1ZSHCOMPWID(1) General Commands Manual ZSHCOMPWID(1)
2
6 zshcompwid - zsh completion widgets
7
9 The shell's programmable completion mechanism can be manipulated in two
10 ways; here the low-level features supporting the newer, function-based
11 mechanism are defined. A complete set of shell functions based on
12 these features is described in zshcompsys(1), and users with no inter‐
13 est in adding to that system (or, potentially, writing their own -- see
14 dictionary entry for `hubris') should skip the current section. The
15 older system based on the compctl builtin command is described in zsh‐
16 compctl(1).
17 Completion widgets are defined by the -C option to the zle builtin com‐
19 mand provided by the zsh/zle module (see zshzle(1)). For example,
20 zle -C complete expand-or-complete completer
22 defines a widget named `complete'. The second argument is the name of
24 any of the builtin widgets that handle completions: complete-word,
25 expand-or-complete, expand-or-complete-prefix, menu-complete,
26 menu-expand-or-complete, reverse-menu-complete, list-choices, or
27 delete-char-or-list. Note that this will still work even if the widget
28 in question has been re-bound.
29 When this newly defined widget is bound to a key using the bindkey
31 builtin command defined in the zsh/zle module (see zshzle(1)), typing
32 that key will call the shell function `completer'. This function is
33 responsible for generating the possible matches using the builtins
34 described below. As with other ZLE widgets, the function is called
35 with its standard input closed.
36 Once the function returns, the completion code takes over control again
38 and treats the matches in the same manner as the specified builtin wid‐
39 get, in this case expand-or-complete.
40
42 The parameters ZLE_REMOVE_SUFFIX_CHARS and ZLE_SPACE_SUFFIX_CHARS are
43 used by the completion mechanism, but are not special. See Parameters
44 Used By The Shell in zshparam(1).
45 Inside completion widgets, and any functions called from them, some
47 parameters have special meaning; outside these functions they are not
48 special to the shell in any way. These parameters are used to pass
49 information between the completion code and the completion widget. Some
50 of the builtin commands and the condition codes use or change the cur‐
51 rent values of these parameters. Any existing values will be hidden
52 during execution of completion widgets; except for compstate, the
53 parameters are reset on each function exit (including nested function
54 calls from within the completion widget) to the values they had when
55 the function was entered.
56 CURRENT
58 This is the number of the current word, i.e. the word the cursor
59 is currently on in the words array. Note that this value is
60 only correct if the ksharrays option is not set.
61 IPREFIX
63 Initially this will be set to the empty string. This parameter
64 functions like PREFIX; it contains a string which precedes the
65 one in PREFIX and is not considered part of the list of matches.
66 Typically, a string is transferred from the beginning of PREFIX
67 to the end of IPREFIX, for example:
68 IPREFIX=${PREFIX%%\=*}=
70 PREFIX=${PREFIX#*=}
71 causes the part of the prefix up to and including the first
73 equal sign not to be treated as part of a matched string. This
74 can be done automatically by the compset builtin, see below.
75 ISUFFIX
77 As IPREFIX, but for a suffix that should not be considered part
78 of the matches; note that the ISUFFIX string follows the SUFFIX
79 string.
80 PREFIX Initially this will be set to the part of the current word from
82 the beginning of the word up to the position of the cursor; it
83 may be altered to give a common prefix for all matches.
84 QIPREFIX
86 This parameter is read-only and contains the quoted string up to
87 the word being completed. E.g. when completing `"foo', this
88 parameter contains the double quote. If the -q option of compset
89 is used (see below), and the original string was `"foo bar' with
90 the cursor on the `bar', this parameter contains `"foo '.
91 QISUFFIX
93 Like QIPREFIX, but containing the suffix.
94 SUFFIX Initially this will be set to the part of the current word from
96 the cursor position to the end; it may be altered to give a com‐
97 mon suffix for all matches. It is most useful when the option
98 COMPLETE_IN_WORD is set, as otherwise the whole word on the com‐
99 mand line is treated as a prefix.
100 compstate
102 This is an associative array with various keys and values that
103 the completion code uses to exchange information with the com‐
104 pletion widget. The keys are:
105 all_quotes
107 The -q option of the compset builtin command (see below)
108 allows a quoted string to be broken into separate words;
109 if the cursor is on one of those words, that word will be
110 completed, possibly invoking `compset -q' recursively.
111 With this key it is possible to test the types of quoted
112 strings which are currently broken into parts in this
113 fashion. Its value contains one character for each quot‐
114 ing level. The characters are a single quote or a double
115 quote for strings quoted with these characters, a dollars
116 sign for strings quoted with $'...' and a backslash for
117 strings not starting with a quote character. The first
118 character in the value always corresponds to the inner‐
119 most quoting level.
120 context
122 This will be set by the completion code to the overall
123 context in which completion is attempted. Possible values
124 are:
125 array_value
127 when completing inside the value of an array
128 parameter assignment; in this case the words array
129 contains the words inside the parentheses.
130 brace_parameter
132 when completing the name of a parameter in a
133 parameter expansion beginning with ${. This con‐
134 text will also be set when completing parameter
135 flags following ${(; the full command line argu‐
136 ment is presented and the handler must test the
137 value to be completed to ascertain that this is
138 the case.
139 assign_parameter
141 when completing the name of a parameter in a
142 parameter assignment.
143 command
145 when completing for a normal command (either in
146 command position or for an argument of the com‐
147 mand).
148 condition
150 when completing inside a `[[...]]' conditional
151 expression; in this case the words array contains
152 only the words inside the conditional expression.
153 math when completing in a mathematical environment such
155 as a `((...))' construct.
156 parameter
158 when completing the name of a parameter in a
159 parameter expansion beginning with $ but not ${.
160 redirect
162 when completing after a redirection operator.
163 subscript
165 when completing inside a parameter subscript.
166 value when completing the value of a parameter assign‐
168 ment.
169 exact Controls the behaviour when the REC_EXACT option is set.
171 It will be set to accept if an exact match would be
172 accepted, and will be unset otherwise.
173 If it was set when at least one match equal to the string
175 on the line was generated, the match is accepted.
176 exact_string
178 The string of an exact match if one was found, otherwise
179 unset.
180 ignored
182 The number of words that were ignored because they
183 matched one of the patterns given with the -F option to
184 the compadd builtin command.
185 insert This controls the manner in which a match is inserted
187 into the command line. On entry to the widget function,
188 if it is unset the command line is not to be changed; if
189 set to unambiguous, any prefix common to all matches is
190 to be inserted; if set to automenu-unambiguous, the com‐
191 mon prefix is to be inserted and the next invocation of
192 the completion code may start menu completion (due to the
193 AUTO_MENU option being set); if set to menu or automenu
194 menu completion will be started for the matches currently
195 generated (in the latter case this will happen because
196 the AUTO_MENU is set). The value may also contain the
197 string `tab' when the completion code would normally not
198 really do completion, but only insert the TAB character.
199 On exit it may be set to any of the values above (where
201 setting it to the empty string is the same as unsetting
202 it), or to a number, in which case the match whose number
203 is given will be inserted into the command line. Nega‐
204 tive numbers count backward from the last match (with
205 `-1' selecting the last match) and out-of-range values
206 are wrapped around, so that a value of zero selects the
207 last match and a value one more than the maximum selects
208 the first. Unless the value of this key ends in a space,
209 the match is inserted as in a menu completion, i.e. with‐
210 out automatically appending a space.
211 Both menu and automenu may also specify the number of the
213 match to insert, given after a colon. For example,
214 `menu:2' says to start menu completion, beginning with
215 the second match.
216 Note that a value containing the substring `tab' makes
218 the matches generated be ignored and only the TAB be
219 inserted.
220 Finally, it may also be set to all, which makes all
222 matches generated be inserted into the line.
223 insert_positions
225 When the completion system inserts an unambiguous string
226 into the line, there may be multiple places where charac‐
227 ters are missing or where the character inserted differs
228 from at least one match. The value of this key contains
229 a colon separated list of all these positions, as indexes
230 into the command line.
231 last_prompt
233 If this is set to a non-empty string for every match
234 added, the completion code will move the cursor back to
235 the previous prompt after the list of completions has
236 been displayed. Initially this is set or unset according
237 to the ALWAYS_LAST_PROMPT option.
238 list This controls whether or how the list of matches will be
240 displayed. If it is unset or empty they will never be
241 listed; if its value begins with list, they will always
242 be listed; if it begins with autolist or ambiguous, they
243 will be listed when the AUTO_LIST or LIST_AMBIGUOUS
244 options respectively would normally cause them to be.
245 If the substring force appears in the value, this makes
247 the list be shown even if there is only one match. Nor‐
248 mally, the list would be shown only if there are at least
249 two matches.
250 The value contains the substring packed if the
252 LIST_PACKED option is set. If this substring is given for
253 all matches added to a group, this group will show the
254 LIST_PACKED behavior. The same is done for the
255 LIST_ROWS_FIRST option with the substring rows.
256 Finally, if the value contains the string explanations,
258 only the explanation strings, if any, will be listed and
259 if it contains messages, only the messages (added with
260 the -x option of compadd) will be listed. If it contains
261 both explanations and messages both kinds of explanation
262 strings will be listed. It will be set appropriately on
263 entry to a completion widget and may be changed there.
264 list_lines
266 This gives the number of lines that are needed to display
267 the full list of completions. Note that to calculate the
268 total number of lines to display you need to add the num‐
269 ber of lines needed for the command line to this value,
270 this is available as the value of the BUFFERLINES special
271 parameter.
272 list_max
274 Initially this is set to the value of the LISTMAX parame‐
275 ter. It may be set to any other value; when the widget
276 exits this value will be used in the same way as the
277 value of LISTMAX.
278 nmatches
280 The number of matches generated and accepted by the com‐
281 pletion code so far.
282 old_insert
284 On entry to the widget this will be set to the number of
285 the match of an old list of completions that is currently
286 inserted into the command line. If no match has been
287 inserted, this is unset.
288 As with old_list, the value of this key will only be used
290 if it is the string keep. If it was set to this value by
291 the widget and there was an old match inserted into the
292 command line, this match will be kept and if the value of
293 the insert key specifies that another match should be
294 inserted, this will be inserted after the old one.
295 old_list
297 This is set to yes if there is still a valid list of com‐
298 pletions from a previous completion at the time the wid‐
299 get is invoked. This will usually be the case if and
300 only if the previous editing operation was a completion
301 widget or one of the builtin completion functions. If
302 there is a valid list and it is also currently shown on
303 the screen, the value of this key is shown.
304 After the widget has exited the value of this key is only
306 used if it was set to keep. In this case the completion
307 code will continue to use this old list. If the widget
308 generated new matches, they will not be used.
309 parameter
311 The name of the parameter when completing in a subscript
312 or in the value of a parameter assignment.
313 pattern_insert
315 Normally this is set to menu, which specifies that menu
316 completion will be used whenever a set of matches was
317 generated using pattern matching. If it is set to any
318 other non-empty string by the user and menu completion is
319 not selected by other option settings, the code will
320 instead insert any common prefix for the generated
321 matches as with normal completion.
322 pattern_match
324 Locally controls the behaviour given by the GLOB_COMPLETE
325 option. Initially it is set to `*' if and only if the
326 option is set. The completion widget may set it to this
327 value, to an empty string (which has the same effect as
328 unsetting it), or to any other non-empty string. If it
329 is non-empty, unquoted metacharacters on the command line
330 will be treated as patterns; if it is `*', then addition‐
331 ally a wildcard `*' is assumed at the cursor position; if
332 it is empty or unset, metacharacters will be treated lit‐
333 erally.
334 Note that the matcher specifications given to the compadd
336 builtin command are not used if this is set to a
337 non-empty string.
338 quote When completing inside quotes, this contains the quota‐
340 tion character (i.e. either a single quote, a double
341 quote, or a backtick). Otherwise it is unset.
342 quoting
344 When completing inside single quotes, this is set to the
345 string single; inside double quotes, the string double;
346 inside backticks, the string backtick. Otherwise it is
347 unset.
348 redirect
350 The redirection operator when completing in a redirection
351 position, i.e. one of <, >, etc.
352 restore
354 This is set to auto before a function is entered, which
355 forces the special parameters mentioned above (words,
356 CURRENT, PREFIX, IPREFIX, SUFFIX, and ISUFFIX) to be
357 restored to their previous values when the function
358 exits. If a function unsets it or sets it to any other
359 string, they will not be restored.
360 to_end Specifies the occasions on which the cursor is moved to
362 the end of a string when a match is inserted. On entry
363 to a widget function, it may be single if this will hap‐
364 pen when a single unambiguous match was inserted or match
365 if it will happen any time a match is inserted (for exam‐
366 ple, by menu completion; this is likely to be the effect
367 of the ALWAYS_TO_END option).
368 On exit, it may be set to single as above. It may also
370 be set to always, or to the empty string or unset; in
371 those cases the cursor will be moved to the end of the
372 string always or never respectively. Any other string is
373 treated as match.
374 unambiguous
376 This key is read-only and will always be set to the com‐
377 mon (unambiguous) prefix the completion code has gener‐
378 ated for all matches added so far.
379 unambiguous_cursor
381 This gives the position the cursor would be placed at if
382 the common prefix in the unambiguous key were inserted,
383 relative to the value of that key. The cursor would be
384 placed before the character whose index is given by this
385 key.
386 unambiguous_positions
388 This contains all positions where characters in the unam‐
389 biguous string are missing or where the character
390 inserted differs from at least one of the matches. The
391 positions are given as indexes into the string given by
392 the value of the unambiguous key.
393 vared If completion is called while editing a line using the
395 vared builtin, the value of this key is set to the name
396 of the parameter given as an argument to vared. This key
397 is only set while a vared command is active.
398 words This array contains the words present on the command line cur‐
400 rently being edited.
401
403 compadd [ -akqQfenUl12C ] [ -F array ]
404 [-P prefix ] [ -S suffix ]
405 [-p hidden-prefix ] [ -s hidden-suffix ]
406 [-i ignored-prefix ] [ -I ignored-suffix ]
407 [-W file-prefix ] [ -d array ]
408 [-J group-name ] [ -X explanation ] [ -x message ]
409 [-V group-name ] [ -o [ order ] ]
410 [-r remove-chars ] [ -R remove-func ]
411 [-D array ] [ -O array ] [ -A array ]
412 [-E number ]
413 [-M match-spec ] [ -- ] [ words ... ]
414 This builtin command can be used to add matches directly and
416 control all the information the completion code stores with each
417 possible match. The return status is zero if at least one match
418 was added and non-zero if no matches were added.
419 The completion code breaks the string to complete into seven
421 fields in the order:
422 <ipre><apre><hpre><word><hsuf><asuf><isuf>
424 The first field is an ignored prefix taken from the command
426 line, the contents of the IPREFIX parameter plus the string
427 given with the -i option. With the -U option, only the string
428 from the -i option is used. The field <apre> is an optional pre‐
429 fix string given with the -P option. The <hpre> field is a
430 string that is considered part of the match but that should not
431 be shown when listing completions, given with the -p option; for
432 example, functions that do filename generation might specify a
433 common path prefix this way. <word> is the part of the match
434 that should appear in the list of completions, i.e. one of the
435 words given at the end of the compadd command line. The suffixes
436 <hsuf>, <asuf> and <isuf> correspond to the prefixes <hpre>,
437 <apre> and <ipre> and are given by the options -s, -S and -I,
438 respectively.
439 The supported flags are:
441 -P prefix
443 This gives a string to be inserted before the given
444 words. The string given is not considered as part of the
445 match and any shell metacharacters in it will not be
446 quoted when the string is inserted.
447 -S suffix
449 Like -P, but gives a string to be inserted after the
450 match.
451 -p hidden-prefix
453 This gives a string that should be inserted into the com‐
454 mand line before the match but that should not appear in
455 the list of matches. Unless the -U option is given, this
456 string must be matched as part of the string on the com‐
457 mand line.
458 -s hidden-suffix
460 Like `-p', but gives a string to insert after the match.
461 -i ignored-prefix
463 This gives a string to insert into the command line just
464 before any string given with the `-P' option. Without
465 `-P' the string is inserted before the string given with
466 `-p' or directly before the match.
467 -I ignored-suffix
469 Like -i, but gives an ignored suffix.
470 -a With this flag the words are taken as names of arrays and
472 the possible matches are their values. If only some ele‐
473 ments of the arrays are needed, the words may also con‐
474 tain subscripts, as in `foo[2,-1]'.
475 -k With this flag the words are taken as names of associa‐
477 tive arrays and the possible matches are their keys. As
478 for -a, the words may also contain subscripts, as in
479 `foo[(R)*bar*]'.
480 -d array
482 This adds per-match display strings. The array should
483 contain one element per word given. The completion code
484 will then display the first element instead of the first
485 word, and so on. The array may be given as the name of an
486 array parameter or directly as a space-separated list of
487 words in parentheses.
488 If there are fewer display strings than words, the left‐
490 over words will be displayed unchanged and if there are
491 more display strings than words, the leftover display
492 strings will be silently ignored.
493 -l This option only has an effect if used together with the
495 -d option. If it is given, the display strings are listed
496 one per line, not arrayed in columns.
497 -o [ order ]
499 This controls the order in which matches are sorted.
500 order is a comma-separated list comprising the following
501 possible values. These values can be abbreviated to
502 their initial two or three characters. Note that the
503 order forms part of the group name space so matches with
504 different orderings will not be in the same group.
505 match If given, the order of the output is determined by
507 the match strings; otherwise it is determined by
508 the display strings (i.e. the strings given by the
509 -d option). This is the default if `-o' is speci‐
510 fied but the order argument is omitted.
511 nosort This specifies that the matches are pre-sorted and
513 their order should be preserved. This value only
514 makes sense alone and cannot be combined with any
515 others.
516 numeric
518 If the matches include numbers, sort them numeri‐
519 cally rather than lexicographically.
520 reverse
522 Arrange the matches backwards by reversing the
523 sort ordering.
524 -J group-name
526 Gives the name of the group of matches the words should
527 be stored in.
528 -V group-name
530 Like -J but naming an unsorted group. This option is
531 identical to the combination of -J and -o nosort.
532 -1 If given together with the -V option, makes only consecu‐
534 tive duplicates in the group be removed. If combined with
535 the -J option, this has no visible effect. Note that
536 groups with and without this flag are in different name
537 spaces.
538 -2 If given together with the -J or -V option, makes all
540 duplicates be kept. Again, groups with and without this
541 flag are in different name spaces.
542 -X explanation
544 The explanation string will be printed with the list of
545 matches, above the group currently selected.
546 Within the explanation, the following sequences may be
548 used to specify output attributes as described in the
549 section EXPANSION OF PROMPT SEQUENCES in zshmisc(1):
550 `%B', `%S', `%U', `%F', `%K' and their lower case coun‐
551 terparts, as well as `%{...%}'. `%F', `%K' and `%{...%}'
552 take arguments in the same form as prompt expansion.
553 (Note that the sequence `%G' is not available; an argu‐
554 ment to `%{' should be used instead.) The sequence `%%'
555 produces a literal `%'.
556 These sequences are most often employed by users when
558 customising the format style (see zshcompsys(1)), but
559 they must also be taken into account when writing comple‐
560 tion functions, as passing descriptions with unescaped
561 `%' characters to utility functions such as _arguments
562 and _message may produce unexpected results. If arbitrary
563 text is to be passed in a description, it can be escaped
564 using e.g. ${my_str//\%/%%}.
565 -x message
567 Like -X, but the message will be printed even if there
568 are no matches in the group.
569 -q The suffix given with -S will be automatically removed if
571 the next character typed is a blank or does not insert
572 anything, or if the suffix consists of only one character
573 and the next character typed is the same character.
574 -r remove-chars
576 This is a more versatile form of the -q option. The suf‐
577 fix given with -S or the slash automatically added after
578 completing directories will be automatically removed if
579 the next character typed inserts one of the characters
580 given in the remove-chars. This string is parsed as a
581 characters class and understands the backslash sequences
582 used by the print command. For example, `-r "a-z\t"'
583 removes the suffix if the next character typed inserts a
584 lower case character or a TAB, and `-r "^0-9"' removes
585 the suffix if the next character typed inserts anything
586 but a digit. One extra backslash sequence is understood
587 in this string: `\-' stands for all characters that
588 insert nothing. Thus `-S "=" -q' is the same as `-S "="
589 -r "= \t\n\-"'.
590 This option may also be used without the -S option; then
592 any automatically added space will be removed when one of
593 the characters in the list is typed.
594 -R remove-func
596 This is another form of the -r option. When a suffix has
597 been inserted and the completion accepted, the function
598 remove-func will be called after the next character
599 typed. It is passed the length of the suffix as an argu‐
600 ment and can use the special parameters available in
601 ordinary (non-completion) zle widgets (see zshzle(1)) to
602 analyse and modify the command line.
603 -f If this flag is given, all of the matches built from
605 words are marked as being the names of files. They are
606 not required to be actual filenames, but if they are, and
607 the option LIST_TYPES is set, the characters describing
608 the types of the files in the completion lists will be
609 shown. This also forces a slash to be added when the name
610 of a directory is completed.
611 -e This flag can be used to tell the completion code that
613 the matches added are parameter names for a parameter
614 expansion. This will make the AUTO_PARAM_SLASH and
615 AUTO_PARAM_KEYS options be used for the matches.
616 -W file-prefix
618 This string is a pathname that will be prepended to each
619 of the matches formed by the given words together with
620 any prefix specified by the -p option to form a complete
621 filename for testing. Hence it is only useful if com‐
622 bined with the -f flag, as the tests will not otherwise
623 be performed.
624 -F array
626 Specifies an array containing patterns. Words matching
627 one of these patterns are ignored, i.e. not considered to
628 be possible matches.
629 The array may be the name of an array parameter or a list
631 of literal patterns enclosed in parentheses and quoted,
632 as in `-F "(*?.o *?.h)"'. If the name of an array is
633 given, the elements of the array are taken as the pat‐
634 terns.
635 -Q This flag instructs the completion code not to quote any
637 metacharacters in the words when inserting them into the
638 command line.
639 -M match-spec
641 This gives local match specifications as described below
642 in the section `Completion Matching Control'. This option
643 may be given more than once. In this case all
644 match-specs given are concatenated with spaces between
645 them to form the specification string to use. Note that
646 they will only be used if the -U option is not given.
647 -n Specifies that the words added are to be used as possible
649 matches, but are not to appear in the completion listing.
650 -U If this flag is given, all words given will be accepted
652 and no matching will be done by the completion code. Nor‐
653 mally this is used in functions that do the matching
654 themselves.
655 -O array
657 If this option is given, the words are not added to the
658 set of possible completions. Instead, matching is done
659 as usual and all of the words given as arguments that
660 match the string on the command line will be stored in
661 the array parameter whose name is given as array.
662 -A array
664 As the -O option, except that instead of those of the
665 words which match being stored in array, the strings gen‐
666 erated internally by the completion code are stored. For
667 example, with a matching specification of `-M "L:|no="',
668 the string `nof' on the command line and the string `foo'
669 as one of the words, this option stores the string
670 `nofoo' in the array, whereas the -O option stores the
671 `foo' originally given.
672 -D array
674 As with -O, the words are not added to the set of possi‐
675 ble completions. Instead, the completion code tests
676 whether each word in turn matches what is on the line.
677 If the nth word does not match, the nth element of the
678 array is removed. Elements for which the corresponding
679 word is matched are retained.
680 -C This option adds a special match which expands to all
682 other matches when inserted into the line, even those
683 that are added after this option is used. Together with
684 the -d option it is possible to specify a string that
685 should be displayed in the list for this special match.
686 If no string is given, it will be shown as a string con‐
687 taining the strings that would be inserted for the other
688 matches, truncated to the width of the screen.
689 -E number
691 This option adds number empty matches after the words
692 have been added. An empty match takes up space in com‐
693 pletion listings but will never be inserted in the line
694 and can't be selected with menu completion or menu selec‐
695 tion. This makes empty matches only useful to format
696 completion lists and to make explanatory string be shown
697 in completion lists (since empty matches can be given
698 display strings with the -d option). And because all but
699 one empty string would otherwise be removed, this option
700 implies the -V and -2 options (even if an explicit -J
701 option is given). This can be important to note as it
702 affects the name space into which matches are added.
703 -
705 -- This flag ends the list of flags and options. All argu‐
706 ments after it will be taken as the words to use as
707 matches even if they begin with hyphens.
708 Except for the -M flag, if any of these flags is given more than
710 once, the first one (and its argument) will be used.
711 compset -p number
713 compset -P [ number ] pattern
714 compset -s number
715 compset -S [ number ] pattern
716 compset -n begin [ end ]
717 compset -N beg-pat [ end-pat ]
718 compset -q
719 This command simplifies modification of the special parameters,
720 while its return status allows tests on them to be carried out.
721 The options are:
723 -p number
725 If the value of the PREFIX parameter is at least number
726 characters long, the first number characters are removed
727 from it and appended to the contents of the IPREFIX
728 parameter.
729 -P [ number ] pattern
731 If the value of the PREFIX parameter begins with anything
732 that matches the pattern, the matched portion is removed
733 from PREFIX and appended to IPREFIX.
734 Without the optional number, the longest match is taken,
736 but if number is given, anything up to the numberth match
737 is moved. If the number is negative, the numberth long‐
738 est match is moved. For example, if PREFIX contains the
739 string `a=b=c', then compset -P '*\=' will move the
740 string `a=b=' into the IPREFIX parameter, but compset -P
741 1 '*\=' will move only the string `a='.
742 -s number
744 As -p, but transfer the last number characters from the
745 value of SUFFIX to the front of the value of ISUFFIX.
746 -S [ number ] pattern
748 As -P, but match the last portion of SUFFIX and transfer
749 the matched portion to the front of the value of ISUFFIX.
750 -n begin [ end ]
752 If the current word position as specified by the parame‐
753 ter CURRENT is greater than or equal to begin, anything
754 up to the beginth word is removed from the words array
755 and the value of the parameter CURRENT is decremented by
756 begin.
757 If the optional end is given, the modification is done
759 only if the current word position is also less than or
760 equal to end. In this case, the words from position end
761 onwards are also removed from the words array.
762 Both begin and end may be negative to count backwards
764 from the last element of the words array.
765 -N beg-pat [ end-pat ]
767 If one of the elements of the words array before the one
768 at the index given by the value of the parameter CURRENT
769 matches the pattern beg-pat, all elements up to and
770 including the matching one are removed from the words
771 array and the value of CURRENT is changed to point to the
772 same word in the changed array.
773 If the optional pattern end-pat is also given, and there
775 is an element in the words array matching this pattern,
776 the parameters are modified only if the index of this
777 word is higher than the one given by the CURRENT parame‐
778 ter (so that the matching word has to be after the cur‐
779 sor). In this case, the words starting with the one
780 matching end-pat are also removed from the words array.
781 If words contains no word matching end-pat, the testing
782 and modification is performed as if it were not given.
783 -q The word currently being completed is split on spaces
785 into separate words, respecting the usual shell quoting
786 conventions. The resulting words are stored in the words
787 array, and CURRENT, PREFIX, SUFFIX, QIPREFIX, and QISUF‐
788 FIX are modified to reflect the word part that is com‐
789 pleted.
790 In all the above cases the return status is zero if the test
792 succeeded and the parameters were modified and non-zero other‐
793 wise. This allows one to use this builtin in tests such as:
794 if compset -P '*\='; then ...
796 This forces anything up to and including the last equal sign to
798 be ignored by the completion code.
799 compcall [ -TD ]
801 This allows the use of completions defined with the compctl
802 builtin from within completion widgets. The list of matches
803 will be generated as if one of the non-widget completion func‐
804 tions (complete-word, etc.) had been called, except that only
805 compctls given for specific commands are used. To force the code
806 to try completions defined with the -T option of compctl and/or
807 the default completion (whether defined by compctl -D or the
808 builtin default) in the appropriate places, the -T and/or -D
809 flags can be passed to compcall.
810 The return status can be used to test if a matching compctl def‐
812 inition was found. It is non-zero if a compctl was found and
813 zero otherwise.
814 Note that this builtin is defined by the zsh/compctl module.
816
818 The following additional condition codes for use within the [[ ... ]]
819 construct are available in completion widgets. These work on the spe‐
820 cial parameters. All of these tests can also be performed by the
821 compset builtin, but in the case of the condition codes the contents of
822 the special parameters are not modified.
823 -prefix [ number ] pattern
825 true if the test for the -P option of compset would succeed.
826 -suffix [ number ] pattern
828 true if the test for the -S option of compset would succeed.
829 -after beg-pat
831 true if the test of the -N option with only the beg-pat given
832 would succeed.
833 -between beg-pat end-pat
835 true if the test for the -N option with both patterns would suc‐
836 ceed.
837
839 It is possible by use of the -M option of the compadd builtin command
840 to specify how the characters in the string to be completed (referred
841 to here as the command line) map onto the characters in the list of
842 matches produced by the completion code (referred to here as the trial
843 completions). Note that this is not used if the command line contains a
844 glob pattern and the GLOB_COMPLETE option is set or the pattern_match
845 of the compstate special association is set to a non-empty string.
846 The match-spec given as the argument to the -M option (see `Completion
848 Builtin Commands' above) consists of one or more matching descriptions
849 separated by whitespace. Each description consists of a letter fol‐
850 lowed by a colon and then the patterns describing which character
851 sequences on the line match which character sequences in the trial com‐
852 pletion. Any sequence of characters not handled in this fashion must
853 match exactly, as usual.
854 The forms of match-spec understood are as follows. In each case, the
856 form with an upper case initial character retains the string already
857 typed on the command line as the final result of completion, while with
858 a lower case initial character the string on the command line is
859 changed into the corresponding part of the trial completion.
860 m:lpat=tpat
862 M:lpat=tpat
863 Here, lpat is a pattern that matches on the command line, corre‐
864 sponding to tpat which matches in the trial completion.
865 l:lanchor|lpat=tpat
867 L:lanchor|lpat=tpat
868 l:lanchor||ranchor=tpat
869 L:lanchor||ranchor=tpat
870 b:lpat=tpat
871 B:lpat=tpat
872 These letters are for patterns that are anchored by another pat‐
873 tern on the left side. Matching for lpat and tpat is as for m
874 and M, but the pattern lpat matched on the command line must be
875 preceded by the pattern lanchor. The lanchor can be blank to
876 anchor the match to the start of the command line string; other‐
877 wise the anchor can occur anywhere, but must match in both the
878 command line and trial completion strings.
879 If no lpat is given but a ranchor is, this matches the gap
881 between substrings matched by lanchor and ranchor. Unlike lan‐
882 chor, the ranchor only needs to match the trial completion
883 string.
884 The b and B forms are similar to l and L with an empty anchor,
886 but need to match only the beginning of the word on the command
887 line or trial completion, respectively.
888 r:lpat|ranchor=tpat
890 R:lpat|ranchor=tpat
891 r:lanchor||ranchor=tpat
892 R:lanchor||ranchor=tpat
893 e:lpat=tpat
894 E:lpat=tpat
895 As l, L, b and B, with the difference that the command line and
896 trial completion patterns are anchored on the right side. Here
897 an empty ranchor and the e and E forms force the match to the
898 end of the command line or trial completion string.
899 x: This form is used to mark the end of matching specifications:
901 subsequent specifications are ignored. In a single standalone
902 list of specifications this has no use but where matching speci‐
903 fications are accumulated, such as from nested function calls,
904 it can allow one function to override another.
905 Each lpat, tpat or anchor is either an empty string or consists of a
907 sequence of literal characters (which may be quoted with a backslash),
908 question marks, character classes, and correspondence classes; ordinary
909 shell patterns are not used. Literal characters match only themselves,
910 question marks match any character, and character classes are formed as
911 for globbing and match any character in the given set.
912 Correspondence classes are defined like character classes, but with two
914 differences: they are delimited by a pair of braces, and negated
915 classes are not allowed, so the characters ! and ^ have no special
916 meaning directly after the opening brace. They indicate that a range
917 of characters on the line match a range of characters in the trial com‐
918 pletion, but (unlike ordinary character classes) paired according to
919 the corresponding position in the sequence. For example, to make any
920 ASCII lower case letter on the line match the corresponding upper case
921 letter in the trial completion, you can use `m:{a-z}={A-Z}' (however,
922 see below for the recommended form for this). More than one pair of
923 classes can occur, in which case the first class before the = corre‐
924 sponds to the first after it, and so on. If one side has more such
925 classes than the other side, the superfluous classes behave like normal
926 character classes. In anchor patterns correspondence classes also
927 behave like normal character classes.
928 The standard `[:name:]' forms described for standard shell patterns
930 (see the section FILENAME GENERATION in zshexpn(1)) may appear in cor‐
931 respondence classes as well as normal character classes. The only spe‐
932 cial behaviour in correspondence classes is if the form on the left and
933 the form on the right are each one of [:upper:], [:lower:]. In these
934 cases the character in the word and the character on the line must be
935 the same up to a difference in case. Hence to make any lower case
936 character on the line match the corresponding upper case character in
937 the trial completion you can use `m:{[:lower:]}={[:upper:]}'. Although
938 the matching system does not yet handle multibyte characters, this is
939 likely to be a future extension, at which point this syntax will handle
940 arbitrary alphabets; hence this form, rather than the use of explicit
941 ranges, is the recommended form. In other cases `[:name:]' forms are
942 allowed. If the two forms on the left and right are the same, the
943 characters must match exactly. In remaining cases, the corresponding
944 tests are applied to both characters, but they are not otherwise con‐
945 strained; any matching character in one set goes with any matching
946 character in the other set: this is equivalent to the behaviour of
947 ordinary character classes.
948 The pattern tpat may also be one or two stars, `*' or `**'. This means
950 that the pattern on the command line can match any number of characters
951 in the trial completion. In this case the pattern must be anchored (on
952 either side); in the case of a single star, the anchor then determines
953 how much of the trial completion is to be included -- only the charac‐
954 ters up to the next appearance of the anchor will be matched. With two
955 stars, substrings matched by the anchor can be matched, too.
956 Examples:
958 The keys of the options association defined by the parameter module are
960 the option names in all-lower-case form, without underscores, and with‐
961 out the optional no at the beginning even though the builtins setopt
962 and unsetopt understand option names with upper case letters, under‐
963 scores, and the optional no. The following alters the matching rules
964 so that the prefix no and any underscore are ignored when trying to
965 match the trial completions generated and upper case letters on the
966 line match the corresponding lower case letters in the words:
967 compadd -M 'L:|[nN][oO]= M:_= M:{[:upper:]}={[:lower:]}' - \
969 ${(k)options}
970 The first part says that the pattern `[nN][oO]' at the beginning (the
972 empty anchor before the pipe symbol) of the string on the line matches
973 the empty string in the list of words generated by completion, so it
974 will be ignored if present. The second part does the same for an under‐
975 score anywhere in the command line string, and the third part uses cor‐
976 respondence classes so that any upper case letter on the line matches
977 the corresponding lower case letter in the word. The use of the upper
978 case forms of the specification characters (L and M) guarantees that
979 what has already been typed on the command line (in particular the pre‐
980 fix no) will not be deleted.
981 Note that the use of L in the first part means that it matches only
983 when at the beginning of both the command line string and the trial
984 completion. I.e., the string `_NO_f' would not be completed to
985 `_NO_foo', nor would `NONO_f' be completed to `NONO_foo' because of the
986 leading underscore or the second `NO' on the line which makes the pat‐
987 tern fail even though they are otherwise ignored. To fix this, one
988 would use `B:[nN][oO]=' instead of the first part. As described above,
989 this matches at the beginning of the trial completion, independent of
990 other characters or substrings at the beginning of the command line
991 word which are ignored by the same or other match-specs.
992 The second example makes completion case insensitive. This is just the
994 same as in the option example, except here we wish to retain the char‐
995 acters in the list of completions:
996 compadd -M 'm:{[:lower:]}={[:upper:]}' ...
998 This makes lower case letters match their upper case counterparts. To
1000 make upper case letters match the lower case forms as well:
1001 compadd -M 'm:{[:lower:][:upper:]}={[:upper:][:lower:]}' ...
1003 A nice example for the use of * patterns is partial word completion.
1005 Sometimes you would like to make strings like `c.s.u' complete to
1006 strings like `comp.source.unix', i.e. the word on the command line con‐
1007 sists of multiple parts, separated by a dot in this example, where each
1008 part should be completed separately -- note, however, that the case
1009 where each part of the word, i.e. `comp', `source' and `unix' in this
1010 example, is to be completed from separate sets of matches is a differ‐
1011 ent problem to be solved by the implementation of the completion wid‐
1012 get. The example can be handled by:
1013 compadd -M 'r:|.=* r:|=*' \
1015 - comp.sources.unix comp.sources.misc ...
1016 The first specification says that lpat is the empty string, while
1018 anchor is a dot; tpat is *, so this can match anything except for the
1019 `.' from the anchor in the trial completion word. So in `c.s.u', the
1020 matcher sees `c', followed by the empty string, followed by the anchor
1021 `.', and likewise for the second dot, and replaces the empty strings
1022 before the anchors, giving `c[omp].s[ources].u[nix]', where the last
1023 part of the completion is just as normal.
1024 With the pattern shown above, the string `c.u' could not be completed
1026 to `comp.sources.unix' because the single star means that no dot
1027 (matched by the anchor) can be skipped. By using two stars as in
1028 `r:|.=**', however, `c.u' could be completed to `comp.sources.unix'.
1029 This also shows that in some cases, especially if the anchor is a real
1030 pattern, like a character class, the form with two stars may result in
1031 more matches than one would like.
1032 The second specification is needed to make this work when the cursor is
1034 in the middle of the string on the command line and the option COM‐
1035 PLETE_IN_WORD is set. In this case the completion code would normally
1036 try to match trial completions that end with the string as typed so
1037 far, i.e. it will only insert new characters at the cursor position
1038 rather than at the end. However in our example we would like the code
1039 to recognise matches which contain extra characters after the string on
1040 the line (the `nix' in the example). Hence we say that the empty
1041 string at the end of the string on the line matches any characters at
1042 the end of the trial completion.
1043 More generally, the specification
1045 compadd -M 'r:|[.,_-]=* r:|=*' ...
1047 allows one to complete words with abbreviations before any of the char‐
1049 acters in the square brackets. For example, to complete veryverylong‐
1050 file.c rather than veryverylongheader.h with the above in effect, you
1051 can just type very.c before attempting completion.
1052 The specifications with both a left and a right anchor are useful to
1054 complete partial words whose parts are not separated by some special
1055 character. For example, in some places strings have to be completed
1056 that are formed `LikeThis' (i.e. the separate parts are determined by a
1057 leading upper case letter) or maybe one has to complete strings with
1058 trailing numbers. Here one could use the simple form with only one
1059 anchor as in:
1060 compadd -M 'r:|[[:upper:]0-9]=* r:|=*' LikeTHIS FooHoo 5foo123 5bar234
1062 But with this, the string `H' would neither complete to `FooHoo' nor to
1064 `LikeTHIS' because in each case there is an upper case letter before
1065 the `H' and that is matched by the anchor. Likewise, a `2' would not be
1066 completed. In both cases this could be changed by using
1067 `r:|[[:upper:]0-9]=**', but then `H' completes to both `LikeTHIS' and
1068 `FooHoo' and a `2' matches the other strings because characters can be
1069 inserted before every upper case letter and digit. To avoid this one
1070 would use:
1071 compadd -M 'r:[^[:upper:]0-9]||[[:upper:]0-9]=** r:|=*' \
1073 LikeTHIS FooHoo foo123 bar234
1074 By using these two anchors, a `H' matches only upper case `H's that are
1076 immediately preceded by something matching the left anchor
1077 `[^[:upper:]0-9]'. The effect is, of course, that `H' matches only the
1078 string `FooHoo', a `2' matches only `bar234' and so on.
1079 When using the completion system (see zshcompsys(1)), users can define
1081 match specifications that are to be used for specific contexts by using
1082 the matcher and matcher-list styles. The values for the latter will be
1083 used everywhere.
1084
1086 The first step is to define the widget:
1087 zle -C complete complete-word complete-files
1089 Then the widget can be bound to a key using the bindkey builtin com‐
1091 mand:
1092 bindkey '^X\t' complete
1094 After that the shell function complete-files will be invoked after typ‐
1096 ing control-X and TAB. The function should then generate the matches,
1097 e.g.:
1098 complete-files () { compadd - * }
1100 This function will complete files in the current directory matching the
1102 current word.
1103zsh 5.8 February 14, 2020 ZSHCOMPWID(1)