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App-shcompgen-0.21
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/ shcompgen

NAME

shcompgen - Generate shell completion scripts

VERSION

This document describes version 0.21 of shcompgen (from Perl distribution App-shcompgen), released on 2016-10-25.

SYNOPSIS

Initialize (this will create completion scripts directory, create shell script to initialize completion system):

% shcompgen init

Generate shell completion scripts for all detectable programs in PATH:

% shcompgen generate

Generate some programs only, replace if previously already exists, be verbose:

% shcompgen generate --verbose --replace prog1 prog2 ./bin/prog3

List all shell completion scripts generated by us:

% shcompgen list
% shcompgen list --detail

Remove some shell completion scripts:

% shcompgen remove prog1 prog2

Remove all generated shell completion scripts:

% shcompgen remove

DESCRIPTION

ONLY BASH AND FISH SUPPORT HAS BEEN ADDED. SUPPORT FOR THE OTHER SHELLS WILL FOLLOW.

Some shells, like bash/fish/zsh, supports tab completion for programs. They are usually activated by issuing one or more complete (zsh uses compctl) internal shell commands. The completion scripts which contain these commands are usually put in (e.g., for fish) /etc/fish/completion/PROGNAME.fish (if one wants to install globally) or ~/.config/fish/completions/PROGNAME.fish (if one wants to install per-user).

This utility, shcompgen, can detect how to generate shell completion scripts for some programs and then install the completion scripts into the abovementioned location (the default is to per-user directory, but if running as root or with --global switch will install to the global directory).

It can also list all completion scripts generated by it, and be instructed to uninstall them again.

It supports several shells, currently: bash, fish, tcsh, and zsh. Shell-specific information can be found below.

bash-specific information

This script can work with the bash-completion package (and uses the same global completion directory: /etc/bash_completion.d). At the time of this writing, bash-completion (at version 2.1) does not yet look at per-user completion scripts directory. This script picks ~/.config/bash/completions/PROGNAME as location for per-user completion scripts. If later on bash-completion package decides on a different per-user location, this script will probably be adjusted too.

fish-specific information

Support for fish is rather new. There might be bugs. Some scripts have not been supported, e.g. Getopt::Long::Subcommand-based scripts or Perinci::CmdLine-based scripts which have subcommands.

tcsh-specific information

zsh-specific information

Program detection

Below are the types/kinds of programs that can be detected. Expect the list to expand as more methods are added.

  • Scripts which are tagged with hints of what completion program to use

    You can put this line in a script, e.g. in a script called foo:

    # FRAGMENT id=shcompgen-hint command=bar

    The above line tells shcompgen that the script should be completed using an external program called bar. This will construct this completion script, e.g. for bash:

    complete -C bar foo

  • Completion programs which are tagged with hints of what programs they complete

    You can create a completion script in Perl (or other language, actually), e.g. _foo and tag it with hints of what programs they complete, e.g.

    # FRAGMENT id=shcompgen-hint completer=1 for=foo,foo-this-host

    This will add completion script for foo:

    complete -C _foo foo

    as well as for foo-this-host:

    complete -C _foo foo-this-host

  • Getopt::Long::Complete-based CLI scripts

    If a script foo is detected as a Perl script using Getopt::Long::Complete, we know that it can complete itself. Thus, shcompgen will generate this completion script (e.g. for bash):

    complete -C foo foo

  • Getopt::Long::Subcommand-based CLI scripts

    If a script foo is detected as a Perl script using Getopt::Long::Subcommand, we know that it can complete itself. Thus, shcompgen will generate this completion script (e.g. for bash):

    complete -C foo foo

  • Perinci::CmdLine-based CLI scripts

    If a script like foo is detected as a Perl script using Perinci::CmdLine (or its variant like Perinci::CmdLine::Lite or Perinci::CmdLine::Any) we know that it can complete itself. Thus, shcompgen will add this completion script e.g. for bash:

    complete -C foo foo

  • Other methods

    Other methods will be added in the future, e.g. by parsing manpage or POD, and so on.

SUBCOMMANDS

detect-prog

(Utility) Guess running shell.

generate

Generate shell completion scripts for detectable programs.

guess-shell

(Utility) detect a program.

init

Initialize shcompgen.

This subcommand creates the completion directories and initialization shell script, as well as run generate.

list

List all shell completion scripts generated by this script.

remove

Remove shell completion scripts generated by this script.

OPTIONS

* marks required options.

Common options

--config-path=filename

Set path to configuration file.

Can be specified multiple times.

--config-profile=s

Set configuration profile to use.

--debug

Set log level to debug (note: you also need to set LOG=1 to enable logging, or use DEBUG=1).

--format=s

Choose output format, e.g. json, text.

Default value:

undef
--help, -h, -?

Display help message and exit.

--json

Set output format to json.

--log-level=s

Set log level (note: you also need to set LOG=1 to enable logging).

--naked-res

When outputing as JSON, strip result envelope.

Default value:

0

By default, when outputing as JSON, the full enveloped result is returned, e.g.:

[200,"OK",[1,2,3],{"func.extra"=>4}]

The reason is so you can get the status (1st element), status message (2nd element) as well as result metadata/extra result (4th element) instead of just the result (3rd element). However, sometimes you want just the result, e.g. when you want to pipe the result for more post-processing. In this case you can use `--naked-res` so you just get:

[1,2,3]
--no-config

Do not use any configuration file.

--no-env

Do not read environment for default options.

--quiet

Set log level to quiet (note: you also need to set LOG=1 to enable logging, or use QUIET=1).

--subcommands

List available subcommands.

--trace

Set log level to trace (note: you also need to set LOG=1 to enable logging, or use TRACE=1).

--verbose

Set log level to info (note: you also need to set LOG=1 to enable logging, or use VERBOSE=1).

--version, -v

Display program's version and exit.

Options for subcommand detect-prog

--prog=s*
--shell=s

Override guessing and select shell manually.

Valid values:

["bash","fish","zsh"]

Options for subcommand generate

--bash-global-dir-json=s

Directory to put completions scripts (JSON-encoded).

See --bash-global-dir.

--bash-global-dir=s@

Directory to put completions scripts.

Default value:

["/usr/share/bash-completion/completions","/etc/bash_completion.d"]

Can be specified multiple times.

--bash-per-user-dir-json=s

Directory to put completions scripts (JSON-encoded).

See --bash-per-user-dir.

--bash-per-user-dir=s@

Directory to put completions scripts.

Can be specified multiple times.

--fish-global-dir-json=s

Directory to put completions scripts (JSON-encoded).

See --fish-global-dir.

--fish-global-dir=s@

Directory to put completions scripts.

Default value:

["/usr/share/fish/completions","/etc/fish/completions"]

Can be specified multiple times.

--fish-per-user-dir-json=s

Directory to put completions scripts (JSON-encoded).

See --fish-per-user-dir.

--fish-per-user-dir=s@

Directory to put completions scripts.

Can be specified multiple times.

--global

Use global completions directory.

Shell has global (system-wide) completions directory as well as per-user. For example, in fish the global directory is by default `/etc/fish/completions` and the per-user directory is `~/.config/fish/completions`.

By default, if running as root, the global is chosen. And if running as normal user, per-user directory is chosen. Using `--global` or `--per-user` overrides that and manually select which.

--per-user

Alias for --no-global.

See --global.

--prog-json=s

Program(s) to generate completion for (JSON-encoded).

See --prog.

--prog=s@

Program(s) to generate completion for.

Can contain path (e.g. `../foo`) or a plain word (`foo`) in which case will be searched from PATH.

Can be specified multiple times.

--remove

Remove completion for script that (now) is not detected to have completion.

The default behavior is to simply ignore existing completion script if the program is not detected to have completion. When the `remove` setting is enabled, however, such existing completion script will be removed.

--replace

Replace existing script.

The default behavior is to skip if an existing completion script exists.

--shell=s

Override guessing and select shell manually.

Valid values:

["bash","fish","zsh"]
--stdout

Output completion script to STDOUT.

--zsh-global-dir-json=s

Directory to put completions scripts (JSON-encoded).

See --zsh-global-dir.

--zsh-global-dir=s@

Directory to put completions scripts.

Default value:

["/usr/local/share/zsh/site-functions"]

Can be specified multiple times.

--zsh-per-user-dir-json=s

Directory to put completions scripts (JSON-encoded).

See --zsh-per-user-dir.

--zsh-per-user-dir=s@

Directory to put completions scripts.

Can be specified multiple times.

Options for subcommand init

--bash-global-dir-json=s

Directory to put completions scripts (JSON-encoded).

See --bash-global-dir.

--bash-global-dir=s@

Directory to put completions scripts.

Default value:

["/usr/share/bash-completion/completions","/etc/bash_completion.d"]

Can be specified multiple times.

--bash-per-user-dir-json=s

Directory to put completions scripts (JSON-encoded).

See --bash-per-user-dir.

--bash-per-user-dir=s@

Directory to put completions scripts.

Can be specified multiple times.

--fish-global-dir-json=s

Directory to put completions scripts (JSON-encoded).

See --fish-global-dir.

--fish-global-dir=s@

Directory to put completions scripts.

Default value:

["/usr/share/fish/completions","/etc/fish/completions"]

Can be specified multiple times.

--fish-per-user-dir-json=s

Directory to put completions scripts (JSON-encoded).

See --fish-per-user-dir.

--fish-per-user-dir=s@

Directory to put completions scripts.

Can be specified multiple times.

--global

Use global completions directory.

Shell has global (system-wide) completions directory as well as per-user. For example, in fish the global directory is by default `/etc/fish/completions` and the per-user directory is `~/.config/fish/completions`.

By default, if running as root, the global is chosen. And if running as normal user, per-user directory is chosen. Using `--global` or `--per-user` overrides that and manually select which.

--per-user

Alias for --no-global.

See --global.

--shell=s

Override guessing and select shell manually.

Valid values:

["bash","fish","zsh"]
--zsh-global-dir-json=s

Directory to put completions scripts (JSON-encoded).

See --zsh-global-dir.

--zsh-global-dir=s@

Directory to put completions scripts.

Default value:

["/usr/local/share/zsh/site-functions"]

Can be specified multiple times.

--zsh-per-user-dir-json=s

Directory to put completions scripts (JSON-encoded).

See --zsh-per-user-dir.

--zsh-per-user-dir=s@

Directory to put completions scripts.

Can be specified multiple times.

Options for subcommand list

--bash-global-dir-json=s

Directory to put completions scripts (JSON-encoded).

See --bash-global-dir.

--bash-global-dir=s@

Directory to put completions scripts.

Default value:

["/usr/share/bash-completion/completions","/etc/bash_completion.d"]

Can be specified multiple times.

--bash-per-user-dir-json=s

Directory to put completions scripts (JSON-encoded).

See --bash-per-user-dir.

--bash-per-user-dir=s@

Directory to put completions scripts.

Can be specified multiple times.

--detail, -l
--fish-global-dir-json=s

Directory to put completions scripts (JSON-encoded).

See --fish-global-dir.

--fish-global-dir=s@

Directory to put completions scripts.

Default value:

["/usr/share/fish/completions","/etc/fish/completions"]

Can be specified multiple times.

--fish-per-user-dir-json=s

Directory to put completions scripts (JSON-encoded).

See --fish-per-user-dir.

--fish-per-user-dir=s@

Directory to put completions scripts.

Can be specified multiple times.

--global

Use global completions directory.

Shell has global (system-wide) completions directory as well as per-user. For example, in fish the global directory is by default `/etc/fish/completions` and the per-user directory is `~/.config/fish/completions`.

By default, if running as root, the global is chosen. And if running as normal user, per-user directory is chosen. Using `--global` or `--per-user` overrides that and manually select which.

--per-user

Alias for --no-global.

See --global.

--shell=s

Override guessing and select shell manually.

Valid values:

["bash","fish","zsh"]
--zsh-global-dir-json=s

Directory to put completions scripts (JSON-encoded).

See --zsh-global-dir.

--zsh-global-dir=s@

Directory to put completions scripts.

Default value:

["/usr/local/share/zsh/site-functions"]

Can be specified multiple times.

--zsh-per-user-dir-json=s

Directory to put completions scripts (JSON-encoded).

See --zsh-per-user-dir.

--zsh-per-user-dir=s@

Directory to put completions scripts.

Can be specified multiple times.

Options for subcommand remove

--bash-global-dir-json=s

Directory to put completions scripts (JSON-encoded).

See --bash-global-dir.

--bash-global-dir=s@

Directory to put completions scripts.

Default value:

["/usr/share/bash-completion/completions","/etc/bash_completion.d"]

Can be specified multiple times.

--bash-per-user-dir-json=s

Directory to put completions scripts (JSON-encoded).

See --bash-per-user-dir.

--bash-per-user-dir=s@

Directory to put completions scripts.

Can be specified multiple times.

--fish-global-dir-json=s

Directory to put completions scripts (JSON-encoded).

See --fish-global-dir.

--fish-global-dir=s@

Directory to put completions scripts.

Default value:

["/usr/share/fish/completions","/etc/fish/completions"]

Can be specified multiple times.

--fish-per-user-dir-json=s

Directory to put completions scripts (JSON-encoded).

See --fish-per-user-dir.

--fish-per-user-dir=s@

Directory to put completions scripts.

Can be specified multiple times.

--global

Use global completions directory.

Shell has global (system-wide) completions directory as well as per-user. For example, in fish the global directory is by default `/etc/fish/completions` and the per-user directory is `~/.config/fish/completions`.

By default, if running as root, the global is chosen. And if running as normal user, per-user directory is chosen. Using `--global` or `--per-user` overrides that and manually select which.

--per-user

Alias for --no-global.

See --global.

--prog-json=s

Program(s) to remove completion script of (JSON-encoded).

See --prog.

--prog=s@

Program(s) to remove completion script of.

Can contain path (e.g. `../foo`) or a plain word (`foo`) in which case will be searched from PATH.

Can be specified multiple times.

--shell=s

Override guessing and select shell manually.

Valid values:

["bash","fish","zsh"]
--zsh-global-dir-json=s

Directory to put completions scripts (JSON-encoded).

See --zsh-global-dir.

--zsh-global-dir=s@

Directory to put completions scripts.

Default value:

["/usr/local/share/zsh/site-functions"]

Can be specified multiple times.

--zsh-per-user-dir-json=s

Directory to put completions scripts (JSON-encoded).

See --zsh-per-user-dir.

--zsh-per-user-dir=s@

Directory to put completions scripts.

Can be specified multiple times.

COMPLETION

This script has shell tab completion capability with support for several shells.

bash

To activate bash completion for this script, put:

complete -C shcompgen shcompgen

in your bash startup (e.g. ~/.bashrc). Your next shell session will then recognize tab completion for the command. Or, you can also directly execute the line above in your shell to activate immediately.

It is recommended, however, that you install shcompgen which allows you to activate completion scripts for several kinds of scripts on multiple shells. Some CPAN distributions (those that are built with Dist::Zilla::Plugin::GenShellCompletion) will even automatically enable shell completion for their included scripts (using shcompgen) at installation time, so you can immadiately have tab completion.

tcsh

To activate tcsh completion for this script, put:

complete shcompgen 'p/*/`shcompgen`/'

in your tcsh startup (e.g. ~/.tcshrc). Your next shell session will then recognize tab completion for the command. Or, you can also directly execute the line above in your shell to activate immediately.

It is also recommended to install shcompgen (see above).

other shells

For fish and zsh, install shcompgen as described above.

CONFIGURATION FILE

This script can read configuration files. Configuration files are in the format of IOD, which is basically INI with some extra features.

By default, these names are searched for configuration filenames (can be changed using --config-path): ~/.config/shcompgen.conf, ~/shcompgen.conf, or /etc/shcompgen.conf.

All found files will be read and merged.

To disable searching for configuration files, pass --no-config.

To put configuration for a certain subcommand only, use a section name like [subcommand=NAME] or [SOMESECTION subcommand=NAME].

You can put multiple profiles in a single file by using section names like [profile=SOMENAME] or [SOMESECTION profile=SOMENAME] or [subcommand=SUBCOMMAND_NAME profile=SOMENAME] or [SOMESECTION subcommand=SUBCOMMAND_NAME profile=SOMENAME]. Those sections will only be read if you specify the matching --config-profile SOMENAME.

You can also put configuration for multiple programs inside a single file, and use filter program=NAME in section names, e.g. [program=NAME ...] or [SOMESECTION program=NAME]. The section will then only be used when the reading program matches.

Finally, you can filter a section by environment variable using the filter env=CONDITION in section names. For example if you only want a section to be read if a certain environment variable is true: [env=SOMEVAR ...] or [SOMESECTION env=SOMEVAR ...]. If you only want a section to be read when the value of an environment variable has value equals something: [env=HOSTNAME=blink ...] or [SOMESECTION env=HOSTNAME=blink ...]. If you only want a section to be read when the value of an environment variable does not equal something: [env=HOSTNAME!=blink ...] or [SOMESECTION env=HOSTNAME!=blink ...]. If you only want a section to be read when an environment variable contains something: [env=HOSTNAME*=server ...] or [SOMESECTION env=HOSTNAME*=server ...]. Note that currently due to simplistic parsing, there must not be any whitespace in the value being compared because it marks the beginning of a new section filter or section name.

List of available configuration parameters:

Common for all subcommands

format (see --format)
log_level (see --log-level)
naked_res (see --naked-res)

Configuration for subcommand 'detect-prog'

prog (see --prog)
shell (see --shell)

Configuration for subcommand 'generate'

bash_global_dir (see --bash-global-dir)
bash_per_user_dir (see --bash-per-user-dir)
fish_global_dir (see --fish-global-dir)
fish_per_user_dir (see --fish-per-user-dir)
global (see --global)
prog (see --prog)
remove (see --remove)
replace (see --replace)
shell (see --shell)
stdout (see --stdout)
zsh_global_dir (see --zsh-global-dir)
zsh_per_user_dir (see --zsh-per-user-dir)

Configuration for subcommand 'guess-shell'

Configuration for subcommand 'init'

bash_global_dir (see --bash-global-dir)
bash_per_user_dir (see --bash-per-user-dir)
fish_global_dir (see --fish-global-dir)
fish_per_user_dir (see --fish-per-user-dir)
global (see --global)
shell (see --shell)
zsh_global_dir (see --zsh-global-dir)
zsh_per_user_dir (see --zsh-per-user-dir)

Configuration for subcommand 'list'

bash_global_dir (see --bash-global-dir)
bash_per_user_dir (see --bash-per-user-dir)
detail (see --detail)
fish_global_dir (see --fish-global-dir)
fish_per_user_dir (see --fish-per-user-dir)
global (see --global)
shell (see --shell)
zsh_global_dir (see --zsh-global-dir)
zsh_per_user_dir (see --zsh-per-user-dir)

Configuration for subcommand 'remove'

bash_global_dir (see --bash-global-dir)
bash_per_user_dir (see --bash-per-user-dir)
fish_global_dir (see --fish-global-dir)
fish_per_user_dir (see --fish-per-user-dir)
global (see --global)
prog (see --prog)
shell (see --shell)
zsh_global_dir (see --zsh-global-dir)
zsh_per_user_dir (see --zsh-per-user-dir)

ENVIRONMENT

SHCOMPGEN_OPT => str

Specify additional command-line options

FILES

~/.config/shcompgen.conf

~/shcompgen.conf

/etc/shcompgen.conf

HOMEPAGE

Please visit the project's homepage at https://metacpan.org/release/App-shcompgen.

SOURCE

Source repository is at https://github.com/perlancar/perl-App-shcompgen.

BUGS

Please report any bugs or feature requests on the bugtracker website https://rt.cpan.org/Public/Dist/Display.html?Name=App-shcompgen

When submitting a bug or request, please include a test-file or a patch to an existing test-file that illustrates the bug or desired feature.

SEE ALSO

Dist::Zilla::Plugin::GenShellCompletion

AUTHOR

perlancar <perlancar@cpan.org>

COPYRIGHT AND LICENSE

This software is copyright (c) 2016 by perlancar@cpan.org.

This is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as the Perl 5 programming language system itself.