Actually, i think someone on IRC has pointed me in the right direction.

Here's my take on their suggestion, applied to my example above:

# Put a `commands-bin2` tag ahead of the regular `commands` one
zstyle ':completion:*:-command-:*' tag-order 'commands:-bin2:favoured\
external\ command commands *'

# Have `commands-bin2` ignore any command whose hashed path does NOT match
`/bin2/*`
zstyle ':completion:*:-command-:*:commands-bin2' ignored-patterns
"^(${(kj<|>)commands[(R)/bin2/*]})"

# Optionally, have `commands` ignore any command whose hashed path DOES
match `/bin2/*`
# (otherwise they'll appear in both groups — matter of preference)
zstyle ':completion:*:-command-:*:commands' ignored-patterns
"(${(kj<|>)commands[(R)/bin2/*]})"

If you can think of anything wrong with this method please let me know.
Otherwise it seems to work so far!

dana


On 11 September 2017 at 21:08, dana <dana@dana.is> wrote:

> Hey again,
>
> I have a problem that i hope can be solved with `zstyle` somehow: I want
> to make it so that when i complete external commands, zsh gives me the
> possibilities from one particular directory ahead of (and ideally separate
> from) all the others. Seems like the most reasonable way to do that might
> be to create some kind of sub-group that i can put up top with `zstyle
> ... group-order` or whatever?
>
> Here's a contrived illustration of what i mean:
>
> Given a PATH like this:
>
> % print $PATH
> /bin1:/bin2
>
> And executables spread across that PATH like this:
>
> % ls /bin1 /bin2
> /bin1:
> foo1  foo2
>
> /bin2:
> foo3  foo4
>
> My current completion behaviour looks like this:
>
> % foo<tab>
> completing external command:
> foo1  foo2  foo3  foo4
>
> What i *want* is to pull the /bin2 possibilities out into their own group
> so i can have them completed first — so i'd have something like this:
>
> % foo<tab>
> completing favoured external command:
> foo3  foo4
> completing external command:
> foo1  foo2
>
> Is there an easy way to do this?
>
> Cheers!
> dana
>
>