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When making a custom zsh completion, the compadd function has the -Q option. The zsh documentation describes the -Q option as follows:

-Q This flag instructs the completion code not to quote any metacharacters in the matches when inserting them into the command

So, as an example, I set up autocompletion for a function myfun as follows:

compadd 'a{b' compadd 'a{c'

then when I do

% myfun <TAB>

it will autocomplete to

% myfun a\{

then another <TAB> will show a\{b and a\{c as the completion options.

On the other hand, if I do

compadd -Q 'a{b' compadd -Q 'a{c'

then when I do

% myfun <TAB>

it will autocomplete to

% zz a{

but pressing <TAB> again won't show anything. So in summary, the completion matches that I have added using compadd -Q are not selectable, and seem of little use.

So what is the use case of the -Q flag? What are some examples of how it intended to be used? There are very few examples I can find on the web.

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You can look for usages of compadd -Q in the completions supplied with zsh:

zsh/Completion$ grep -r 'compadd -Q' Base/Completer/_oldlist: compadd -Qs "$SUFFIX" - "$PREFIX" Base/Completer/_history: compadd -Q -a hslice Base/Utility/_arguments: compadd -Q - "${PREFIX}${SUFFIX}" Base/Utility/_arguments: compadd -QS '' - "${PREFIX}${SUFFIX}" Base/Utility/_arguments: compadd -Q - "${PREFIX}${SUFFIX}" Base/Utility/_arguments: compadd -QqS= - "${PREFIX}${SUFFIX}" Base/Utility/_arguments: compadd -Q - "${PREFIX}${SUFFIX}" Base/Widget/_correct_filename: compadd -QUf -i "$IPREFIX" -I "$ISUFFIX" "${file/#$etilde/$tilde}" Base/Widget/_correct_filename: compadd -QUf -i "$IPREFIX" -I "$ISUFFIX" "${trylist[@]/#$etilde/$tilde}" Unix/Command/_cvs: _wanted files expl 'removed file' compadd -Qp "$linedir" -a files Unix/Command/_make: 'targets:make target:compadd -Q -a TARGETS' \ Unix/Command/_todo.sh: compadd -Q -- "${(qq)$(todo.sh -p command list "^[ 0]*$item " | sed '/^--/,$d')##<-> (\([A-Z]\) |)}" Unix/Command/_whois: compadd -QS '' \' Unix/Command/_whois: compadd -QS '' \' Unix/Command/_sed: $'/[ \t]#/' $'/\\\n/' ':newlines:newline:compadd -Q -S "" "$bsnl"' Unix/Type/_path_files: compadd -Qf -W "$prepath$realpath" "$pfxsfx[@]" "$mopts[@]" \ Unix/Type/_path_files: compadd -Q "$mopts[@]" -S '' -M "r:|/=* r:|=*" -p "$linepath" -a exppaths Zsh/Context/_first:# compadd -Q - \ Zsh/Context/_subscript: compadd -Q -S "$suf" -a keys Zsh/Type/_command_names: 'builtins:builtin command:compadd -Qk builtins' Zsh/Type/_command_names: 'reserved-words:reserved word:compadd -Qk reswords' Zsh/Type/_command_names: defs+=( 'aliases:alias:compadd -Qk aliases' )

Pressing Tab after [:

$ [ Completing external command \[ Completing builtin command [ Completing reserved word [[

(both \[ and [ would invoke the builtin [ though, you'd need command [ to invoke the external one; [[ if quoted would try to invoke a [[ function or external command and would not recognise it as the [[ keyword in the syntax of the language).

See also the cases above when compadd -Q add completions that have already been quoted (with qq for single quoting) like for todo.sh or adds a literal ' initially so as the rest be quoted with single quotes like for whois (for some flavours of whois).

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  • Thanks for the response. I have been looking through those examples. But one thing I still don't understand is that completions added with compadd -Q don't seem to show up when I press <TAB> (which runs the expand-or-complete function). Is there any way to get completions with un-escaped special characters like { to show up on a <TAB> press? I realize that this may require something other than compadd -Q. Commented Mar 17 at 17:55

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