Get description of the completion

Get description of the completion

[Jörg Sommer]

Hi,

how can I see the description of a single completion? For kill I would
like to see the description even if it was one completion to be sure I
kill the right process.

% kill ini<TAB>    is completed to
% kill 1           but I want to see the description, i.e. the line from
                   the ps command, too.

Is this possible?

Bye, Jörg.
-- 
Die beste Tarnung ist die Wahrheit. Die glaubt einem keiner!
                      (Max Frisch: ‚Biedermann und die Brandstifter‘)

Re: Get description of the completion

[Mikael Magnusson]

2008/10/7 Jörg Sommer <joerg@alea.gnuu.de>:
> Hi,
>
> how can I see the description of a single completion? For kill I would
> like to see the description even if it was one completion to be sure I
> kill the right process.
>
> % kill ini<TAB>    is completed to
> % kill 1           but I want to see the description, i.e. the line from
>                   the ps command, too.
>
> Is this possible?

Press list-choices:

% kill init<ctrl-d>
---- process ID
root         1  0.0  0.0   1628   316 ?        Ss   Sep17   0:03 init
[3]

-- 
Mikael Magnusson

Re: Get description of the completion

[Jörg Sommer]

Hello Mikael,

"Mikael Magnusson" <mikachu@gmail.com> wrote:
> 2008/10/7 Jörg Sommer <joerg@alea.gnuu.de>:
>> Hi,
>>
>> how can I see the description of a single completion? For kill I would
>> like to see the description even if it was one completion to be sure I
>> kill the right process.
>>
>> % kill ini<TAB>    is completed to
>> % kill 1           but I want to see the description, i.e. the line from
>>                   the ps command, too.
>>
>> Is this possible?
>
> Press list-choices:
>
> % kill init<ctrl-d>

That's not really what I'm looking for. I also would like to see the
description of this:

% grep -h<$MAGIC_KEY>
-h           -- suppress printing of filenames

I often remember an option, but I'm not sure. So I want to see the
description to make sure I'm write or maybe, I was wrong and should make
the next guess. :)

Bye, Jörg.
-- 
Der Pessimist ist jemand, der vorzeitig die Wahrheit erzählt.
    	      	  	      		    	(Cyrano de Bergerac)

Re: Get description of the completion

[Bart Schaefer]

On Oct 13, 12:21am, Joerg wrote:
}
} % grep -h<$MAGIC_KEY>
} -h           -- suppress printing of filenames

What you're effectively asking for is a way to use the knowledge that
is encapsulated in the completion system as the documentation output
by run-help.

I can't think of any good way to do this.  It's sort of antithetical
to the design of the completion system, which is is organized around
finding what's *not* present, often to the point of explicitly excluding
from consideration whatever already is present.  Since "-h" is already on
the line, it (usually) won't be considered as a candidate for completing
again.  So you'd have to note what character was there, backspace over
it, invoke the completion and capture the list of descriptions, then put
the character back, filter for the corresponding description, and call
_message to display it.

"Invoke the completion and capture the list" is difficult at best;
you'd need to copy the tricks used by _complete_help.  What's nearly
impossible is knowing exactly what you need to remove from the line,
in any given context, in order to cause what's on the line when you
begin, to be included as a possible completion (and ideally to be
treated as the *only* possible completion).