19.3 Completion Builtin Commands

compadd [ -akqQfenUl12C ] [ -F array ]
        [-P prefix ] [ -S suffix ]
        [-p hidden-prefix ] [ -s hidden-suffix ]
        [-i ignored-prefix ] [ -I ignored-suffix ]
        [-W file-prefix ] [ -d array ]
        [-J group-name ] [ -X explanation ] [ -x message ]
        [-V group-name ] [ -o [ order ] ]
        [-r remove-chars ] [ -R remove-func ]
        [-D array ] [ -O array ] [ -A array ]
        [-E number ]
        [-M match-spec ] [ -- ] [ completions ... ]

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

The completion code breaks each match into seven fields in the order:

<ipre><apre><hpre><body><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. <body> is the part of the match that should appear in the list of matches shown to the user. 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 each match. 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 each match.

-p hidden-prefix

This gives a string that should be inserted before each 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 each match.

-i ignored-prefix

This gives a string to insert just before any string given with the ‘-P’ option. Without ‘-P’ the string is inserted before the string given with ‘-p’ or directly before each match.

-I ignored-suffix

Like -i, but gives an ignored suffix.

-a

With this flag the completions are taken as names of arrays and the actual completions are their values. If only some elements of the arrays are needed, the completions may also contain subscripts, as in ‘foo[2,-1]’.

-k

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

-d array

This adds per-completion display strings. The array should contain one element per completion given. The completion code will then display the first element instead of the first completion, 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.

If there are fewer display strings than completions, the leftover completions will be displayed unchanged and if there are more display strings than completions, the leftover display strings will be silently ignored.

-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 [ order ]

This controls the order in which matches are sorted. order is a comma-separated list comprising the following possible values. These values can be abbreviated to their initial two or three characters. Note that the order forms part of the group name space so matches with different orderings will not be in the same group.

match

If 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). This is the default if ‘-o’ is specified but the order argument is omitted.

nosort

This specifies that the completions are pre-sorted and their order should be preserved. This value only makes sense alone and cannot be combined with any others.

numeric

If the matches include numbers, sort them numerically rather than lexicographically.

reverse

Arrange the matches backwards by reversing the sort ordering.

-J group-name

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

-V group-name

Like -J but naming an unsorted group. This option is identical to the combination of -J and -o nosort.

-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.

Within the explanation, the following sequences may be used to specify output attributes (see Prompt Expansion): ‘%B’, ‘%S’, ‘%U’, ‘%F’, ‘%K’ and their lower case counterparts, as well as ‘%{...%}’. ‘%F’, ‘%K’ and ‘%{...%}’ take arguments in the same form as prompt expansion. (Note that the sequence ‘%G’ is not available; an argument to ‘%{’ should be used instead.) The sequence ‘%%’ produces a literal ‘%’.

These sequences are most often employed by users when customising the format style (see Completion System), but they must also be taken into account when writing completion functions, as passing descriptions with unescaped ‘%’ characters to utility functions such as _arguments and _message may produce unexpected results. If arbitrary text is to be passed in a description, it can be escaped using e.g. ${my_str//\%/%%}.

-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\-"’.

This option may also be used without the -S option; then any automatically added space will be removed when one of the characters in the list is typed.

-R remove-func

This is another form of the -r option. When a match has been accepted and a suffix has been inserted, 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 Zsh Line Editor) to analyse and modify the command line.

-f

If this flag is given, all of the matches built from the completions 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 match 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. completions that match one of these patterns are ignored, that is, not considered to be matches.

The array may be the name of an array parameter or a list of literal patterns enclosed in parentheses and quoted, as in ‘-F "(*?.o *?.h)"’. If the name of an array is given, the elements of the array are taken as the patterns.

-Q

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

-M match-spec

This gives local match specifications as described below in 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 matching completions are to be added to the set of matches, but are not to be listed to the user.

-U

If this flag is given, all completions are added to the set of matches 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 completions are not added to the set of matches. Instead, matching is done as usual and all of the completions that match 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 completions which match being stored in array, the strings generated internally by the completion code are stored. For example, with a match specification of ‘-M "L:|no="’, a current word of ‘nof’ and completions of ‘foo’, this option stores the string ‘nofoo’ in the array, whereas the -O option stores the ‘foo’ originally given.

-D array

As with -O, the completions are not added to the set of matches. Instead, whenever the nth completion does not match, the nth element of the array is removed. Elements for which the corresponding completion matches are retained. This option can be used more than once to remove elements from multiple arrays.

-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 number

This option adds number empty matches after matching completions 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 can be important to note as it affects the name space into which matches are added.

-
--

This flag ends the list of flags and options. All arguments after it will be taken as the completions 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.

compset -p number
compset -P [ number ] pattern
compset -s number
compset -S [ number ] pattern
compset -n begin [ end ]
compset -N beg-pat [ end-pat ]
compset -q

This command simplifies modification of the special parameters, while its return status allows tests on them to be carried out.

The options are:

-p number

If the value of the PREFIX parameter is at least number characters long, 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.

Without the optional number, the longest match is taken, but if number is given, anything up to the numberth match is moved. If the number is negative, the numberth longest match is moved. For example, if PREFIX contains the string ‘a=b=c’, then compset -P '*\=' will move the string ‘a=b=’ into the IPREFIX parameter, but compset -P 1 '*\=' will move only the string ‘a=’.

-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.

If the optional end is given, the modification is done only if the current word position is also less than or equal to end. In this case, the words from position end onwards are also removed from the words array.

Both begin and end may be negative to count backwards from the last element of the words array.

-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.

If the optional pattern end-pat is also given, and there is an element in the words array matching this pattern, the parameters are modified only if the index of this word is higher than the one given by the CURRENT parameter (so that the matching word has to be after the cursor). In this case, the words starting with the one matching end-pat are also removed from the words array. If words contains no word matching end-pat, the testing and modification is performed as if it were not given.

-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.

compcall [ -TD ]

This allows the use of completions defined with the compctl builtin from within completion widgets. The list of matches will be generated as if one of the non-widget completion functions (complete-word, etc.) had been called, except that only compctls given for specific commands are used. To force the code to try completions defined with the -T option of compctl and/or the default completion (whether defined by compctl -D or the builtin default) in the appropriate places, the -T and/or -D flags can be passed to compcall.

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.