refering to 2nd from last history parameter?

refering to 2nd from last history parameter?

[zzapper]

Hi
I don't think it's possible

ls !$    last parameter of previous command

echo a b c d e f g h

I don't think I can grab 'g' without counting left to right

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Re: refering to 2nd from last history parameter?

[Peter Stephenson]

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On Thu, 22 Jan 2015 12:18:19 +0000
zzapper <david@rayninfo.co.uk> wrote:
> I don't think it's possible
>
> ls !$    last parameter of previous command
>
> echo a b c d e f g h
>
> I don't think I can grab 'g' without counting left to right

This isn't actually a question :-).  What are you trying to do?  Are you
at the shell command line trying to extract something and don't care if
you use the editor or history, but happen to know there was a way to do
something a bit like this in the history?  I'll assume that but let us
know if that's not the case.

You can use the insert-last-word standard widget (\e. in Emacs mode)
combined with the copy-earlier-word shell widget, which I have bound as

autoload -Uz copy-earlier-word
zle -N copy-earlier-word
bindkey '\e=' copy-earlier-word

Then the answer is that you type "\e." to get the h then "\e=" to go
back to the "g".  I use this all the time.

pws

Re: refering to 2nd from last history parameter?

[zzapper]

Peter Stephenson <p.w.stephenson@ntlworld.com> wrote in 
news:CAECNH1RyC2Q-5y3Ynk-F+cJvtRvFPWdvcpDOqXmrJB=uSJCbTQ@mail.gmail.com:

> On Thu, 22 Jan 2015 12:18:19 +0000
> zzapper <david@rayninfo.co.uk> wrote:
>> I don't think it's possible
>>
>> ls !$    last parameter of previous command
>>
>> echo a b c d e f g h
>>
>> I don't think I can grab 'g' without counting left to right
> 
> This isn't actually a question :-).  What are you trying to do?  Are 
you
> at the shell command line trying to extract something and don't care 

Peter
I realised I hadn't been clear.

echo a b c d e f g h

echo !:7
g

but it would be cuter if I could specify

echo !:$-1   ### doesnt work

but is there anyway to do this?
(I may have asked this before)





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Re: refering to 2nd from last history parameter?

[Axel Beckert]

Hi,

On Thu, Jan 22, 2015 at 12:18:19PM +0000, zzapper wrote:
> I don't think it's possible
> 
> ls !$    last parameter of previous command
> 
> echo a b c d e f g h
> 
> I don't think I can grab 'g' without counting left to right

Interesting question.

I would have expected that using negativ numbers would work (with
CSH_JUNKIE_HISTORY enabled of course):

  % echo !:-2

But this actually seems an abbreviation for

  % echo !:0-2

despite this is not documented in the man page. (I may come up with a
documentation patch for that later.)

It though seems consistent with tcsh which behaves the same way.

Despite I never thought about it so far, I'd use such a feature if I
knew it exists. Would come in handy with many rsync/scp/cp/etc.
command-lines to reuse the source argument if there were a bunch of
dashed options before it.

I wonder what would be a good syntax for such a feature as "-n"
seems already taken. Maybe something "<n" as in e.g.

  % echo !:<2

(And would we count from 0 or from 1, i.e. would "!:<0" or "!:<1" be a
synonym for "!:$"? :-)

		Kind regards, Axel
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Re: refering to 2nd from last history parameter?

[ZyX]

22.01.2015, 16:42, "Axel Beckert" <abe@deuxchevaux.org>:
> Hi,
>
> On Thu, Jan 22, 2015 at 12:18:19PM +0000, zzapper wrote:
>>  I don't think it's possible
>>
>>  ls !$    last parameter of previous command
>>
>>  echo a b c d e f g h
>>
>>  I don't think I can grab 'g' without counting left to right
>
> Interesting question.
>
> I would have expected that using negativ numbers would work (with
> CSH_JUNKIE_HISTORY enabled of course):
>
>   % echo !:-2
>
> But this actually seems an abbreviation for
>
>   % echo !:0-2
>
> despite this is not documented in the man page. (I may come up with a
> documentation patch for that later.)

It is documented:“x-y    A range of words; x *defaults to 0*.”

>
> It though seems consistent with tcsh which behaves the same way.
>
> Despite I never thought about it so far, I'd use such a feature if I
> knew it exists. Would come in handy with many rsync/scp/cp/etc.
> command-lines to reuse the source argument if there were a bunch of
> dashed options before it.
>
> I wonder what would be a good syntax for such a feature as "-n"
> seems already taken. Maybe something "<n" as in e.g.
>
>   % echo !:<2
>
> (And would we count from 0 or from 1, i.e. would "!:<0" or "!:<1" be a
> synonym for "!:$"? :-)

I would say that `!:<1` resulting in a second word counted from the end is rather unexpected.

>
>                 Kind regards, Axel
> --
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Re: refering to 2nd from last history parameter?

[Axel Beckert]

Hi,

On Thu, Jan 22, 2015 at 06:52:01PM +0300, ZyX wrote:
> > I would have expected that using negativ numbers would work (with
> > CSH_JUNKIE_HISTORY enabled of course):
> >
> >   % echo !:-2
> >
> > But this actually seems an abbreviation for
> >
> >   % echo !:0-2
> >
> > despite this is not documented in the man page. (I may come up with a
> > documentation patch for that later.)
> 
> It is documented:“x-y    A range of words; x *defaults to 0*.”

Thanks for the heads up. I actually expected (and looked for) a
literal mention of "-x".

> > I wonder what would be a good syntax for such a feature as "-n"
> > seems already taken. Maybe something "<n" as in e.g.
> >
> >   % echo !:<2
> >
> > (And would we count from 0 or from 1, i.e. would "!:<0" or "!:<1" be a
> > synonym for "!:$"? :-)
> 
> I would say that `!:<1` resulting in a second word counted from the end is rather unexpected.

Yeah, well, depends. :-)

		Kind regards, Axel
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Re: refering to 2nd from last history parameter?

[Bart Schaefer]

On Jan 22, 12:18pm, zzapper wrote:
}
} ls !$    last parameter of previous command
} 
} echo a b c d e f g h
} 
} I don't think I can grab 'g' without counting left to right

Not exactly pretty, but in two steps:

    !!:-:p
    echo !!:$

Re: refering to 2nd from last history parameter?

[zzapper]

Bart Schaefer <schaefer@brasslantern.com> wrote in 
news:150122091734.ZM11366@torch.brasslantern.com:

> On Jan 22, 12:18pm, zzapper wrote:
> }
> } ls !$    last parameter of previous command
> } 
> } echo a b c d e f g h
> } 
> } I don't think I can grab 'g' without counting left to right
> 
> Not exactly pretty, but in two steps:
> 
>     !!:-:p
>     echo !!:$
> 

 !:-:p isn't that a smiley?



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Re: refering to 2nd from last history parameter?

[Wayne Davison]

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On Thu, Jan 22, 2015 at 4:57 AM, Peter Stephenson <
p.w.stephenson@ntlworld.com> wrote:

> Then the answer is that you type "\e." to get the h then "\e=" to go
> back to the "g".


An alternative to using copy-earlier-word is to use a numeric arg to get
earlier words with insert-last-word. e.g. \e2\e. will give you the
2nd-to-last word ("g") directly, so you can count from right to left.

..wayne..

Re: refering to 2nd from last history parameter?

[zzapper]

Peter Stephenson <p.w.stephenson@ntlworld.com> wrote in 
news:CAECNH1RyC2Q-5y3Ynk-F+cJvtRvFPWdvcpDOqXmrJB=uSJCbTQ@mail.gmail.com:

> On Thu, 22 Jan 2015 12:18:19 +0000
> zzapper <david@rayninfo.co.uk> wrote:
>> I don't think it's possible
>>
>> ls !$    last parameter of previous command
>>
>> echo a b c d e f g h
>>
>> I don't think I can grab 'g' without counting left to right
> 
> This isn't actually a question :-).  What are you trying to do?  Are 
you
PWS
I didn't immediately appreciate your alternative solution

########### alt. and alt=
bindkey '\e.' insert-last-word
autoload -Uz copy-earlier-word
zle -N copy-earlier-word
bindkey '\e=' copy-earlier-word

Still think it's a pity that there's no !$-1 , !$-2 etc

BTW if you tab complete
echo !$-1 
I get !3569NVXZhikms1



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Re: refering to 2nd from last history parameter?

[Peter Stephenson]

On Mon, 26 Jan 2015 12:05:14 +0000
zzapper <david@rayninfo.co.uk> wrote:
> Still think it's a pity that there's no !$-1 , !$-2 etc

The summary of the discussion is that there is, but it means the wrong
thing: "-" is always a range in history arguments.  Clearly this
isn't what you actually want here, or ever would.

We could special case the meaning here: given that ranges have to be in
order, a range starting with "$" is by definition useless.  It's a bit
kludgy but this is !-history so it's hard to imagine anyone looking for
elegance.  Does this break anything?

I was wondering about using a different character, but I think any
solution where "minus" is not encoded by "-" is too obscure to be
useful.

pws

Re: refering to 2nd from last history parameter?

[Axel Beckert]

Hi,

On Mon, Jan 26, 2015 at 12:16:49PM +0000, Peter Stephenson wrote:
> On Mon, 26 Jan 2015 12:05:14 +0000
> We could special case the meaning here: given that ranges have to be in
> order, a range starting with "$" is by definition useless.  It's a bit
> kludgy but this is !-history so it's hard to imagine anyone looking for
> elegance.  Does this break anything?

Depends.

I'd expect that

  mkdir foo
  mv foo foo-1

can be abbreviated 

  mkdir foo
  mv !$ !$-1

i.e. that anything behind "!$" except a colon (as in "!$:t" or "!$:h")
is taken literal.

> I was wondering about using a different character, but I think any
> solution where "minus" is not encoded by "-" is too obscure to be
> useful.

I'd still prefer the form of "!!:<1" or shorter "!<2" instead of
anything involving further characters after "$".

Additionally, I thought we're talking about picking a single argument
counting from the back, not from ranges of arguments -- which then could
be "!<2-4" or "!<4-2". (I'd allow both forms as both can make sense.)

		Kind regards, Axel
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Re: refering to 2nd from last history parameter?

[Peter Stephenson]

On Mon, 26 Jan 2015 14:17:23 +0100
Axel Beckert <abe@deuxchevaux.org> wrote:
> On Mon, Jan 26, 2015 at 12:16:49PM +0000, Peter Stephenson wrote:
> > On Mon, 26 Jan 2015 12:05:14 +0000
> > We could special case the meaning here: given that ranges have to be in
> > order, a range starting with "$" is by definition useless.  It's a bit
> > kludgy but this is !-history so it's hard to imagine anyone looking for
> > elegance.  Does this break anything?
> 
> Depends.
> 
> I'd expect that
> 
>   mkdir foo
>   mv foo foo-1
> 
> can be abbreviated 
> 
>   mkdir foo
>   mv !$ !$-1
> 
> i.e. that anything behind "!$" except a colon (as in "!$:t" or "!$:h")
> is taken literal.

That's not how it works at the moment --- because "-" means a range,
!$-1 alread has a special meaning, as you'll see if you try it.

> > I was wondering about using a different character, but I think any
> > solution where "minus" is not encoded by "-" is too obscure to be
> > useful.
> 
> I'd still prefer the form of "!!:<1" or shorter "!<2" instead of
> anything involving further characters after "$".

That's probably doable and easy enough to remember.  History's early
enough that normal syntactic meanings aren't relevant.

> Additionally, I thought we're talking about picking a single argument
> counting from the back, not from ranges of arguments -- which then could
> be "!<2-4" or "!<4-2". (I'd allow both forms as both can make sense.)

Yes, we are, but the point is "-" already *means* range and isn't going
to stop doing that.

pws

Re: refering to 2nd from last history parameter?

[Axel Beckert]

Hi Peter,

On Mon, Jan 26, 2015 at 02:32:12PM +0000, Peter Stephenson wrote:
> > I'd expect that
> > 
> >   mkdir foo
> >   mv foo foo-1
> > 
> > can be abbreviated 
> > 
> >   mkdir foo
> >   mv !$ !$-1
> > 
> > i.e. that anything behind "!$" except a colon (as in "!$:t" or "!$:h")
> > is taken literal.
> 
> That's not how it works at the moment --- because "-" means a range,
> !$-1 alread has a special meaning, as you'll see if you try it.

Indeed:

→ echo foo bar
foo bar
→ echo !$-1
zsh: no such word in event

I must admit, I'm surprised that I obviously never ran into that.

Thanks for the heads up!

> > Additionally, I thought we're talking about picking a single argument
> > counting from the back, not from ranges of arguments -- which then could
> > be "!<2-4" or "!<4-2". (I'd allow both forms as both can make sense.)
> 
> Yes, we are, but the point is "-" already *means* range and isn't going
> to stop doing that.

*nod*

		Kind regards, Axel
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