How to complete a file name?

How to complete a file name?

[Jörg Sommer]

Hi,

is it possible to force the completion of a file name? For example, the
completion for git aliases doesn't work. git ci -- fi<TAB> doesn't
complete file, while git ci is an (git) alias for git commit. Or try to
complete eval "echo /bi<TAB>. Is it possible to say “complete this as a
file name maybe with the short syntax /u/s/d/z”?

Bye, Jörg.
-- 
Mathematiker beim Kuchenessen (aus dem wahren Leben):
J: Du überlegst wohl, wie du das Stück optimal teilst?
K: Ja, ich wende gerade den Simplex‐Algorithmus darauf an.
C: Schau mal, da hast du schon vier Ecken.

Re: How to complete a file name?

[Clint Adams]

On Mon, Jan 14, 2008 at 04:38:34PM +0000, Jörg Sommer wrote:
> is it possible to force the completion of a file name? For example, the
> completion for git aliases doesn't work. git ci -- fi<TAB> doesn't
> complete file, while git ci is an (git) alias for git commit. Or try to
> complete eval "echo /bi<TAB>. Is it possible to say “complete this as a
> file name maybe with the short syntax /u/s/d/z”?

Quite a few things about git completion could be improved, including
using aliases and the special and bizarre meaning of "--".

Re: How to complete a file name?

[Jörg Sommer]

Hallo Clint,

Clint Adams <clint@zsh.org> wrote:
> On Mon, Jan 14, 2008 at 04:38:34PM +0000, Jörg Sommer wrote:
>> is it possible to force the completion of a file name? For example, the
>> completion for git aliases doesn't work. git ci -- fi<TAB> doesn't
>> complete file, while git ci is an (git) alias for git commit. Or try to
>> complete eval "echo /bi<TAB>. Is it possible to say “complete this as a
>> file name maybe with the short syntax /u/s/d/z”?
>
> Quite a few things about git completion could be improved, including
> using aliases and the special and bizarre meaning of "--".

Excepts from the git case, isn't it possible to do a filename completion?
I come sometimes across cases where I want to complete a filename, but it
doesn't work, like in the “eval "echo /bi<TAB>” case.

Do I understand it right, that such a forced filename completion is not
possible?

Bye, Jörg.
-- 
Das Recht, seine Meinung zu wechseln, ist eines der wichtigsten
menschlichen Privilegien.
	     		 			(Robert Peel)

Re: How to complete a file name?

[Peter Stephenson]

=?UTF-8?Q?J=C3=B6rg?= Sommer wrote:
> Do I understand it right, that such a forced filename completion is not
> possible?

*Forced* filename completion is easy; you just bind it to another key.

  zle -C complete-filename complete-word _generic
  zstyle ':completion:complete-filename:*' completer _files
  bindkey '^xf' complete-filename

-- 
Peter Stephenson <pws@csr.com>                  Software Engineer
CSR PLC, Churchill House, Cambridge Business Park, Cowley Road
Cambridge, CB4 0WZ, UK                          Tel: +44 (0)1223 692070

Re: How to complete a file name?

[Jörg Sommer]

Hallo Peter,

Peter Stephenson <pws@csr.com> wrote:
> =?UTF-8?Q?J=C3=B6rg?= Sommer wrote:
>> Do I understand it right, that such a forced filename completion is not
>> possible?
>
> *Forced* filename completion is easy; you just bind it to another key.
>
>   zle -C complete-filename complete-word _generic
>   zstyle ':completion:complete-filename:*' completer _files
>   bindkey '^xf' complete-filename

This doesn't work with eval "echo /bi<^xf>

Bye, Jörg.
-- 
Es gibt nichts schöneres als dem Schweigen eines Dummkopfes zuzuhören.
   	       		      	  	        (Helmut Quatlinger)

Re: How to complete a file name?

[Bart Schaefer]

On Jan 23,  3:14pm, J.Sommer wrote:
}
} >   bindkey '^xf' complete-filename
} 
} This doesn't work with eval "echo /bi<^xf>

It works, but it's treating everything starting at the double-quote as
a single argument, so it's looking for a directory named "echo " with
a file inside whose name starts with "bi".

If what you're asking for is a way to force all the context-sensitive
command-line parsing but replace the context-sensitive completions with
file completion, then no, there's no simple way to do that.

(Ignoring for the nonce that _precommand doesn't unquote the first arg
for "eval" in any case, so context-sensitive completion doesn't do the
right thing either.)

-- 

Re: How to complete a file name?

[Bart Schaefer]

On Jan 23,  2:18pm, Peter Stephenson wrote:
}
} *Forced* filename completion is easy; you just bind it to another key.
} 
}   zle -C complete-filename complete-word _generic
}   zstyle ':completion:complete-filename:*' completer _files
}   bindkey '^xf' complete-filename

Hmm.  Why not just append _files to the completer style, so that file
completion is always tried if everything else fails?

In fact, why not this:

    _unquoted_files { compset -q; _files }
    zstyle ':completion:*' completer _oldlist _expand _complete \
	_match _ignored _approximate _prefix _files _unquoted_files

Re: How to complete a file name?

[Jörg Sommer]

Hallo Bart,

Bart Schaefer <schaefer@brasslantern.com> wrote:
> On Jan 23,  2:18pm, Peter Stephenson wrote:
> }
> } *Forced* filename completion is easy; you just bind it to another key.
> } 
> }   zle -C complete-filename complete-word _generic
> }   zstyle ':completion:complete-filename:*' completer _files
> }   bindkey '^xf' complete-filename
>
> Hmm.  Why not just append _files to the completer style, so that file
> completion is always tried if everything else fails?
>
> In fact, why not this:
>
>     _unquoted_files { compset -q; _files }
                     ^
Here's () missing.

>     zstyle ':completion:*' completer _oldlist _expand _complete \
> 	_match _ignored _approximate _prefix _files _unquoted_files

I fancy this idea.

Regards, Jörg.
-- 
Ein Optimist ist in der Regel ein Zeitgenosse, der ungenuegend informiert ist.
                                                           (John B. Priestley)