Tweaking the completion engine to prefer some completions

Tweaking the completion engine to prefer some completions

[Peter Slížik]

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Hello,

I have a few applications installed on my system, with their names sharing
a common prefix.
Now as the apps are company-specific, let me invent some contrived names:

*messageedit*, *messageview*, *messageformat*, *messagesend*, you've got
the idea.

Now, in may daily work, I'm using only one of them: *messageedit*. The
other are used... well, almost never.

Now, if I type *mess<Tab>*, the name gets completed to *message* and the
completion engine waits for further input.

I would like to tweak the completion in such a way the typing *mess<Tab>*
completes the input to *messageedit* and ignores the other possible apps.

Can this be done in a positive way (by naming the preferred application) or
in a negative fashion (by prohibiting all unwanted completions)?

What are the setting options to do it?

Thank you very much for the answers!

Best regards,
Peter

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Re: Tweaking the completion engine to prefer some completions

[Oliver Kiddle]

Peter Slížik wrote:
>
> I have a few applications installed on my system, with their names sharing a
> common prefix.
> Now as the apps are company-specific, let me invent some contrived names:
>
> messageedit, messageview, messageformat, messagesend, you've got the idea.
>
> Now, in may daily work, I'm using only one of them: messageedit. The other are
> used... well, almost never.
>
> Now, if I type mess<Tab>, the name gets completed to message and the completion
> engine waits for further input.
>
> I would like to tweak the completion in such a way the typing mess<Tab>
> completes the input to messageedit and ignores the other possible apps.
>
> Can this be done in a positive way (by naming the preferred application) or in
> a negative fashion (by prohibiting all unwanted completions)?

You can do this with the ignored-patterns style. On the surface, this
works in the negative sense, e.g.:

  zstyle ':completion:*:commands' ignored-patterns messageview messageformat messagesend

But you can use a pattern to turn this around into a positive form, e.g:

  zstyle ':completion:*:-command-:*:commands' ignored-patterns 'mess(^ageedit)'

If you still occasionally want to complete the others, you may want to
look into the _ignored completer to complete them as a fallback if you
have entered a longer prefix.

In the second example, I used a more specific context which will only
apply in command position. You can vary that depending on the contexts
in which you want it to apply.

Oliver

Re: Tweaking the completion engine to prefer some completions

[Peter Slížik]

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Dear Oliver,

thank you for the answer!

Peter

уто, 13. јул 2021. у 14:00 Oliver Kiddle <opk@zsh.org> је написао/ла:

> Peter Slížik wrote:
> >
> > I have a few applications installed on my system, with their names
> sharing a
> > common prefix.
> > Now as the apps are company-specific, let me invent some contrived names:
> >
> > messageedit, messageview, messageformat, messagesend, you've got the
> idea.
> >
> > Now, in may daily work, I'm using only one of them: messageedit. The
> other are
> > used... well, almost never.
> >
> > Now, if I type mess<Tab>, the name gets completed to message and the
> completion
> > engine waits for further input.
> >
> > I would like to tweak the completion in such a way the typing mess<Tab>
> > completes the input to messageedit and ignores the other possible apps.
> >
> > Can this be done in a positive way (by naming the preferred application)
> or in
> > a negative fashion (by prohibiting all unwanted completions)?
>
> You can do this with the ignored-patterns style. On the surface, this
> works in the negative sense, e.g.:
>
>   zstyle ':completion:*:commands' ignored-patterns messageview
> messageformat messagesend
>
> But you can use a pattern to turn this around into a positive form, e.g:
>
>   zstyle ':completion:*:-command-:*:commands' ignored-patterns
> 'mess(^ageedit)'
>
> If you still occasionally want to complete the others, you may want to
> look into the _ignored completer to complete them as a fallback if you
> have entered a longer prefix.
>
> In the second example, I used a more specific context which will only
> apply in command position. You can vary that depending on the contexts
> in which you want it to apply.
>
> Oliver
>

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