Re: bash 2.05 programmable completion question

[Aaron Crane]

In article <9av9ef$s6h$1@scotsman.ed.ac.uk>,
mfg@ee.ed.ac.uk (Michael F Gordon) writes:
> function ps_complete {
>   COMPREPLY=(`compgen -G "${COMP_WORDS[$COMP_CWORD]}*.@(ps|PS|eps|EPS)"`);
> }
> complete -o filenames -A directory -F ps_complete gs
> 
> This works, but I need a separate function for each suffix I want to
> complete on - img_complete for *.@(gif|jpeg|tiff), fig_complete for *.fig
> etc.  Is there a way of doing this that doesn't require large numbers
> of functions?

There's a trick I like that does still require large numbers of functions,
but you don't have to write them all.  Using the same "complete" command as
you have:

  function pattern_completion {
    [ $# -ge 2 ] || {
      echo "Usage: pattern_completion PATTERN PROGRAM..."
      return 1
    }
    local pat="$1" firstprog="$2"
    shift
    eval function "${firstprog}_complete" "{" \
      "COMPREPLY=(\$(compgen -G \"\${COMP_WORDS[\$COMP_CWORD]}$pat\"))" ";" \
    "}"
    complete -o filenames -A directory -F "${firstprog}_complete" "$@"
  }

  pattern_completion "*.@(ps|PS|eps|EPS)" gs gv ghostview

-- 
Aaron Crane