.SH "DESCRIPTION"
.PP
\fBselector\fP is a command line utility for dynamic string
-selection. As you type a list of strings separated by ';' or a regexp,
+selection. As you type a list of strings separated by ";" or a regexp,
the display is updated in real time to show only the lines containing
all the said strings, or matching the regexp.
line into the virtual tty input buffer, hence allowing the user to
edit the line and execute it as a standard command.
-Selector is also a good tool to test regexps.
+Selector is also a good tool to test regexps, or a way to display
+menus. The -x option allows to specify a label delimiter: Only the
+part of each line before that character will appear during the
+selection, but the full line will be returned.
.SH "KEYS"
.PP
-Keys corresponding to ASCII codes between ' ' and '~' add a character
-to the pattern string. The Backspace key, ^H and ^? delete the
+Keys corresponding to ASCII codes between " " and "~" add a character
+to the pattern string. The Backspace key, "^H" and "^?" delete the
character immediately on the left of the cursor, while the Delete key
-and ^D delete the character at cursor location.
+and "^D" delete the character at cursor location.
The Up and Down cursor keys move the selected line accordingly, and
PageUp and PageDown move by ten lines. The Home and End key move to
the top and the bottom of the list respectively. The return key
selects the current line and exits.
-The shortcuts ^A, ^E, ^U, and ^K do somehow what they do in readline,
-and you can exit selector without doing anything by either
-interrupting the command with ^C or by typing ^G.
+The shortcuts "^A", "^E", "^U", and "^K" do somehow what they do in
+readline, and you can exit selector without doing anything by either
+interrupting the command with "^C" or by typing "^G" or the Escape
+key.
-The ^R key switches between the standard multi-substring mode and the
-regexp mode, and ^I between the case-sensitive and case-insensitive
-modes.
+The "^R" key switches between the standard multi-substring mode and
+the regexp mode, and "^I" between the case-sensitive and
+case-insensitive modes.
.SH "OPTIONS"
.IP "\fB-h\fP" 10
.IP "\fB-m\fP" 10
force the monochrome mode
.IP "\fB-i\fP" 10
-inverse the order of the lines
+invert the order of the lines
.IP "\fB-b\fP" 10
remove the numeric prefix from bash history
.IP "\fB-z\fP" 10
select the modeline and highlight color numbers
.IP "\fB-v\fP" 10
inject the selected line into the tty input buffer
+.IP "\fB-w\fP" 10
+add ^Q between characters during tty injection to quote control characters
.IP "\fB-o <output filename>\fP" 10
write the selected line into the specified file
.IP "\fB-s <pattern separator>\fP" 10
specify the symbol to separate the substrings in the search pattern
+.IP "\fB-x <label separator>\fP" 10
+specify the symbol to separate the label from the rest of the line
.IP "\fB-l <max number of lines>\fP" 10
specify the maximum number of lines to take into account
.IP "\fB-f <input filename>\fP" 10
specify a file to search into (option kept for compatibility reasons)
-.SH "EXAMPLES"
+.SH "EXAMPLE"
To use selector to search into your bash history, you can use
-.B selector -d -i -b -v <(history)
+.B selector -q -b -i -d -v -w -l 10000 <(history)
-.SH "INTERACTION WITH READLINE"
+.SH "KEY-BINDING IN BASH"
-For better efficiency, you can associate selector to a one key in the
-shell through the use of the readline configuration file. To do so,
-you have first to pick a key and check the character sequences
-associated to it.
+You can associate selector to a single key in bash by using the
+command 'bind' in your bash initialization file. For instance, to
+associate it to M-r (that is, the "Alt" and "r" key pressed together),
+just add something like
-You can do that by typing at the console prompt Control-q followed by
-the key you want to use. For instance, if you want to use Alt-r, you
-may get ^[r. Then, you have to add in the readline configuration file
-~/.inputrc the following:
+bind '"\\C-[r":"\\C-a\\C-kselector -q -b -i -d -v -w -l 10000 <(history)\\C-m"'
-"^[r": "^A^K selector -q -b -i -d -v -l 10000 <(history)^M"
+in your ~/.bashrc.
-Note that you have to put the actual control characters in the
-configuration file, not a '^' followed by a character. To do so with
-Emacs for instance, you have to use the C-q key followed by another
-key: C-q C-a inserts "^A", C-q C-[ inserts "^[", etc.
+Note that depending on the configuration of your system, the sequence
+associated to the M-r key, which is here "C-[r", may differ. To figure
+it out, simply press C-q followed by M-r in the console.
-The control characters in this line are there to erase the current
-line before invoking the selector.
+The control character "C-a" puts the cursor to the mostleft location,
+"C-k" erases the current content of the readline buffer, and "C-m"
+simulates the enter key.
.SH "BUGS"
-There are modeline display problems if the pattern is too
-long.
+There are modeline display problems if the pattern is too long. If a
+line contains control characters, the returned line has been converted
+to printable characters.
.SH "AUTHOR"
.PP
-Written by Francois Fleuret <francois@fleuret.org>. Permission is
-granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the
-terms of the GNU GPL.
+Written by Francois Fleuret <francois@fleuret.org>, and distributed
+under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 License.
projects / selector.git / blobdiff