Re: completion for compilers (cc, gcc...) and -o

[Vincent Lefevre <vincent@xxxxxxxxxx>]

On 2020-04-30 22:05:32 +0000, Daniel Shahaf wrote:
> Vincent Lefevre wrote on Thu, 30 Apr 2020 20:17 +00:00:
> > On 2020-04-30 18:14:59 +0000, Daniel Shahaf wrote:
> > > Vincent Lefevre wrote on Thu, 30 Apr 2020 10:51 +0200:
> > > > The -o option is currently handled by
> > > > 
> > > >   '-o:output file:_files -g "^*.(c|h|cc|C|cxx)(-.)"'
> > > > 
> > > > I wonder whether .i files (preprocessed files, e.g. for bug reports)
> > > > should be excluded too. One can choose such files for output with
> > > > "gcc -E", but:
> > > >   * in this case, one generally chooses to use the shorter ">" (or a
> > > >     pipe) rather than "-o" (gcc -E file.c > file.i);
> > > 
> > > I don't see how the existence of other ways to create .i files is
> > > a reason not to complete .i files after -o.
> > 
> > I've googled a bit, and most examples with -E and storage in a file
> > used the redirection.
> 
> You've got your conditional probabilities backwards.  The _a priori_
> likelihood that -o should be used to create a .i file is irrelevant to
> what should be completed after -o.

The issue is that with a completion result on -o that is unexpected by
the user, there is a risk of destroying a source file, while the user
may expect something more sensible.

And note that after all, filename extensions are just conventions,
and the whole completion system is based on it, so that for instance,
completion on "xz -c" will not propose filenames that do not end with
".xz" (except when there are no other candidates), even though there
may be unlikely candidates without a ".xz" suffix.

> > BTW, all examples used the -E first, so perhaps
> > accept .i files for -o only when -E is present.
> > 
> > Note that GCC describes .i files as source files (among other
> > extensions of source files).
> 
> They're _intermediate_ files; they can be either input or output.  But
> they _can_ be output, so we should complete them, shouldn't we?

I would say only with -E, then.

Typing "gcc file.i -o f[TAB]" and getting "gcc file.i -o file.i"
does not make any sense.

-- 
Vincent Lefèvre <vincent@xxxxxxxxxx> - Web: <https://www.vinc17.net/>
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Work: CR INRIA - computer arithmetic / AriC project (LIP, ENS-Lyon)