Re: Prefixed backslash removed when completing command

[Peter Stephenson <Peter.Stephenson@xxxxxxx>]

On Thu, 20 May 2010 13:28:51 +0200
Mikael Auno <auno@xxxxxx> wrote:
> Hi. I don't know if prefixing a command with a backslash to suppress
> alias expansion is a intentional feature or not. If it is though, tab
> completing a (complete or incomplete) command prefixed with a
> backslash ought not remove the backslash. Current behavior seems to
> be to complete something like "\mpla" to "mplayer" and not to
> "\mplayer" as I would expect.
> 
> I would be happy to try to fix it myself if no one has time to do it.
> A pointer on where to start looking in that case would be good though
> as I'm not at all familiar with the code of Zsh.

You're quite right that this should work better, but I suspect fixing it is
a real pig.  Quoting is one of the messiest parts of completion (regular
viewers will know this is rather a strong statement).  I think fixing it
properly by leaving all quoting in place isn't going to be easy (to put it
mildly).

I think you have a workaround, though: use an initial single quote.  Not
only does that get kept, the closing single quote is put in place
afterwards.  Is this good enough?  (It would be good to document this but
goodness knows where it goes.)

-- 
Peter Stephenson <pws@xxxxxxx>            Software Engineer
Tel: +44 (0)1223 692070                   Cambridge Silicon Radio Limited
Churchill House, Cambridge Business Park, Cowley Road, Cambridge, CB4 0WZ, UK




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