
1650 last-prompt
1652 This is a more flexible form of the ALWAYS_LAST_PROMPT option.
1653 If it is `true', the completion system will try to return the
1654 cursor to the previous command line after displaying a comple‐
1655 tion list. It is tested for all tags valid for the current com‐
1656 pletion, then the default tag. The cursor will be moved back to
1657 the previous line if this style is `true' for all types of
1658 match. Note that unlike the ALWAYS_LAST_PROMPT option this is
1659 independent of the numeric argument.
1660 known-hosts-files
1662 This style should contain a list of files to search for host
1663 names and (if the use-ip style is set) IP addresses in a format
1664 compatible with ssh known_hosts files. If it is not set, the
1665 files /etc/ssh/ssh_known_hosts and ~/.ssh/known_hosts are used.
1666 list This style is used by the _history_complete_word bindable com‐
1668 mand. If it is set to `true' it has no effect. If it is set to
1669 `false' matches will not be listed. This overrides the setting
1670 of the options controlling listing behaviour, in particular
1671 AUTO_LIST. The context always starts with `:completion:his‐
1672 tory-words'.
1673 list-colors
1675 If the zsh/complist module is loaded, this style can be used to
1676 set color specifications. This mechanism replaces the use of
1677 the ZLS_COLORS and ZLS_COLOURS parameters described in the sec‐
1678 tion `The zsh/complist Module' in zshmodules(1), but the syntax
1679 is the same.
1680 If this style is set for the default tag, the strings in the
1682 value are taken as specifications that are to be used every‐
1683 where. If it is set for other tags, the specifications are used
1684 only for matches of the type described by the tag. For this to
1685 work best, the group-name style must be set to an empty string.
1686 In addition to setting styles for specific tags, it is also pos‐
1688 sible to use group names specified explicitly by the group-name
1689 tag together with the `(group)' syntax allowed by the ZLS_COLORS
1690 and ZLS_COLOURS parameters and simply using the default tag.
1691 It is possible to use any color specifications already set up
1693 for the GNU version of the ls command:
1694 zstyle ':completion:*:default' list-colors \
1696 ${(s.:.)LS_COLORS}
1697 The default colors are the same as for the GNU ls command and
1699 can be obtained by setting the style to an empty string (i.e.
1700 '').
1701 list-dirs-first
1703 This is used by file completion. If set, directories to be com‐
1704 pleted are listed separately from and before completion for
1705 other files, regardless of tag ordering. In addition, the tag
1706 other-files is used in place of all-files for the remaining
1707 files, to indicate that no directories are presented with that
1708 tag.
1709 list-grouped
1711 If this style is `true' (the default), the completion system
1712 will try to make certain completion listings more compact by
1713 grouping matches. For example, options for commands that have
1714 the same description (shown when the verbose style is set to
1715 `true') will appear as a single entry. However, menu selection
1716 can be used to cycle through all the matches.
1717 list-packed
1719 This is tested for each tag valid in the current context as well
1720 as the default tag. If it is set to `true', the corresponding
1721 matches appear in listings as if the LIST_PACKED option were
1722 set. If it is set to `false', they are listed normally.
1723 list-prompt
1725 If this style is set for the default tag, completion lists that
1726 don't fit on the screen can be scrolled (see the description of
1727 the zsh/complist module in zshmodules(1)). The value, if not
1728 the empty string, will be displayed after every screenful and
1729 the shell will prompt for a key press; if the style is set to
1730 the empty string, a default prompt will be used.
1731 The value may contain the escape sequences: `%l' or `%L', which
1733 will be replaced by the number of the last line displayed and
1734 the total number of lines; `%m' or `%M', the number of the last
1735 match shown and the total number of matches; and `%p' and `%P',
1736 `Top' when at the beginning of the list, `Bottom' when at the
1737 end and the position shown as a percentage of the total length
1738 otherwise. In each case the form with the uppercase letter will
1739 be replaced by a string of fixed width, padded to the right
1740 with spaces, while the lowercase form will be replaced by a
1741 variable width string. As in other prompt strings, the escape
1742 sequences `%S', `%s', `%B', `%b', `%U', `%u' for entering and
1743 leaving the display modes standout, bold and underline, and
1744 `%F', `%f', `%K', `%k' for changing the foreground background
1745 colour, are also available, as is the form `%{...%}' for enclos‐
1746 ing escape sequences which display with zero (or, with a numeric
1747 argument, some other) width.
1748 After deleting this prompt the variable LISTPROMPT should be
1750 unset for the removal to take effect.
1751 list-rows-first
1753 This style is tested in the same way as the list-packed style
1754 and determines whether matches are to be listed in a rows-first
1755 fashion as if the LIST_ROWS_FIRST option were set.
1756 list-suffixes
1758 This style is used by the function that completes filenames. If
1759 it is `true', and completion is attempted on a string containing
1760 multiple partially typed pathname components, all ambiguous com‐
1761 ponents will be shown. Otherwise, completion stops at the first
1762 ambiguous component.
1763 list-separator
1765 The value of this style is used in completion listing to sepa‐
1766 rate the string to complete from a description when possible
1767 (e.g. when completing options). It defaults to `--' (two
1768 hyphens).
1769 local This is for use with functions that complete URLs for which the
1771 corresponding files are available directly from the file system.
1772 Its value should consist of three strings: a hostname, the path
1773 to the default web pages for the server, and the directory name
1774 used by a user placing web pages within their home area.
1775 For example:
1777 zstyle ':completion:*' local toast \
1779 /var/http/public/toast public_html
1780 Completion after `http://toast/stuff/' will look for files in
1782 the directory /var/http/public/toast/stuff, while completion
1783 after `http://toast/~yousir/' will look for files in the direc‐
1784 tory ~yousir/public_html.
1785 mail-directory
1787 If set, zsh will assume that mailbox files can be found in the
1788 directory specified. It defaults to `~/Mail'.
1789 match-original
1791 This is used by the _match completer. If it is set to only,
1792 _match will try to generate matches without inserting a `*' at
1793 the cursor position. If set to any other non-empty value, it
1794 will first try to generate matches without inserting the `*' and
1795 if that yields no matches, it will try again with the `*'
1796 inserted. If it is unset or set to the empty string, matching
1797 will only be performed with the `*' inserted.
1798 matcher
1800 This style is tested separately for each tag valid in the cur‐
1801 rent context. Its value is placed before any match specifica‐
1802 tions given by the matcher-list style so can override them via
1803 the use of an x: specification. The value should be in the form
1804 described in the section `Completion Matching Control' in zsh‐
1805 compwid(1). For examples of this, see the description of the
1806 tag-order style.
1807 matcher-list
1809 This style can be set to a list of match specifications that are
1810 to be applied everywhere. Match specifications are described in
1811 the section `Completion Matching Control' in zshcompwid(1). The
1812 completion system will try them one after another for each com‐
1813 pleter selected. For example, to try first simple completion
1814 and, if that generates no matches, case-insensitive completion:
1815 zstyle ':completion:*' matcher-list '' 'm:{a-zA-Z}={A-Za-z}'
1817 By default each specification replaces the previous one; how‐
1819 ever, if a specification is prefixed with +, it is added to the
1820 existing list. Hence it is possible to create increasingly gen‐
1821 eral specifications without repetition:
1822 zstyle ':completion:*' matcher-list \
1824 '' '+m:{a-z}={A-Z}' '+m:{A-Z}={a-z}'
1825 It is possible to create match specifications valid for particu‐
1827 lar completers by using the third field of the context. This
1828 applies only to completers that override the global
1829 matcher-list, which as of this writing includes only _prefix and
1830 _ignored. For example, to use the completers _complete and
1831 _prefix but allow case-insensitive completion only with _com‐
1832 plete:
1833 zstyle ':completion:*' completer _complete _prefix
1835 zstyle ':completion:*:complete:*:*:*' matcher-list \
1836 '' 'm:{a-zA-Z}={A-Za-z}'
1837 User-defined names, as explained for the completer style, are
1839 available. This makes it possible to try the same completer
1840 more than once with different match specifications each time.
1841 For example, to try normal completion without a match specifica‐
1842 tion, then normal completion with case-insensitive matching,
1843 then correction, and finally partial-word completion:
1844 zstyle ':completion:*' completer \
1846 _complete _correct _complete:foo
1847 zstyle ':completion:*:complete:*:*:*' matcher-list \
1848 '' 'm:{a-zA-Z}={A-Za-z}'
1849 zstyle ':completion:*:foo:*:*:*' matcher-list \
1850 'm:{a-zA-Z}={A-Za-z} r:|[-_./]=* r:|=*'
1851 If the style is unset in any context no match specification is
1853 applied. Note also that some completers such as _correct and
1854 _approximate do not use the match specifications at all, though
1855 these completers will only ever be called once even if the
1856 matcher-list contains more than one element.
1857 Where multiple specifications are useful, note that the entire
1859 completion is done for each element of matcher-list, which can
1860 quickly reduce the shell's performance. As a rough rule of
1861 thumb, one to three strings will give acceptable performance.
1862 On the other hand, putting multiple space-separated values into
1863 the same string does not have an appreciable impact on perfor‐
1864 mance.
1865 If there is no current matcher or it is empty, and the option
1867 NO_CASE_GLOB is in effect, the matching for files is performed
1868 case-insensitively in any case. However, any matcher must
1869 explicitly specify case-insensitive matching if that is
1870 required.
1871 max-errors
1873 This is used by the _approximate and _correct completer func‐
1874 tions to determine the maximum number of errors to allow. The
1875 completer will try to generate completions by first allowing one
1876 error, then two errors, and so on, until either a match or
1877 matches were found or the maximum number of errors given by this
1878 style has been reached.
1879 If the value for this style contains the string `numeric', the
1881 completer function will take any numeric argument as the maximum
1882 number of errors allowed. For example, with
1883 zstyle ':completion:*:approximate:::' max-errors 2 numeric
1885 two errors are allowed if no numeric argument is given, but with
1887 a numeric argument of six (as in `ESC-6 TAB'), up to six errors
1888 are accepted. Hence with a value of `0 numeric', no correcting
1889 completion will be attempted unless a numeric argument is given.
1890 If the value contains the string `not-numeric', the completer
1892 will not try to generate corrected completions when given a
1893 numeric argument, so in this case the number given should be
1894 greater than zero. For example, `2 not-numeric' specifies that
1895 correcting completion with two errors will usually be performed,
1896 but if a numeric argument is given, correcting completion will
1897 not be performed.
1898 The default value for this style is `2 numeric'.
1900 max-matches-width
1902 This style is used to determine the trade off between the width
1903 of the display used for matches and the width used for their
1904 descriptions when the verbose style is in effect. The value
1905 gives the number of display columns to reserve for the matches.
1906 The default is half the width of the screen.
1907 This has the most impact when several matches have the same
1909 description and so will be grouped together. Increasing the
1910 style will allow more matches to be grouped together; decreasing
1911 it will allow more of the description to be visible.
1912 menu If this is `true' in the context of any of the tags defined for
1914 the current completion menu completion will be used. The value
1915 for a specific tag will take precedence over that for the
1916 `default' tag.
1917 If none of the values found in this way is `true' but at least
1919 one is set to `auto', the shell behaves as if the AUTO_MENU
1920 option is set.
1921 If one of the values is explicitly set to `false', menu comple‐
1923 tion will be explicitly turned off, overriding the MENU_COMPLETE
1924 option and other settings.
1925 In the form `yes=num', where `yes' may be any of the `true' val‐
1927 ues (`yes', `true', `on' and `1'), menu completion will be
1928 turned on if there are at least num matches. In the form
1929 `yes=long', menu completion will be turned on if the list does
1930 not fit on the screen. This does not activate menu completion
1931 if the widget normally only lists completions, but menu comple‐
1932 tion can be activated in that case with the value
1933 `yes=long-list' (Typically, the value `select=long-list'
1934 described later is more useful as it provides control over
1935 scrolling.)
1936 Similarly, with any of the `false' values (as in `no=10'), menu
1938 completion will not be used if there are num or more matches.
1939 The value of this widget also controls menu selection, as imple‐
1941 mented by the zsh/complist module. The following values may
1942 appear either alongside or instead of the values above.
1943 If the value contains the string `select', menu selection will
1945 be started unconditionally.
1946 In the form `select=num', menu selection will only be started if
1948 there are at least num matches. If the values for more than one
1949 tag provide a number, the smallest number is taken.
1950 Menu selection can be turned off explicitly by defining a value
1952 containing the string`no-select'.
1953 It is also possible to start menu selection only if the list of
1955 matches does not fit on the screen by using the value
1956 `select=long'. To start menu selection even if the current wid‐
1957 get only performs listing, use the value `select=long-list'.
1958 To turn on menu completion or menu selection when there are a
1960 certain number of matches or the list of matches does not fit on
1961 the screen, both of `yes=' and `select=' may be given twice,
1962 once with a number and once with `long' or `long-list'.
1963 Finally, it is possible to activate two special modes of menu
1965 selection. The word `interactive' in the value causes interac‐
1966 tive mode to be entered immediately when menu selection is
1967 started; see the description of the zsh/complist module in zsh‐
1968 modules(1) for a description of interactive mode. Including the
1969 string `search' does the same for incremental search mode. To
1970 select backward incremental search, include the string
1971 `search-backward'.
1972 muttrc If set, gives the location of the mutt configuration file. It
1974 defaults to `~/.muttrc'.
1975 numbers
1977 This is used with the jobs tag. If it is `true', the shell will
1978 complete job numbers instead of the shortest unambiguous prefix
1979 of the job command text. If the value is a number, job numbers
1980 will only be used if that many words from the job descriptions
1981 are required to resolve ambiguities. For example, if the value
1982 is `1', strings will only be used if all jobs differ in the
1983 first word on their command lines.
1984 old-list
1986 This is used by the _oldlist completer. If it is set to
1987 `always', then standard widgets which perform listing will
1988 retain the current list of matches, however they were generated;
1989 this can be turned off explicitly with the value `never', giving
1990 the behaviour without the _oldlist completer. If the style is
1991 unset, or any other value, then the existing list of completions
1992 is displayed if it is not already; otherwise, the standard com‐
1993 pletion list is generated; this is the default behaviour of
1994 _oldlist. However, if there is an old list and this style con‐
1995 tains the name of the completer function that generated the
1996 list, then the old list will be used even if it was generated by
1997 a widget which does not do listing.
1998 For example, suppose you type ^Xc to use the _correct_word wid‐
2000 get, which generates a list of corrections for the word under
2001 the cursor. Usually, typing ^D would generate a standard list
2002 of completions for the word on the command line, and show that.
2003 With _oldlist, it will instead show the list of corrections
2004 already generated.
2005 As another example consider the _match completer: with the
2007 insert-unambiguous style set to `true' it inserts only a common
2008 prefix string, if there is any. However, this may remove parts
2009 of the original pattern, so that further completion could pro‐
2010 duce more matches than on the first attempt. By using the
2011 _oldlist completer and setting this style to _match, the list of
2012 matches generated on the first attempt will be used again.
2013 old-matches
2015 This is used by the _all_matches completer to decide if an old
2016 list of matches should be used if one exists. This is selected
2017 by one of the `true' values or by the string `only'. If the
2018 value is `only', _all_matches will only use an old list and
2019 won't have any effect on the list of matches currently being
2020 generated.
2021 If this style is set it is generally unwise to call the
2023 _all_matches completer unconditionally. One possible use is for
2024 either this style or the completer style to be defined with the
2025 -e option to zstyle to make the style conditional.
2026 old-menu
2028 This is used by the _oldlist completer. It controls how menu
2029 completion behaves when a completion has already been inserted
2030 and the user types a standard completion key such as TAB. The
2031 default behaviour of _oldlist is that menu completion always
2032 continues with the existing list of completions. If this style
2033 is set to `false', however, a new completion is started if the
2034 old list was generated by a different completion command; this
2035 is the behaviour without the _oldlist completer.
2036 For example, suppose you type ^Xc to generate a list of correc‐
2038 tions, and menu completion is started in one of the usual ways.
2039 Usually, or with this style set to `false', typing TAB at this
2040 point would start trying to complete the line as it now appears.
2041 With _oldlist, it instead continues to cycle through the list of
2042 corrections.
2043 original
2045 This is used by the _approximate and _correct completers to
2046 decide if the original string should be added as a possible com‐
2047 pletion. Normally, this is done only if there are at least two
2048 possible corrections, but if this style is set to `true', it is
2049 always added. Note that the style will be examined with the
2050 completer field in the context name set to correct-num or
2051 approximate-num, where num is the number of errors that were
2052 accepted.
2053 packageset
2055 This style is used when completing arguments of the Debian
2056 `dpkg' program. It contains an override for the default package
2057 set for a given context. For example,
2058 zstyle ':completion:*:complete:dpkg:option--status-1:*' \
2060 packageset avail
2061 causes available packages, rather than only installed packages,
2063 to be completed for `dpkg --status'.
2064 path The function that completes color names uses this style with the
2066 colors tag. The value should be the pathname of a file contain‐
2067 ing color names in the format of an X11 rgb.txt file. If the
2068 style is not set but this file is found in one of various stan‐
2069 dard locations it will be used as the default.
2070 path-completion
2072 This is used by filename completion. By default, filename com‐
2073 pletion examines all components of a path to see if there are
2074 completions of that component. For example, /u/b/z can be com‐
2075 pleted to /usr/bin/zsh. Explicitly setting this style to
2076 `false' inhibits this behaviour for path components up to the /
2077 before the cursor; this overrides the setting of
2078 accept-exact-dirs.
2079 Even with the style set to `false', it is still possible to com‐
2081 plete multiple paths by setting the option COMPLETE_IN_WORD and
2082 moving the cursor back to the first component in the path to be
2083 completed. For example, /u/b/z can be completed to /usr/bin/zsh
2084 if the cursor is after the /u.
2085 pine-directory
2087 If set, specifies the directory containing PINE mailbox files.
2088 There is no default, since recursively searching this directory
2089 is inconvenient for anyone who doesn't use PINE.
2090 ports A list of Internet service names (network ports) to complete.
2092 If this is not set, service names are taken from the file
2093 `/etc/services'.
2094 prefix-hidden
2096 This is used for certain completions which share a common pre‐
2097 fix, for example command options beginning with dashes. If it
2098 is `true', the prefix will not be shown in the list of matches.
2099 The default value for this style is `false'.
2101 prefix-needed
2103 This style is also relevant for matches with a common prefix.
2104 If it is set to `true' this common prefix must be typed by the
2105 user to generate the matches.
2106 The style is applicable to the options, signals, jobs, func‐
2108 tions, and parameters completion tags.
2109 For command options, this means that the initial `-', `+', or
2111 `--' must be typed explicitly before option names will be com‐
2112 pleted.
2113 For signals, an initial `-' is required before signal names will
2115 be completed.
2116 For jobs, an initial `%' is required before job names will be
2118 completed.
2119 For function and parameter names, an initial `_' or `.' is
2121 required before function or parameter names starting with those
2122 characters will be completed.
2123 The default value for this style is `false' for function and
2125 parameter completions, and `true' otherwise.
2126 preserve-prefix
2128 This style is used when completing path names. Its value should
2129 be a pattern matching an initial prefix of the word to complete
2130 that should be left unchanged under all circumstances. For
2131 example, on some Unices an initial `//' (double slash) has a
2132 special meaning; setting this style to the string `//' will pre‐
2133 serve it. As another example, setting this style to `?:/' under
2134 Cygwin would allow completion after `a:/...' and so on.
2135 range This is used by the _history completer and the _history_com‐
2137 plete_word bindable command to decide which words should be com‐
2138 pleted.
2139 If it is a single number, only the last N words from the history
2141 will be completed.
2142 If it is a range of the form `max:slice', the last slice words
2144 will be completed; then if that yields no matches, the slice
2145 words before those will be tried and so on. This process stops
2146 either when at least one match has been found, or max words have
2147 been tried.
2148 The default is to complete all words from the history at once.
2150 recursive-files
2152 If this style is set, its value is an array of patterns to be
2153 tested against `$PWD/': note the trailing slash, which allows
2154 directories in the pattern to be delimited unambiguously by
2155 including slashes on both sides. If an ordinary file completion
2156 fails and the word on the command line does not yet have a
2157 directory part to its name, the style is retrieved using the
2158 same tag as for the completion just attempted, then the elements
2159 tested against $PWD/ in turn. If one matches, then the shell
2160 reattempts completion by prepending the word on the command line
2161 with each directory in the expansion of **/*(/) in turn. Typi‐
2162 cally the elements of the style will be set to restrict the num‐
2163 ber of directories beneath the current one to a manageable num‐
2164 ber, for example `*/.git/*'.
2165 For example,
2167 zstyle ':completion:*' recursive-files '*/zsh/*'
2169 If the current directory is /home/pws/zsh/Src, then zle_trTAB
2171 can be completed to Zle/zle_tricky.c.
2172 regular
2174 This style is used by the _expand_alias completer and bindable
2175 command. If set to `true' (the default), regular aliases will
2176 be expanded but only in command position. If it is set to
2177 `false', regular aliases will never be expanded. If it is set
2178 to `always', regular aliases will be expanded even if not in
2179 command position.
2180 rehash If this is set when completing external commands, the internal
2182 list (hash) of commands will be updated for each search by issu‐
2183 ing the rehash command. There is a speed penalty for this which
2184 is only likely to be noticeable when directories in the path
2185 have slow file access.
2186 remote-access
2188 If set to `false', certain commands will be prevented from mak‐
2189 ing Internet connections to retrieve remote information. This
2190 includes the completion for the CVS command.
2191 It is not always possible to know if connections are in fact to
2193 a remote site, so some may be prevented unnecessarily.
2194 remove-all-dups
2196 The _history_complete_word bindable command and the _history
2197 completer use this to decide if all duplicate matches should be
2198 removed, rather than just consecutive duplicates.
2199 select-prompt
2201 If this is set for the default tag, its value will be displayed
2202 during menu selection (see the menu style above) when the com‐
2203 pletion list does not fit on the screen as a whole. The same
2204 escapes as for the list-prompt style are understood, except that
2205 the numbers refer to the match or line the mark is on. A
2206 default prompt is used when the value is the empty string.
2207 select-scroll
2209 This style is tested for the default tag and determines how a
2210 completion list is scrolled during a menu selection (see the
2211 menu style above) when the completion list does not fit on the
2212 screen as a whole. If the value is `0' (zero), the list is
2213 scrolled by half-screenfuls; if it is a positive integer, the
2214 list is scrolled by the given number of lines; if it is a nega‐
2215 tive number, the list is scrolled by a screenful minus the abso‐
2216 lute value of the given number of lines. The default is to
2217 scroll by single lines.
2218 separate-sections
2220 This style is used with the manuals tag when completing names of
2221 manual pages. If it is `true', entries for different sections
2222 are added separately using tag names of the form `manual.X',
2223 where X is the section number. When the group-name style is
2224 also in effect, pages from different sections will appear sepa‐
2225 rately. This style is also used similarly with the words style
2226 when completing words for the dict command. It allows words from
2227 different dictionary databases to be added separately. The
2228 default for this style is `false'.
2229 show-ambiguity
2231 If the zsh/complist module is loaded, this style can be used to
2232 highlight the first ambiguous character in completion lists. The
2233 value is either a color indication such as those supported by
2234 the list-colors style or, with a value of `true', a default of
2235 underlining is selected. The highlighting is only applied if the
2236 completion display strings correspond to the actual matches.
2237 show-completer
2239 Tested whenever a new completer is tried. If it is `true', the
2240 completion system outputs a progress message in the listing area
2241 showing what completer is being tried. The message will be
2242 overwritten by any output when completions are found and is
2243 removed after completion is finished.
2244 single-ignored
2246 This is used by the _ignored completer when there is only one
2247 match. If its value is `show', the single match will be dis‐
2248 played but not inserted. If the value is `menu', then the sin‐
2249 gle match and the original string are both added as matches and
2250 menu completion is started, making it easy to select either of
2251 them.
2252 sort Many completion widgets call _description at some point which
2254 decides whether the matches are added sorted or unsorted (often
2255 indirectly via _wanted or _requested). This style can be set
2256 explicitly to one of the usual `true' or `false' values as an
2257 override. If it is not set for the context, the standard behav‐
2258 iour of the calling widget is used.
2259 The style is tested first against the full context including the
2261 tag, and if that fails to produce a value against the context
2262 without the tag.
2263 If the calling widget explicitly requests unsorted matches, this
2265 is usually honoured. However, the default (unsorted) behaviour
2266 of completion for the command history may be overridden by set‐
2267 ting the style to `true'.
2268 In the _expand completer, if it is set to `true', the expansions
2270 generated will always be sorted. If it is set to `menu', then
2271 the expansions are only sorted when they are offered as single
2272 strings but not in the string containing all possible expan‐
2273 sions.
2274 special-dirs
2276 Normally, the completion code will not produce the directory
2277 names `.' and `..' as possible completions. If this style is
2278 set to `true', it will add both `.' and `..' as possible comple‐
2279 tions; if it is set to `..', only `..' will be added.
2280 The following example sets special-dirs to `..' when the current
2282 prefix is empty, is a single `.', or consists only of a path
2283 beginning with `../'. Otherwise the value is `false'.
2284 zstyle -e ':completion:*' special-dirs \
2286 '[[ $PREFIX = (../)#(|.|..) ]] && reply=(..)'
2287 squeeze-slashes
2289 If set to `true', sequences of slashes in filename paths (for
2290 example in `foo//bar') will be treated as a single slash. This
2291 is the usual behaviour of UNIX paths. However, by default the
2292 file completion function behaves as if there were a `*' between
2293 the slashes.
2294 stop If set to `true', the _history_complete_word bindable command
2296 will stop once when reaching the beginning or end of the his‐
2297 tory. Invoking _history_complete_word will then wrap around to
2298 the opposite end of the history. If this style is set to
2299 `false' (the default), _history_complete_word will loop immedi‐
2300 ately as in a menu completion.
2301 strip-comments
2303 If set to `true', this style causes non-essential comment text
2304 to be removed from completion matches. Currently it is only
2305 used when completing e-mail addresses where it removes any dis‐
2306 play name from the addresses, cutting them down to plain
2307 user@host form.
2308 subst-globs-only
2310 This is used by the _expand completer. If it is set to `true',
2311 the expansion will only be used if it resulted from globbing;
2312 hence, if expansions resulted from the use of the substitute
2313 style described below, but these were not further changed by
2314 globbing, the expansions will be rejected.
2315 The default for this style is `false'.
2317 substitute
2319 This boolean style controls whether the _expand completer will
2320 first try to expand all substitutions in the string (such as
2321 `$(...)' and `${...}').
2322 The default is `true'.
2324 suffix This is used by the _expand completer if the word starts with a
2326 tilde or contains a parameter expansion. If it is set to
2327 `true', the word will only be expanded if it doesn't have a suf‐
2328 fix, i.e. if it is something like `~foo' or `$foo' rather than
2329 `~foo/' or `$foo/bar', unless that suffix itself contains char‐
2330 acters eligible for expansion. The default for this style is
2331 `true'.
2332 tag-order
2334 This provides a mechanism for sorting how the tags available in
2335 a particular context will be used.
2336 The values for the style are sets of space-separated lists of
2338 tags. The tags in each value will be tried at the same time; if
2339 no match is found, the next value is used. (See the file-pat‐
2340 terns style for an exception to this behavior.)
2341 For example:
2343 zstyle ':completion:*:complete:-command-:*:*' tag-order \
2345 'commands functions'
2346 specifies that completion in command position first offers
2348 external commands and shell functions. Remaining tags will be
2349 tried if no completions are found.
2350 In addition to tag names, each string in the value may take one
2352 of the following forms:
2353 - If any value consists of only a hyphen, then only the
2355 tags specified in the other values are generated. Nor‐
2356 mally all tags not explicitly selected are tried last if
2357 the specified tags fail to generate any matches. This
2358 means that a single value consisting only of a single
2359 hyphen turns off completion.
2360 ! tags...
2362 A string starting with an exclamation mark specifies
2363 names of tags that are not to be used. The effect is the
2364 same as if all other possible tags for the context had
2365 been listed.
2366 tag:label ...
2368 Here, tag is one of the standard tags and label is an
2369 arbitrary name. Matches are generated as normal but the
2370 name label is used in contexts instead of tag. This is
2371 not useful in words starting with !.
2372 If the label starts with a hyphen, the tag is prepended
2374 to the label to form the name used for lookup. This can
2375 be used to make the completion system try a certain tag
2376 more than once, supplying different style settings for
2377 each attempt; see below for an example.
2378 tag:label:description
2380 As before, but description will replace the `%d' in the
2381 value of the format style instead of the default descrip‐
2382 tion supplied by the completion function. Spaces in the
2383 description must be quoted with a backslash. A `%d'
2384 appearing in description is replaced with the description
2385 given by the completion function.
2386 In any of the forms above the tag may be a pattern or several
2388 patterns in the form `{pat1,pat2...}'. In this case all match‐
2389 ing tags will be used except for any given explicitly in the
2390 same string.
2391 One use of these features is to try one tag more than once, set‐
2393 ting other styles differently on each attempt, but still to use
2394 all the other tags without having to repeat them all. For exam‐
2395 ple, to make completion of function names in command position
2396 ignore all the completion functions starting with an underscore
2397 the first time completion is tried:
2398 zstyle ':completion:*:*:-command-:*:*' tag-order \
2400 'functions:-non-comp *' functions
2401 zstyle ':completion:*:functions-non-comp' \
2402 ignored-patterns '_*'
2403 On the first attempt, all tags will be offered but the functions
2405 tag will be replaced by functions-non-comp. The ignored-pat‐
2406 terns style is set for this tag to exclude functions starting
2407 with an underscore. If there are no matches, the second value
2408 of the tag-order style is used which completes functions using
2409 the default tag, this time presumably including all function
2410 names.
2411 The matches for one tag can be split into different groups. For
2413 example:
2414 zstyle ':completion:*' tag-order \
2416 'options:-long:long\ options
2417 options:-short:short\ options
2418 options:-single-letter:single\ letter\ options'
2419 zstyle ':completion:*:options-long' \
2420 ignored-patterns '[-+](|-|[^-]*)'
2421 zstyle ':completion:*:options-short' \
2422 ignored-patterns '--*' '[-+]?'
2423 zstyle ':completion:*:options-single-letter' \
2424 ignored-patterns '???*'
2425 With the group-names style set, options beginning with `--',
2427 options beginning with a single `-' or `+' but containing multi‐
2428 ple characters, and single-letter options will be displayed in
2429 separate groups with different descriptions.
2430 Another use of patterns is to try multiple match specifications
2432 one after another. The matcher-list style offers something sim‐
2433 ilar, but it is tested very early in the completion system and
2434 hence can't be set for single commands nor for more specific
2435 contexts. Here is how to try normal completion without any
2436 match specification and, if that generates no matches, try again
2437 with case-insensitive matching, restricting the effect to argu‐
2438 ments of the command foo:
2439 zstyle ':completion:*:*:foo:*:*' tag-order '*' '*:-case'
2441 zstyle ':completion:*-case' matcher 'm:{a-z}={A-Z}'
2442 First, all the tags offered when completing after foo are tried
2444 using the normal tag name. If that generates no matches, the
2445 second value of tag-order is used, which tries all tags again
2446 except that this time each has -case appended to its name for
2447 lookup of styles. Hence this time the value for the matcher
2448 style from the second call to zstyle in the example is used to
2449 make completion case-insensitive.
2450 It is possible to use the -e option of the zstyle builtin com‐
2452 mand to specify conditions for the use of particular tags. For
2453 example:
2454 zstyle -e '*:-command-:*' tag-order '
2456 if [[ -n $PREFIX$SUFFIX ]]; then
2457 reply=( )
2458 else
2459 reply=( - )
2460 fi'
2461 Completion in command position will be attempted only if the
2463 string typed so far is not empty. This is tested using the PRE‐
2464 FIX special parameter; see zshcompwid for a description of
2465 parameters which are special inside completion widgets. Setting
2466 reply to an empty array provides the default behaviour of trying
2467 all tags at once; setting it to an array containing only a
2468 hyphen disables the use of all tags and hence of all comple‐
2469 tions.
2470 If no tag-order style has been defined for a context, the
2472 strings `(|*-)argument-* (|*-)option-* values' and `options'
2473 plus all tags offered by the completion function will be used to
2474 provide a sensible default behavior that causes arguments
2475 (whether normal command arguments or arguments of options) to be
2476 completed before option names for most commands.
2477 urls This is used together with the urls tag by functions completing
2479 URLs.
2480 If the value consists of more than one string, or if the only
2482 string does not name a file or directory, the strings are used
2483 as the URLs to complete.
2484 If the value contains only one string which is the name of a
2486 normal file the URLs are taken from that file (where the URLs
2487 may be separated by white space or newlines).
2488 Finally, if the only string in the value names a directory, the
2490 directory hierarchy rooted at this directory gives the comple‐
2491 tions. The top level directory should be the file access
2492 method, such as `http', `ftp', `bookmark' and so on. In many
2493 cases the next level of directories will be a filename. The
2494 directory hierarchy can descend as deep as necessary.
2495 For example,
2497 zstyle ':completion:*' urls ~/.urls
2499 mkdir -p ~/.urls/ftp/ftp.zsh.org/pub
2500 allows completion of all the components of the URL
2502 ftp://ftp.zsh.org/pub after suitable commands such as `netscape'
2503 or `lynx'. Note, however, that access methods and files are
2504 completed separately, so if the hosts style is set hosts can be
2505 completed without reference to the urls style.
2506 See the description in the function _urls itself for more infor‐
2508 mation (e.g. `more $^fpath/_urls(N)').
2509 use-cache
2511 If this is set, the completion caching layer is activated for
2512 any completions which use it (via the _store_cache,
2513 _retrieve_cache, and _cache_invalid functions). The directory
2514 containing the cache files can be changed with the cache-path
2515 style.
2516 use-compctl
2518 If this style is set to a string not equal to false, 0, no, and
2519 off, the completion system may use any completion specifications
2520 defined with the compctl builtin command. If the style is
2521 unset, this is done only if the zsh/compctl module is loaded.
2522 The string may also contain the substring `first' to use comple‐
2523 tions defined with `compctl -T', and the substring `default' to
2524 use the completion defined with `compctl -D'.
2525 Note that this is only intended to smooth the transition from
2527 compctl to the new completion system and may disappear in the
2528 future.
2529 Note also that the definitions from compctl will only be used if
2531 there is no specific completion function for the command in
2532 question. For example, if there is a function _foo to complete
2533 arguments to the command foo, compctl will never be invoked for
2534 foo. However, the compctl version will be tried if foo only
2535 uses default completion.
2536 use-ip By default, the function _hosts that completes host names strips
2538 IP addresses from entries read from host databases such as NIS
2539 and ssh files. If this style is `true', the corresponding IP
2540 addresses can be completed as well. This style is not use in
2541 any context where the hosts style is set; note also it must be
2542 set before the cache of host names is generated (typically the
2543 first completion attempt).
2544 users This may be set to a list of usernames to be completed. If it
2546 is not set all usernames will be completed. Note that if it is
2547 set only that list of users will be completed; this is because
2548 on some systems querying all users can take a prohibitive amount
2549 of time.
2550 users-hosts
2552 The values of this style should be of the form `user@host' or
2553 `user:host'. It is used for commands that need pairs of user-
2554 and hostnames. These commands will complete usernames from this
2555 style (only), and will restrict subsequent hostname completion
2556 to hosts paired with that user in one of the values of the
2557 style.
2558 It is possible to group values for sets of commands which allow
2560 a remote login, such as rlogin and ssh, by using the my-accounts
2561 tag. Similarly, values for sets of commands which usually refer
2562 to the accounts of other people, such as talk and finger, can be
2563 grouped by using the other-accounts tag. More ambivalent com‐
2564 mands may use the accounts tag.
2565 users-hosts-ports
2567 Like users-hosts but used for commands like telnet and contain‐
2568 ing strings of the form `user@host:port'.
2569 verbose
2571 If set, as it is by default, the completion listing is more ver‐
2572 bose. In particular many commands show descriptions for options
2573 if this style is `true'.
2574 word This is used by the _list completer, which prevents the inser‐
2576 tion of completions until a second completion attempt when the
2577 line has not changed. The normal way of finding out if the line
2578 has changed is to compare its entire contents between the two
2579 occasions. If this style is `true', the comparison is instead
2580 performed only on the current word. Hence if completion is per‐
2581 formed on another word with the same contents, completion will
2582 not be delayed.
2583
2585 The initialization script compinit redefines all the widgets which per‐
2586 form completion to call the supplied widget function _main_complete.
2587 This function acts as a wrapper calling the so-called `completer' func‐
2588 tions that generate matches. If _main_complete is called with argu‐
2589 ments, these are taken as the names of completer functions to be called
2590 in the order given. If no arguments are given, the set of functions to
2591 try is taken from the completer style. For example, to use normal com‐
2592 pletion and correction if that doesn't generate any matches:
2593 zstyle ':completion:*' completer _complete _correct
2595 after calling compinit. The default value for this style is `_complete
2597 _ignored', i.e. normally only ordinary completion is tried, first with
2598 the effect of the ignored-patterns style and then without it. The
2599 _main_complete function uses the return status of the completer func‐
2600 tions to decide if other completers should be called. If the return
2601 status is zero, no other completers are tried and the _main_complete
2602 function returns.
2603 If the first argument to _main_complete is a single hyphen, the argu‐
2605 ments will not be taken as names of completers. Instead, the second
2606 argument gives a name to use in the completer field of the context and
2607 the other arguments give a command name and arguments to call to gener‐
2608 ate the matches.
2609 The following completer functions are contained in the distribution,
2611 although users may write their own. Note that in contexts the leading
2612 underscore is stripped, for example basic completion is performed in
2613 the context `:completion::complete:...'.
2614 _all_matches
2616 This completer can be used to add a string consisting of all
2617 other matches. As it influences later completers it must appear
2618 as the first completer in the list. The list of all matches is
2619 affected by the avoid-completer and old-matches styles described
2620 above.
2621 It may be useful to use the _generic function described below to
2623 bind _all_matches to its own keystroke, for example:
2624 zle -C all-matches complete-word _generic
2626 bindkey '^Xa' all-matches
2627 zstyle ':completion:all-matches:*' old-matches only
2628 zstyle ':completion:all-matches::::' completer _all_matches
2629 Note that this does not generate completions by itself: first
2631 use any of the standard ways of generating a list of comple‐
2632 tions, then use ^Xa to show all matches. It is possible instead
2633 to add a standard completer to the list and request that the
2634 list of all matches should be directly inserted:
2635 zstyle ':completion:all-matches::::' completer \
2637 _all_matches _complete
2638 zstyle ':completion:all-matches:*' insert true
2639 In this case the old-matches style should not be set.
2641 _approximate
2643 This is similar to the basic _complete completer but allows the
2644 completions to undergo corrections. The maximum number of
2645 errors can be specified by the max-errors style; see the
2646 description of approximate matching in zshexpn(1) for how errors
2647 are counted. Normally this completer will only be tried after
2648 the normal _complete completer:
2649 zstyle ':completion:*' completer _complete _approximate
2651 This will give correcting completion if and only if normal com‐
2653 pletion yields no possible completions. When corrected comple‐
2654 tions are found, the completer will normally start menu comple‐
2655 tion allowing you to cycle through these strings.
2656 This completer uses the tags corrections and original when gen‐
2658 erating the possible corrections and the original string. The
2659 format style for the former may contain the additional sequences
2660 `%e' and `%o' which will be replaced by the number of errors
2661 accepted to generate the corrections and the original string,
2662 respectively.
2663 The completer progressively increases the number of errors
2665 allowed up to the limit by the max-errors style, hence if a com‐
2666 pletion is found with one error, no completions with two errors
2667 will be shown, and so on. It modifies the completer name in the
2668 context to indicate the number of errors being tried: on the
2669 first try the completer field contains `approximate-1', on the
2670 second try `approximate-2', and so on.
2671 When _approximate is called from another function, the number of
2673 errors to accept may be passed with the -a option. The argument
2674 is in the same format as the max-errors style, all in one
2675 string.
2676 Note that this completer (and the _correct completer mentioned
2678 below) can be quite expensive to call, especially when a large
2679 number of errors are allowed. One way to avoid this is to set
2680 up the completer style using the -e option to zstyle so that
2681 some completers are only used when completion is attempted a
2682 second time on the same string, e.g.:
2683 zstyle -e ':completion:*' completer '
2685 if [[ $_last_try != "$HISTNO$BUFFER$CURSOR" ]]; then
2686 _last_try="$HISTNO$BUFFER$CURSOR"
2687 reply=(_complete _match _prefix)
2688 else
2689 reply=(_ignored _correct _approximate)
2690 fi'
2691 This uses the HISTNO parameter and the BUFFER and CURSOR special
2693 parameters that are available inside zle and completion widgets
2694 to find out if the command line hasn't changed since the last
2695 time completion was tried. Only then are the _ignored, _correct
2696 and _approximate completers called.
2697 _canonical_paths [ -A var ] [ -N ] [ -MJV12nfX ] tag descr [ paths ...
2699 ]
2700 This completion function completes all paths given to it, and
2701 also tries to offer completions which point to the same file as
2702 one of the paths given (relative path when an absolute path is
2703 given, and vice versa; when ..'s are present in the word to be
2704 completed; and some paths got from symlinks).
2705 -A, if specified, takes the paths from the array variable speci‐
2707 fied. Paths can also be specified on the command line as shown
2708 above. -N, if specified, prevents canonicalizing the paths
2709 given before using them for completion, in case they are already
2710 so. The options -M, -J, -V, -1, -2, -n, -F, -X are passed to
2711 compadd.
2712 See _description for a description of tag and descr.
2714 _cmdambivalent
2716 Completes the remaining positional arguments as an external com‐
2717 mand. The external command and its arguments are completed as
2718 separate arguments (in a manner appropriate for completing
2719 /usr/bin/env) if there are two or more remaining positional
2720 arguments on the command line, and as a quoted command string
2721 (in the manner of system(...)) otherwise. See also _cmdstring
2722 and _precommand.
2723 This function takes no arguments.
2725 _cmdstring
2727 Completes an external command as a single argument, as for sys‐
2728 tem(...).
2729 _complete
2731 This completer generates all possible completions in a con‐
2732 text-sensitive manner, i.e. using the settings defined with the
2733 compdef function explained above and the current settings of all
2734 special parameters. This gives the normal completion behaviour.
2735 To complete arguments of commands, _complete uses the utility
2737 function _normal, which is in turn responsible for finding the
2738 particular function; it is described below. Various contexts of
2739 the form -context- are handled specifically. These are all men‐
2740 tioned above as possible arguments to the #compdef tag.
2741 Before trying to find a function for a specific context, _com‐
2743 plete checks if the parameter `compcontext' is set. Setting
2744 `compcontext' allows the usual completion dispatching to be
2745 overridden which is useful in places such as a function that
2746 uses vared for input. If it is set to an array, the elements are
2747 taken to be the possible matches which will be completed using
2748 the tag `values' and the description `value'. If it is set to an
2749 associative array, the keys are used as the possible completions
2750 and the values (if non-empty) are used as descriptions for the
2751 matches. If `compcontext' is set to a string containing colons,
2752 it should be of the form `tag:descr:action'. In this case the
2753 tag and descr give the tag and description to use and the action
2754 indicates what should be completed in one of the forms accepted
2755 by the _arguments utility function described below.
2756 Finally, if `compcontext' is set to a string without colons, the
2758 value is taken as the name of the context to use and the func‐
2759 tion defined for that context will be called. For this purpose,
2760 there is a special context named -command-line- that completes
2761 whole command lines (commands and their arguments). This is not
2762 used by the completion system itself but is nonetheless handled
2763 when explicitly called.
2764 _correct
2766 Generate corrections, but not completions, for the current word;
2767 this is similar to _approximate but will not allow any number of
2768 extra characters at the cursor as that completer does. The
2769 effect is similar to spell-checking. It is based on _approxi‐
2770 mate, but the completer field in the context name is correct.
2771 For example, with:
2773 zstyle ':completion:::::' completer \
2775 _complete _correct _approximate
2776 zstyle ':completion:*:correct:::' max-errors 2 not-numeric
2777 zstyle ':completion:*:approximate:::' max-errors 3 numeric
2778 correction will accept up to two errors. If a numeric argument
2780 is given, correction will not be performed, but correcting com‐
2781 pletion will be, and will accept as many errors as given by the
2782 numeric argument. Without a numeric argument, first correction
2783 and then correcting completion will be tried, with the first one
2784 accepting two errors and the second one accepting three errors.
2785 When _correct is called as a function, the number of errors to
2787 accept may be given following the -a option. The argument is in
2788 the same form a values to the accept style, all in one string.
2789 This completer function is intended to be used without the
2791 _approximate completer or, as in the example, just before it.
2792 Using it after the _approximate completer is useless since
2793 _approximate will at least generate the corrected strings gener‐
2794 ated by the _correct completer -- and probably more.
2795 _expand
2797 This completer function does not really perform completion, but
2798 instead checks if the word on the command line is eligible for
2799 expansion and, if it is, gives detailed control over how this
2800 expansion is done. For this to happen, the completion system
2801 needs to be invoked with complete-word, not expand-or-complete
2802 (the default binding for TAB), as otherwise the string will be
2803 expanded by the shell's internal mechanism before the completion
2804 system is started. Note also this completer should be called
2805 before the _complete completer function.
2806 The tags used when generating expansions are all-expansions for
2808 the string containing all possible expansions, expansions when
2809 adding the possible expansions as single matches and original
2810 when adding the original string from the line. The order in
2811 which these strings are generated, if at all, can be controlled
2812 by the group-order and tag-order styles, as usual.
2813 The format string for all-expansions and for expansions may con‐
2815 tain the sequence `%o' which will be replaced by the original
2816 string from the line.
2817 The kind of expansion to be tried is controlled by the substi‐
2819 tute, glob and subst-globs-only styles.
2820 It is also possible to call _expand as a function, in which case
2822 the different modes may be selected with options: -s for substi‐
2823 tute, -g for glob and -o for subst-globs-only.
2824 _expand_alias
2826 If the word the cursor is on is an alias, it is expanded and no
2827 other completers are called. The types of aliases which are to
2828 be expanded can be controlled with the styles regular, global
2829 and disabled.
2830 This function is also a bindable command, see the section `Bind‐
2832 able Commands' below.
2833 _extensions
2835 If the cursor follows the string `*.', filename extensions are
2836 completed. The extensions are taken from files in current direc‐
2837 tory or a directory specified at the beginning of the current
2838 word. For exact matches, completion continues to allow other
2839 completers such as _expand to expand the pattern. The standard
2840 add-space and prefix-hidden styles are observed.
2841 _external_pwds
2843 Completes current directories of other zsh processes belonging
2844 to the current user.
2845 This is intended to be used via _generic, bound to a custom key
2847 combination. Note that pattern matching is enabled so matching
2848 is performed similar to how it works with the _match completer.
2849 _history
2851 Complete words from the shell's command history. This com‐
2852 pleter can be controlled by the remove-all-dups, and sort styles
2853 as for the _history_complete_word bindable command, see the sec‐
2854 tion `Bindable Commands' below and the section `Completion Sys‐
2855 tem Configuration' above.
2856 _ignored
2858 The ignored-patterns style can be set to a list of patterns
2859 which are compared against possible completions; matching ones
2860 are removed. With this completer those matches can be rein‐
2861 stated, as if no ignored-patterns style were set. The completer
2862 actually generates its own list of matches; which completers are
2863 invoked is determined in the same way as for the _prefix com‐
2864 pleter. The single-ignored style is also available as described
2865 above.
2866 _list This completer allows the insertion of matches to be delayed
2868 until completion is attempted a second time without the word on
2869 the line being changed. On the first attempt, only the list of
2870 matches will be shown. It is affected by the styles condition
2871 and word, see the section `Completion System Configuration'
2872 above.
2873 _match This completer is intended to be used after the _complete com‐
2875 pleter. It behaves similarly but the string on the command line
2876 may be a pattern to match against trial completions. This gives
2877 the effect of the GLOB_COMPLETE option.
2878 Normally completion will be performed by taking the pattern from
2880 the line, inserting a `*' at the cursor position and comparing
2881 the resulting pattern with the possible completions generated.
2882 This can be modified with the match-original style described
2883 above.
2884 The generated matches will be offered in a menu completion
2886 unless the insert-unambiguous style is set to `true'; see the
2887 description above for other options for this style.
2888 Note that matcher specifications defined globally or used by the
2890 completion functions (the styles matcher-list and matcher) will
2891 not be used.
2892 _menu This completer was written as simple example function to show
2894 how menu completion can be enabled in shell code. However, it
2895 has the notable effect of disabling menu selection which can be
2896 useful with _generic based widgets. It should be used as the
2897 first completer in the list. Note that this is independent of
2898 the setting of the MENU_COMPLETE option and does not work with
2899 the other menu completion widgets such as reverse-menu-complete,
2900 or accept-and-menu-complete.
2901 _oldlist
2903 This completer controls how the standard completion widgets
2904 behave when there is an existing list of completions which may
2905 have been generated by a special completion (i.e. a sepa‐
2906 rately-bound completion command). It allows the ordinary com‐
2907 pletion keys to continue to use the list of completions thus
2908 generated, instead of producing a new list of ordinary contex‐
2909 tual completions. It should appear in the list of completers
2910 before any of the widgets which generate matches. It uses two
2911 styles: old-list and old-menu, see the section `Completion Sys‐
2912 tem Configuration' above.
2913 _precommand
2915 Complete an external command in word-separated arguments, as for
2916 exec and /usr/bin/env.
2917 _prefix
2919 This completer can be used to try completion with the suffix
2920 (everything after the cursor) ignored. In other words, the suf‐
2921 fix will not be considered to be part of the word to complete.
2922 The effect is similar to the expand-or-complete-prefix command.
2923 The completer style is used to decide which other completers are
2925 to be called to generate matches. If this style is unset, the
2926 list of completers set for the current context is used --
2927 except, of course, the _prefix completer itself. Furthermore,
2928 if this completer appears more than once in the list of com‐
2929 pleters only those completers not already tried by the last
2930 invocation of _prefix will be called.
2931 For example, consider this global completer style:
2933 zstyle ':completion:*' completer \
2935 _complete _prefix _correct _prefix:foo
2936 Here, the _prefix completer tries normal completion but ignoring
2938 the suffix. If that doesn't generate any matches, and neither
2939 does the call to the _correct completer after it, _prefix will
2940 be called a second time and, now only trying correction with the
2941 suffix ignored. On the second invocation the completer part of
2942 the context appears as `foo'.
2943 To use _prefix as the last resort and try only normal completion
2945 when it is invoked:
2946 zstyle ':completion:*' completer _complete ... _prefix
2948 zstyle ':completion::prefix:*' completer _complete
2949 The add-space style is also respected. If it is set to `true'
2951 then _prefix will insert a space between the matches generated
2952 (if any) and the suffix.
2953 Note that this completer is only useful if the COMPLETE_IN_WORD
2955 option is set; otherwise, the cursor will be moved to the end of
2956 the current word before the completion code is called and hence
2957 there will be no suffix.
2958 _user_expand
2960 This completer behaves similarly to the _expand completer but
2961 instead performs expansions defined by users. The styles
2962 add-space and sort styles specific to the _expand completer are
2963 usable with _user_expand in addition to other styles handled
2964 more generally by the completion system. The tag all-expansions
2965 is also available.
2966 The expansion depends on the array style user-expand being
2968 defined for the current context; remember that the context for
2969 completers is less specific than that for contextual completion
2970 as the full context has not yet been determined. Elements of
2971 the array may have one of the following forms:
2972 $hash
2974 hash is the name of an associative array. Note this is
2976 not a full parameter expression, merely a $, suitably
2977 quoted to prevent immediate expansion, followed by the
2978 name of an associative array. If the trial expansion
2979 word matches a key in hash, the resulting expansion is
2980 the corresponding value.
2981 _func
2982 _func is the name of a shell function whose name must
2984 begin with _ but is not otherwise special to the comple‐
2985 tion system. The function is called with the trial word
2986 as an argument. If the word is to be expanded, the func‐
2987 tion should set the array reply to a list of expansions.
2988 Optionally, it can set REPLY to a word that will be used
2989 as a description for the set of expansions. The return
2990 status of the function is irrelevant.
2992 In addition to the context-dependent completions provided, which are
2993 expected to work in an intuitively obvious way, there are a few widgets
2994 implementing special behaviour which can be bound separately to keys.
2995 The following is a list of these and their default bindings.
2996 _bash_completions
2998 This function is used by two widgets, _bash_complete-word and
2999 _bash_list-choices. It exists to provide compatibility with
3000 completion bindings in bash. The last character of the binding
3001 determines what is completed: `!', command names; `$', environ‐
3002 ment variables; `@', host names; `/', file names; `~' user
3003 names. In bash, the binding preceded by `\e' gives completion,
3004 and preceded by `^X' lists options. As some of these bindings
3005 clash with standard zsh bindings, only `\e~' and `^X~' are bound
3006 by default. To add the rest, the following should be added to
3007 .zshrc after compinit has been run:
3008 for key in '!' '$' '@' '/' '~'; do
3010 bindkey "\e$key" _bash_complete-word
3011 bindkey "^X$key" _bash_list-choices
3012 done
3013 This includes the bindings for `~' in case they were already
3015 bound to something else; the completion code does not override
3016 user bindings.
3017 _correct_filename (^XC)
3019 Correct the filename path at the cursor position. Allows up to
3020 six errors in the name. Can also be called with an argument to
3021 correct a filename path, independently of zle; the correction is
3022 printed on standard output.
3023 _correct_word (^Xc)
3025 Performs correction of the current argument using the usual con‐
3026 textual completions as possible choices. This stores the string
3027 `correct-word' in the function field of the context name and
3028 then calls the _correct completer.
3029 _expand_alias (^Xa)
3031 This function can be used as a completer and as a bindable com‐
3032 mand. It expands the word the cursor is on if it is an alias.
3033 The types of alias expanded can be controlled with the styles
3034 regular, global and disabled.
3035 When used as a bindable command there is one additional feature
3037 that can be selected by setting the complete style to `true'.
3038 In this case, if the word is not the name of an alias,
3039 _expand_alias tries to complete the word to a full alias name
3040 without expanding it. It leaves the cursor directly after the
3041 completed word so that invoking _expand_alias once more will
3042 expand the now-complete alias name.
3043 _expand_word (^Xe)
3045 Performs expansion on the current word: equivalent to the stan‐
3046 dard expand-word command, but using the _expand completer.
3047 Before calling it, the function field of the context is set to
3048 `expand-word'.
3049 _generic
3051 This function is not defined as a widget and not bound by
3052 default. However, it can be used to define a widget and will
3053 then store the name of the widget in the function field of the
3054 context and call the completion system. This allows custom com‐
3055 pletion widgets with their own set of style settings to be
3056 defined easily. For example, to define a widget that performs
3057 normal completion and starts menu selection:
3058 zle -C foo complete-word _generic
3060 bindkey '...' foo
3061 zstyle ':completion:foo:*' menu yes select=1
3062 Note in particular that the completer style may be set for the
3064 context in order to change the set of functions used to generate
3065 possible matches. If _generic is called with arguments, those
3066 are passed through to _main_complete as the list of completers
3067 in place of those defined by the completer style.
3068 _history_complete_word (\e/)
3070 Complete words from the shell's command history. This uses the
3071 list, remove-all-dups, sort, and stop styles.
3072 _most_recent_file (^Xm)
3074 Complete the name of the most recently modified file matching
3075 the pattern on the command line (which may be blank). If given
3076 a numeric argument N, complete the Nth most recently modified
3077 file. Note the completion, if any, is always unique.
3078 _next_tags (^Xn)
3080 This command alters the set of matches used to that for the next
3081 tag, or set of tags, either as given by the tag-order style or
3082 as set by default; these matches would otherwise not be avail‐
3083 able. Successive invocations of the command cycle through all
3084 possible sets of tags.
3085 _read_comp (^X^R)
3087 Prompt the user for a string, and use that to perform completion
3088 on the current word. There are two possibilities for the
3089 string. First, it can be a set of words beginning `_', for
3090 example `_files -/', in which case the function with any argu‐
3091 ments will be called to generate the completions. Unambiguous
3092 parts of the function name will be completed automatically (nor‐
3093 mal completion is not available at this point) until a space is
3094 typed.
3095 Second, any other string will be passed as a set of arguments to
3097 compadd and should hence be an expression specifying what should
3098 be completed.
3099 A very restricted set of editing commands is available when
3101 reading the string: `DEL' and `^H' delete the last character;
3102 `^U' deletes the line, and `^C' and `^G' abort the function,
3103 while `RET' accepts the completion. Note the string is used
3104 verbatim as a command line, so arguments must be quoted in
3105 accordance with standard shell rules.
3106 Once a string has been read, the next call to _read_comp will
3108 use the existing string instead of reading a new one. To force
3109 a new string to be read, call _read_comp with a numeric argu‐
3110 ment.
3111 _complete_debug (^X?)
3113 This widget performs ordinary completion, but captures in a tem‐
3114 porary file a trace of the shell commands executed by the com‐
3115 pletion system. Each completion attempt gets its own file. A
3116 command to view each of these files is pushed onto the editor
3117 buffer stack.
3118 _complete_help (^Xh)
3120 This widget displays information about the context names, the
3121 tags, and the completion functions used when completing at the
3122 current cursor position. If given a numeric argument other than
3123 1 (as in `ESC-2 ^Xh'), then the styles used and the contexts for
3124 which they are used will be shown, too.
3125 Note that the information about styles may be incomplete; it
3127 depends on the information available from the completion func‐
3128 tions called, which in turn is determined by the user's own
3129 styles and other settings.
3130 _complete_help_generic
3132 Unlike other commands listed here, this must be created as a
3133 normal ZLE widget rather than a completion widget (i.e. with zle
3134 -N). It is used for generating help with a widget bound to the
3135 _generic widget that is described above.
3136 If this widget is created using the name of the function, as it
3138 is by default, then when executed it will read a key sequence.
3139 This is expected to be bound to a call to a completion function
3140 that uses the _generic widget. That widget will be executed,
3141 and information provided in the same format that the _com‐
3142 plete_help widget displays for contextual completion.
3143 If the widget's name contains debug, for example if it is cre‐
3145 ated as `zle -N _complete_debug_generic _complete_help_generic',
3146 it will read and execute the keystring for a generic widget as
3147 before, but then generate debugging information as done by _com‐
3148 plete_debug for contextual completion.
3149 If the widget's name contains noread, it will not read a
3151 keystring but instead arrange that the next use of a generic
3152 widget run in the same shell will have the effect as described
3153 above.
3154 The widget works by setting the shell parameter
3156 ZSH_TRACE_GENERIC_WIDGET which is read by _generic. Unsetting
3157 the parameter cancels any pending effect of the noread form.
3158 For example, after executing the following:
3160 zle -N _complete_debug_generic _complete_help_generic
3162 bindkey '^x:' _complete_debug_generic
3163 typing `C-x :' followed by the key sequence for a generic widget
3165 will cause trace output for that widget to be saved to a file.
3166 _complete_tag (^Xt)
3168 This widget completes symbol tags created by the etags or ctags
3169 programmes (note there is no connection with the completion sys‐
3170 tem's tags) stored in a file TAGS, in the format used by etags,
3171 or tags, in the format created by ctags. It will look back up
3172 the path hierarchy for the first occurrence of either file; if
3173 both exist, the file TAGS is preferred. You can specify the
3174 full path to a TAGS or tags file by setting the parameter $TAGS‐
3175 FILE or $tagsfile respectively. The corresponding completion
3176 tags used are etags and vtags, after emacs and vi respectively.
3177
3179 Descriptions follow for utility functions that may be useful when writ‐
3180 ing completion functions. If functions are installed in subdirecto‐
3181 ries, most of these reside in the Base subdirectory. Like the example
3182 functions for commands in the distribution, the utility functions gen‐
3183 erating matches all follow the convention of returning status zero if
3184 they generated completions and non-zero if no matching completions
3185 could be added.
3186 _absolute_command_paths
3188 This function completes external commands as absolute paths
3189 (unlike _command_names -e which completes their basenames). It
3190 takes no arguments.
3191 _all_labels [ -x ] [ -12VJ ] tag name descr [ command arg ... ]
3193 This is a convenient interface to the _next_label function
3194 below, implementing the loop shown in the _next_label example.
3195 The command and its arguments are called to generate the
3196 matches. The options stored in the parameter name will automat‐
3197 ically be inserted into the args passed to the command. Nor‐
3198 mally, they are put directly after the command, but if one of
3199 the args is a single hyphen, they are inserted directly before
3200 that. If the hyphen is the last argument, it will be removed
3201 from the argument list before the command is called. This
3202 allows _all_labels to be used in almost all cases where the
3203 matches can be generated by a single call to the compadd builtin
3204 command or by a call to one of the utility functions.
3205 For example:
3207 local expl
3209 ...
3210 if _requested foo; then
3211 ...
3212 _all_labels foo expl '...' compadd ... - $matches
3213 fi
3214 Will complete the strings from the matches parameter, using com‐
3216 padd with additional options which will take precedence over
3217 those generated by _all_labels.
3218 _alternative [ -O name ] [ -C name ] spec ...
3220 This function is useful in simple cases where multiple tags are
3221 available. Essentially it implements a loop like the one
3222 described for the _tags function below.
3223 The tags to use and the action to perform if a tag is requested
3225 are described using the specs which are of the form:
3226 `tag:descr:action'. The tags are offered using _tags and if the
3227 tag is requested, the action is executed with the given descrip‐
3228 tion descr. The actions are those accepted by the _arguments
3229 function (described below), excluding the `->state' and `=...'
3230 forms.
3231 For example, the action may be a simple function call:
3233 _alternative \
3235 'users:user:_users' \
3236 'hosts:host:_hosts'
3237 offers usernames and hostnames as possible matches, generated by
3239 the _users and _hosts functions respectively.
3240 Like _arguments, this function uses _all_labels to execute the
3242 actions, which will loop over all sets of tags. Special han‐
3243 dling is only required if there is an additional valid tag, for
3244 example inside a function called from _alternative.
3245 The option `-O name' is used in the same way as by the _argu‐
3247 ments function. In other words, the elements of the name array
3248 will be passed to compadd when executing an action.
3249 Like _tags this function supports the -C option to give a dif‐
3251 ferent name for the argument context field.
3252 _arguments [ -nswWCRS ] [ -A pat ] [ -O name ] [ -M matchspec ]
3255 [ : ] spec ...
3256 _arguments [ opt ... ] -- [ -l ] [ -i pats ] [ -s pair ]
3257 [ helpspec ...]
3258 This function can be used to give a complete specification for
3259 completion for a command whose arguments follow standard UNIX
3260 option and argument conventions.
3261 Options Overview
3263 Options to _arguments itself must be in separate words, i.e. -s
3265 -w, not -sw. The options are followed by specs that describe
3266 options and arguments of the analyzed command. To avoid ambigu‐
3267 ity, all options to _arguments itself may be separated from the
3268 spec forms by a single colon.
3269 The `--' form is used to intuit spec forms from the help output
3271 of the command being analyzed, and is described in detail below.
3272 The opts for the `--' form are otherwise the same options as the
3273 first form. Note that `-s' following `--' has a distinct mean‐
3274 ing from `-s' preceding `--', and both may appear.
3275 The option switches -s, -S, -A, -w, and -W affect how _arguments
3277 parses the analyzed command line's options. These switches are
3278 useful for commands with standard argument parsing.
3279 The options of _arguments have the following meanings:
3281 -n With this option, _arguments sets the parameter NORMARG
3283 to the position of the first normal argument in the
3284 $words array, i.e. the position after the end of the
3285 options. If that argument has not been reached, NORMARG
3286 is set to -1. The caller should declare `integer NOR‐
3287 MARG' if the -n option is passed; otherwise the parameter
3288 is not used.
3289 -s Enable option stacking for single-letter options, whereby
3291 multiple single-letter options may be combined into a
3292 single word. For example, the two options `-x' and `-y'
3293 may be combined into a single word `-xy'. By default,
3294 every word corresponds to a single option name (`-xy' is
3295 a single option named `xy').
3296 Options beginning with a single hyphen or plus sign are
3298 eligible for stacking; words beginning with two hyphens
3299 are not.
3300 Note that -s after -- has a different meaning, which is
3302 documented in the segment entitled `Deriving spec forms
3303 from the help output'.
3304 -w In combination with -s, allow option stacking even if one
3306 or more of the options take arguments. For example, if
3307 -x takes an argument, with no -s, `-xy' is considered as
3308 a single (unhandled) option; with -s, -xy is an option
3309 with the argument `y'; with both -s and -w, -xy is the
3310 option -x and the option -y with arguments to -x (and to
3311 -y, if it takes arguments) still to come in subsequent
3312 words.
3313 -W This option takes -w a stage further: it is possible to
3315 complete single-letter options even after an argument
3316 that occurs in the same word. However, it depends on the
3317 action performed whether options will really be completed
3318 at this point. For more control, use a utility function
3319 like _guard as part of the action.
3320 -C Modify the curcontext parameter for an action of the form
3322 `->state'. This is discussed in detail below.
3323 -R Return status 300 instead of zero when a $state is to be
3325 handled, in the `->string' syntax.
3326 -S Do not complete options after a `--' appearing on the
3328 line, and ignore the `--'. For example, with -S, in the
3329 line
3330 foobar -x -- -y
3332 the `-x' is considered an option, the `-y' is considered
3334 an argument, and the `--' is considered to be neither.
3335 -A pat Do not complete options after the first non-option argu‐
3337 ment on the line. pat is a pattern matching all strings
3338 which are not to be taken as arguments. For example, to
3339 make _arguments stop completing options after the first
3340 normal argument, but ignoring all strings starting with a
3341 hyphen even if they are not described by one of the opt‐
3342 specs, the form is `-A "-*"'.
3343 -O name
3345 Pass the elements of the array name as arguments to func‐
3346 tions called to execute actions. This is discussed in
3347 detail below.
3348 -M matchspec
3350 Use the match specification matchspec for completing
3351 option names and values. The default matchspec allows
3352 partial word completion after `_' and `-', such as com‐
3353 pleting `-f-b' to `-foo-bar'. The default matchspec is:
3354 r:|[_-]=* r:|=*
3355 specs: overview
3357 Each of the following forms is a spec describing individual sets
3359 of options or arguments on the command line being analyzed.
3360 n:message:action
3362 n::message:action
3363 This describes the n'th normal argument. The message
3364 will be printed above the matches generated and the
3365 action indicates what can be completed in this position
3366 (see below). If there are two colons before the message
3367 the argument is optional. If the message contains only
3368 white space, nothing will be printed above the matches
3369 unless the action adds an explanation string itself.
3370 :message:action
3372 ::message:action
3373 Similar, but describes the next argument, whatever number
3374 that happens to be. If all arguments are specified in
3375 this form in the correct order the numbers are unneces‐
3376 sary.
3377 *:message:action
3379 *::message:action
3380 *:::message:action
3381 This describes how arguments (usually non-option argu‐
3382 ments, those not beginning with - or +) are to be com‐
3383 pleted when neither of the first two forms was provided.
3384 Any number of arguments can be completed in this fashion.
3385 With two colons before the message, the words special
3387 array and the CURRENT special parameter are modified to
3388 refer only to the normal arguments when the action is
3389 executed or evaluated. With three colons before the mes‐
3390 sage they are modified to refer only to the normal argu‐
3391 ments covered by this description.
3392 optspec
3394 optspec:...
3395 This describes an option. The colon indicates handling
3396 for one or more arguments to the option; if it is not
3397 present, the option is assumed to take no arguments.
3398 The following forms are available for the initial opt‐
3400 spec, whether or not the option has arguments.
3401 *optspec
3403 Here optspec is one of the remaining forms below.
3404 This indicates the following optspec may be
3405 repeated. Otherwise if the corresponding option
3406 is already present on the command line to the left
3407 of the cursor it will not be offered again.
3408 -optname
3410 +optname
3411 In the simplest form the optspec is just the
3412 option name beginning with a minus or a plus sign,
3413 such as `-foo'. The first argument for the option
3414 (if any) must follow as a separate word directly
3415 after the option.
3416 Either of `-+optname' and `+-optname' can be used
3418 to specify that -optname and +optname are both
3419 valid.
3420 In all the remaining forms, the leading `-' may be
3422 replaced by or paired with `+' in this way.
3423 -optname-
3425 The first argument of the option must come
3426 directly after the option name in the same word.
3427 For example, `-foo-:...' specifies that the com‐
3428 pleted option and argument will look like
3429 `-fooarg'.
3430 -optname+
3432 The first argument may appear immediately after
3433 optname in the same word, or may appear as a sepa‐
3434 rate word after the option. For example,
3435 `-foo+:...' specifies that the completed option
3436 and argument will look like either `-fooarg' or
3437 `-foo arg'.
3438 -optname=
3440 The argument may appear as the next word, or in
3441 same word as the option name provided that it is
3442 separated from it by an equals sign, for example
3443 `-foo=arg' or `-foo arg'.
3444 -optname=-
3446 The argument to the option must appear after an
3447 equals sign in the same word, and may not be given
3448 in the next argument.
3449 optspec[explanation]
3451 An explanation string may be appended to any of
3452 the preceding forms of optspec by enclosing it in
3453 brackets, as in `-q[query operation]'.
3454 The verbose style is used to decide whether the
3456 explanation strings are displayed with the option
3457 in a completion listing.
3458 If no bracketed explanation string is given but
3460 the auto-description style is set and only one
3461 argument is described for this optspec, the value
3462 of the style is displayed, with any appearance of
3463 the sequence `%d' in it replaced by the message of
3464 the first optarg that follows the optspec; see
3465 below.
3466 It is possible for options with a literal `+' or `=' to
3468 appear, but that character must be quoted, for example
3469 `-\+'.
3470 Each optarg following an optspec must take one of the
3472 following forms:
3473 :message:action
3475 ::message:action
3476 An argument to the option; message and action are
3477 treated as for ordinary arguments. In the first
3478 form, the argument is mandatory, and in the second
3479 form it is optional.
3480 This group may be repeated for options which take
3482 multiple arguments. In other words, :mes‐
3483 sage1:action1:message2:action2 specifies that the
3484 option takes two arguments.
3485 :*pattern:message:action
3487 :*pattern::message:action
3488 :*pattern:::message:action
3489 This describes multiple arguments. Only the last
3490 optarg for an option taking multiple arguments may
3491 be given in this form. If the pattern is empty
3492 (i.e. :*:), all the remaining words on the line
3493 are to be completed as described by the action;
3494 otherwise, all the words up to and including a
3495 word matching the pattern are to be completed
3496 using the action.
3497 Multiple colons are treated as for the `*:...'
3499 forms for ordinary arguments: when the message is
3500 preceded by two colons, the words special array
3501 and the CURRENT special parameter are modified
3502 during the execution or evaluation of the action
3503 to refer only to the words after the option. When
3504 preceded by three colons, they are modified to
3505 refer only to the words covered by this descrip‐
3506 tion.
3507 Any literal colon in an optname, message, or action must be pre‐
3509 ceded by a backslash, `\:'.
3510 Each of the forms above may be preceded by a list in parentheses
3512 of option names and argument numbers. If the given option is on
3513 the command line, the options and arguments indicated in paren‐
3514 theses will not be offered. For example, `(-two -three
3515 1)-one:...' completes the option `-one'; if this appears on the
3516 command line, the options -two and -three and the first ordinary
3517 argument will not be completed after it. `(-foo):...' specifies
3518 an ordinary argument completion; -foo will not be completed if
3519 that argument is already present.
3520 Other items may appear in the list of excluded options to indi‐
3522 cate various other items that should not be applied when the
3523 current specification is matched: a single star (*) for the rest
3524 arguments (i.e. a specification of the form `*:...'); a colon
3525 (:) for all normal (non-option-) arguments; and a hyphen (-) for
3526 all options. For example, if `(*)' appears before an option and
3527 the option appears on the command line, the list of remaining
3528 arguments (those shown in the above table beginning with `*:')
3529 will not be completed.
3530 To aid in reuse of specifications, it is possible to precede any
3532 of the forms above with `!'; then the form will no longer be
3533 completed, although if the option or argument appears on the
3534 command line they will be skipped as normal. The main use for
3535 this is when the arguments are given by an array, and _arguments
3536 is called repeatedly for more specific contexts: on the first
3537 call `_arguments $global_options' is used, and on subsequent
3538 calls `_arguments !$^global_options'.
3539 specs: actions
3541 In each of the forms above the action determines how completions
3543 should be generated. Except for the `->string' form below, the
3544 action will be executed by calling the _all_labels function to
3545 process all tag labels. No special handling of tags is needed
3546 unless a function call introduces a new one.
3547 The functions called to execute actions will be called with the
3549 elements of the array named by the `-O name' option as argu‐
3550 ments. This can be used, for example, to pass the same set of
3551 options for the compadd builtin to all actions.
3552 The forms for action are as follows.
3554 (single unquoted space)
3556 This is useful where an argument is required but it is
3557 not possible or desirable to generate matches for it.
3558 The message will be displayed but no completions listed.
3559 Note that even in this case the colon at the end of the
3560 message is needed; it may only be omitted when neither a
3561 message nor an action is given.
3562 (item1 item2 ...)
3564 One of a list of possible matches, for example:
3565 :foo:(foo bar baz)
3567 ((item1\:desc1 ...))
3569 Similar to the above, but with descriptions for each pos‐
3570 sible match. Note the backslash before the colon. For
3571 example,
3572 :foo:((a\:bar b\:baz))
3574 The matches will be listed together with their descrip‐
3576 tions if the description style is set with the values tag
3577 in the context.
3578 ->string
3580 In this form, _arguments processes the arguments and
3581 options and then returns control to the calling function
3582 with parameters set to indicate the state of processing;
3583 the calling function then makes its own arrangements for
3584 generating completions. For example, functions that
3585 implement a state machine can use this type of action.
3586 Where _arguments encounters action in the `->string' for‐
3588 mat, it will strip all leading and trailing whitespace
3589 from string and set the array state to the set of all
3590 strings for which an action is to be performed. The ele‐
3591 ments of the array state_descr are assigned the corre‐
3592 sponding message field from each optarg containing such
3593 an action.
3594 By default and in common with all other well behaved com‐
3596 pletion functions, _arguments returns status zero if it
3597 was able to add matches and non-zero otherwise. However,
3598 if the -R option is given, _arguments will instead return
3599 a status of 300 to indicate that $state is to be handled.
3600 In addition to $state and $state_descr, _arguments also
3602 sets the global parameters `context', `line' and
3603 `opt_args' as described below, and does not reset any
3604 changes made to the special parameters such as PREFIX and
3605 words. This gives the calling function the choice of
3606 resetting these parameters or propagating changes in
3607 them.
3608 A function calling _arguments with at least one action
3610 containing a `->string' must therefore declare appropri‐
3611 ate local parameters:
3612 local context state state_descr line
3614 typeset -A opt_args
3615 to prevent _arguments from altering the global environ‐
3617 ment.
3618 {eval-string}
3620 A string in braces is evaluated as shell code to generate
3621 matches. If the eval-string itself does not begin with
3622 an opening parenthesis or brace it is split into separate
3623 words before execution.
3624 = action
3626 If the action starts with `= ' (an equals sign followed
3627 by a space), _arguments will insert the contents of the
3628 argument field of the current context as the new first
3629 element in the words special array and increment the
3630 value of the CURRENT special parameter. This has the
3631 effect of inserting a dummy word onto the completion com‐
3632 mand line while not changing the point at which comple‐
3633 tion is taking place.
3634 This is most useful with one of the specifiers that
3636 restrict the words on the command line on which the
3637 action is to operate (the two- and three-colon forms
3638 above). One particular use is when an action itself
3639 causes _arguments on a restricted range; it is necessary
3640 to use this trick to insert an appropriate command name
3641 into the range for the second call to _arguments to be
3642 able to parse the line.
3643 word...
3645 word...
3646 This covers all forms other than those above. If the
3647 action starts with a space, the remaining list of words
3648 will be invoked unchanged.
3649 Otherwise it will be invoked with some extra strings
3651 placed after the first word; these are to be passed down
3652 as options to the compadd builtin. They ensure that the
3653 state specified by _arguments, in particular the descrip‐
3654 tions of options and arguments, is correctly passed to
3655 the completion command. These additional arguments are
3656 taken from the array parameter `expl'; this will be set
3657 up before executing the action and hence may be referred
3658 to inside it, typically in an expansion of the form
3659 `$expl[@]' which preserves empty elements of the array.
3660 During the performance of the action the array `line' will be
3662 set to the normal arguments from the command line, i.e. the
3663 words from the command line after the command name excluding all
3664 options and their arguments. Options are stored in the associa‐
3665 tive array `opt_args' with option names as keys and their argu‐
3666 ments as the values. For options that have more than one argu‐
3667 ment these are given as one string, separated by colons. All
3668 colons and backslashes in the original arguments are preceded
3669 with backslashes.
3670 The parameter `context' is set when returning to the calling
3672 function to perform an action of the form `->string'. It is set
3673 to an array of elements corresponding to the elements of $state.
3674 Each element is a suitable name for the argument field of the
3675 context: either a string of the form `option-opt-n' for the n'th
3676 argument of the option -opt, or a string of the form `argu‐
3677 ment-n' for the n'th argument. For `rest' arguments, that is
3678 those in the list at the end not handled by position, n is the
3679 string `rest'. For example, when completing the argument of the
3680 -o option, the name is `option-o-1', while for the second normal
3681 (non-option-) argument it is `argument-2'.
3682 Furthermore, during the evaluation of the action the context
3684 name in the curcontext parameter is altered to append the same
3685 string that is stored in the context parameter.
3686 The option -C tells _arguments to modify the curcontext parame‐
3688 ter for an action of the form `->state'. This is the standard
3689 parameter used to keep track of the current context. Here it
3690 (and not the context array) should be made local to the calling
3691 function to avoid passing back the modified value and should be
3692 initialised to the current value at the start of the function:
3693 local curcontext="$curcontext"
3695 This is useful where it is not possible for multiple states to
3697 be valid together.
3698 Grouping Options
3700 Options can be grouped to simplify exclusion lists. A group is
3702 introduced with `+' followed by a name for the group in the sub‐
3703 sequent word. Whole groups can then be referenced in an exclu‐
3704 sion list or a group name can be used to disambiguate between
3705 two forms of the same option. For example:
3706 _arguments \
3708 '(group2--x)-a' \
3709 + group1 \
3710 -m \
3711 '(group2)-n' \
3712 + group2 \
3713 -x -y
3714 If the name of a group is specified in the form `(name)' then
3716 only one value from that group will ever be completed; more for‐
3717 mally, all specifications are mutually exclusive to all other
3718 specifications in that group. This is useful for defining
3719 options that are aliases for each other. For example:
3720 _arguments \
3722 -a -b \
3723 + '(operation)' \
3724 {-c,--compress}'[compress]' \
3725 {-d,--decompress}'[decompress]' \
3726 {-l,--list}'[list]'
3727 If an option in a group appears on the command line, it is
3729 stored in the associative array `opt_args' with 'group-option'
3730 as a key. In the example above, a key `operation--c' is used if
3731 the option `-c' is present on the command line.
3732 Specifying Multiple Sets of Arguments
3734 It is possible to specify multiple sets of options and arguments
3736 with the sets separated by single hyphens. This differs from
3737 groups in that sets are considered to be mutually exclusive of
3738 each other.
3739 Specifications before the first set and from any group are com‐
3741 mon to all sets. For example:
3742 _arguments \
3744 -a \
3745 - set1 \
3746 -c \
3747 - set2 \
3748 -d \
3749 ':arg:(x2 y2)'
3750 This defines two sets. When the command line contains the
3752 option `-c', the `-d' option and the argument will not be con‐
3753 sidered possible completions. When it contains `-d' or an argu‐
3754 ment, the option `-c' will not be considered. However, after
3755 `-a' both sets will still be considered valid.
3756 As for groups, the name of a set may appear in exclusion lists,
3758 either alone or preceding a normal option or argument specifica‐
3759 tion.
3760 The completion code has to parse the command line separately for
3762 each set. This can be slow so sets should only be used when nec‐
3763 essary. A useful alternative is often an option specification
3764 with rest-arguments (as in `-foo:*:...'); here the option -foo
3765 swallows up all remaining arguments as described by the optarg
3766 definitions.
3767 Deriving spec forms from the help output
3769 The option `--' allows _arguments to work out the names of long
3771 options that support the `--help' option which is standard in
3772 many GNU commands. The command word is called with the argument
3773 `--help' and the output examined for option names. Clearly, it
3774 can be dangerous to pass this to commands which may not support
3775 this option as the behaviour of the command is unspecified.
3776 In addition to options, `_arguments --' will try to deduce the
3778 types of arguments available for options when the form
3779 `--opt=val' is valid. It is also possible to provide hints by
3780 examining the help text of the command and adding helpspec of
3781 the form `pattern:message:action'; note that other _arguments
3782 spec forms are not used. The pattern is matched against the
3783 help text for an option, and if it matches the message and
3784 action are used as for other argument specifiers. The special
3785 case of `*:' means both message and action are empty, which has
3786 the effect of causing options having no description in the help
3787 output to be ordered in listings ahead of options that have a
3788 description.
3789 For example:
3791 _arguments -- '*\*:toggle:(yes no)' \
3793 '*=FILE*:file:_files' \
3794 '*=DIR*:directory:_files -/' \
3795 '*=PATH*:directory:_files -/'
3796 Here, `yes' and `no' will be completed as the argument of
3798 options whose description ends in a star; file names will be
3799 completed for options that contain the substring `=FILE' in the
3800 description; and directories will be completed for options whose
3801 description contains `=DIR' or `=PATH'. The last three are in
3802 fact the default and so need not be given explicitly, although
3803 it is possible to override the use of these patterns. A typical
3804 help text which uses this feature is:
3805 -C, --directory=DIR change to directory DIR
3807 so that the above specifications will cause directories to be
3809 completed after `--directory', though not after `-C'.
3810 Note also that _arguments tries to find out automatically if the
3812 argument for an option is optional. This can be specified
3813 explicitly by doubling the colon before the message.
3814 If the pattern ends in `(-)', this will be removed from the pat‐
3816 tern and the action will be used only directly after the `=',
3817 not in the next word. This is the behaviour of a normal speci‐
3818 fication defined with the form `=-'.
3819 By default, the command (with the option `--help') is run after
3821 resetting all the locale categories (except for LC_CTYPE) to
3822 `C'. If the localized help output is known to work, the option
3823 `-l' can be specified after the `_arguments --' so that the com‐
3824 mand is run in the current locale.
3825 The `_arguments --' can be followed by the option `-i patterns'
3827 to give patterns for options which are not to be completed. The
3828 patterns can be given as the name of an array parameter or as a
3829 literal list in parentheses. For example,
3830 _arguments -- -i \
3832 "(--(en|dis)able-FEATURE*)"
3833 will cause completion to ignore the options `--enable-FEATURE'
3835 and `--disable-FEATURE' (this example is useful with GNU config‐
3836 ure).
3837 The `_arguments --' form can also be followed by the option `-s
3839 pair' to describe option aliases. The pair consists of a list
3840 of alternating patterns and corresponding replacements, enclosed
3841 in parens and quoted so that it forms a single argument word in
3842 the _arguments call.
3843 For example, some configure-script help output describes options
3845 only as `--enable-foo', but the script also accepts the negated
3846 form `--disable-foo'. To allow completion of the second form:
3847 _arguments -- -s "((#s)--enable- --disable-)"
3849 Miscellaneous notes
3851 Finally, note that _arguments generally expects to be the pri‐
3853 mary function handling any completion for which it is used. It
3854 may have side effects which change the treatment of any matches
3855 added by other functions called after it. To combine _arguments
3856 with other functions, those functions should be called either
3857 before _arguments, as an action within a spec, or in handlers
3858 for `->state' actions.
3859 Here is a more general example of the use of _arguments:
3861 _arguments '-l+:left border:' \
3863 '-format:paper size:(letter A4)' \
3864 '*-copy:output file:_files::resolution:(300 600)' \
3865 ':postscript file:_files -g \*.\(ps\|eps\)' \
3866 '*:page number:'
3867 This describes three options: `-l', `-format', and `-copy'. The
3869 first takes one argument described as `left border' for which no
3870 completion will be offered because of the empty action. Its
3871 argument may come directly after the `-l' or it may be given as
3872 the next word on the line.
3873 The `-format' option takes one argument in the next word,
3875 described as `paper size' for which only the strings `letter'
3876 and `A4' will be completed.
3877 The `-copy' option may appear more than once on the command line
3879 and takes two arguments. The first is mandatory and will be
3880 completed as a filename. The second is optional (because of the
3881 second colon before the description `resolution') and will be
3882 completed from the strings `300' and `600'.
3883 The last two descriptions say what should be completed as argu‐
3885 ments. The first describes the first argument as a `postscript
3886 file' and makes files ending in `ps' or `eps' be completed. The
3887 last description gives all other arguments the description `page
3888 numbers' but does not offer completions.
3889 _cache_invalid cache_identifier
3891 This function returns status zero if the completions cache cor‐
3892 responding to the given cache identifier needs rebuilding. It
3893 determines this by looking up the cache-policy style for the
3894 current context. This should provide a function name which is
3895 run with the full path to the relevant cache file as the only
3896 argument.
3897 Example:
3899 _example_caching_policy () {
3901 # rebuild if cache is more than a week old
3902 local -a oldp
3903 oldp=( "$1"(Nm+7) )
3904 (( $#oldp ))
3905 }
3906 _call_function return name [ arg ... ]
3908 If a function name exists, it is called with the arguments args.
3909 The return argument gives the name of a parameter in which the
3910 return status from the function name should be stored; if return
3911 is empty or a single hyphen it is ignored.
3912 The return status of _call_function itself is zero if the func‐
3914 tion name exists and was called and non-zero otherwise.
3915 _call_program [ -l ] [ -p ] tag string ...
3917 This function provides a mechanism for the user to override the
3918 use of an external command. It looks up the command style with
3919 the supplied tag. If the style is set, its value is used as the
3920 command to execute. The strings from the call to _call_program,
3921 or from the style if set, are concatenated with spaces between
3922 them and the resulting string is evaluated. The return status
3923 is the return status of the command called.
3924 By default, the command is run in an environment where all the
3926 locale categories (except for LC_CTYPE) are reset to `C' by
3927 calling the utility function _comp_locale (see below). If the
3928 option `-l' is given, the command is run with the current
3929 locale.
3930 If the option `-p' is supplied it indicates that the command
3932 output is influenced by the permissions it is run with. If the
3933 gain-privileges style is set to true, _call_program will make
3934 use of commands such as sudo, if present on the command-line, to
3935 match the permissions to whatever the final command is likely to
3936 run under. When looking up the gain-privileges and command
3937 styles, the command component of the zstyle context will end
3938 with a slash (`/') followed by the command that would be used to
3939 gain privileges.
3940 _combination [ -s pattern ] tag style spec ... field opts ...
3942 This function is used to complete combinations of values, for
3943 example pairs of hostnames and usernames. The style argument
3944 gives the style which defines the pairs; it is looked up in a
3945 context with the tag specified.
3946 The style name consists of field names separated by hyphens, for
3948 example `users-hosts-ports'. For each field for a value is
3949 already known, a spec of the form `field=pattern' is given. For
3950 example, if the command line so far specifies a user `pws', the
3951 argument `users=pws' should appear.
3952 The next argument with no equals sign is taken as the name of
3954 the field for which completions should be generated (presumably
3955 not one of the fields for which the value is known).
3956 The matches generated will be taken from the value of the style.
3958 These should contain the possible values for the combinations in
3959 the appropriate order (users, hosts, ports in the example
3960 above). The values for the different fields are separated by
3961 colons. This can be altered with the option -s to _combination
3962 which specifies a pattern. Typically this is a character class,
3963 as for example `-s "[:@]"' in the case of the users-hosts style.
3964 Each `field=pattern' specification restricts the completions
3965 which apply to elements of the style with appropriately matching
3966 fields.
3967 If no style with the given name is defined for the given tag, or
3969 if none of the strings in style's value match, but a function
3970 name of the required field preceded by an underscore is defined,
3971 that function will be called to generate the matches. For exam‐
3972 ple, if there is no `users-hosts-ports' or no matching hostname
3973 when a host is required, the function `_hosts' will automati‐
3974 cally be called.
3975 If the same name is used for more than one field, in both the
3977 `field=pattern' and the argument that gives the name of the
3978 field to be completed, the number of the field (starting with
3979 one) may be given after the fieldname, separated from it by a
3980 colon.
3981 All arguments after the required field name are passed to com‐
3983 padd when generating matches from the style value, or to the
3984 functions for the fields if they are called.
3985 _command_names [ -e | - ]
3987 This function completes words that are valid at command posi‐
3988 tion: names of aliases, builtins, hashed commands, functions,
3989 and so on. With the -e flag, only hashed commands are com‐
3990 pleted. The - flag is ignored.
3991 _comp_locale
3993 This function resets all the locale categories other than
3994 LC_CTYPE to `C' so that the output from external commands can be
3995 easily analyzed by the completion system. LC_CTYPE retains the
3996 current value (taking LC_ALL and LANG into account), ensuring
3997 that non-ASCII characters in file names are still handled prop‐
3998 erly.
3999 This function should normally be run only in a subshell, because
4001 the new locale is exported to the environment. Typical usage
4002 would be `$(_comp_locale; command ...)'.
4003 _completers [ -p ]
4005 This function completes names of completers.
4006 -p Include the leading underscore (`_') in the matches.
4008 _describe [-12JVx] [ -oO | -t tag ] descr name1 [ name2 ] [ opt ... ]
4011 [ -- name1 [ name2 ] [ opt ... ] ... ]
4012 This function associates completions with descriptions. Multi‐
4013 ple groups separated by -- can be supplied, potentially with
4014 different completion options opts.
4015 The descr is taken as a string to display above the matches if
4017 the format style for the descriptions tag is set. This is fol‐
4018 lowed by one or two names of arrays followed by options to pass
4019 to compadd. The array name1 contains the possible completions
4020 with their descriptions in the form `completion:description'.
4021 Any literal colons in completion must be quoted with a back‐
4022 slash. If a name2 is given, it should have the same number of
4023 elements as name1; in this case the corresponding elements are
4024 added as possible completions instead of the completion strings
4025 from name1. The completion list will retain the descriptions
4026 from name1. Finally, a set of completion options can appear.
4027 If the option `-o' appears before the first argument, the
4029 matches added will be treated as names of command options (N.B.
4030 not shell options), typically following a `-', `--' or `+' on
4031 the command line. In this case _describe uses the prefix-hid‐
4032 den, prefix-needed and verbose styles to find out if the strings
4033 should be added as completions and if the descriptions should be
4034 shown. Without the `-o' option, only the verbose style is used
4035 to decide how descriptions are shown. If `-O' is used instead
4036 of `-o', command options are completed as above but _describe
4037 will not handle the prefix-needed style.
4038 With the -t option a tag can be specified. The default is `val‐
4040 ues' or, if the -o option is given, `options'.
4041 The options -1, -2, -J, -V, -x are passed to _next_label.
4043 If selected by the list-grouped style, strings with the same
4045 description will appear together in the list.
4046 _describe uses the _all_labels function to generate the matches,
4048 so it does not need to appear inside a loop over tag labels.
4049 _description [ -x ] [ -12VJ ] tag name descr [ spec ... ]
4051 This function is not to be confused with the previous one; it is
4052 used as a helper function for creating options to compadd. It
4053 is buried inside many of the higher level completion functions
4054 and so often does not need to be called directly.
4055 The styles listed below are tested in the current context using
4057 the given tag. The resulting options for compadd are put into
4058 the array named name (this is traditionally `expl', but this
4059 convention is not enforced). The description for the corre‐
4060 sponding set of matches is passed to the function in descr.
4061 The styles tested are: format, hidden, matcher, ignored-patterns
4063 and group-name. The format style is first tested for the given
4064 tag and then for the descriptions tag if no value was found,
4065 while the remainder are only tested for the tag given as the
4066 first argument. The function also calls _setup which tests some
4067 more styles.
4068 The string returned by the format style (if any) will be modi‐
4070 fied so that the sequence `%d' is replaced by the descr given as
4071 the third argument without any leading or trailing white space.
4072 If, after removing the white space, the descr is the empty
4073 string, the format style will not be used and the options put
4074 into the name array will not contain an explanation string to be
4075 displayed above the matches.
4076 If _description is called with more than three arguments, the
4078 additional specs should be of the form `char:str'. These supply
4079 escape sequence replacements for the format style: every appear‐
4080 ance of `%char' will be replaced by string.
4081 If the -x option is given, the description will be passed to
4083 compadd using the -x option instead of the default -X. This
4084 means that the description will be displayed even if there are
4085 no corresponding matches.
4086 The options placed in the array name take account of the
4088 group-name style, so matches are placed in a separate group
4089 where necessary. The group normally has its elements sorted (by
4090 passing the option -J to compadd), but if an option starting
4091 with `-V', `-J', `-1', or `-2' is passed to _description, that
4092 option will be included in the array. Hence it is possible for
4093 the completion group to be unsorted by giving the option `-V',
4094 `-1V', or `-2V'.
4095 In most cases, the function will be used like this:
4097 local expl
4099 _description files expl file
4100 compadd "$expl[@]" - "$files[@]"
4101 Note the use of the parameter expl, the hyphen, and the list of
4103 matches. Almost all calls to compadd within the completion sys‐
4104 tem use a similar format; this ensures that user-specified
4105 styles are correctly passed down to the builtins which implement
4106 the internals of completion.
4107 _dir_list [ -s sep ] [ -S ]
4109 Complete a list of directory names separated by colons (the same
4110 format as $PATH).
4111 -s sep Use sep as separator between items. sep defaults to a
4113 colon (`:').
4114 -S Add sep instead of slash (`/') as an autoremoveable suf‐
4116 fix.
4117 _dispatch context string ...
4119 This sets the current context to context and looks for comple‐
4120 tion functions to handle this context by hunting through the
4121 list of command names or special contexts (as described above
4122 for compdef) given as strings. The first completion function to
4123 be defined for one of the contexts in the list is used to gener‐
4124 ate matches. Typically, the last string is -default- to cause
4125 the function for default completion to be used as a fallback.
4126 The function sets the parameter $service to the string being
4128 tried, and sets the context/command field (the fourth) of the
4129 $curcontext parameter to the context given as the first argu‐
4130 ment.
4131 _email_addresses [ -c ] [ -n plugin ]
4133 Complete email addresses. Addresses are provided by plugins.
4134 -c Complete bare localhost@domain.tld addresses, without a
4136 name part or a comment. Without this option, RFC822
4137 `Firstname Lastname <address>' strings are completed.
4138 -n plugin
4140 Complete aliases from plugin.
4141 The following plugins are available by default: _email-ldap (see
4143 the filter style), _email-local (completes user@hostname Unix
4144 addresses), _email-mail (completes aliases from ~/.mailrc),
4145 _email-mush, _email-mutt, and _email-pine.
4146 Addresses from the _email-foo plugin are added under the tag
4148 `email-foo'.
4149 Writing plugins
4151 Plugins are written as separate functions with names starting
4153 with `_email-'. They are invoked with the -c option and compadd
4154 options. They should either do their own completion or set the
4155 $reply array to a list of `alias:address' elements and return
4156 300. New plugins will be picked up and run automatically.
4157 _files The function _files calls _path_files with all the arguments it
4159 was passed except for -g and -/. The use of these two options
4160 depends on the setting of the file-patterns style.
4161 This function accepts the full set of options allowed by
4163 _path_files, described below.
4164 _gnu_generic
4166 This function is a simple wrapper around the _arguments function
4167 described above. It can be used to determine automatically the
4168 long options understood by commands that produce a list when
4169 passed the option `--help'. It is intended to be used as a
4170 top-level completion function in its own right. For example, to
4171 enable option completion for the commands foo and bar, use
4172 compdef _gnu_generic foo bar
4174 after the call to compinit.
4176 The completion system as supplied is conservative in its use of
4178 this function, since it is important to be sure the command
4179 understands the option `--help'.
4180 _guard [ options ] pattern descr
4182 This function displays descr if pattern matches the string to be
4183 completed. It is intended to be used in the action for the
4184 specifications passed to _arguments and similar functions.
4185 The return status is zero if the message was displayed and the
4187 word to complete is not empty, and non-zero otherwise.
4188 The pattern may be preceded by any of the options understood by
4190 compadd that are passed down from _description, namely -M, -J,
4191 -V, -1, -2, -n, -F and -X. All of these options will be
4192 ignored. This fits in conveniently with the argument-passing
4193 conventions of actions for _arguments.
4194 As an example, consider a command taking the options -n and
4196 -none, where -n must be followed by a numeric value in the same
4197 word. By using:
4198 _arguments '-n-: :_guard "[0-9]#" "numeric value"' '-none'
4200 _arguments can be made to both display the message `numeric
4202 value' and complete options after `-n<TAB>'. If the `-n' is
4203 already followed by one or more digits (the pattern passed to
4204 _guard) only the message will be displayed; if the `-n' is fol‐
4205 lowed by another character, only options are completed.
4206 _message [ -r12 ] [ -VJ group ] descr
4208 _message -e [ tag ] descr
4209 The descr is used in the same way as the third argument to the
4210 _description function, except that the resulting string will
4211 always be shown whether or not matches were generated. This is
4212 useful for displaying a help message in places where no comple‐
4213 tions can be generated.
4214 The format style is examined with the messages tag to find a
4216 message; the usual tag, descriptions, is used only if the style
4217 is not set with the former.
4218 If the -r option is given, no style is used; the descr is taken
4220 literally as the string to display. This is most useful when
4221 the descr comes from a pre-processed argument list which already
4222 contains an expanded description.
4223 The -12VJ options and the group are passed to compadd and hence
4225 determine the group the message string is added to.
4226 The second -e form gives a description for completions with the
4228 tag tag to be shown even if there are no matches for that tag.
4229 This form is called by _arguments in the event that there is no
4230 action for an option specification. The tag can be omitted and
4231 if so the tag is taken from the parameter $curtag; this is main‐
4232 tained by the completion system and so is usually correct. Note
4233 that if there are no matches at the time this function is
4234 called, compstate[insert] is cleared, so additional matches gen‐
4235 erated later are not inserted on the command line.
4236 _multi_parts [ -i ] sep array
4238 The argument sep is a separator character. The array may be
4239 either the name of an array parameter or a literal array in the
4240 form `(foo bar)', a parenthesised list of words separated by
4241 whitespace. The possible completions are the strings from the
4242 array. However, each chunk delimited by sep will be completed
4243 separately. For example, the _tar function uses `_multi_parts /
4244 patharray' to complete partial file paths from the given array
4245 of complete file paths.
4246 The -i option causes _multi_parts to insert a unique match even
4248 if that requires multiple separators to be inserted. This is
4249 not usually the expected behaviour with filenames, but certain
4250 other types of completion, for example those with a fixed set of
4251 possibilities, may be more suited to this form.
4252 Like other utility functions, this function accepts the `-V',
4254 `-J', `-1', `-2', `-n', `-f', `-X', `-M', `-P', `-S', `-r',
4255 `-R', and `-q' options and passes them to the compadd builtin.
4256 _next_label [ -x ] [ -12VJ ] tag name descr [ option ... ]
4258 This function is used to implement the loop over different tag
4259 labels for a particular tag as described above for the tag-order
4260 style. On each call it checks to see if there are any more tag
4261 labels; if there is it returns status zero, otherwise non-zero.
4262 As this function requires a current tag to be set, it must
4263 always follow a call to _tags or _requested.
4264 The -x12VJ options and the first three arguments are passed to
4266 the _description function. Where appropriate the tag will be
4267 replaced by a tag label in this call. Any description given in
4268 the tag-order style is preferred to the descr passed to
4269 _next_label.
4270 The options given after the descr are set in the parameter given
4272 by name, and hence are to be passed to compadd or whatever func‐
4273 tion is called to add the matches.
4274 Here is a typical use of this function for the tag foo. The
4276 call to _requested determines if tag foo is required at all; the
4277 loop over _next_label handles any labels defined for the tag in
4278 the tag-order style.
4279 local expl ret=1
4281 ...
4282 if _requested foo; then
4283 ...
4284 while _next_label foo expl '...'; do
4285 compadd "$expl[@]" ... && ret=0
4286 done
4287 ...
4288 fi
4289 return ret
4290 _normal
4292 This is the standard function called to handle completion out‐
4293 side any special -context-. It is called both to complete the
4294 command word and also the arguments for a command. In the sec‐
4295 ond case, _normal looks for a special completion for that com‐
4296 mand, and if there is none it uses the completion for the
4297 -default- context.
4298 A second use is to reexamine the command line specified by the
4300 $words array and the $CURRENT parameter after those have been
4301 modified. For example, the function _precommand, which com‐
4302 pletes after pre-command specifiers such as nohup, removes the
4303 first word from the words array, decrements the CURRENT parame‐
4304 ter, then calls _normal again. The effect is that `nohup cmd
4305 ...' is treated in the same way as `cmd ...'.
4306 If the command name matches one of the patterns given by one of
4308 the options -p or -P to compdef, the corresponding completion
4309 function is called and then the parameter _compskip is checked.
4310 If it is set completion is terminated at that point even if no
4311 matches have been found. This is the same effect as in the
4312 -first- context.
4313 _options
4315 This can be used to complete the names of shell options. It
4316 provides a matcher specification that ignores a leading `no',
4317 ignores underscores and allows upper-case letters to match their
4318 lower-case counterparts (for example, `glob', `noglob',
4319 `NO_GLOB' are all completed). Any arguments are propagated to
4320 the compadd builtin.
4321 _options_set and _options_unset
4323 These functions complete only set or unset options, with the
4324 same matching specification used in the _options function.
4325 Note that you need to uncomment a few lines in the _main_com‐
4327 plete function for these functions to work properly. The lines
4328 in question are used to store the option settings in effect
4329 before the completion widget locally sets the options it needs.
4330 Hence these functions are not generally used by the completion
4331 system.
4332 _parameters
4334 This is used to complete the names of shell parameters.
4335 The option `-g pattern' limits the completion to parameters
4337 whose type matches the pattern. The type of a parameter is that
4338 shown by `print ${(t)param}', hence judicious use of `*' in pat‐
4339 tern is probably necessary.
4340 All other arguments are passed to the compadd builtin.
4342 _path_files
4344 This function is used throughout the completion system to com‐
4345 plete filenames. It allows completion of partial paths. For
4346 example, the string `/u/i/s/sig' may be completed to
4347 `/usr/include/sys/signal.h'.
4348 The options accepted by both _path_files and _files are:
4350 -f Complete all filenames. This is the default.
4352 -/ Specifies that only directories should be completed.
4354 -g pattern
4356 Specifies that only files matching the pattern should be
4357 completed.
4358 -W paths
4360 Specifies path prefixes that are to be prepended to the
4361 string from the command line to generate the filenames
4362 but that should not be inserted as completions nor shown
4363 in completion listings. Here, paths may be the name of
4364 an array parameter, a literal list of paths enclosed in
4365 parentheses or an absolute pathname.
4366 -F ignored-files
4368 This behaves as for the corresponding option to the com‐
4369 padd builtin. It gives direct control over which file‐
4370 names should be ignored. If the option is not present,
4371 the ignored-patterns style is used.
4372 Both _path_files and _files also accept the following options
4374 which are passed to compadd: `-J', `-V', `-1', `-2', `-n', `-X',
4375 `-M', `-P', `-S', `-q', `-r', and `-R'.
4376 Finally, the _path_files function uses the styles expand,
4378 ambiguous, special-dirs, list-suffixes and file-sort described
4379 above.
4380 _pick_variant [ -b builtin-label ] [ -c command ] [ -r name ]
4383 label=pattern ... label [ arg ... ]
4384 This function is used to resolve situations where a single com‐
4385 mand name requires more than one type of handling, either
4386 because it has more than one variant or because there is a name
4387 clash between two different commands.
4388 The command to run is taken from the first element of the array
4390 words unless this is overridden by the option -c. This command
4391 is run and its output is compared with a series of patterns.
4392 Arguments to be passed to the command can be specified at the
4393 end after all the other arguments. The patterns to try in order
4394 are given by the arguments label=pattern; if the output of `com‐
4395 mand arg ...' contains pattern, then label is selected as the
4396 label for the command variant. If none of the patterns match,
4397 the final command label is selected and status 1 is returned.
4398 If the `-b builtin-label' is given, the command is tested to see
4400 if it is provided as a shell builtin, possibly autoloaded; if
4401 so, the label builtin-label is selected as the label for the
4402 variant.
4403 If the `-r name' is given, the label picked is stored in the
4405 parameter named name.
4406 The results are also cached in the _cmd_variant associative
4408 array indexed by the name of the command run.
4409 _regex_arguments name spec ...
4411 This function generates a completion function name which matches
4412 the specifications specs, a set of regular expressions as
4413 described below. After running _regex_arguments, the function
4414 name should be called as a normal completion function. The pat‐
4415 tern to be matched is given by the contents of the words array
4416 up to the current cursor position joined together with null
4417 characters; no quotation is applied.
4418 The arguments are grouped as sets of alternatives separated by
4420 `|', which are tried one after the other until one matches.
4421 Each alternative consists of a one or more specifications which
4422 are tried left to right, with each pattern matched being
4423 stripped in turn from the command line being tested, until all
4424 of the group succeeds or until one fails; in the latter case,
4425 the next alternative is tried. This structure can be repeated
4426 to arbitrary depth by using parentheses; matching proceeds from
4427 inside to outside.
4428 A special procedure is applied if no test succeeds but the
4430 remaining command line string contains no null character (imply‐
4431 ing the remaining word is the one for which completions are to
4432 be generated). The completion target is restricted to the
4433 remaining word and any actions for the corresponding patterns
4434 are executed. In this case, nothing is stripped from the com‐
4435 mand line string. The order of evaluation of the actions can be
4436 determined by the tag-order style; the various formats supported
4437 by _alternative can be used in action. The descr is used for
4438 setting up the array parameter expl.
4439 Specification arguments take one of following forms, in which
4441 metacharacters such as `(', `)', `#' and `|' should be quoted.
4442 /pattern/ [%lookahead%] [-guard] [:tag:descr:action]
4444 This is a single primitive component. The function tests
4445 whether the combined pattern `(#b)((#B)pattern)looka‐
4446 head*' matches the command line string. If so, `guard'
4447 is evaluated and its return status is examined to deter‐
4448 mine if the test has succeeded. The pattern string `[]'
4449 is guaranteed never to match. The lookahead is not
4450 stripped from the command line before the next pattern is
4451 examined.
4452 The argument starting with : is used in the same manner
4454 as an argument to _alternative.
4455 A component is used as follows: pattern is tested to see
4457 if the component already exists on the command line. If
4458 it does, any following specifications are examined to
4459 find something to complete. If a component is reached
4460 but no such pattern exists yet on the command line, the
4461 string containing the action is used to generate matches
4462 to insert at that point.
4463 /pattern/+ [%lookahead%] [-guard] [:tag:descr:action]
4465 This is similar to `/pattern/ ...' but the left part of
4466 the command line string (i.e. the part already matched by
4467 previous patterns) is also considered part of the comple‐
4468 tion target.
4469 /pattern/- [%lookahead%] [-guard] [:tag:descr:action]
4471 This is similar to `/pattern/ ...' but the actions of the
4472 current and previously matched patterns are ignored even
4473 if the following `pattern' matches the empty string.
4474 ( spec )
4476 Parentheses may be used to groups specs; note each paren‐
4477 thesis is a single argument to _regex_arguments.
4478 spec # This allows any number of repetitions of spec.
4480 spec spec
4482 The two specs are to be matched one after the other as
4483 described above.
4484 spec | spec
4486 Either of the two specs can be matched.
4487 The function _regex_words can be used as a helper function to
4489 generate matches for a set of alternative words possibly with
4490 their own arguments as a command line argument.
4491 Examples:
4493 _regex_arguments _tst /$'[^\0]#\0'/ \
4495 /$'[^\0]#\0'/ :'compadd aaa'
4496 This generates a function _tst that completes aaa as its only
4498 argument. The tag and description for the action have been
4499 omitted for brevity (this works but is not recommended in normal
4500 use). The first component matches the command word, which is
4501 arbitrary; the second matches any argument. As the argument is
4502 also arbitrary, any following component would not depend on aaa
4503 being present.
4504 _regex_arguments _tst /$'[^\0]#\0'/ \
4506 /$'aaa\0'/ :'compadd aaa'
4507 This is a more typical use; it is similar, but any following
4509 patterns would only match if aaa was present as the first argu‐
4510 ment.
4511 _regex_arguments _tst /$'[^\0]#\0'/ \( \
4513 /$'aaa\0'/ :'compadd aaa' \
4514 /$'bbb\0'/ :'compadd bbb' \) \#
4515 In this example, an indefinite number of command arguments may
4517 be completed. Odd arguments are completed as aaa and even argu‐
4518 ments as bbb. Completion fails unless the set of aaa and bbb
4519 arguments before the current one is matched correctly.
4520 _regex_arguments _tst /$'[^\0]#\0'/ \
4522 \( /$'aaa\0'/ :'compadd aaa' \| \
4523 /$'bbb\0'/ :'compadd bbb' \) \#
4524 This is similar, but either aaa or bbb may be completed for any
4526 argument. In this case _regex_words could be used to generate a
4527 suitable expression for the arguments.
4528 _regex_words tag description spec ...
4530 This function can be used to generate arguments for the
4531 _regex_arguments command which may be inserted at any point
4532 where a set of rules is expected. The tag and description give
4533 a standard tag and description pertaining to the current con‐
4534 text. Each spec contains two or three arguments separated by a
4535 colon: note that there is no leading colon in this case.
4536 Each spec gives one of a set of words that may be completed at
4538 this point, together with arguments. It is thus roughly equiva‐
4539 lent to the _arguments function when used in normal (non-regex)
4540 completion.
4541 The part of the spec before the first colon is the word to be
4543 completed. This may contain a *; the entire word, before and
4544 after the * is completed, but only the text before the * is
4545 required for the context to be matched, so that further argu‐
4546 ments may be completed after the abbreviated form.
4547 The second part of spec is a description for the word being com‐
4549 pleted.
4550 The optional third part of the spec describes how words follow‐
4552 ing the one being completed are themselves to be completed. It
4553 will be evaluated in order to avoid problems with quoting. This
4554 means that typically it contains a reference to an array con‐
4555 taining previously generated regex arguments.
4556 The option -t term specifies a terminator for the word instead
4558 of the usual space. This is handled as an auto-removable suffix
4559 in the manner of the option -s sep to _values.
4560 The result of the processing by _regex_words is placed in the
4562 array reply, which should be made local to the calling function.
4563 If the set of words and arguments may be matched repeatedly, a #
4564 should be appended to the generated array at that point.
4565 For example:
4567 local -a reply
4569 _regex_words mydb-commands 'mydb commands' \
4570 'add:add an entry to mydb:$mydb_add_cmds' \
4571 'show:show entries in mydb'
4572 _regex_arguments _mydb "$reply[@]"
4573 _mydb "$@"
4574 This shows a completion function for a command mydb which takes
4576 two command arguments, add and show. show takes no arguments,
4577 while the arguments for add have already been prepared in an
4578 array mydb_add_cmds, quite possibly by a previous call to
4579 _regex_words.
4580 _requested [ -x ] [ -12VJ ] tag [ name descr [ command [ arg ... ] ]
4582 This function is called to decide whether a tag already regis‐
4583 tered by a call to _tags (see below) has been requested by the
4584 user and hence completion should be performed for it. It
4585 returns status zero if the tag is requested and non-zero other‐
4586 wise. The function is typically used as part of a loop over
4587 different tags as follows:
4588 _tags foo bar baz
4590 while _tags; do
4591 if _requested foo; then
4592 ... # perform completion for foo
4593 fi
4594 ... # test the tags bar and baz in the same way
4595 ... # exit loop if matches were generated
4596 done
4597 Note that the test for whether matches were generated is not
4599 performed until the end of the _tags loop. This is so that the
4600 user can set the tag-order style to specify a set of tags to be
4601 completed at the same time.
4602 If name and descr are given, _requested calls the _description
4604 function with these arguments together with the options passed
4605 to _requested.
4606 If command is given, the _all_labels function will be called
4608 immediately with the same arguments. In simple cases this makes
4609 it possible to perform the test for the tag and the matching in
4610 one go. For example:
4611 local expl ret=1
4613 _tags foo bar baz
4614 while _tags; do
4615 _requested foo expl 'description' \
4616 compadd foobar foobaz && ret=0
4617 ...
4618 (( ret )) || break
4619 done
4620 If the command is not compadd, it must nevertheless be prepared
4622 to handle the same options.
4623 _retrieve_cache cache_identifier
4625 This function retrieves completion information from the file
4626 given by cache_identifier, stored in a directory specified by
4627 the cache-path style which defaults to ~/.zcompcache. The
4628 return status is zero if retrieval was successful. It will only
4629 attempt retrieval if the use-cache style is set, so you can call
4630 this function without worrying about whether the user wanted to
4631 use the caching layer.
4632 See _store_cache below for more details.
4634 _sep_parts
4636 This function is passed alternating arrays and separators as
4637 arguments. The arrays specify completions for parts of strings
4638 to be separated by the separators. The arrays may be the names
4639 of array parameters or a quoted list of words in parentheses.
4640 For example, with the array `hosts=(ftp news)' the call
4641 `_sep_parts '(foo bar)' @ hosts' will complete the string `f'
4642 to `foo' and the string `b@n' to `bar@news'.
4643 This function accepts the compadd options `-V', `-J', `-1',
4645 `-2', `-n', `-X', `-M', `-P', `-S', `-r', `-R', and `-q' and
4646 passes them on to the compadd builtin used to add the matches.
4647 _sequence [ -s sep ] [ -n max ] [ -d ] function [ - ] ...
4649 This function is a wrapper to other functions for completing
4650 items in a separated list. The same function is used to complete
4651 each item in the list. The separator is specified with the -s
4652 option. If -s is omitted it will use `,'. Duplicate values are
4653 not matched unless -d is specified. If there is a fixed or maxi‐
4654 mum number of items in the list, this can be specified with the
4655 -n option.
4656 Common compadd options are passed on to the function. It is pos‐
4658 sible to use compadd directly with _sequence, though _values may
4659 be more appropriate in this situation.
4660 _setup tag [ group ]
4662 This function sets up the special parameters used by the comple‐
4663 tion system appropriately for the tag given as the first argu‐
4664 ment. It uses the styles list-colors, list-packed,
4665 list-rows-first, last-prompt, accept-exact, menu and force-list.
4666 The optional group supplies the name of the group in which the
4668 matches will be placed. If it is not given, the tag is used as
4669 the group name.
4670 This function is called automatically from _description and
4672 hence is not normally called explicitly.
4673 _store_cache cache_identifier param ...
4675 This function, together with _retrieve_cache and _cache_invalid,
4676 implements a caching layer which can be used in any completion
4677 function. Data obtained by costly operations are stored in
4678 parameters; this function then dumps the values of those parame‐
4679 ters to a file. The data can then be retrieved quickly from
4680 that file via _retrieve_cache, even in different instances of
4681 the shell.
4682 The cache_identifier specifies the file which the data should be
4684 dumped to. The file is stored in a directory specified by the
4685 cache-path style which defaults to ~/.zcompcache. The remaining
4686 params arguments are the parameters to dump to the file.
4687 The return status is zero if storage was successful. The func‐
4689 tion will only attempt storage if the use-cache style is set, so
4690 you can call this function without worrying about whether the
4691 user wanted to use the caching layer.
4692 The completion function may avoid calling _retrieve_cache when
4694 it already has the completion data available as parameters.
4695 However, in that case it should call _cache_invalid to check
4696 whether the data in the parameters and in the cache are still
4697 valid.
4698 See the _perl_modules completion function for a simple example
4700 of the usage of the caching layer.
4701 _tags [ [ -C name ] tag ... ]
4703 If called with arguments, these are taken to be the names of
4704 tags valid for completions in the current context. These tags
4705 are stored internally and sorted by using the tag-order style.
4706 Next, _tags is called repeatedly without arguments from the same
4708 completion function. This successively selects the first, sec‐
4709 ond, etc. set of tags requested by the user. The return status
4710 is zero if at least one of the tags is requested and non-zero
4711 otherwise. To test if a particular tag is to be tried, the
4712 _requested function should be called (see above).
4713 If `-C name' is given, name is temporarily stored in the argu‐
4715 ment field (the fifth) of the context in the curcontext parame‐
4716 ter during the call to _tags; the field is restored on exit.
4717 This allows _tags to use a more specific context without having
4718 to change and reset the curcontext parameter (which has the same
4719 effect).
4720 _tilde_files
4722 Like _files, but resolve leading tildes according to the rules
4723 of filename expansion, so the suggested completions don't start
4724 with a `~' even if the filename on the command-line does.
4725 _values [ -O name ] [ -s sep ] [ -S sep ] [ -wC ] desc spec ...
4727 This is used to complete arbitrary keywords (values) and their
4728 arguments, or lists of such combinations.
4729 If the first argument is the option `-O name', it will be used
4731 in the same way as by the _arguments function. In other words,
4732 the elements of the name array will be passed to compadd when
4733 executing an action.
4734 If the first argument (or the first argument after `-O name') is
4736 `-s', the next argument is used as the character that separates
4737 multiple values. This character is automatically added after
4738 each value in an auto-removable fashion (see below); all values
4739 completed by `_values -s' appear in the same word on the command
4740 line, unlike completion using _arguments. If this option is not
4741 present, only a single value will be completed per word.
4742 Normally, _values will only use the current word to determine
4744 which values are already present on the command line and hence
4745 are not to be completed again. If the -w option is given, other
4746 arguments are examined as well.
4747 The first non-option argument is used as a string to print as a
4749 description before listing the values.
4750 All other arguments describe the possible values and their argu‐
4752 ments in the same format used for the description of options by
4753 the _arguments function (see above). The only differences are
4754 that no minus or plus sign is required at the beginning, values
4755 can have only one argument, and the forms of action beginning
4756 with an equal sign are not supported.
4757 The character separating a value from its argument can be set
4759 using the option -S (like -s, followed by the character to use
4760 as the separator in the next argument). By default the equals
4761 sign will be used as the separator between values and arguments.
4762 Example:
4764 _values -s , 'description' \
4766 '*foo[bar]' \
4767 '(two)*one[number]:first count:' \
4768 'two[another number]::second count:(1 2 3)'
4769 This describes three possible values: `foo', `one', and `two'.
4771 The first is described as `bar', takes no argument and may
4772 appear more than once. The second is described as `number', may
4773 appear more than once, and takes one mandatory argument
4774 described as `first count'; no action is specified, so it will
4775 not be completed. The `(two)' at the beginning says that if the
4776 value `one' is on the line, the value `two' will no longer be
4777 considered a possible completion. Finally, the last value
4778 (`two') is described as `another number' and takes an optional
4779 argument described as `second count' for which the completions
4780 (to appear after an `=') are `1', `2', and `3'. The _values
4781 function will complete lists of these values separated by com‐
4782 mas.
4783 Like _arguments, this function temporarily adds another context
4785 name component to the arguments element (the fifth) of the cur‐
4786 rent context while executing the action. Here this name is just
4787 the name of the value for which the argument is completed.
4788 The style verbose is used to decide if the descriptions for the
4790 values (but not those for the arguments) should be printed.
4791 The associative array val_args is used to report values and
4793 their arguments; this works similarly to the opt_args associa‐
4794 tive array used by _arguments. Hence the function calling _val‐
4795 ues should declare the local parameters state, state_descr,
4796 line, context and val_args:
4797 local context state state_descr line
4799 typeset -A val_args
4800 when using an action of the form `->string'. With this function
4802 the context parameter will be set to the name of the value whose
4803 argument is to be completed. Note that for _values, the state
4804 and state_descr are scalars rather than arrays. Only a single
4805 matching state is returned.
4806 Note also that _values normally adds the character used as the
4808 separator between values as an auto-removable suffix (similar to
4809 a `/' after a directory). However, this is not possible for a
4810 `->string' action as the matches for the argument are generated
4811 by the calling function. To get the usual behaviour, the call‐
4812 ing function can add the separator x as a suffix by passing the
4813 options `-qS x' either directly or indirectly to compadd.
4814 The option -C is treated in the same way as it is by _arguments.
4816 In that case the parameter curcontext should be made local
4817 instead of context (as described above).
4818 _wanted [ -x ] [ -C name ] [ -12VJ ] tag name descr command [ arg ...]
4820 In many contexts, completion can only generate one particular
4821 set of matches, usually corresponding to a single tag. However,
4822 it is still necessary to decide whether the user requires
4823 matches of this type. This function is useful in such a case.
4824 The arguments to _wanted are the same as those to _requested,
4826 i.e. arguments to be passed to _description. However, in this
4827 case the command is not optional; all the processing of tags,
4828 including the loop over both tags and tag labels and the genera‐
4829 tion of matches, is carried out automatically by _wanted.
4830 Hence to offer only one tag and immediately add the correspond‐
4832 ing matches with the given description:
4833 local expl
4835 _wanted tag expl 'description' \
4836 compadd matches...
4837 Note that, as for _requested, the command must be able to accept
4839 options to be passed down to compadd.
4840 Like _tags this function supports the -C option to give a dif‐
4842 ferent name for the argument context field. The -x option has
4843 the same meaning as for _description.
4844 _widgets [ -g pattern ]
4846 This function completes names of zle widgets (see the section
4847 `Widgets' in zshzle(1)). The pattern, if present, is matched
4848 against values of the $widgets special parameter, documented in
4849 the section `The zsh/zleparameter Module' in zshmodules(1).
4850
4852 There are some standard variables, initialised by the _main_complete
4853 function and then used from other functions.
4854 The standard variables are:
4856 _comp_caller_options
4858 The completion system uses setopt to set a number of options.
4859 This allows functions to be written without concern for compati‐
4860 bility with every possible combination of user options. However,
4861 sometimes completion needs to know what the user's option pref‐
4862 erences are. These are saved in the _comp_caller_options asso‐
4863 ciative array. Option names, spelled in lowercase without under‐
4864 scores, are mapped to one or other of the strings `on' and
4865 `off'.
4866 _comp_priv_prefix
4868 Completion functions such as _sudo can set the
4869 _comp_priv_prefix array to a command prefix that may then
4870 be used by _call_program to match the privileges when
4871 calling programs to generate matches.
4872 Two more features are offered by the _main_complete function.
4874 The arrays compprefuncs and comppostfuncs may contain names of
4875 functions that are to be called immediately before or after com‐
4876 pletion has been tried. A function will only be called once
4877 unless it explicitly reinserts itself into the array.
4878
4880 In the source distribution, the files are contained in various subdi‐
4881 rectories of the Completion directory. They may have been installed in
4882 the same structure, or into one single function directory. The follow‐
4883 ing is a description of the files found in the original directory
4884 structure. If you wish to alter an installed file, you will need to
4885 copy it to some directory which appears earlier in your fpath than the
4886 standard directory where it appears.
4887 Base The core functions and special completion widgets automatically
4889 bound to keys. You will certainly need most of these, though
4890 will probably not need to alter them. Many of these are docu‐
4891 mented above.
4892 Zsh Functions for completing arguments of shell builtin commands and
4894 utility functions for this. Some of these are also used by
4895 functions from the Unix directory.
4896 Unix Functions for completing arguments of external commands and
4898 suites of commands. They may need modifying for your system,
4899 although in many cases some attempt is made to decide which ver‐
4900 sion of a command is present. For example, completion for the
4901 mount command tries to determine the system it is running on,
4902 while completion for many other utilities try to decide whether
4903 the GNU version of the command is in use, and hence whether the
4904 --help option is supported.
4905 X, AIX, BSD, ...
4907 Completion and utility function for commands available only on
4908 some systems. These are not arranged hierarchically, so, for
4909 example, both the Linux and Debian directories, as well as the X
4910 directory, may be useful on your system.
4911zsh 5.7.1 February 3, 2019 ZSHCOMPSYS(1)