Re: Modifying completion of read(1builtin)

[Chet Ramey]

On 3/28/23 3:42 PM, Douglas Lewan wrote:
> Hi, all,
>
> I have a list of about 30 strings that are appropriate for a certain 
> instance of read(1builtin).
>
> How can I set up completion for read to include them? It looks like some 
> combination of compgen() and complete() would be right, but I haven't been 
> able to find it. Can anyone help?

This is what the -W option to `complete' can do.

complete -W "words" read

> It also looks like any such modification would apply to all instances of 
> read. Can it be restricted to that one instance? Can it be restricted to 
> exactly those values?

The usual way to do this is to save and restore any completion for `read',
using `complete -p', a temporary file, and `.'. There isn't any builtin way
to temporarily modify completion specifications.

--
``The lyf so short, the craft so long to lerne.'' - Chaucer
                 ``Ars longa, vita brevis'' - Hippocrates
Chet Ramey, UTech, CWRU    chet@case.edu    http://tiswww.cwru.edu/~chet/