ZSHCOMPCTL (1)
zsh programmable completion
DESCRIPTION
compctl [ -CDT ] options [ command ... ]
compctl [ -CDT ] options
[ -x pattern options - ... -- ]
[ + options [ -x ... -- ] ... [+] ]
[ command ... ]
compctl -L [ -CDT ] [ 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
command 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 combined 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 command with a
pathname containing slashes and no completion definition is found, the
search is retried with the last pathname component. Note that aliases
are expanded before the command name is determined unless the
COMPLETE_ALIASES option is set. Commands should not be combined
with the -D, -C or -T flags.
-D
controls default completion behavior for the arguments of commands not
assigned any special behavior. If no compctl -D command has
been issued, filenames are completed.
-C
controls completion when the command word itself is being completed.
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.
-T
supplies completion flags to be used before any other processing is
done, even those given to specific commands with other compctl
definitions. This is only useful when combined with extended
completion (the -x flag, see the section EXTENDED
COMPLETION below). Using this flag you can define default behavior
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 contains too many users (so
that completion after ~ is too slow to be usable), you can use
compctl -Tx 'C[0,*/*]' -f - 's[~]' -k friends -S/
to complete the strings in the array friends after a ~.
The first 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 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.
OPTION FLAGS
[ -fcFBdeaRGovNAIOPZEnbjrzu ]
[ -k array ] [ -g globstring ]
[ -s subststring ]
[ -K function ] [ -H num pattern ]
[ -Q ] [ -P prefix ] [ -S suffix ]
[ -q ] [ -X explanation ]
[ -l cmd ] [ -U ]
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.
These produce completion lists made up by the shell itself:
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 the zshexpn
manual page). The resulting words are taken as possible
completions. The fignore 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. 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
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 that "reply=`users`" is 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 '' \e
-X '(No file found; using history)'
which forces completion to look back in the history list for a word if
no filename matches. The explanation string is useful as it tells
the user that no file of that name exists, which is otherwise
ambiguous. (See the next section for -X).
These do not directly specify types of name to be completed, but
manipulate 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 appropriate for filenames
and ordinary strings. However, for special effects, such as inserting
a backquoted expression from a completion 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 prefix
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 completed 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.
-q
If used with a suffix as specified by the previous option, this
causes the suffix to be removed if the next character typed is a blank
or does not insert anything (the same rule as used for the
AUTO_REMOVE_SLASH option). The option is most useful for list
separators (comma, colon, etc.).
-l cmd
This option cannot be combined with any other. It 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 arguments to the cmd supplied with the
option. If the cmd string is empty the first word in the range
is instead taken as the command 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.
-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.
-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.
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 completion 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.
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 corresponding 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 negative: -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 corresponding 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 index'th occurrence of this string will not be
considered 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.
N[index,string] ...
Like n[index,string] except that the string will be
taken as a character class. Anything up to and including the
index'th 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 it matches
only if the cursor is before this word.
R[str1,str2]...
Like r but using pattern matching instead.
EXAMPLE
compctl -u -x 's[+] c[-1,-f],s[-f+]' -g '~/Mail/*(:t)' \e
- '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.