zshcompctl man page on Ultrix

Man page or keyword search:  
man Server   3690 pages
apropos Keyword Search (all sections)
Output format
Ultrix logo
[printable version]

ZSHCOMPCTL(1)							 ZSHCOMPCTL(1)

NAME
       zshcompctl - zsh programmable completion

SYNOPSIS
       This  version  of zsh has two ways of performing completion of words on
       the command line.  New users of the shell may prefer to use  the	 newer
       and more powerful system based on shell functions; this is described in
       zshcompsys(1), and the basic shell  mechanisms  which  support  it  are
       described in zshcompwid(1).  This manual entry describes the older com‐
       pctl command.

DESCRIPTION
       compctl [ -CDT ] options [ command ... ]
       compctl [ -CDT ] options [ -x pattern options - ... -- ] [ + options  [
       -x ... -- ] ... [+] ] [ command ... ]
       compctl -M match-specs ...
       compctl -L [ -CDTM ] [ command ... ]
       compctl + command ...

       Control	the editor's completion behavior according to the supplied set
       of options.  Various editing commands, notably expand-or-complete-word,
       usually	bound  to  tab,	 will  attempt to complete a word typed by the
       user, while others, notably delete-char-or-list, usually bound to ^D in
       EMACS editing mode, list the possibilities; compctl controls what those
       possibilities are.  They may for example be filenames (the most	common
       case,  and  hence  the  default),  shell	 variables,  or	 words	from a
       user-specified list.

COMMAND FLAGS
       Completion of the arguments of a command may be different for each com‐
       mand  or may use the default.  The behavior when completing the command
       word itself may also be separately specified.  These correspond to  the
       following flags and arguments, all of which (except for -L) may be com‐
       bined with any combination of the options described subsequently in the
       section `Option Flags':

       command ...
	      controls completion for the named commands, which must be listed
	      last on the command line.	 If completion is attempted for a com‐
	      mand  with a pathname containing slashes and no completion defi‐
	      nition is found, the search is retried with  the	last  pathname
	      component.  If  the command starts with a =, completion is tried
	      with the pathname of the command.

	      Any of the command strings may be patterns of the form  normally
	      used for filename generation.  These should be be quoted to pro‐
	      tect them from immediate	expansion;  for	 example  the  command
	      string  'foo*'  arranges for completion of the words of any com‐
	      mand beginning with foo.	When completion is attempted, all pat‐
	      tern completions are tried in the reverse order of their defini‐
	      tion until one matches.  By default, completion then proceeds as
	      normal, i.e. the shell will try to generate more matches for the
	      specific command on the command line; this can be overridden  by
	      including -tn in the flags for the pattern completion.

	      Note that aliases are expanded before the command name is deter‐
	      mined unless the COMPLETE_ALIASES option is set.	 Commands  may
	      not be combined with the -C, -D or -T flags.

       -C     controls	completion  when the command word itself is being com‐
	      pleted.  If no compctl -C command has been issued,  the names of
	      any  executable  command (whether in the path or specific to the
	      shell, such as aliases or functions) are completed.

       -D     controls default completion behavior for the arguments  of  com‐
	      mands  not assigned any special behavior.	 If no compctl -D com‐
	      mand has been issued, filenames are completed.

       -T     supplies completion flags to be used before any other processing
	      is  done,	 even  before processing for compctls defined for spe‐
	      cific commands.  This is especially useful  when	combined  with
	      extended completion (the -x flag, see the section `Extended Com‐
	      pletion' below).	Using this flag you can define default	behav‐
	      ior  which  will apply to all commands without exception, or you
	      can alter the standard behavior for all commands.	 For  example,
	      if  your	access to the user database is too slow and/or it con‐
	      tains too many users (so that completion after `~' is  too  slow
	      to be usable), you can use

		     compctl -T -x 's[~] C[0,[^/]#]' -k friends -S/ -tn

	      to  complete  the strings in the array friends after a `~'.  The
	      C[...] argument is necessary so that this form  of  ~-completion
	      is not tried after the directory name is finished.

       -L     lists  the existing completion behavior in a manner suitable for
	      putting into a start-up script; the  existing  behavior  is  not
	      changed.	 Any  combination  of  the above forms, or the -M flag
	      (which must follow the -L flag), may be specified, otherwise all
	      defined  completions  are	 listed.  Any other flags supplied are
	      ignored.

       no argument
	      If no argument is given, compctl lists all  defined  completions
	      in an abbreviated form;  with a list of options, all completions
	      with those flags set  (not  counting  extended  completion)  are
	      listed.

       If  the	+  flag is alone and followed immediately by the command list,
       the completion behavior for all the commands in the list	 is  reset  to
       the  default.   In  other  words,  completion will subsequently use the
       options specified by the -D flag.

       The form with -M as the first and only option defines  global  matching
       specifications (see zshcompwid). The match specifications given will be
       used for every completion attempt (only when using  compctl,  not  with
       the new completion system) and are tried in the order in which they are
       defined until one generates at least one match. E.g.:

	      compctl -M '' 'm:{a-zA-Z}={A-Za-z}'

       This will first try completion without any global match	specifications
       (the  empty  string)  and,  if that generates no matches, will try case
       insensitive completion.

OPTION FLAGS
       [ -fcFBdeaRGovNAIOPZEnbjrzu/12 ]
       [ -k array ] [ -g globstring ] [ -s subststring ]
       [ -K function ]
       [ -Q ] [ -P prefix ] [ -S suffix ]
       [ -W file-prefix ] [ -H num pattern ]
       [ -q ] [ -X explanation ] [ -Y explanation ]
       [ -y func-or-var ] [ -l cmd ] [ -h cmd ] [ -U ]
       [ -t continue ] [ -J name ] [ -V name ]
       [ -M match-spec ]

       The remaining options specify the type of command arguments to look for
       during  completion.   Any  combination of these flags may be specified;
       the result is a sorted list of all the possibilities.  The options  are
       as follows.

   Simple Flags
       These produce completion lists made up by the shell itself:

       -f     Filenames and filesystem paths.

       -/     Just filesystem paths.

       -c     Command  names, including aliases, shell functions, builtins and
	      reserved words.

       -F     Function names.

       -B     Names of builtin commands.

       -m     Names of external commands.

       -w     Reserved words.

       -a     Alias names.

       -R     Names of regular (non-global) aliases.

       -G     Names of global aliases.

       -d     This can be combined with -F, -B, -w, -a, -R and -G to get names
	      of disabled functions, builtins, reserved words or aliases.

       -e     This  option (to show enabled commands) is in effect by default,
	      but may be combined with -d; -de in combination with -F, -B, -w,
	      -a,  -R  and  -G	will  complete	names  of functions, builtins,
	      reserved words or aliases whether or not they are disabled.

       -o     Names of shell options (see zshoptions(1)).

       -v     Names of any variable defined in the shell.

       -N     Names of scalar (non-array) parameters.

       -A     Array names.

       -I     Names of integer variables.

       -O     Names of read-only variables.

       -p     Names of parameters used by the shell (including special parame‐
	      ters).

       -Z     Names of shell special parameters.

       -E     Names of environment variables.

       -n     Named directories.

       -b     Key binding names.

       -j     Job  names:   the	 first	word of the job leader's command line.
	      This is useful with the kill builtin.

       -r     Names of running jobs.

       -z     Names of suspended jobs.

       -u     User names.

   Flags with Arguments
       These have user supplied arguments to determine how the list of comple‐
       tions is to be made up:

       -k array
	      Names  taken from the elements of $array (note that the `$' does
	      not appear on the command line).	 Alternatively,	 the  argument
	      array itself may be a set of space- or comma-separated values in
	      parentheses, in which any delimiter may be escaped with a	 back‐
	      slash; in this case the argument should be quoted.  For example,

		     compctl -k "(cputime filesize datasize stacksize
				 coredumpsize resident descriptors)" limit

       -g globstring
	      The globstring is expanded using filename globbing; it should be
	      quoted to protect it from	 immediate  expansion.	The  resulting
	      filenames	 are  taken  as	 the possible completions.  Use `*(/)'
	      instead of `*/' for directories.	The fignore special  parameter
	      is  not  applied	to the resulting files.	 More than one pattern
	      may be given separated by blanks. (Note that brace expansion  is
	      not  part	 of  globbing.	 Use the syntax `(either|or)' to match
	      alternatives.)

       -s subststring
	      The subststring is split into words and  these  words  are  than
	      expanded	using all shell expansion mechanisms (see zshexpn(1)).
	      The resulting words are taken as possible completions.  The fig‐
	      nore  special  parameter	is not applied to the resulting files.
	      Note that -g is faster for filenames.

       -K function
	      Call the given function to get the completions.  Unless the name
	      starts with an underscore, the function is passed two arguments:
	      the prefix and the suffix of the word on which completion is  to
	      be  attempted, in other words those characters before the cursor
	      position, and those from the cursor position onwards.  The whole
	      command  line  can  be  accessed with the -c and -l flags of the
	      read builtin. The function should set the variable reply	to  an
	      array  containing	 the completions (one completion per element);
	      note that reply should not be made local to the function.	  From
	      such a function the command line can be accessed with the -c and
	      -l flags to the read builtin.  For example,

		     function whoson { reply=(`users`); }
		     compctl -K whoson talk

	      completes only logged-on users after `talk'.  Note that `whoson'
	      must return an array, so `reply=`users`' would be incorrect.

       -H num pattern
	      The  possible  completions  are  taken from the last num history
	      lines.  Only words matching pattern are taken.  If num  is  zero
	      or  negative the whole history is searched and if pattern is the
	      empty string all words are taken (as with `*').  A  typical  use
	      is

		     compctl -D -f + -H 0 ''

	      which  forces  completion to look back in the history list for a
	      word if no filename matches.

   Control Flags
       These do not directly specify types of name to be completed, but manip‐
       ulate the options that do:

       -Q     This  instructs the shell not to quote any metacharacters in the
	      possible completions.  Normally the results of a completion  are
	      inserted into the command line with any metacharacters quoted so
	      that they are interpreted as normal characters.  This is	appro‐
	      priate for filenames and ordinary strings.  However, for special
	      effects, such as inserting a backquoted expression from  a  com‐
	      pletion  array (-k) so that the expression will not be evaluated
	      until the complete line is executed, this option must be used.

       -P prefix
	      The prefix is inserted just before  the  completed  string;  any
	      initial  part already typed will be completed and the whole pre‐
	      fix ignored for completion purposes.  For example,

		     compctl -j -P "%" kill

	      inserts a `%' after the kill  command  and  then	completes  job
	      names.

       -S suffix
	      When a completion is found the suffix is inserted after the com‐
	      pleted string.  In the case of menu  completion  the  suffix  is
	      inserted	immediately, but it is still possible to cycle through
	      the list of completions by repeatedly hitting the same key.

       -W file-prefix
	      With directory file-prefix:  for command,	 file,	directory  and
	      globbing completion (options -c, -f, -/, -g), the file prefix is
	      implicitly added in front of the completion.  For example,

		     compctl -/ -W ~/Mail maildirs

	      completes any subdirectories to any depth beneath the  directory
	      ~/Mail,  although	 that  prefix  does  not appear on the command
	      line.  The file-prefix may also be of the form accepted  by  the
	      -k  flag,	 i.e. the name of an array or a literal list in paren‐
	      thesis. In this case all the directories in  the	list  will  be
	      searched for possible completions.

       -q     If used with a suffix as specified by the -S option, this causes
	      the suffix to be removed if the next character typed is a	 blank
	      or  does	not  insert anything or if the suffix consists of only
	      one character and the next character typed is the	 same  charac‐
	      ter;  this  the same rule used for the AUTO_REMOVE_SLASH option.
	      The option is most useful for  list  separators  (comma,	colon,
	      etc.).

       -l cmd This  option  restricts the range of command line words that are
	      considered to  be	 arguments.   If  combined  with  one  of  the
	      extended	completion  patterns  `p[...]',	 `r[...]', or `R[...]'
	      (see the section	`Extended  Completion'	below)	the  range  is
	      restricted  to the range of arguments specified in the brackets.
	      Completion is then performed as if these had been given as argu‐
	      ments  to the cmd supplied with the option. If the cmd string is
	      empty the first word in the range is instead taken as  the  com‐
	      mand  name,  and	command name completion performed on the first
	      word in the range.  For example,

		     compctl -x 'r[-exec,;]' -l '' -- find

	      completes arguments between `-exec' and the  following  `;'  (or
	      the  end	of  the command line if there is no such string) as if
	      they were a separate command line.

       -h cmd Normally zsh completes quoted strings  as	 a  whole.  With  this
	      option,  completion can be done separately on different parts of
	      such strings. It works like the -l option but makes the  comple‐
	      tion  code  work on the parts of the current word that are sepa‐
	      rated by spaces. These parts are completed as if they were argu‐
	      ments  to	 the  given cmd. If cmd is the empty string, the first
	      part is completed as a command name, as with -l.

       -U     Use the whole list of possible completions, whether or not  they
	      actually	match the word on the command line.  The word typed so
	      far will be deleted.  This is most useful with a function (given
	      by  the  -K option) which can examine the word components passed
	      to it (or via the read builtin's -c and -l flags)	 and  use  its
	      own criteria to decide what matches.  If there is no completion,
	      the original word is retained.  Since the produced possible com‐
	      pletions	seldom	have interesting common prefixes and suffixes,
	      menu completion is started immediately if AUTO_MENU is  set  and
	      this flag is used.

       -y func-or-var
	      The  list	 provided  by  func-or-var is displayed instead of the
	      list of completions whenever a listing is required;  the	actual
	      completions to be inserted are not affected.  It can be provided
	      in two ways. Firstly, if func-or-var begins with a $ it  defines
	      a	 variable,  or	if it begins with a left parenthesis a literal
	      array, which contains the list.  A variable may have been set by
	      a call to a function using the -K option.	 Otherwise it contains
	      the name of a function which will	 be  executed  to  create  the
	      list.   The  function  will  be  passed  as an argument list all
	      matching completions, including prefixes and  suffixes  expanded
	      in  full, and should set the array reply to the result.  In both
	      cases, the display list will only be retrieved after a  complete
	      list of matches has been created.

	      Note that the returned list does not have to correspond, even in
	      length, to the original set of matches, and may be passed	 as  a
	      scalar instead of an array.  No special formatting of characters
	      is performed on the output in this case; in particular, newlines
	      are  printed  literally  and if they appear output in columns is
	      suppressed.

       -X explanation
	      Print explanation when trying completion on the current  set  of
	      options.	A  `%n'	 in  this  string is replaced by the number of
	      matches that were added for this explanation string.  The expla‐
	      nation  only  appears  if	 completion was tried and there was no
	      unique match, or when listing completions.  Explanation  strings
	      will  be listed together with the matches of the group specified
	      together with the -X option (using the -J or -V option). If  the
	      same  explanation	 string	 is  given to multiple -X options, the
	      string appears only once (for each  group)  and  the  number  of
	      matches  shown  for  the `%n' is the total number of all matches
	      for each of these uses. In any case, the explanation string will
	      only  be	shown  if  there  was at least one match added for the
	      explanation string.

	      The sequences  %B,  %b,  %S,  %s,	 %U,  and  %u  specify	output
	      attributes  (bold,  standout,  and underline) and %{...%} can be
	      used to include literal escape sequences as in prompts.

       -Y explanation
	      Identical to -X, except that  the	 explanation  first  undergoes
	      expansion	 following  the	 usual	rules  for  strings  in double
	      quotes.  The expansion will be carried out after	any  functions
	      are  called for the -K or -y options, allowing them to set vari‐
	      ables.

       -t continue
	      The continue-string contains a character	that  specifies	 which
	      set of completion flags should be used next.  It is useful:

	      (i)  With -T, or when trying a list of pattern completions, when
	      compctl would usually continue with  ordinary  processing	 after
	      finding matches; this can be suppressed with `-tn'.

	      (ii)  With  a  list of alternatives separated by +, when compctl
	      would normally stop  when	 one  of  the  alternatives  generates
	      matches.	 It  can be forced to consider the next set of comple‐
	      tions by adding `-t+' to the flags of the alternative before the
	      `+'.

	      (iii)  In	 an extended completion list (see below), when compctl
	      would normally continue until a  set  of	conditions  succeeded,
	      then use only the immediately following flags.  With `-t-', com‐
	      pctl will continue trying extended completions  after  the  next
	      `-';  with  `-tx'	 it  will  attempt completion with the default
	      flags, in other words those before the `-x'.

       -J name
	      This gives the name of the group the matches  should  be	placed
	      in. Groups are listed and sorted separately; likewise, menu com‐
	      pletion will offer the matches in the groups  in	the  order  in
	      which  the  groups  were defined. If no group name is explicitly
	      given, the matches are stored in	a  group  named	 default.  The
	      first  time  a group name is encountered, a group with that name
	      is created. After that all matches with the same group name  are
	      stored in that group.

	      This  can	 be useful with non-exclusive alternative completions.
	      For example, in

		     compctl -f -J files -t+ + -v -J variables foo

	      both files and variables are possible completions,  as  the  -t+
	      forces  both  sets  of alternatives before and after the + to be
	      considered at once.  Because of the  -J  options,	 however,  all
	      files are listed before all variables.

       -V name
	      Like  -J,	 but  matches  within  the group will not be sorted in
	      listings nor in menu completion. These unsorted groups are in  a
	      different	 name space from the sorted ones, so groups defined as
	      -J files and -V files are distinct.

       -1     If given together with the -V  option,  makes  only  consecutive
	      duplicates  in  the  group be removed. Note that groups with and
	      without this flag are in different name spaces.

       -2     If given together with the -J or -V option, makes all duplicates
	      be kept. Again, groups with and without this flag are in differ‐
	      ent name spaces.

       -M match-spec
	      This defines additional  matching	 control  specifications  that
	      should  be  used	only  when testing words for the list of flags
	      this flag appears in. The format of  the	match-spec  string  is
	      described in zshcompwid.

ALTERNATIVE COMPLETION
       compctl [ -CDT ] options + options [ + ... ] [ + ] command ...

       The  form  with	`+' specifies alternative options. Completion is tried
       with the options before the first `+'. If this produces no matches com‐
       pletion	is  tried with the flags after the `+' and so on. If there are
       no flags after the last `+' and a match has not been found up  to  that
       point, default completion is tried.  If the list of flags contains a -t
       with a + character, the next list of flags is used even if the  current
       list produced matches.

EXTENDED COMPLETION
       compctl [ -CDT ] options -x pattern options - ... --
		[ command ... ]
       compctl [ -CDT ] options [ -x pattern options - ... -- ]
		[ + options [ -x ... -- ] ... [+] ] [ command ... ]

       The  form  with	`-x'  specifies	 extended  completion for the commands
       given; as shown, it may be combined with alternative  completion	 using
       `+'.  Each pattern is examined in turn; when a match is found, the cor‐
       responding options, as described in the section `Option	Flags'	above,
       are  used to generate possible completions.  If no pattern matches, the
       options given before the -x are used.

       Note that each pattern should be supplied  as  a	 single	 argument  and
       should be quoted to prevent expansion of metacharacters by the shell.

       A  pattern  is built of sub-patterns separated by commas; it matches if
       at least one of these sub-patterns matches  (they  are  `or'ed).	 These
       sub-patterns  are  in  turn composed of other sub-patterns separated by
       white spaces which match if all of the  sub-patterns  match  (they  are
       `and'ed).  An element of the sub-patterns is of the form `c[...][...]',
       where the pairs of brackets may be repeated as often as necessary,  and
       matches	if  any	 of the sets of brackets match (an `or').  The example
       below makes this clearer.

       The elements may be any of the following:

       s[string]...
	      Matches if the current word on the command line starts with  one
	      of the strings given in brackets.	 The string is not removed and
	      is not part of the completion.

       S[string]...
	      Like s[string] except that the string is part of the completion.

       p[from,to]...
	      Matches if the number of the current word is between one of  the
	      from  and	 to pairs inclusive. The comma and to are optional; to
	      defaults to the same value as from.  The numbers	may  be	 nega‐
	      tive: -n refers to the n'th last word on the line.

       c[offset,string]...
	      Matches if the string matches the word offset by offset from the
	      current word position.  Usually offset will be negative.

       C[offset,pattern]...
	      Like c but using pattern matching instead.

       w[index,string]...
	      Matches if the word in position index is	equal  to  the	corre‐
	      sponding	string.	  Note	that  the word count is made after any
	      alias expansion.

       W[index,pattern]...
	      Like w but using pattern matching instead.

       n[index,string]...
	      Matches if the current word contains string.  Anything up to and
	      including the indexth occurrence of this string will not be con‐
	      sidered part of the completion, but the rest will.  index may be
	      negative	to  count from the end: in most cases, index will be 1
	      or -1.  For example,

		     compctl -s '`users`' -x 'n[1,@]' -k hosts -- talk

	      will usually complete usernames, but if you insert  an  @	 after
	      the  name,  names from the array hosts (assumed to contain host‐
	      names, though you must make the array  yourself)	will  be  com‐
	      pleted.  Other commands such as rcp can be handled similarly.

       N[index,string]...
	      Like  n  except  that  the  string  will be taken as a character
	      class.  Anything up to and including the indexth	occurrence  of
	      any  of  the characters in string will not be considered part of
	      the completion.

       m[min,max]...
	      Matches if the total number of words lies between	 min  and  max
	      inclusive.

       r[str1,str2]...
	      Matches  if  the	cursor	is  after a word with prefix str1.  If
	      there is also a word with prefix str2 on the command line	 after
	      the  one matched by str1 it matches only if the cursor is before
	      this word. If the comma and str2 are omitted, it matches if  the
	      cursor is after a word with prefix str1.

       R[str1,str2]...
	      Like r but using pattern matching instead.

       q[str]...
	      Matches  the  word currently being completed is in single quotes
	      and the str begins with the letter `s', or if completion is done
	      in  double quotes and str starts with the letter `d', or if com‐
	      pletion is done in backticks and str starts with a `b'.

EXAMPLE
	      compctl -u -x 's[+] c[-1,-f],s[-f+]' \
		-g '~/Mail/*(:t)' - 's[-f],c[-1,-f]' -f -- mail

       This is to be interpreted as follows:

       If the current command is mail, then

	      if ((the current word begins with + and the previous word is -f)
	      or (the current word begins with -f+)), then complete the
	      non-directory part (the `:t' glob modifier) of files in the directory
	      ~/Mail; else

	      if the current word begins with -f or the previous word was -f, then
	      complete any file; else

	      complete user names.

zsh 4.0.1			 June 1, 2001			 ZSHCOMPCTL(1)
[top]

List of man pages available for Ultrix

Copyright (c) for man pages and the logo by the respective OS vendor.

For those who want to learn more, the polarhome community provides shell access and support.

[legal] [privacy] [GNU] [policy] [cookies] [netiquette] [sponsors] [FAQ]
Tweet
Polarhome, production since 1999.
Member of Polarhome portal.
Based on Fawad Halim's script.
....................................................................
Vote for polarhome
Free Shell Accounts :: the biggest list on the net