Strange bug when completing [ in file names

Strange bug when completing [ in file names

[Tobias Gruetzmacher]

Hi,

I have a very strange problem when completing files in directories under 
my home directory. The problem only occours when I start the file name 
with ~ and have a [ somewhere in the file name. Some short test case:

$ cd
$ mkdir testcase
$ touch testcase/file\[stuff{1,2,3,4,5} 

$ ls ~/testcase/<TAB>

Now the following happens:
1. zsh inserts file\[stuff and stops - OK
2. I press <TAB> another time because I still can't remember the names 
of the files, zsh changes the output to the following:

$ ls /home/tobias/testcase/file\[stuff
---- all expansions
/home/tobias/testcase/file\[stuff
---- original
~/testcase/file\[stuff

Now what has happened here? Can anyone give me a clue? I have the 
impression that worked in an older version of zsh, but I can't remember. 
If that is relevant I will try with older versions.

Using zsh 4.2.3 on Debian GNU/Linux sid(unstable).

Greetings Tobi

-- 
GPG-Key 0xE2BEA341 - signed/encrypted mail preferred
My, oh so small, homepage: http://portfolio16.de/
http://www.fli4l.de/ - ISDN- & DSL-Router on one disk!
Registered FLI4L-User #00000003

Re: Strange bug when completing [ in file names

[Bart Schaefer]

On Jan 16, 11:22pm, Tobias Gruetzmacher wrote:
}
} $ ls /home/tobias/testcase/file\[stuff
} ---- all expansions

What's the value of your completer style?

My guess is that the _expand completer is spotting the '[' and deciding
that it's a pattern character, and therefore generating matches, so none
of the completers that are listed after _expand gets a chance to run.

This is different in 4.2.x and 4.0.x, but I'm not sure if the difference
is because of a change in the default behavior of the accept-exact style,
or if it's an unintentional consequence of a change in parameter expansion.

Re: Strange bug when completing [ in file names

[Tobias Gruetzmacher]

Bart Schaefer schrieb:
> On Jan 16, 11:22pm, Tobias Gruetzmacher wrote:
> }
> } $ ls /home/tobias/testcase/file\[stuff
> } ---- all expansions
> 
> What's the value of your completer style?

You mean this:

zstyle ':completion:*' completer _expand _complete _correct _approximate

> My guess is that the _expand completer is spotting the '[' and deciding
> that it's a pattern character, and therefore generating matches, so none
> of the completers that are listed after _expand gets a chance to run.

Hmm, sounds like a could work around this thing by swapping _expand and 
_complete? I tried that and it seems to work right now, but I don't know 
what implications on other aspects of the completion system that has...

Greetings Tobi

-- 
GPG-Key 0xE2BEA341 - signed/encrypted mail preferred
My, oh so small, homepage: http://portfolio16.de/
http://www.fli4l.de/ - ISDN- & DSL-Router on one disk!
Registered FLI4L-User #00000003

Re: Strange bug when completing [ in file names

[Bart Schaefer]

On Jan 17,  3:44pm, Tobias Gruetzmacher wrote:
} Subject: Re: Strange bug when completing [ in file names
}
} Hmm, sounds like a could work around this thing by swapping _expand and 
} _complete?

Yes, although that may mean you don't get expansions in all the cases
you might want.

I think there's a bug in _expand, because the value of the accept-exact
style doesn't seem to have any effect on this particular example, and it
should.

Re: Strange bug when completing [ in file names

[Oliver Kiddle]

On 16 Jan, Tobias Gruetzmacher wrote:

> I have a very strange problem when completing files in directories under 
> my home directory. The problem only occours when I start the file name 
> with ~ and have a [ somewhere in the file name. Some short test case:

Looks like the handling of the suffix style in _expand is seeing the `['
character and assuming that we have a glob pattern in there. But we
don't: the `[' is quoted. The following patch fixes it.

Oliver

Index: Completion/Base/Completer/_expand
===================================================================
RCS file: /cvsroot/zsh/zsh/Completion/Base/Completer/_expand,v
retrieving revision 1.9
diff -u -r1.9 _expand
--- Completion/Base/Completer/_expand   7 Aug 2004 15:27:29 -0000       1.9
+++ Completion/Base/Completer/_expand   20 Jan 2005 11:03:32 -0000
@@ -35,7 +35,7 @@
 
 zstyle -T ":completion:${curcontext}:" suffix &&
   [[ "$word" = (\~*/*|*\$(|[=~#^+])[a-zA-Z0-9_\[\]]##[^a-zA-Z0-9_\[\]]|*\$\{*\}?) &&
-     "${(e)word}" != *[][^*?\(\)\<\>\{\}\|]* ]] &&
+     "${(e)word}" != *[^\\][][^*?\(\)\<\>\{\}\|]* ]] &&
   return 1
 
 zstyle -s ":completion:${curcontext}:" accept-exact tmp ||

Re: Strange bug when completing [ in file names

[Bart Schaefer]

On Jan 20, 12:05pm, Oliver Kiddle wrote:
} Subject: Re: Strange bug when completing [ in file names
}
} the `[' is quoted. The following patch fixes it.
} 
} +     "${(e)word}" != *[^\\][][^*?\(\)\<\>\{\}\|]* ]] &&

Doesn't that need to be

                        (#s)(*[^\\]|)[^*?\(\)\<\>\{\}\|]*

or something similar, so that a word beginning with "[[" can match?
E.g. a word beginning with the pattern [[:alpha:].]

Re: Strange bug when completing [ in file names

[Oliver Kiddle]

Bart Schaefer wrote:
> 
> Doesn't that need to be
> 
>                         (#s)(*[^\\]|)[^*?\(\)\<\>\{\}\|]*
> 
> or something similar, so that a word beginning with "[[" can match?
> E.g. a word beginning with the pattern [[:alpha:].]

I did think about that. The documentation says "unless that suffix
itself contains characters eligible for expansion" so I thought I could
ignore trying to worry about an area that isn't the suffix. After
finding an example, I've concluded that it is better with your change.
The following shows the difference:

  touch test/file
  foo=file
  : t*/$foo<tab>
  : */$foo<tab>

The code doesn't only look in the suffix for "other characters eligible
for expansion" anyway. That'd be hard. Is it worth adjusting the
documentation?

There are still inconsistencies in the behaviour but people probably
don't have precise expectations if they ever try such things. Try this:

  bar=test
  : ./$bar/$foo<tab>
  : ~/$bar/$foo<tab>

Oliver