// Copyright (c) 2008, Google Inc. // All rights reserved. // // Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without // modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions are // met: // // * Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright // notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer. // * Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above // copyright notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer // in the documentation and/or other materials provided with the // distribution. // * Neither the name of Google Inc. nor the names of its // contributors may be used to endorse or promote products derived from // this software without specific prior written permission. // // THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS AND CONTRIBUTORS // "AS IS" AND ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT // LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR // A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE COPYRIGHT // OWNER OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, // SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT // LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, // DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY // THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT // (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE // OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE. // // --- // Author: Dave Nicponski // // Implement helpful bash-style command line flag completions // // ** Functional API: // HandleCommandLineCompletions() should be called early during // program startup, but after command line flag code has been // initialized, such as the beginning of HandleCommandLineHelpFlags(). // It checks the value of the flag --tab_completion_word. If this // flag is empty, nothing happens here. If it contains a string, // however, then HandleCommandLineCompletions() will hijack the // process, attempting to identify the intention behind this // completion. Regardless of the outcome of this deduction, the // process will be terminated, similar to --helpshort flag // handling. // // ** Overview of Bash completions: // Bash can be told to programatically determine completions for the // current 'cursor word'. It does this by (in this case) invoking a // command with some additional arguments identifying the command // being executed, the word being completed, and the previous word // (if any). Bash then expects a sequence of output lines to be // printed to stdout. If these lines all contain a common prefix // longer than the cursor word, bash will replace the cursor word // with that common prefix, and display nothing. If there isn't such // a common prefix, bash will display the lines in pages using 'more'. // // ** Strategy taken for command line completions: // If we can deduce either the exact flag intended, or a common flag // prefix, we'll output exactly that. Otherwise, if information // must be displayed to the user, we'll take the opportunity to add // some helpful information beyond just the flag name (specifically, // we'll include the default flag value and as much of the flag's // description as can fit on a single terminal line width, as specified // by the flag --tab_completion_columns). Furthermore, we'll try to // make bash order the output such that the most useful or relevent // flags are the most likely to be shown at the top. // // ** Additional features: // To assist in finding that one really useful flag, substring matching // was implemented. Before pressing a <TAB> to get completion for the // current word, you can append one or more '?' to the flag to do // substring matching. Here's the semantics: // --foo<TAB> Show me all flags with names prefixed by 'foo' // --foo?<TAB> Show me all flags with 'foo' somewhere in the name // --foo??<TAB> Same as prior case, but also search in module // definition path for 'foo' // --foo???<TAB> Same as prior case, but also search in flag // descriptions for 'foo' // Finally, we'll trim the output to a relatively small number of // flags to keep bash quiet about the verbosity of output. If one // really wanted to see all possible matches, appending a '+' to the // search word will force the exhaustive list of matches to be printed. // // ** How to have bash accept completions from a binary: // Bash requires that it be informed about each command that programmatic // completion should be enabled for. Example addition to a .bashrc // file would be (your path to gflags_completions.sh file may differ): /* $ complete -o bashdefault -o default -o nospace -C \ '/usr/local/bin/gflags_completions.sh --tab_completion_columns $COLUMNS' \ time env binary_name another_binary [...] */ // This would allow the following to work: // $ /path/to/binary_name --vmodule<TAB> // Or: // $ ./bin/path/another_binary --gfs_u<TAB> // (etc) // // Sadly, it appears that bash gives no easy way to force this behavior for // all commands. That's where the "time" in the above example comes in. // If you haven't specifically added a command to the list of completion // supported commands, you can still get completions by prefixing the // entire command with "env". // $ env /some/brand/new/binary --vmod<TAB> // Assuming that "binary" is a newly compiled binary, this should still // produce the expected completion output. #ifndef GOOGLE_GFLAGS_COMPLETIONS_H_ #define GOOGLE_GFLAGS_COMPLETIONS_H_ namespace google { void HandleCommandLineCompletions(void); } #endif // GOOGLE_GFLAGS_COMPLETIONS_H_