-.TH "SELECTOR" "1"
+.TH "SELECTOR" "1.1.2" "April 2010" "Francois Fleuret" "User Commands"
+
+\" This man page was written by Francois Fleuret <francois@fleuret.org>
+\" and is distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike
+\" 3.0 License.
+
.SH "NAME"
-selector - A simple command line utility for dynamic pattern selection
+
+selector \- A simple command line utility for dynamic pattern selection
+
.SH "SYNOPSIS"
-.PP
-\fBselector\fP [\fBoptions\fP] [<filename1> [<filename2> ...]]
+
+\fBselector\fP [\fIoptions\fR] [\fI<filename1>\fR [\fI<filename2>\fR ...]]
+
.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,
-the display is updated in real time to show only the lines containing
-all the said strings, or matching the regexp.
-The main usage of selector is as an efficient search in the shell
-command history. With the correct option, it will inject the selected
-line into the virtual tty input buffer, hence allowing the user to
-edit the line and execute it as a standard command.
+\fBselector\fP is a command line utility for interactive real-time
+pattern matching. It reads the content of the specified files, and as
+the user types 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).
+
+This command was mainly designed as a way to search efficiently in the
+shell history, for which it is substantially better than the standard
+readline ^R binding. With the -v option, it injects the selected line
+into the 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 handy tool to test regexps, or to display menus
+with many possible choices. For the latter, the -x option allows to
+specify a label delimiter: the part of each line before that character
+will appear during the selection, but only the part after that
+character will be returned.
-.SH "KEYS"
-.PP
+Note that because this is an interactive command, the standard input
+can not be used as one of the input files.
+
+.SH "KEY BINDINGS"
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.
-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 Left and Right cursor keys move the editing cursor
+accordingly. The Up and Down cursor keys move the selected line one
+entry at a time, and PageUp and PageDown move it by ten entries. 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
+The keys "^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
+The key "^R" switches between the multi-substring and the regexp
+selection mode, and "^I" between the case-sensitive and
case-insensitive modes.
.SH "OPTIONS"
-.IP "\fB-h\fP" 10
-display help and exits
-.IP "\fB-m\fP" 10
+.TP
+\fB-h\fR, \fB--help\fR
+display help and exit
+.TP
+\fB-m\fR, \fB--monochrome\fR
force the monochrome mode
-.IP "\fB-i\fP" 10
-inverse the order of the lines
-.IP "\fB-b\fP" 10
+.TP
+\fB-i\fR, \fB--revert-order\fR
+revert the order of the lines
+.TP
+\fB-b\fR, \fB--remove-bash-prefix\fR
remove the numeric prefix from bash history
-.IP "\fB-z\fP" 10
+.TP
+\fB-z\fR, \fB--remove-zsh-prefix\fR
remove the time prefix from zsh history
-.IP "\fB-d\fP" 10
-remove duplicated lines
-.IP "\fB-e\fP" 10
-start with the regexp mode activated
-.IP "\fB-a\fP" 10
-make the matching case sensitive
-.IP "\fB-q\fP" 10
+.TP
+\fB-d\fR, \fB--remove-duplicates\fR
+remove duplicated lines (note that you can have two different lines
+with the same visible part if you use the -x option)
+.TP
+\fB-e\fR, \fB--regexp\fR
+start in regexp mode
+.TP
+\fB-a\fR, \fB--case-sensitive\fR
+start in case sensitive mode
+.TP
+\fB-n\fR, \fB--exclamation-negates\fR
+substrings starting with an exclamation point must be absent for a line
+to match
+.TP
+\fB-q\fR, \fB--no-beep\fR
make a flash instead of a beep when there is an edition error
-.IP "\fB--\fP" 10
+.TP
+\fB--\fR
state that all following arguments are filenames
-.IP "\fB-t <title>\fP" 10
+.TP
+\fB--bash\fR
+standard setting for bash history search, same as
+
+-b -i -d -v -w -l ${HISTSIZE}
+.TP
+\fB-t \fI<title>\fR, \fB--title \fI<title>\fR
add a title in the modeline
-.IP "\fB-c <fg modeline> <bg modeline> <fg highlight> <bg highlight>\fP" 10
-select the modeline and highlight color numbers
-.IP "\fB-v\fP" 10
+.TP
+\fB-c \fI<colors>\fR, \fB--colors \fI<colors>\fR
+select the modeline and highlight color numbers with a color list of
+the form
+
+\fI<fg_modeline>,<bg_modeline>,<fg_highlight>,<bg_highlight>\fR
+.TP
+\fB-v\fR, \fB--inject-in-tty\fR
inject the selected line into the tty input buffer
-.IP "\fB-o <output filename>\fP" 10
+.TP
+\fB-w\fR, \fB--add-control-qs\fR
+add ^Q between characters during tty injection to quote control characters
+.TP
+\fB-o \fI<filename>\fR, \fB--output-file \fI<filename>\fR
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-l <max number of lines>\fP" 10
+.TP
+\fB-s \fI<separator>\fR, \fB--pattern-separator \fI<separator>\fR
+specify the character to separate the substrings in the search pattern
+.TP
+\fB-x \fI<separator>\fR, \fB--label-separator \fI<separator>\fR
+specify the character to separate what to show to the user during the
+selection from the line to return
+.TP
+\fB-l \fI<number>\fR, \fB--number-of-lines \fI<number>\fR
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"
-To use selector to search into your bash history, you can use
+To use selector to search into your bash history
-.B selector -d -i -b -v <(history)
+.B selector -q --bash <(history)
-.SH "KEY-BINDING IN BASH"
+To show a list of directories and insert a cd command to the selected
+one (using @ as a separator)
+
+.B selector -v -x @ <(find . -type d | awk \(aq{print $0\(dq@cd \(dq$0}\(aq)
+
+To select a line in a long text and returns the line number (this
+command uses ^A as a separator, hence there will be problems if the
+file contains ^A)
+
+.B selector -v -x ^A <(awk < something.txt \(aq{ print $0\(dq^A\(dqNR }\(aq)
+
+.SH "KEYBINDING IN BASH"
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
-bind '"\\C-[r":"\\C-a\\C-kselector -d -i -b -v <(history)\\C-m"'
+bind \(aq\(dq\\C-[r\(dq:\(dq\\C-a\\C-kselector --bash <(history)\\C-m\(dq\(aq
-in your ~/.bashrc.
+in your
+.IR ~/.bashrc .
+
+This binding uses the control character ^A to put the cursor to the
+mostleft location and ^K to erase the current content of the readline
+buffer, and it simulates the enter key with ^M.
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 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. If a
-line contains control characters, the returned line has been converted
-to printable characters.
+There are modeline display problems if the pattern is too long. This
+program does not handle multibyte characters.
+
+The \fB-v\fR option does not work on FreeBSD 8.0 since the TIOCSTI
+ioctl request is broken.
.SH "AUTHOR"
-.PP
-Written by Francois Fleuret <francois@fleuret.org>, and distributed
-under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 License.
+
+Written by Francois Fleuret <francois@fleuret.org> and distributed
+under the terms of the GNU General Public License version 3 as
+published by the Free Software Foundation. This is free software: you
+are free to change and redistribute it. There is NO WARRANTY, to the
+extent permitted by law.
projects / selector.git / blobdiff