1ZSHCOMPCTL(1) General Commands Manual ZSHCOMPCTL(1)
2
6 zshcompctl - zsh programmable completion
7
9 This version of zsh has two ways of performing completion of words on
10 the command line. New users of the shell may prefer to use the newer
11 and more powerful system based on shell functions; this is described in
12 zshcompsys(1), and the basic shell mechanisms which support it are de‐
13 scribed in zshcompwid(1). This manual entry describes the older com‐
14 pctl command.
15 compctl [ -CDT ] options [ command ... ]
17 compctl [ -CDT ] options [ -x pattern options - ... -- ]
18 [ + options [ -x ... -- ] ... [+] ] [ command ... ]
19 compctl -M match-specs ...
20 compctl -L [ -CDTM ] [ command ... ]
21 compctl + command ...
22 Control the editor's completion behavior according to the supplied set
24 of options. Various editing commands, notably expand-or-complete-word,
25 usually bound to tab, will attempt to complete a word typed by the
26 user, while others, notably delete-char-or-list, usually bound to ^D in
27 EMACS editing mode, list the possibilities; compctl controls what those
28 possibilities are. They may for example be filenames (the most common
29 case, and hence the default), shell variables, or words from a
30 user-specified list.
31
33 Completion of the arguments of a command may be different for each com‐
34 mand or may use the default. The behavior when completing the command
35 word itself may also be separately specified. These correspond to the
36 following flags and arguments, all of which (except for -L) may be com‐
37 bined with any combination of the options described subsequently in the
38 section `Option Flags':
39 command ...
41 controls completion for the named commands, which must be listed
42 last on the command line. If completion is attempted for a com‐
43 mand with a pathname containing slashes and no completion defi‐
44 nition is found, the search is retried with the last pathname
45 component. If the command starts with a =, completion is tried
46 with the pathname of the command.
47 Any of the command strings may be patterns of the form normally
49 used for filename generation. These should be quoted to protect
50 them from immediate expansion; for example the command string
51 'foo*' arranges for completion of the words of any command be‐
52 ginning with foo. When completion is attempted, all pattern
53 completions are tried in the reverse order of their definition
54 until one matches. By default, completion then proceeds as nor‐
55 mal, i.e. the shell will try to generate more matches for the
56 specific command on the command line; this can be overridden by
57 including -tn in the flags for the pattern completion.
58 Note that aliases are expanded before the command name is deter‐
60 mined unless the COMPLETE_ALIASES option is set. Commands may
61 not be combined with the -C, -D or -T flags.
62 -C controls completion when the command word itself is being com‐
64 pleted. If no compctl -C command has been issued, the names of
65 any executable command (whether in the path or specific to the
66 shell, such as aliases or functions) are completed.
67 -D controls default completion behavior for the arguments of com‐
69 mands not assigned any special behavior. If no compctl -D com‐
70 mand has been issued, filenames are completed.
71 -T supplies completion flags to be used before any other processing
73 is done, even before processing for compctls defined for spe‐
74 cific commands. This is especially useful when combined with
75 extended completion (the -x flag, see the section `Extended Com‐
76 pletion' below). Using this flag you can define default behav‐
77 ior which will apply to all commands without exception, or you
78 can alter the standard behavior for all commands. For example,
79 if your access to the user database is too slow and/or it con‐
80 tains too many users (so that completion after `~' is too slow
81 to be usable), you can use
82 compctl -T -x 's[~] C[0,[^/]#]' -k friends -S/ -tn
84 to complete the strings in the array friends after a `~'. The
86 C[...] argument is necessary so that this form of ~-completion
87 is not tried after the directory name is finished.
88 -L lists the existing completion behavior in a manner suitable for
90 putting into a start-up script; the existing behavior is not
91 changed. Any combination of the above forms, or the -M flag
92 (which must follow the -L flag), may be specified, otherwise all
93 defined completions are listed. Any other flags supplied are
94 ignored.
95 no argument
97 If no argument is given, compctl lists all defined completions
98 in an abbreviated form; with a list of options, all completions
99 with those flags set (not counting extended completion) are
100 listed.
101 If the + flag is alone and followed immediately by the command list,
103 the completion behavior for all the commands in the list is reset to
104 the default. In other words, completion will subsequently use the op‐
105 tions specified by the -D flag.
106 The form with -M as the first and only option defines global matching
108 specifications (see zshcompwid). The match specifications given will be
109 used for every completion attempt (only when using compctl, not with
110 the new completion system) and are tried in the order in which they are
111 defined until one generates at least one match. E.g.:
112 compctl -M '' 'm:{a-zA-Z}={A-Za-z}'
114 This will first try completion without any global match specifications
116 (the empty string) and, if that generates no matches, will try case in‐
117 sensitive completion.
118
120 [ -fcFBdeaRGovNAIOPZEnbjrzu/12 ]
121 [ -k array ] [ -g globstring ] [ -s subststring ]
122 [ -K function ]
123 [ -Q ] [ -P prefix ] [ -S suffix ]
124 [ -W file-prefix ] [ -H num pattern ]
125 [ -q ] [ -X explanation ] [ -Y explanation ]
126 [ -y func-or-var ] [ -l cmd ] [ -h cmd ] [ -U ]
127 [ -t continue ] [ -J name ] [ -V name ]
128 [ -M match-spec ]
129 The remaining options specify the type of command arguments to look for
131 during completion. Any combination of these flags may be specified;
132 the result is a sorted list of all the possibilities. The options are
133 as follows.
134 Simple Flags
136 These produce completion lists made up by the shell itself:
137 -f Filenames and file system paths.
139 -/ Just file system paths.
141 -c Command names, including aliases, shell functions, builtins and
143 reserved words.
144 -F Function names.
146 -B Names of builtin commands.
148 -m Names of external commands.
150 -w Reserved words.
152 -a Alias names.
154 -R Names of regular (non-global) aliases.
156 -G Names of global aliases.
158 -d This can be combined with -F, -B, -w, -a, -R and -G to get names
160 of disabled functions, builtins, reserved words or aliases.
161 -e This option (to show enabled commands) is in effect by default,
163 but may be combined with -d; -de in combination with -F, -B, -w,
164 -a, -R and -G will complete names of functions, builtins, re‐
165 served words or aliases whether or not they are disabled.
166 -o Names of shell options (see zshoptions(1)).
168 -v Names of any variable defined in the shell.
170 -N Names of scalar (non-array) parameters.
172 -A Array names.
174 -I Names of integer variables.
176 -O Names of read-only variables.
178 -p Names of parameters used by the shell (including special parame‐
180 ters).
181 -Z Names of shell special parameters.
183 -E Names of environment variables.
185 -n Named directories.
187 -b Key binding names.
189 -j Job names: the first word of the job leader's command line.
191 This is useful with the kill builtin.
192 -r Names of running jobs.
194 -z Names of suspended jobs.
196 -u User names.
198 Flags with Arguments
200 These have user supplied arguments to determine how the list of comple‐
201 tions is to be made up:
202 -k array
204 Names taken from the elements of $array (note that the `$' does
205 not appear on the command line). Alternatively, the argument
206 array itself may be a set of space- or comma-separated values in
207 parentheses, in which any delimiter may be escaped with a back‐
208 slash; in this case the argument should be quoted. For example,
209 compctl -k "(cputime filesize datasize stacksize
211 coredumpsize resident descriptors)" limit
212 -g globstring
214 The globstring is expanded using filename globbing; it should be
215 quoted to protect it from immediate expansion. The resulting
216 filenames are taken as the possible completions. Use `*(/)' in‐
217 stead of `*/' for directories. The fignore special parameter is
218 not applied to the resulting files. More than one pattern may
219 be given separated by blanks. (Note that brace expansion is not
220 part of globbing. Use the syntax `(either|or)' to match alter‐
221 natives.)
222 -s subststring
224 The subststring is split into words and these words are than ex‐
225 panded using all shell expansion mechanisms (see zshexpn(1)).
226 The resulting words are taken as possible completions. The fig‐
227 nore special parameter is not applied to the resulting files.
228 Note that -g is faster for filenames.
229 -K function
231 Call the given function to get the completions. Unless the name
232 starts with an underscore, the function is passed two arguments:
233 the prefix and the suffix of the word on which completion is to
234 be attempted, in other words those characters before the cursor
235 position, and those from the cursor position onwards. The whole
236 command line can be accessed with the -c and -l flags of the
237 read builtin. The function should set the variable reply to an
238 array containing the completions (one completion per element);
239 note that reply should not be made local to the function. From
240 such a function the command line can be accessed with the -c and
241 -l flags to the read builtin. For example,
242 function whoson { reply=(`users`); }
244 compctl -K whoson talk
245 completes only logged-on users after `talk'. Note that `whoson'
247 must return an array, so `reply=`users`' would be incorrect.
248 -H num pattern
250 The possible completions are taken from the last num history
251 lines. Only words matching pattern are taken. If num is zero
252 or negative the whole history is searched and if pattern is the
253 empty string all words are taken (as with `*'). A typical use
254 is
255 compctl -D -f + -H 0 ''
257 which forces completion to look back in the history list for a
259 word if no filename matches.
260 Control Flags
262 These do not directly specify types of name to be completed, but manip‐
263 ulate the options that do:
264 -Q This instructs the shell not to quote any metacharacters in the
266 possible completions. Normally the results of a completion are
267 inserted into the command line with any metacharacters quoted so
268 that they are interpreted as normal characters. This is appro‐
269 priate for filenames and ordinary strings. However, for special
270 effects, such as inserting a backquoted expression from a com‐
271 pletion array (-k) so that the expression will not be evaluated
272 until the complete line is executed, this option must be used.
273 -P prefix
275 The prefix is inserted just before the completed string; any
276 initial part already typed will be completed and the whole pre‐
277 fix ignored for completion purposes. For example,
278 compctl -j -P "%" kill
280 inserts a `%' after the kill command and then completes job
282 names.
283 -S suffix
285 When a completion is found the suffix is inserted after the com‐
286 pleted string. In the case of menu completion the suffix is in‐
287 serted immediately, but it is still possible to cycle through
288 the list of completions by repeatedly hitting the same key.
289 -W file-prefix
291 With directory file-prefix: for command, file, directory and
292 globbing completion (options -c, -f, -/, -g), the file prefix is
293 implicitly added in front of the completion. For example,
294 compctl -/ -W ~/Mail maildirs
296 completes any subdirectories to any depth beneath the directory
298 ~/Mail, although that prefix does not appear on the command
299 line. The file-prefix may also be of the form accepted by the
300 -k flag, i.e. the name of an array or a literal list in paren‐
301 thesis. In this case all the directories in the list will be
302 searched for possible completions.
303 -q If used with a suffix as specified by the -S option, this causes
305 the suffix to be removed if the next character typed is a blank
306 or does not insert anything or if the suffix consists of only
307 one character and the next character typed is the same charac‐
308 ter; this the same rule used for the AUTO_REMOVE_SLASH option.
309 The option is most useful for list separators (comma, colon,
310 etc.).
311 -l cmd This option restricts the range of command line words that are
313 considered to be arguments. If combined with one of the ex‐
314 tended completion patterns `p[...]', `r[...]', or `R[...]' (see
315 the section `Extended Completion' below) the range is restricted
316 to the range of arguments specified in the brackets. Completion
317 is then performed as if these had been given as arguments to the
318 cmd supplied with the option. If the cmd string is empty the
319 first word in the range is instead taken as the command name,
320 and command name completion performed on the first word in the
321 range. For example,
322 compctl -x 'r[-exec,;]' -l '' -- find
324 completes arguments between `-exec' and the following `;' (or
326 the end of the command line if there is no such string) as if
327 they were a separate command line.
328 -h cmd Normally zsh completes quoted strings as a whole. With this op‐
330 tion, completion can be done separately on different parts of
331 such strings. It works like the -l option but makes the comple‐
332 tion code work on the parts of the current word that are sepa‐
333 rated by spaces. These parts are completed as if they were argu‐
334 ments to the given cmd. If cmd is the empty string, the first
335 part is completed as a command name, as with -l.
336 -U Use the whole list of possible completions, whether or not they
338 actually match the word on the command line. The word typed so
339 far will be deleted. This is most useful with a function (given
340 by the -K option) which can examine the word components passed
341 to it (or via the read builtin's -c and -l flags) and use its
342 own criteria to decide what matches. If there is no completion,
343 the original word is retained. Since the produced possible com‐
344 pletions seldom have interesting common prefixes and suffixes,
345 menu completion is started immediately if AUTO_MENU is set and
346 this flag is used.
347 -y func-or-var
349 The list provided by func-or-var is displayed instead of the
350 list of completions whenever a listing is required; the actual
351 completions to be inserted are not affected. It can be provided
352 in two ways. Firstly, if func-or-var begins with a $ it defines
353 a variable, or if it begins with a left parenthesis a literal
354 array, which contains the list. A variable may have been set by
355 a call to a function using the -K option. Otherwise it contains
356 the name of a function which will be executed to create the
357 list. The function will be passed as an argument list all
358 matching completions, including prefixes and suffixes expanded
359 in full, and should set the array reply to the result. In both
360 cases, the display list will only be retrieved after a complete
361 list of matches has been created.
362 Note that the returned list does not have to correspond, even in
364 length, to the original set of matches, and may be passed as a
365 scalar instead of an array. No special formatting of characters
366 is performed on the output in this case; in particular, newlines
367 are printed literally and if they appear output in columns is
368 suppressed.
369 -X explanation
371 Print explanation when trying completion on the current set of
372 options. A `%n' in this string is replaced by the number of
373 matches that were added for this explanation string. The expla‐
374 nation only appears if completion was tried and there was no
375 unique match, or when listing completions. Explanation strings
376 will be listed together with the matches of the group specified
377 together with the -X option (using the -J or -V option). If the
378 same explanation string is given to multiple -X options, the
379 string appears only once (for each group) and the number of
380 matches shown for the `%n' is the total number of all matches
381 for each of these uses. In any case, the explanation string will
382 only be shown if there was at least one match added for the ex‐
383 planation string.
384 The sequences %B, %b, %S, %s, %U, and %u specify output at‐
386 tributes (bold, standout, and underline), %F, %f, %K, %k specify
387 foreground and background colours, and %{...%} can be used to
388 include literal escape sequences as in prompts.
389 -Y explanation
391 Identical to -X, except that the explanation first undergoes ex‐
392 pansion following the usual rules for strings in double quotes.
393 The expansion will be carried out after any functions are called
394 for the -K or -y options, allowing them to set variables.
395 -t continue
397 The continue-string contains a character that specifies which
398 set of completion flags should be used next. It is useful:
399 (i) With -T, or when trying a list of pattern completions, when
401 compctl would usually continue with ordinary processing after
402 finding matches; this can be suppressed with `-tn'.
403 (ii) With a list of alternatives separated by +, when compctl
405 would normally stop when one of the alternatives generates
406 matches. It can be forced to consider the next set of comple‐
407 tions by adding `-t+' to the flags of the alternative before the
408 `+'.
409 (iii) In an extended completion list (see below), when compctl
411 would normally continue until a set of conditions succeeded,
412 then use only the immediately following flags. With `-t-', com‐
413 pctl will continue trying extended completions after the next
414 `-'; with `-tx' it will attempt completion with the default
415 flags, in other words those before the `-x'.
416 -J name
418 This gives the name of the group the matches should be placed
419 in. Groups are listed and sorted separately; likewise, menu com‐
420 pletion will offer the matches in the groups in the order in
421 which the groups were defined. If no group name is explicitly
422 given, the matches are stored in a group named default. The
423 first time a group name is encountered, a group with that name
424 is created. After that all matches with the same group name are
425 stored in that group.
426 This can be useful with non-exclusive alternative completions.
428 For example, in
429 compctl -f -J files -t+ + -v -J variables foo
431 both files and variables are possible completions, as the -t+
433 forces both sets of alternatives before and after the + to be
434 considered at once. Because of the -J options, however, all
435 files are listed before all variables.
436 -V name
438 Like -J, but matches within the group will not be sorted in
439 listings nor in menu completion. These unsorted groups are in a
440 different name space from the sorted ones, so groups defined as
441 -J files and -V files are distinct.
442 -1 If given together with the -V option, makes only consecutive du‐
444 plicates in the group be removed. Note that groups with and
445 without this flag are in different name spaces.
446 -2 If given together with the -J or -V option, makes all duplicates
448 be kept. Again, groups with and without this flag are in differ‐
449 ent name spaces.
450 -M match-spec
452 This defines additional matching control specifications that
453 should be used only when testing words for the list of flags
454 this flag appears in. The format of the match-spec string is de‐
455 scribed in zshcompwid.
456
458 compctl [ -CDT ] options + options [ + ... ] [ + ] command ...
459 The form with `+' specifies alternative options. Completion is tried
461 with the options before the first `+'. If this produces no matches com‐
462 pletion is tried with the flags after the `+' and so on. If there are
463 no flags after the last `+' and a match has not been found up to that
464 point, default completion is tried. If the list of flags contains a -t
465 with a + character, the next list of flags is used even if the current
466 list produced matches.
467 Additional options are available that restrict completion to some part
469 of the command line; this is referred to as `extended completion'.
470
472 compctl [ -CDT ] options -x pattern options - ... --
473 [ command ... ]
474 compctl [ -CDT ] options [ -x pattern options - ... -- ]
475 [ + options [ -x ... -- ] ... [+] ] [ command ... ]
476 The form with `-x' specifies extended completion for the commands
478 given; as shown, it may be combined with alternative completion using
479 `+'. Each pattern is examined in turn; when a match is found, the cor‐
480 responding options, as described in the section `Option Flags' above,
481 are used to generate possible completions. If no pattern matches, the
482 options given before the -x are used.
483 Note that each pattern should be supplied as a single argument and
485 should be quoted to prevent expansion of metacharacters by the shell.
486 A pattern is built of sub-patterns separated by commas; it matches if
488 at least one of these sub-patterns matches (they are `or'ed). These
489 sub-patterns are in turn composed of other sub-patterns separated by
490 white spaces which match if all of the sub-patterns match (they are
491 `and'ed). An element of the sub-patterns is of the form `c[...][...]',
492 where the pairs of brackets may be repeated as often as necessary, and
493 matches if any of the sets of brackets match (an `or'). The example
494 below makes this clearer.
495 The elements may be any of the following:
497 s[string]...
499 Matches if the current word on the command line starts with one
500 of the strings given in brackets. The string is not removed and
501 is not part of the completion.
502 S[string]...
504 Like s[string] except that the string is part of the completion.
505 p[from,to]...
507 Matches if the number of the current word is between one of the
508 from and to pairs inclusive. The comma and to are optional; to
509 defaults to the same value as from. The numbers may be nega‐
510 tive: -n refers to the n'th last word on the line.
511 c[offset,string]...
513 Matches if the string matches the word offset by offset from the
514 current word position. Usually offset will be negative.
515 C[offset,pattern]...
517 Like c but using pattern matching instead.
518 w[index,string]...
520 Matches if the word in position index is equal to the corre‐
521 sponding string. Note that the word count is made after any
522 alias expansion.
523 W[index,pattern]...
525 Like w but using pattern matching instead.
526 n[index,string]...
528 Matches if the current word contains string. Anything up to and
529 including the indexth occurrence of this string will not be con‐
530 sidered part of the completion, but the rest will. index may be
531 negative to count from the end: in most cases, index will be 1
532 or -1. For example,
533 compctl -s '`users`' -x 'n[1,@]' -k hosts -- talk
535 will usually complete usernames, but if you insert an @ after
537 the name, names from the array hosts (assumed to contain host‐
538 names, though you must make the array yourself) will be com‐
539 pleted. Other commands such as rcp can be handled similarly.
540 N[index,string]...
542 Like n except that the string will be taken as a character
543 class. Anything up to and including the indexth occurrence of
544 any of the characters in string will not be considered part of
545 the completion.
546 m[min,max]...
548 Matches if the total number of words lies between min and max
549 inclusive.
550 r[str1,str2]...
552 Matches if the cursor is after a word with prefix str1. If
553 there is also a word with prefix str2 on the command line after
554 the one matched by str1 it matches only if the cursor is before
555 this word. If the comma and str2 are omitted, it matches if the
556 cursor is after a word with prefix str1.
557 R[str1,str2]...
559 Like r but using pattern matching instead.
560 q[str]...
562 Matches the word currently being completed is in single quotes
563 and the str begins with the letter `s', or if completion is done
564 in double quotes and str starts with the letter `d', or if com‐
565 pletion is done in backticks and str starts with a `b'.
566
568 compctl -u -x 's[+] c[-1,-f],s[-f+]' \
569 -g '~/Mail/*(:t)' - 's[-f],c[-1,-f]' -f -- mail
570 This is to be interpreted as follows:
572 If the current command is mail, then
574 if ((the current word begins with + and the previous word is -f)
576 or (the current word begins with -f+)), then complete the
577 non-directory part (the `:t' glob modifier) of files in the directory
578 ~/Mail; else
579 if the current word begins with -f or the previous word was -f, then
581 complete any file; else
582 complete user names.
584zsh 5.9 May 14, 2022 ZSHCOMPCTL(1)