autoexpand dirs to depth n

autoexpand dirs to depth n

[Eric Smith]

Hi zshellers

How do I configure completion to display all directory expansions to a depth
of n?

Then when I identify the branch I want to expand, I want to use 
globbing so that

when in 
/var/www $ *oo*az<tab>
will match something like
/foo/bar/baz

Eric

Re: autoexpand dirs to depth n

[Peter Stephenson]

On Sun, 15 Jul 2012 20:49:44 +0200
Eric Smith <es@fruitcom.com> wrote:
> How do I configure completion to display all directory expansions to a depth
> of n?
> 
> Then when I identify the branch I want to expand, I want to use 
> globbing so that
> 
> when in 
> /var/www $ *oo*az<tab>
> will match something like
> /foo/bar/baz

I'm not aware of any shortcuts to having to type at least the right
number of slashes.  Once you've done that, the completion system is able
to complete the strings after the slashes at each level, but only if you
have a string to match at the start.  Getting it to guess how many slashes to
insert is tricky; the logic is already complicated when it knows where
they go.  So the best you can do here is //*oo/*az with globcomplete
enabled (and I don't know how well that works in practice; in particular
whether it completes between // is style dependent).

-- 
Peter Stephenson <p.w.stephenson@ntlworld.com>
Web page now at http://homepage.ntlworld.com/p.w.stephenson/

Re: autoexpand dirs to depth n

[Bart Schaefer]

On Jul 15,  8:49pm, Eric Smith wrote:
}
} How do I configure completion to display all directory expansions to a
} depth of n?

In what context?  Command position (e.g., first word on the line)?  Or
following what other input?

If the former, you'll very likely need a custom widget with its own key
binding, rather than overloading TAB.  If there's other context there
may be a way to write a custom completer to do it.

} Then when I identify the branch I want to expand

What does "identify the branch" imply?  Mechanically (e.g., in terms of
keystrokes), how do you want to "identify" it?  After you "identify" it,
does it get inserted on the command line so it becomes a prefix for the
next step?

} I want to use globbing so that

Globbing won't match directory separators in the filesystem (see PWS's
reply).  However, if you've already generated a listing of all the
possible files and directories somehow (e.g. "find ... -maxdepth n"),
you could then apply a pattern completer (such as _multi_parts) to
pick out the appropriate subset.