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- argcomplete - Bash tab completion for argparse
- ==============================================
- *Tab complete all the things!*
- Argcomplete provides easy, extensible command line tab completion of arguments for your Python script.
- It makes two assumptions:
- * You're using bash as your shell (limited support for zsh, fish, and tcsh is available)
- * You're using `argparse <http://docs.python.org/3/library/argparse.html>`_ to manage your command line arguments/options
- Argcomplete is particularly useful if your program has lots of options or subparsers, and if your program can
- dynamically suggest completions for your argument/option values (for example, if the user is browsing resources over
- the network).
- Installation
- ------------
- ::
- pip3 install argcomplete
- activate-global-python-argcomplete
- See `Activating global completion`_ below for details about the second step (or if it reports an error).
- Refresh your bash environment (start a new shell or ``source /etc/profile``).
- Synopsis
- --------
- Python code (e.g. ``my-awesome-script``):
- .. code-block:: python
- #!/usr/bin/env python
- # PYTHON_ARGCOMPLETE_OK
- import argcomplete, argparse
- parser = argparse.ArgumentParser()
- ...
- argcomplete.autocomplete(parser)
- args = parser.parse_args()
- ...
- Shellcode (only necessary if global completion is not activated - see `Global completion`_ below), to be put in e.g. ``.bashrc``::
- eval "$(register-python-argcomplete my-awesome-script)"
- argcomplete.autocomplete(*parser*)
- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
- This method is the entry point to the module. It must be called **after** ArgumentParser construction is complete, but
- **before** the ``ArgumentParser.parse_args()`` method is called. The method looks for an environment variable that the
- completion hook shellcode sets, and if it's there, collects completions, prints them to the output stream (fd 8 by
- default), and exits. Otherwise, it returns to the caller immediately.
- .. admonition:: Side effects
- Argcomplete gets completions by running your program. It intercepts the execution flow at the moment
- ``argcomplete.autocomplete()`` is called. After sending completions, it exits using ``exit_method`` (``os._exit``
- by default). This means if your program has any side effects that happen before ``argcomplete`` is called, those
- side effects will happen every time the user presses ``<TAB>`` (although anything your program prints to stdout or
- stderr will be suppressed). For this reason it's best to construct the argument parser and call
- ``argcomplete.autocomplete()`` as early as possible in your execution flow.
- .. admonition:: Performance
- If the program takes a long time to get to the point where ``argcomplete.autocomplete()`` is called, the tab completion
- process will feel sluggish, and the user may lose confidence in it. So it's also important to minimize the startup time
- of the program up to that point (for example, by deferring initialization or importing of large modules until after
- parsing options).
- Specifying completers
- ---------------------
- You can specify custom completion functions for your options and arguments. Two styles are supported: callable and
- readline-style. Callable completers are simpler. They are called with the following keyword arguments:
- * ``prefix``: The prefix text of the last word before the cursor on the command line.
- For dynamic completers, this can be used to reduce the work required to generate possible completions.
- * ``action``: The ``argparse.Action`` instance that this completer was called for.
- * ``parser``: The ``argparse.ArgumentParser`` instance that the action was taken by.
- * ``parsed_args``: The result of argument parsing so far (the ``argparse.Namespace`` args object normally returned by
- ``ArgumentParser.parse_args()``).
- Completers should return their completions as a list of strings. An example completer for names of environment
- variables might look like this:
- .. code-block:: python
- def EnvironCompleter(**kwargs):
- return os.environ
- To specify a completer for an argument or option, set the ``completer`` attribute of its associated action. An easy
- way to do this at definition time is:
- .. code-block:: python
- from argcomplete.completers import EnvironCompleter
- parser = argparse.ArgumentParser()
- parser.add_argument("--env-var1").completer = EnvironCompleter
- parser.add_argument("--env-var2").completer = EnvironCompleter
- argcomplete.autocomplete(parser)
- If you specify the ``choices`` keyword for an argparse option or argument (and don't specify a completer), it will be
- used for completions.
- A completer that is initialized with a set of all possible choices of values for its action might look like this:
- .. code-block:: python
- class ChoicesCompleter(object):
- def __init__(self, choices):
- self.choices = choices
- def __call__(self, **kwargs):
- return self.choices
- The following two ways to specify a static set of choices are equivalent for completion purposes:
- .. code-block:: python
- from argcomplete.completers import ChoicesCompleter
- parser.add_argument("--protocol", choices=('http', 'https', 'ssh', 'rsync', 'wss'))
- parser.add_argument("--proto").completer=ChoicesCompleter(('http', 'https', 'ssh', 'rsync', 'wss'))
- Note that if you use the ``choices=<completions>`` option, argparse will show
- all these choices in the ``--help`` output by default. To prevent this, set
- ``metavar`` (like ``parser.add_argument("--protocol", metavar="PROTOCOL",
- choices=('http', 'https', 'ssh', 'rsync', 'wss'))``).
- The following `script <https://raw.github.com/kislyuk/argcomplete/master/docs/examples/describe_github_user.py>`_ uses
- ``parsed_args`` and `Requests <http://python-requests.org/>`_ to query GitHub for publicly known members of an
- organization and complete their names, then prints the member description:
- .. code-block:: python
- #!/usr/bin/env python
- # PYTHON_ARGCOMPLETE_OK
- import argcomplete, argparse, requests, pprint
- def github_org_members(prefix, parsed_args, **kwargs):
- resource = "https://api.github.com/orgs/{org}/members".format(org=parsed_args.organization)
- return (member['login'] for member in requests.get(resource).json() if member['login'].startswith(prefix))
- parser = argparse.ArgumentParser()
- parser.add_argument("--organization", help="GitHub organization")
- parser.add_argument("--member", help="GitHub member").completer = github_org_members
- argcomplete.autocomplete(parser)
- args = parser.parse_args()
- pprint.pprint(requests.get("https://api.github.com/users/{m}".format(m=args.member)).json())
- `Try it <https://raw.github.com/kislyuk/argcomplete/master/docs/examples/describe_github_user.py>`_ like this::
- ./describe_github_user.py --organization heroku --member <TAB>
- If you have a useful completer to add to the `completer library
- <https://github.com/kislyuk/argcomplete/blob/master/argcomplete/completers.py>`_, send a pull request!
- Readline-style completers
- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
- The readline_ module defines a completer protocol in rlcompleter_. Readline-style completers are also supported by
- argcomplete, so you can use the same completer object both in an interactive readline-powered shell and on the bash
- command line. For example, you can use the readline-style completer provided by IPython_ to get introspective
- completions like you would get in the IPython shell:
- .. _readline: http://docs.python.org/3/library/readline.html
- .. _rlcompleter: http://docs.python.org/3/library/rlcompleter.html#completer-objects
- .. _IPython: http://ipython.org/
- .. code-block:: python
- import IPython
- parser.add_argument("--python-name").completer = IPython.core.completer.Completer()
- ``argcomplete.CompletionFinder.rl_complete`` can also be used to plug in an argparse parser as a readline completer.
- Printing warnings in completers
- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
- Normal stdout/stderr output is suspended when argcomplete runs. Sometimes, though, when the user presses ``<TAB>``, it's
- appropriate to print information about why completions generation failed. To do this, use ``warn``:
- .. code-block:: python
- from argcomplete import warn
- def AwesomeWebServiceCompleter(prefix, **kwargs):
- if login_failed:
- warn("Please log in to Awesome Web Service to use autocompletion")
- return completions
- Using a custom completion validator
- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
- By default, argcomplete validates your completions by checking if they start with the prefix given to the completer. You
- can override this validation check by supplying the ``validator`` keyword to ``argcomplete.autocomplete()``:
- .. code-block:: python
- def my_validator(current_input, keyword_to_check_against):
- # Pass through ALL options even if they don't all start with 'current_input'
- return True
- argcomplete.autocomplete(parser, validator=my_validator)
- Global completion
- -----------------
- In global completion mode, you don't have to register each argcomplete-capable executable separately. Instead, bash
- will look for the string **PYTHON_ARGCOMPLETE_OK** in the first 1024 bytes of any executable that it's running
- completion for, and if it's found, follow the rest of the argcomplete protocol as described above.
- Additionally, completion is activated for scripts run as ``python <script>`` and ``python -m <module>``.
- This also works for alternate Python versions (e.g. ``python3`` and ``pypy``), as long as that version of Python has
- argcomplete installed.
- .. admonition:: Bash version compatibility
- Global completion requires bash support for ``complete -D``, which was introduced in bash 4.2. On OS X or older Linux
- systems, you will need to update bash to use this feature. Check the version of the running copy of bash with
- ``echo $BASH_VERSION``. On OS X, install bash via `Homebrew <http://brew.sh/>`_ (``brew install bash``), add
- ``/usr/local/bin/bash`` to ``/etc/shells``, and run ``chsh`` to change your shell.
- Global completion is not currently compatible with zsh.
- .. note:: If you use setuptools/distribute ``scripts`` or ``entry_points`` directives to package your module,
- argcomplete will follow the wrapper scripts to their destination and look for ``PYTHON_ARGCOMPLETE_OK`` in the
- destination code.
- If you choose not to use global completion, or ship a bash completion module that depends on argcomplete, you must
- register your script explicitly using ``eval "$(register-python-argcomplete my-awesome-script)"``. Standard bash
- completion registration roules apply: namely, the script name is passed directly to ``complete``, meaning it is only tab
- completed when invoked exactly as it was registered. In the above example, ``my-awesome-script`` must be on the path,
- and the user must be attempting to complete it by that name. The above line alone would **not** allow you to complete
- ``./my-awesome-script``, or ``/path/to/my-awesome-script``.
- Activating global completion
- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
- The script ``activate-global-python-argcomplete`` will try to install the file
- ``bash_completion.d/python-argcomplete`` (`see on GitHub`_) into an appropriate location on your system
- (``/etc/bash_completion.d/`` or ``~/.bash_completion.d/``). If it
- fails, but you know the correct location of your bash completion scripts directory, you can specify it with ``--dest``::
- activate-global-python-argcomplete --dest=/path/to/bash_completion.d
- Otherwise, you can redirect its shellcode output into a file::
- activate-global-python-argcomplete --dest=- > file
- The file's contents should then be sourced in e.g. ``~/.bashrc``.
- .. _`see on GitHub`: https://github.com/kislyuk/argcomplete/blob/master/argcomplete/bash_completion.d/python-argcomplete
- Zsh Support
- ------------
- To activate completions for zsh you need to have ``bashcompinit`` enabled in zsh::
- autoload -U bashcompinit
- bashcompinit
- Afterwards you can enable completion for your scripts with ``register-python-argcomplete``::
- eval "$(register-python-argcomplete my-awesome-script)"
- Tcsh Support
- ------------
- To activate completions for tcsh use::
- eval `register-python-argcomplete --shell tcsh my-awesome-script`
- The ``python-argcomplete-tcsh`` script provides completions for tcsh.
- The following is an example of the tcsh completion syntax for
- ``my-awesome-script`` emitted by ``register-python-argcomplete``::
- complete my-awesome-script 'p@*@`python-argcomplete-tcsh my-awesome-script`@'
- Fish Support
- ------------
- To activate completions for fish use::
- register-python-argcomplete --shell fish my-awesome-script | source
- or create new completion file, e.g::
- register-python-argcomplete --shell fish my-awesome-script > ~/.config/fish/completions/my-awesome-script.fish
- Completion Description For Fish
- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
- By default help string is added as completion description.
- .. image:: docs/fish_help_string.png
- You can disable this feature by removing ``_ARGCOMPLETE_DFS`` variable, e.g::
- register-python-argcomplete --shell fish my-awesome-script | grep -v _ARGCOMPLETE_DFS | .
- Git Bash Support
- ----------------
- Due to limitations of file descriptor inheritance on Windows,
- Git Bash not supported out of the box. You can opt in to using
- temporary files instead of file descriptors for for IPC
- by setting the environment variable ``ARGCOMPLETE_USE_TEMPFILES``,
- e.g. by adding ``export ARGCOMPLETE_USE_TEMPFILES=1`` to ``~/.bashrc``.
- For full support, consider using Bash with the
- Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL).
- External argcomplete script
- ---------------------------
- To register an argcomplete script for an arbitrary name, the ``--external-argcomplete-script`` argument of the ``register-python-argcomplete`` script can be used::
- eval "$(register-python-argcomplete --external-argcomplete-script /path/to/script arbitrary-name)"
- This allows, for example, to use the auto completion functionality of argcomplete for an application not written in Python.
- The command line interface of this program must be additionally implemented in a Python script with argparse and argcomplete and whenever the application is called the registered external argcomplete script is used for auto completion.
- This option can also be used in combination with the other supported shells.
- Python Support
- --------------
- Argcomplete requires Python 2.7 or 3.5+.
- Common Problems
- ---------------
- If global completion is not completing your script, bash may have registered a
- default completion function::
- $ complete | grep my-awesome-script
- complete -F _minimal my-awesome-script
- You can fix this by restarting your shell, or by running
- ``complete -r my-awesome-script``.
- Debugging
- ---------
- Set the ``_ARC_DEBUG`` variable in your shell to enable verbose debug output every time argcomplete runs. This will
- disrupt the command line composition state of your terminal, but make it possible to see the internal state of the
- completer if it encounters problems.
- Acknowledgments
- ---------------
- Inspired and informed by the optcomplete_ module by Martin Blais.
- .. _optcomplete: http://pypi.python.org/pypi/optcomplete
- Links
- -----
- * `Project home page (GitHub) <https://github.com/kislyuk/argcomplete>`_
- * `Documentation <https://kislyuk.github.io/argcomplete/>`_
- * `Package distribution (PyPI) <https://pypi.python.org/pypi/argcomplete>`_
- * `Change log <https://github.com/kislyuk/argcomplete/blob/master/Changes.rst>`_
- * `xontrib-argcomplete <https://github.com/anki-code/xontrib-argcomplete>`_ - support argcomplete in `xonsh <https://github.com/xonsh/xonsh>`_ shell
- Bugs
- ~~~~
- Please report bugs, issues, feature requests, etc. on `GitHub <https://github.com/kislyuk/argcomplete/issues>`_.
- License
- -------
- Licensed under the terms of the `Apache License, Version 2.0 <http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0>`_.
- .. image:: https://github.com/kislyuk/argcomplete/workflows/Python%20package/badge.svg
- :target: https://github.com/kislyuk/argcomplete/actions
- .. image:: https://codecov.io/github/kislyuk/argcomplete/coverage.svg?branch=master
- :target: https://codecov.io/github/kislyuk/argcomplete?branch=master
- .. image:: https://img.shields.io/pypi/v/argcomplete.svg
- :target: https://pypi.python.org/pypi/argcomplete
- .. image:: https://img.shields.io/pypi/l/argcomplete.svg
- :target: https://pypi.python.org/pypi/argcomplete
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