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
prefixThe 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
suffixWhen 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.
-W
file-prefixWith 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 parenthesis. 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 character; this the same rule used
for the AUTO_REMOVE_SLASH
option. The option is most useful for list
separators (comma, colon, etc.).
-l
cmdThis 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 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 {No value for `dsq'} -- 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
cmdNormally 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 completion code
work on the parts of the current word that are separated by
spaces. These parts are completed as if they were arguments 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 completions 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
explanationPrint 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 explanation 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), %F
, %f
, %K
,
%k
specify foreground and background colours, and %{
...%}
can
be used to include literal escape sequences as in prompts.
-Y
explanationIdentical 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 variables.
-t
continueThe 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 completions 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-
’, compctl
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
nameThis gives the name of the group the matches should be placed in. Groups
are listed and sorted separately; likewise, menu completion 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
nameLike -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
different name spaces.
-M
match-specThis 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 Completion Matching Control.