zle -C complete expand-or-complete completer

IPREFIX=${PREFIX%%\=*}=
PREFIX=${PREFIX#*=}

causes the part of the prefix up to and including the first equal sign not to be treated as part of a matched string. This can be done automatically by the compset builtin, see below.

all_quotes

The -q option of the compset builtin command (see below) allows a quoted string to be broken into separate words; if the cursor is on one of those words, that word will be completed, possibly invoking `compset -q' recursively. With this key it is possible to test the types of quoted strings which are currently broken into parts in this fashion. Its value contains one character for each quoting level. The characters are a single quote or a double quote for strings quoted with these characters, a dollars sign for strings quoted with $'...' and a backslash for strings not starting with a quote character. The first character in the value always corresponds to the innermost quoting level.

context

This will be set by the completion code to the overall context in which completion is attempted. Possible values are:

exact

Controls the behaviour when the REC_EXACT option is set. It will be set to accept if an exact match would be accepted, and will be unset otherwise.

exact_string

The string of an exact match if one was found, otherwise unset.

ignored

The number of words that were ignored because they matched one of the patterns given with the -F option to the compadd builtin command.

insert

This controls the manner in which a match is inserted into the command line. On entry to the widget function, if it is unset the command line is not to be changed; if set to unambiguous, any prefix common to all matches is to be inserted; if set to automenu-unambiguous, the common prefix is to be inserted and the next invocation of the completion code may start menu completion (due to the AUTO_MENU option being set); if set to menu or automenu menu completion will be started for the matches currently generated (in the latter case this will happen because the AUTO_MENU is set). The value may also contain the string `tab' when the completion code would normally not really do completion, but only insert the TAB character.

insert_positions

When the completion system inserts an unambiguous string into the line, there may be multiple places where characters are missing or where the character inserted differs from at least one match. The value of this key contains a colon separated list of all these positions, as indexes into the command line.

last_prompt

If this is set to a non-empty string for every match added, the completion code will move the cursor back to the previous prompt after the list of completions has been displayed. Initially this is set or unset according to the ALWAYS_LAST_PROMPT option.

list

This controls whether or how the list of matches will be displayed. If it is unset or empty they will never be listed; if its value begins with list, they will always be listed; if it begins with autolist or ambiguous, they will be listed when the AUTO_LIST or LIST_AMBIGUOUS options respectively would normally cause them to be.

list_lines

This gives the number of lines that are needed to display the full list of completions. Note that to calculate the total number of lines to display you need to add the number of lines needed for the command line to this value, this is available as the value of the BUFFERLINES special parameter.

list_max

Initially this is set to the value of the LISTMAX parameter. It may be set to any other value; when the widget exits this value will be used in the same way as the value of LISTMAX.

nmatches

The number of matches generated and accepted by the completion code so far.

old_insert

On entry to the widget this will be set to the number of the match of an old list of completions that is currently inserted into the command line. If no match has been inserted, this is unset.

old_list

This is set to yes if there is still a valid list of completions from a previous completion at the time the widget is invoked. This will usually be the case if and only if the previous editing operation was a completion widget or one of the builtin completion functions. If there is a valid list and it is also currently shown on the screen, the value of this key is shown.

parameter

The name of the parameter when completing in a subscript or in the value of a parameter assignment.

pattern_insert

Normally this is set to menu, which specifies that menu completion will be used whenever a set of matches was generated using pattern matching. If it is set to any other non-empty string by the user and menu completion is not selected by other option settings, the code will instead insert any common prefix for the generated matches as with normal completion.

pattern_match

Locally controls the behaviour given by the GLOB_COMPLETE option. Initially it is set to `*' if and only if the option is set. The completion widget may set it to this value, to an empty string (which has the same effect as unsetting it), or to any other non-empty string. If it is non-empty, unquoted metacharacters on the command line will be treated as patterns; if it is `*', then additionally a wildcard `*' is assumed at the cursor position; if it is empty or unset, metacharacters will be treated literally.

quote

When completing inside quotes, this contains the quotation character (i.e. either a single quote, a double quote, or a backtick). Otherwise it is unset.

quoting

When completing inside single quotes, this is set to the string single; inside double quotes, the string double; inside backticks, the string backtick. Otherwise it is unset.

redirect

The redirection operator when completing in a redirection position, i.e. one of <, >, etc.

restore

This is set to auto before a function is entered, which forces the special parameters mentioned above (words, CURRENT, PREFIX, IPREFIX, SUFFIX, and ISUFFIX) to be restored to their previous values when the function exits. If a function unsets it or sets it to any other string, they will not be restored.

to_end

Specifies the occasions on which the cursor is moved to the end of a string when a match is inserted. On entry to a widget function, it may be single if this will happen when a single unambiguous match was inserted or match if it will happen any time a match is inserted (for example, by menu completion; this is likely to be the effect of the ALWAYS_TO_END option).

unambiguous

This key is read-only and will always be set to the common (unambiguous) prefix the completion code has generated for all matches added so far.

unambiguous_cursor

This gives the position the cursor would be placed at if the common prefix in the unambiguous key were inserted, relative to the value of that key. The cursor would be placed before the character whose index is given by this key.

unambiguous_positions

This contains all positions where characters in the unambiguous string are missing or where the character inserted differs from at least one of the matches. The positions are given as indexes into the string given by the value of the unambiguous key.

vared

If completion is called while editing a line using the vared builtin, the value of this key is set to the name of the parameter given as an argument to vared. This key is only set while a vared command is active.

This builtin command can be used to add matches directly and control all the information the completion code stores with each possible match. The return status is zero if at least one match was added and non-zero if no matches were added.

The completion code breaks the string to complete into seven fields in the order:

<ipre><apre><hpre><word><hsuf><asuf><isuf>

The first field is an ignored prefix taken from the command line, the contents of the IPREFIX parameter plus the string given with the -i option. With the -U option, only the string from the -i option is used. The field <apre> is an optional prefix string given with the -P option. The <hpre> field is a string that is considered part of the match but that should not be shown when listing completions, given with the -p option; for example, functions that do filename generation might specify a common path prefix this way. <word> is the part of the match that should appear in the list of completions, i.e. one of the words given at the end of the compadd command line. The suffixes <hsuf>, <asuf> and <isuf> correspond to the prefixes <hpre>, <apre> and <ipre> and are given by the options -s, -S and -I, respectively.

The supported flags are:

-P prefix

This gives a string to be inserted before the given words. The string given is not considered as part of the match and any shell metacharacters in it will not be quoted when the string is inserted.

-S suffix

Like -P, but gives a string to be inserted after the match.

-p hidden-prefix

This gives a string that should be inserted into the command line before the match but that should not appear in the list of matches. Unless the -U option is given, this string must be matched as part of the string on the command line.

-s hidden-suffix

Like `-p', but gives a string to insert after the match.

-i ignored-prefix

This gives a string to insert into the command line just before any string given with the `-P' option. Without `-P' the string is inserted before the string given with `-p' or directly before the match.

-I ignored-suffix

Like -i, but gives an ignored suffix.

-a

With this flag the words are taken as names of arrays and the possible matches are their values. If only some elements of the arrays are needed, the words may also contain subscripts, as in `foo[2,-1]'.

-k

With this flag the words are taken as names of associative arrays and the possible matches are their keys. As for -a, the words may also contain subscripts, as in `foo[(R)*bar*]'.

-d array

This adds per-match display strings. The array should contain one element per word given. The completion code will then display the first element instead of the first word, and so on. The array may be given as the name of an array parameter or directly as a space-separated list of words in parentheses.

-l

This option only has an effect if used together with the -d option. If it is given, the display strings are listed one per line, not arrayed in columns.

-o

This option only has an effect if used together with the -d option. If it is given, the order of the output is determined by the match strings; otherwise it is determined by the display strings (i.e. the strings given by the -d option).

-J name

Gives the name of the group of matches the words should be stored in.

-V name

Like -J but naming an unsorted group. These are in a different name space than groups created with the -J flag.

-1

If given together with the -V option, makes only consecutive duplicates in the group be removed. If combined with the -J option, this has no visible effect. 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 different name spaces.

-X explanation

The explanation string will be printed with the list of matches, above the group currently selected.

-x message

Like -X, but the message will be printed even if there are no matches in the group.

-q

The suffix given with -S will be automatically 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 character.

-r remove-chars

This is a more versatile form of the -q option. The suffix given with -S or the slash automatically added after completing directories will be automatically removed if the next character typed inserts one of the characters given in the remove-chars. This string is parsed as a characters class and understands the backslash sequences used by the print command. For example, `-r "a-z\t"' removes the suffix if the next character typed inserts a lower case character or a TAB, and `-r "^0-9"' removes the suffix if the next character typed inserts anything but a digit. One extra backslash sequence is understood in this string: `\-' stands for all characters that insert nothing. Thus `-S "=" -q' is the same as `-S "=" -r "= \t\n\-"'.

-R remove-func

This is another form of the -r option. When a suffix has been inserted and the completion accepted, the function remove-func will be called after the next character typed. It is passed the length of the suffix as an argument and can use the special parameters available in ordinary (non-completion) zle widgets (see zshzle(1)) to analyse and modify the command line.

-f

If this flag is given, all of the matches built from words are marked as being the names of files. They are not required to be actual filenames, but if they are, and the option LIST_TYPES is set, the characters describing the types of the files in the completion lists will be shown. This also forces a slash to be added when the name of a directory is completed.

-e

This flag can be used to tell the completion code that the matches added are parameter names for a parameter expansion. This will make the AUTO_PARAM_SLASH and AUTO_PARAM_KEYS options be used for the matches.

-W file-prefix

This string is a pathname that will be prepended to each of the matches formed by the given words together with any prefix specified by the -p option to form a complete filename for testing. Hence it is only useful if combined with the -f flag, as the tests will not otherwise be performed.

-F array

Specifies an array containing patterns. Words matching one of these patterns are ignored, i.e. not considered to be possible matches.

-Q

This flag instructs the completion code not to quote any metacharacters in the words when inserting them into the command line.

-M match-spec

This gives local match specifications as described below in the section `Completion Matching Control'. This option may be given more than once. In this case all match-specs given are concatenated with spaces between them to form the specification string to use. Note that they will only be used if the -U option is not given.

-n

Specifies that the words added are to be used as possible matches, but are not to appear in the completion listing.

-U

If this flag is given, all words given will be accepted and no matching will be done by the completion code. Normally this is used in functions that do the matching themselves.

-O array

If this option is given, the words are not added to the set of possible completions. Instead, matching is done as usual and all of the words given as arguments that match the string on the command line will be stored in the array parameter whose name is given as array.

-A array

As the -O option, except that instead of those of the words which match being stored in array, the strings generated internally by the completion code are stored. For example, with a matching specification of `-M "L:|no="', the string `nof' on the command line and the string `foo' as one of the words, this option stores the string `nofoo' in the array, whereas the -O option stores the `foo' originally given.

-D array

As with -O, the words are not added to the set of possible completions. Instead, the completion code tests whether each word in turn matches what is on the line. If the nth word does not match, the nth element of the array is removed. Elements for which the corresponding word is matched are retained.

-C

This option adds a special match which expands to all other matches when inserted into the line, even those that are added after this option is used. Together with the -d option it is possible to specify a string that should be displayed in the list for this special match. If no string is given, it will be shown as a string containing the strings that would be inserted for the other matches, truncated to the width of the screen.

-E

This option adds number empty matches after the words have been added. An empty match takes up space in completion listings but will never be inserted in the line and can't be selected with menu completion or menu selection. This makes empty matches only useful to format completion lists and to make explanatory string be shown in completion lists (since empty matches can be given display strings with the -d option). And because all but one empty string would otherwise be removed, this option implies the -V and -2 options (even if an explicit -J option is given).

-

--

This flag ends the list of flags and options. All arguments after it will be taken as the words to use as matches even if they begin with hyphens.

Except for the -M flag, if any of these flags is given more than once, the first one (and its argument) will be used.

The options are:

-p number

If the contents of the PREFIX parameter is longer than number characters, the first number characters are removed from it and appended to the contents of the IPREFIX parameter.

-P [ number ] pattern

If the value of the PREFIX parameter begins with anything that matches the pattern, the matched portion is removed from PREFIX and appended to IPREFIX.

-s number

As -p, but transfer the last number characters from the value of SUFFIX to the front of the value of ISUFFIX.

-S [ number ] pattern

As -P, but match the last portion of SUFFIX and transfer the matched portion to the front of the value of ISUFFIX.

-n begin [ end ]

If the current word position as specified by the parameter CURRENT is greater than or equal to begin, anything up to the beginth word is removed from the words array and the value of the parameter CURRENT is decremented by begin.

-N beg-pat [ end-pat ]

If one of the elements of the words array before the one at the index given by the value of the parameter CURRENT matches the pattern beg-pat, all elements up to and including the matching one are removed from the words array and the value of CURRENT is changed to point to the same word in the changed array.

-q

The word currently being completed is split on spaces into separate words, respecting the usual shell quoting conventions. The resulting words are stored in the words array, and CURRENT, PREFIX, SUFFIX, QIPREFIX, and QISUFFIX are modified to reflect the word part that is completed.

In all the above cases the return status is zero if the test succeeded and the parameters were modified and non-zero otherwise. This allows one to use this builtin in tests such as:

if compset -P '*\='; then ...

This forces anything up to and including the last equal sign to be ignored by the completion code.

The return status can be used to test if a matching compctl definition was found. It is non-zero if a compctl was found and zero otherwise.

Note that this builtin is defined by the zsh/compctl module.

If no lpat is given but a ranchor is, this matches the gap between substrings matched by lanchor and ranchor. Unlike lanchor, the ranchor only needs to match the trial completion string.

The b and B forms are similar to l and L with an empty anchor, but need to match only the beginning of the trial completion or the word on the command line, respectively.

compadd -M 'L:|[nN][oO]= M:_= M:{[:upper:]}={[:lower:]}' - \ 


  ${(k)options} 

compadd -M 'm:{[:lower:]}={[:upper:]}' ... 

compadd -M 'm:{[:lower:][:upper:]}={[:upper:][:lower:]}' ... 

compadd -M 'r:|.=* r:|=*' \ 


  - comp.sources.unix comp.sources.misc ...

compadd -M 'r:|[.,_-]=* r:|=*' ... 

compadd -M 'r:|[[:upper:]0-9]=* r:|=*' LikeTHIS FooHoo 5foo123 5bar234

compadd -M 'r:[^[:upper:]0-9]||[[:upper:]0-9]=** r:|=*' \ 


    LikeTHIS FooHoo foo123 bar234

zle -C complete complete-word complete-files

bindkey '^X\t' complete

complete-files () { compadd - * }