fish-shell/doc_src/cmds/commandline.rst

.. _cmd-commandline:

commandline - set or get the current command line buffer
========================================================

Synopsis
--------

.. synopsis::

    commandline [OPTIONS] [CMD]

Description
-----------

``commandline`` can be used to set or get the current contents of the command line buffer.

With no parameters, ``commandline`` returns the current value of the command line.

With **CMD** specified, the command line buffer is erased and replaced with the contents of **CMD**.

The following options are available:

**-C** or **--cursor**
    Set or get the current cursor position, not the contents of the buffer.
    If no argument is given, the current cursor position is printed, otherwise the argument is interpreted as the new cursor position.
    If one of the options **-j**, **-p** or **-t** is given, the position is relative to the respective substring instead of the entire command line buffer.

**-B** or **--selection-start**
    Get current position of the selection start in the buffer.

**-E** or **--selection-end**
    Get current position of the selection end in the buffer.

**-f** or **--function**
    Causes any additional arguments to be interpreted as input functions, and puts them into the queue, so that they will be read before any additional actual key presses are.
    This option cannot be combined with any other option.
    See :doc:`bind <bind>` for a list of input functions.

**-h** or **--help**
    Displays help about using this command.

The following options change the way ``commandline`` updates the command line buffer:

**-a** or **--append**
    Do not remove the current commandline, append the specified string at the end of it.

**-i** or **--insert**
    Do not remove the current commandline, insert the specified string at the current cursor position

**-r** or **--replace**
    Remove the current commandline and replace it with the specified string (default)

The following options change what part of the commandline is printed or updated:

**-b** or **--current-buffer**
    Select the entire commandline, not including any displayed autosuggestion (default).

**-j** or **--current-job**
    Select the current job - a **job** here is one pipeline.
    Stops at logical operators or terminators (**;**, **&**, and newlines).

**-p** or **--current-process**
    Select the current process - a **process** here is one command.
    Stops at logical operators, terminators, and pipes.

**-s** or **--current-selection**
    Selects the current selection

**-t** or **--current-token**
    Selects the current token

The following options change the way ``commandline`` prints the current commandline buffer:

**-c** or **--cut-at-cursor**
    Only print selection up until the current cursor position.
    If combined with ``--tokenize``, this will print up until the last completed token - excluding the token the cursor is in.
    This is typically what you would want for instance in completions.
    To get both, use both ``commandline --cut-at-cursor --tokenize; commandline --cut-at-cursor --current-token``,
    or ``commandline -co; commandline -ct`` for short.

**-o** or **--tokenize**
    Tokenize the selection and print one string-type token per line.

If ``commandline`` is called during a call to complete a given string using ``complete -C STRING``, ``commandline`` will consider the specified string to be the current contents of the command line.

The following options output metadata about the commandline state:

**-L** or **--line**
    Print the line that the cursor is on, with the topmost line starting at 1.

**-S** or **--search-mode**
    Evaluates to true if the commandline is performing a history search.

**-P** or **--paging-mode**
    Evaluates to true if the commandline is showing pager contents, such as tab completions.

**--paging-full-mode**
    Evaluates to true if the commandline is showing pager contents, such as tab completions and all lines are shown (no "<n> more rows" message).

**--is-valid**
    Returns true when the commandline is syntactically valid and complete.
    If it is, it would be executed when the ``execute`` bind function is called.
    If the commandline is incomplete, return 2, if erroneus, return 1.

Example
-------

``commandline -j $history[3]`` replaces the job under the cursor with the third item from the command line history.

If the commandline contains


::

    >_ echo $flounder >&2 | less; and echo $catfish


(with the cursor on the "o" of "flounder")

The ``echo $flounder >&`` is the first process, ``less`` the second and ``and echo $catfish`` the third.

``echo $flounder >&2 | less`` is the first job, ``and echo $catfish`` the second.

**$flounder** is the current token.

The most common use for something like completions is

::

   set -l tokens (commandline -opc)

which gives the current *process* (what is being completed), tokenized into separate entries, up to but excluding the currently being completed token

If you are then also interested in the in-progress token, add

::
   set -l current (commandline -ct)

Note that this makes it easy to render fish's infix matching moot - if possible it's best if the completions just print all possibilities and leave the matching to the current token up to fish's logic.

More examples:

::

    >_ commandline -t
    $flounder
    >_ commandline -ct
    $fl
    >_ commandline -b # or just commandline
    echo $flounder >&2 | less; and echo $catfish
    >_ commandline -p
    echo $flounder >&2
    >_ commandline -j
    echo $flounder >&2 | less
docs: Add labels to all commands This allows us to use :ref: references, which don't require hardcoding it as html [ci skip] 2019-03-31 17:05:09 +08:00			`.. _cmd-commandline:`

Switch command docs from \section to reStructuredText 2018-12-17 09:39:33 +08:00			`commandline - set or get the current command line buffer`
Fix command section separator line lengths 2019-01-03 12:10:47 +08:00			`========================================================`
Switch command docs from \section to reStructuredText 2018-12-17 09:39:33 +08:00
Migrate the 'synopsis' sections to .rst format 2018-12-18 09:58:24 +08:00			`Synopsis`
			`--------`
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docs synopsis: add HTML highlighing and automate manpage markup Recent synopsis changes move from literal code blocks to [RST line blocks]. This does not translate well to HTML: it's not rendered in monospace, so aligment is lost. Additionally, we don't get syntax highlighting in HTML, which adds differences to our code samples which are highlighted. We hard-wrap synopsis lines (like code blocks). To align continuation lines in manpages we need [backslashes in weird places]. Combined with the *, , and `` markup, it's a bit hard to get the alignment right. Fix these by moving synopsis sources back to code blocks and compute HTML syntax highlighting and manpage markup with a custom Sphinx extension. The new Pygments lexer can tokenize a synopsis and assign the various highlighting roles, which closely matches fish's syntax highlighing: - command/keyword (dark blue) - parameter (light blue) - operator like and/or/not/&&/\|\| (cyan) - grammar metacharacter (black) For manpage output, we don't project the fish syntax highlighting but follow the markup convention in GNU's man(1): bold text type exactly as shown. italic text replace with appropriate argument. To make it easy to separate these two automatically, formalize that (italic) placeholders must be uppercase; while all lowercase text is interpreted literally (so rendered bold). This makes manpages more consistent, see string-join(1) and and(1). Implementation notes: Since we want manpage formatting but Sphinx's Pygments highlighing plugin does not support manpage output, add our custom "synopsis" directive. This directive parses differently when manpage output is specified. This means that the HTML and manpage build processes must not share a cache, because the parsed doctrees are cached. Work around this by using separate cache locations for build targets "sphinx-docs" (which creates HTML) and "sphinx-manpages". A better solution would be to only override Sphinx's ManualPageBuilder but that would take a bit more code (ideally we could override ManualPageWriter but Sphinx 4.3.2 doesn't really support that). --- Alternative solution: stick with line blocks but use roles like :command: or :option: (or custom ones). While this would make it possible to produce HTML that is consistent with code blocks (by adding a bit of CSS), the source would look uglier and is harder to maintain. (Let's say we want to add custom formatting to the [\|] metacharacters in HTML. This is much easier with the proposed patch.) --- [RST line blocks]: https://docutils.sourceforge.io/docs/ref/rst/restructuredtext.html#line-blocks [backslashes in weird places]: https://github.com/fish-shell/fish-shell/pull/8626#discussion_r782837750 2022-01-09 22:09:46 +08:00			`.. synopsis::`

			`commandline [OPTIONS] [CMD]`
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Convert \\subsection sections into rst format 2018-12-19 10:44:30 +08:00			`Description`
Fix command section separator line lengths 2019-01-03 12:10:47 +08:00			`-----------`
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Switch backticks to double backticks for rst compatibility 2018-12-20 04:02:45 +08:00			``commandline`` can be used to set or get the current contents of the command line buffer.
Copy doc_src to sphinx_doc_src and add a TOC 2018-12-17 05:08:41 +08:00
Switch backticks to double backticks for rst compatibility 2018-12-20 04:02:45 +08:00			With no parameters, ``commandline`` returns the current value of the command line.
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cd, cdh, command, commandline Documentation. 2021-12-09 20:45:10 +08:00			`With CMD specified, the command line buffer is erased and replaced with the contents of CMD.`
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			`The following options are available:`

cd, cdh, command, commandline Documentation. 2021-12-09 20:45:10 +08:00			`-C or --cursor`
			`Set or get the current cursor position, not the contents of the buffer.`
			`If no argument is given, the current cursor position is printed, otherwise the argument is interpreted as the new cursor position.`
			`If one of the options -j, -p or -t is given, the position is relative to the respective substring instead of the entire command line buffer.`
Copy doc_src to sphinx_doc_src and add a TOC 2018-12-17 05:08:41 +08:00
`commandline --selection-start` and `--selection-end` implementation Fixes #9197 2022-10-06 00:51:00 +08:00			`-B or --selection-start`
			`Get current position of the selection start in the buffer.`

			`-E or --selection-end`
			`Get current position of the selection end in the buffer.`

cd, cdh, command, commandline Documentation. 2021-12-09 20:45:10 +08:00			`-f or --function`
			`Causes any additional arguments to be interpreted as input functions, and puts them into the queue, so that they will be read before any additional actual key presses are.`
			`This option cannot be combined with any other option.`
docs: Use :doc: role when linking to commands This makes it so we link to the very top of the document instead of a special anchor we manually include. So clicking e.g. :doc:`string <cmds/string>` will link you to cmds/string.html instead of cmds/string.html#cmd-string. I would love to have a way to say "this document from the root of the document path", but that doesn't appear to work, I tried `/cmds/string`. So we'll just have to use cmds/string in normal documents and plain `string` from other commands. 2022-09-24 01:57:49 +08:00			See :doc:`bind <bind>` for a list of input functions.
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docs: omnibus cleanup Includes harmonizing the display of options and arguments, standardising terminology, using the envvar directive more broadly, adding help options to all commands that support them, simplifying some language, and tidying up multiple formatting issues. string documentation is not changed. 2022-03-12 00:18:41 +08:00			`-h or --help`
			`Displays help about using this command.`

Switch backticks to double backticks for rst compatibility 2018-12-20 04:02:45 +08:00			The following options change the way ``commandline`` updates the command line buffer:
Copy doc_src to sphinx_doc_src and add a TOC 2018-12-17 05:08:41 +08:00
cd, cdh, command, commandline Documentation. 2021-12-09 20:45:10 +08:00			`-a or --append`
			`Do not remove the current commandline, append the specified string at the end of it.`
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cd, cdh, command, commandline Documentation. 2021-12-09 20:45:10 +08:00			`-i or --insert`
			`Do not remove the current commandline, insert the specified string at the current cursor position`
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cd, cdh, command, commandline Documentation. 2021-12-09 20:45:10 +08:00			`-r or --replace`
			`Remove the current commandline and replace it with the specified string (default)`
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			`The following options change what part of the commandline is printed or updated:`

cd, cdh, command, commandline Documentation. 2021-12-09 20:45:10 +08:00			`-b or --current-buffer`
			`Select the entire commandline, not including any displayed autosuggestion (default).`
Copy doc_src to sphinx_doc_src and add a TOC 2018-12-17 05:08:41 +08:00
cd, cdh, command, commandline Documentation. 2021-12-09 20:45:10 +08:00			`-j or --current-job`
			`Select the current job - a job here is one pipeline.`
			`Stops at logical operators or terminators (;, &, and newlines).`
Copy doc_src to sphinx_doc_src and add a TOC 2018-12-17 05:08:41 +08:00
cd, cdh, command, commandline Documentation. 2021-12-09 20:45:10 +08:00			`-p or --current-process`
			`Select the current process - a process here is one command.`
			`Stops at logical operators, terminators, and pipes.`
Copy doc_src to sphinx_doc_src and add a TOC 2018-12-17 05:08:41 +08:00
cd, cdh, command, commandline Documentation. 2021-12-09 20:45:10 +08:00			`-s or --current-selection`
			`Selects the current selection`
Copy doc_src to sphinx_doc_src and add a TOC 2018-12-17 05:08:41 +08:00
cd, cdh, command, commandline Documentation. 2021-12-09 20:45:10 +08:00			`-t or --current-token`
			`Selects the current token`
Copy doc_src to sphinx_doc_src and add a TOC 2018-12-17 05:08:41 +08:00
Switch backticks to double backticks for rst compatibility 2018-12-20 04:02:45 +08:00			The following options change the way ``commandline`` prints the current commandline buffer:
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cd, cdh, command, commandline Documentation. 2021-12-09 20:45:10 +08:00			`-c or --cut-at-cursor`
			`Only print selection up until the current cursor position.`
docs/commandline: Add more on the -oc/-ct thing This was the remaining immediately actionable part of #7375. It's not definitely the last word, but a change here would require a bigger plan. Fixes #7375 2023-09-09 00:25:17 +08:00			If combined with ``--tokenize``, this will print up until the last completed token - excluding the token the cursor is in.
			`This is typically what you would want for instance in completions.`
			To get both, use both ``commandline --cut-at-cursor --tokenize; commandline --cut-at-cursor --current-token``,
			or ``commandline -co; commandline -ct`` for short.
Copy doc_src to sphinx_doc_src and add a TOC 2018-12-17 05:08:41 +08:00
cd, cdh, command, commandline Documentation. 2021-12-09 20:45:10 +08:00			`-o or --tokenize`
			`Tokenize the selection and print one string-type token per line.`
Copy doc_src to sphinx_doc_src and add a TOC 2018-12-17 05:08:41 +08:00
Switch backticks to double backticks for rst compatibility 2018-12-20 04:02:45 +08:00			If ``commandline`` is called during a call to complete a given string using ``complete -C STRING``, ``commandline`` will consider the specified string to be the current contents of the command line.
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			`The following options output metadata about the commandline state:`

cd, cdh, command, commandline Documentation. 2021-12-09 20:45:10 +08:00			`-L or --line`
			`Print the line that the cursor is on, with the topmost line starting at 1.`
Copy doc_src to sphinx_doc_src and add a TOC 2018-12-17 05:08:41 +08:00
cd, cdh, command, commandline Documentation. 2021-12-09 20:45:10 +08:00			`-S or --search-mode`
			`Evaluates to true if the commandline is performing a history search.`
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cd, cdh, command, commandline Documentation. 2021-12-09 20:45:10 +08:00			`-P or --paging-mode`
			`Evaluates to true if the commandline is showing pager contents, such as tab completions.`
Copy doc_src to sphinx_doc_src and add a TOC 2018-12-17 05:08:41 +08:00
cd, cdh, command, commandline Documentation. 2021-12-09 20:45:10 +08:00			`--paging-full-mode`
			`Evaluates to true if the commandline is showing pager contents, such as tab completions and all lines are shown (no "<n> more rows" message).`
builtin commandline: add option to determine if pager is fully disclosed Use the remaining_to_disclose count to determine if all completions are shown (allows consistent behavior between short and long completion lists). Closes #8485 2021-11-25 07:03:20 +08:00
cd, cdh, command, commandline Documentation. 2021-12-09 20:45:10 +08:00			`--is-valid`
			`Returns true when the commandline is syntactically valid and complete.`
			If it is, it would be executed when the ``execute`` bind function is called.
			`If the commandline is incomplete, return 2, if erroneus, return 1.`
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Convert \\subsection sections into rst format 2018-12-19 10:44:30 +08:00			`Example`
Fix command section separator line lengths 2019-01-03 12:10:47 +08:00			`-------`
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Switch backticks to double backticks for rst compatibility 2018-12-20 04:02:45 +08:00			``commandline -j $history[3]`` replaces the job under the cursor with the third item from the command line history.
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			`If the commandline contains`
Switch \fish sections to rst format 2018-12-19 11:14:04 +08:00

			`::`

docs: Clarify commandline parts This was quite confusing as it was basically just documented with a teensy example later on. See #6583. [ci skip] 2020-02-12 03:42:12 +08:00			`>_ echo $flounder >&2 \| less; and echo $catfish`
Switch \fish sections to rst format 2018-12-19 11:14:04 +08:00
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			`(with the cursor on the "o" of "flounder")`

docs: use monospace for inline code snippets more consistently 2020-10-27 02:19:05 +08:00			The ``echo $flounder >&`` is the first process, ``less`` the second and ``and echo $catfish`` the third.
docs: Clarify commandline parts This was quite confusing as it was basically just documented with a teensy example later on. See #6583. [ci skip] 2020-02-12 03:42:12 +08:00
docs: use monospace for inline code snippets more consistently 2020-10-27 02:19:05 +08:00			``echo $flounder >&2 \| less`` is the first job, ``and echo $catfish`` the second.
docs: Clarify commandline parts This was quite confusing as it was basically just documented with a teensy example later on. See #6583. [ci skip] 2020-02-12 03:42:12 +08:00
cd, cdh, command, commandline Documentation. 2021-12-09 20:45:10 +08:00			`$flounder is the current token.`
docs: Clarify commandline parts This was quite confusing as it was basically just documented with a teensy example later on. See #6583. [ci skip] 2020-02-12 03:42:12 +08:00
docs/commandline: Add more on the -oc/-ct thing This was the remaining immediately actionable part of #7375. It's not definitely the last word, but a change here would require a bigger plan. Fixes #7375 2023-09-09 00:25:17 +08:00			`The most common use for something like completions is`

			`::`

			`set -l tokens (commandline -opc)`

			`which gives the current process (what is being completed), tokenized into separate entries, up to but excluding the currently being completed token`
Switch \fish sections to rst format 2018-12-19 11:14:04 +08:00
docs/commandline: Add more on the -oc/-ct thing This was the remaining immediately actionable part of #7375. It's not definitely the last word, but a change here would require a bigger plan. Fixes #7375 2023-09-09 00:25:17 +08:00			`If you are then also interested in the in-progress token, add`

			`::`
			`set -l current (commandline -ct)`

			`Note that this makes it easy to render fish's infix matching moot - if possible it's best if the completions just print all possibilities and leave the matching to the current token up to fish's logic.`

			`More examples:`
Switch \fish sections to rst format 2018-12-19 11:14:04 +08:00
			`::`

			`>_ commandline -t`
			`$flounder`
			`>_ commandline -ct`
			`$fl`
			`>_ commandline -b # or just commandline`
			`echo $flounder >&2 \| less; and echo $catfish`
			`>_ commandline -p`
			`echo $flounder >&2`
			`>_ commandline -j`
			`echo $flounder >&2 \| less`