starred/terminal
1
0
Fork 0
mirror of https://github.com/microsoft/terminal.git synced 2026-02-03 21:25:34 +00:00
Code Issues 19.0k Packages Projects Releases 20 Wiki Activity

Provide shell completions for wt #15232

New Issue
Open
opened 2026-01-31 04:32:08 +00:00 by claunia · 10 comments
claunia commented 2026-01-31 04:32:08 +00:00
Owner
Copy Link

Originally created by @rashil2000 on GitHub (Sep 16, 2021).

Originally assigned to: @kkostrzewa on GitHub.

Description of the new feature/enhancement

Many apps/tools nowadays provide shell completion files (for bash/zsh/powershell). They help in easy discovery of commandline arguments and are overall a QoL enhancement.

Since wt supports a plethora of commandline args, it'be pretty nice to have completion files for PowerShell and CMD (through Clink, if possible).

Proposed technical implementation details (optional)

All shells have their own way of defining completions. (For powershell it's Register-ArgumentCompleter).

Almost all CLI utilities provide the files (examples - ripgrep, gh (CLI), hyperfine). Alacritty, too provides completion files for bash, zsh and fish as a part of their release.

Originally created by @rashil2000 on GitHub (Sep 16, 2021). Originally assigned to: @kkostrzewa on GitHub. <!-- 🚨🚨🚨🚨🚨🚨🚨🚨🚨🚨 I ACKNOWLEDGE THE FOLLOWING BEFORE PROCEEDING: 1. If I delete this entire template and go my own path, the core team may close my issue without further explanation or engagement. 2. If I list multiple bugs/concerns in this one issue, the core team may close my issue without further explanation or engagement. 3. If I write an issue that has many duplicates, the core team may close my issue without further explanation or engagement (and without necessarily spending time to find the exact duplicate ID number). 4. If I leave the title incomplete when filing the issue, the core team may close my issue without further explanation or engagement. 5. If I file something completely blank in the body, the core team may close my issue without further explanation or engagement. All good? Then proceed! --> # Description of the new feature/enhancement Many apps/tools nowadays provide shell completion files (for bash/zsh/powershell). They help in easy discovery of commandline arguments and are overall a QoL enhancement. Since `wt` supports a plethora of commandline args, it'be pretty nice to have completion files for PowerShell and CMD (through Clink, if possible). # Proposed technical implementation details (optional) All shells have their own way of defining completions. (For powershell it's `Register-ArgumentCompleter`). Almost all CLI utilities provide the files (examples - ripgrep, gh (CLI), hyperfine). Alacritty, too provides [completion files](https://github.com/alacritty/alacritty/releases) for bash, zsh and fish as a part of their release.
claunia added the Issue-FeatureHelp WantedProduct-TerminalArea-Commandline labels 2026-01-31 04:32:09 +00:00
claunia commented 2026-01-31 04:32:09 +00:00
Author
Owner
Copy Link

@zadjii-msft commented on GitHub (Sep 16, 2021):

Sure, I don't see why not.

@zadjii-msft commented on GitHub (Sep 16, 2021): Sure, I don't see why not.
claunia commented 2026-01-31 04:32:09 +00:00
Author
Owner
Copy Link

@WSLUser commented on GitHub (Sep 16, 2021):

I'd personally want to see both powershell and bash completions. Ideally WT commands could be run inside WSL(2) and the shell completion could help with that as well.

@WSLUser commented on GitHub (Sep 16, 2021): I'd personally want to see both powershell and bash completions. Ideally WT commands could be run inside WSL(2) and the shell completion could help with that as well.
claunia commented 2026-01-31 04:32:10 +00:00
Author
Owner
Copy Link

@kkostrzewa commented on GitHub (Apr 2, 2023):

@zadjii-msft if this were scoped to bash and powershell, I'd like to take a stab at it, as I'd like to learn more about creating shell completions. Interested?

@kkostrzewa commented on GitHub (Apr 2, 2023): @zadjii-msft if this were scoped to bash and powershell, I'd like to take a stab at it, as I'd like to learn more about creating shell completions. Interested?
claunia commented 2026-01-31 04:32:10 +00:00
Author
Owner
Copy Link

@zadjii-msft commented on GitHub (Apr 3, 2023):

@kkostrzewa I would love the help! Incremental progress is always better than no progress in my book. I honestly don't know where to even start with these - I've never authored shell completion specs for a shell. But I'd love to learn ☺️

@zadjii-msft commented on GitHub (Apr 3, 2023): @kkostrzewa I would love the help! Incremental progress is always better than no progress in my book. I honestly don't know where to even start with these - I've never authored shell completion specs for a shell. But I'd love to learn ☺️
claunia commented 2026-01-31 04:32:10 +00:00
Author
Owner
Copy Link

@kkostrzewa commented on GitHub (Apr 3, 2023):

@zadjii-msft thx. Feel free to assign this one to me. I'd like to deliver not only an implementation that works for today, but support automated testing, resiliency against new cli args, etc. Not sure yet how to do that.

@kkostrzewa commented on GitHub (Apr 3, 2023): @zadjii-msft thx. Feel free to assign this one to me. I'd like to deliver not only an implementation that works for today, but support automated testing, resiliency against new cli args, etc. Not sure yet how to do that.
claunia commented 2026-01-31 04:32:11 +00:00
Author
Owner
Copy Link

@zadjii-msft commented on GitHub (Apr 3, 2023):

That would certainly be impressive - but I'll also be more than happy if we just start with the specs in the first PR, then follow up with additional validation. Our unit testing story, especially in that part of the codebase, is a little tricky so I wouldn't want you to overindex on that 😛

@zadjii-msft commented on GitHub (Apr 3, 2023): That would certainly be impressive - but I'll also be more than happy if we just start with the specs in the first PR, then follow up with additional validation. Our unit testing story, especially in that part of the codebase, is a little tricky so I wouldn't want you to overindex on that 😛
claunia commented 2026-01-31 04:32:11 +00:00
Author
Owner
Copy Link

@douglaswth commented on GitHub (Apr 3, 2023):

One thing that I've found nice in a lot of modern command line utilities is a pattern where the command itself or a helper command implements the Bash complete -C interface (looks at some environment variables and outputs the completions I think) as this can be consumed by several shells very easily and even the PowerShell completion script block is fairly boilerplate as well.

You can take a look at AWS CLI Command Line Completion for an example of how this is set up on the consumer side.

@douglaswth commented on GitHub (Apr 3, 2023): One thing that I've found nice in a lot of modern command line utilities is a pattern where the command itself or a helper command implements the Bash `complete -C` interface (looks at some environment variables and outputs the completions I think) as this can be consumed by several shells very easily and even the PowerShell completion script block is fairly boilerplate as well. You can take a look at [AWS CLI Command Line Completion](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/cli/latest/userguide/cli-configure-completion.html) for an example of how this is set up on the consumer side.
claunia commented 2026-01-31 04:32:11 +00:00
Author
Owner
Copy Link

@kkostrzewa commented on GitHub (May 17, 2023):

See if the pattern done by dotnet.exe will work - https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/core/tools/enable-tab-autocomplete. Would require wt.exe --complete (assuming that flag) would write to stdout

Similar pattern for bash? Maybe wt.exe --complete powershell or wt.exe --complete bash

@kkostrzewa commented on GitHub (May 17, 2023): See if the pattern done by dotnet.exe will work - https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/core/tools/enable-tab-autocomplete. Would require `wt.exe --complete` (assuming that flag) would write to stdout Similar pattern for bash? Maybe `wt.exe --complete powershell` or `wt.exe --complete bash`
claunia commented 2026-01-31 04:32:11 +00:00
Author
Owner
Copy Link

@zadjii-msft commented on GitHub (May 17, 2023):

That might be Hard - wt.exe is a WINDOWS subsystem exe, not a CONSOLE one, and there's been historically bad experience trying to mix and match those paradigms.

That being said, there's been talk in the past about doing a wtc.exe or something that's a CONSOLE exe for interacting with the Terminal.

@zadjii-msft commented on GitHub (May 17, 2023): That might be **H**ard - `wt.exe` is a WINDOWS subsystem exe, not a CONSOLE one, and there's been historically bad experience trying to mix and match those paradigms. That being said, there's been talk in the past about doing a `wtc.exe` or something that's a CONSOLE exe for interacting with the Terminal.
claunia commented 2026-01-31 04:32:12 +00:00
Author
Owner
Copy Link

@kkostrzewa commented on GitHub (May 17, 2023):

Yeah, I thought that might be a problem. It may be possible to AttachConsole / AllocConsole when the flag is set so stdout is a valid handle. I'll poc this first, of course, as I've never done anything like this for realz.

@kkostrzewa commented on GitHub (May 17, 2023): Yeah, I thought that might be a problem. It may be possible to AttachConsole / AllocConsole when the flag is set so stdout is a valid handle. I'll poc this first, of course, as I've never done anything like this for realz.
Sign in to join this conversation.
No Branch/Tag Specified
Branches Tags
Labels
Clear labels
⛺ Reserved
A11yCO
A11yMAS
A11ySev1
A11ySev2
A11ySev3
A11yTTValidated
A11yUsable
A11yVoiceAccess
A11yWCAG
Area-Accessibility
Area-AtlasEngine
Area-AzureShell
Area-Build
Area-Build
Area-Chat
Area-CmdPal
Area-CodeHealth
Area-Commandline
Area-CookedRead
Area-DefApp
Area-Extensibility
Area-Fonts
Area-GroupPolicy
Area-i18n
Area-Input
Area-Interaction
Area-Interop
Area-Localization
Area-Output
Area-Performance
Area-Portable
Area-Quality
Area-Remoting
Area-Rendering
Area-Schema
Area-Server
Area-Settings
Area-SettingsUI
Area-ShellExtension
Area-ShellExtension
Area-ShellExtension
Area-Suggestions
Area-Suggestions
Area-TerminalConnection
Area-TerminalControl
Area-Theming
Area-UserInterface
Area-VT
Area-Windowing
Area-WPFControl
AutoMerge
Blocking-Ingestion
Culprit-Centennial
Culprit-WinUI
Disability-All
Disability-Blind
Disability-LowVision
Disability-Mobility
External-Blocked-WinUI3
Fixed
Gathering-Data
good first issue
HCL-E+D
HCL-WindowsTerminal
Help Wanted
Impact-Compatibility
Impact-Compliance
Impact-Correctness
Impact-Visual
In-PR
InclusionBacklog
InclusionBacklog-Windows TerminalWin32
InclusionCommitted-202206
Issue-Bug
Issue-Docs
Issue-Feature
Issue-Feature
Issue-Question
Issue-Samples
Issue-Scenario
Issue-Task
Needs-Attention
Needs-Author-Feedback
Needs-Bisect
Needs-Discussion
Needs-Repro
Needs-Tag-Fix
Needs-Tag-Fix
Needs-Triage
No-Recent-Activity
Priority-0
Priority-1
Priority-2
Priority-3
Product-Cmd.exe
Product-Colortool
Product-Colortool
Product-Colortool
Product-Conhost
Product-Conpty
Product-Meta
Product-Powershell
Product-Terminal
Product-WSL
pull-request
Mirrored from GitHub Pull Request
 Resolution-Answered
Resolution-By-Design
Resolution-Duplicate
Resolution-External
Resolution-Fix-Available
Resolution-Fix-Committed
Resolution-No-Repro
Resolution-Won't-Fix
Severity-Blocking
Severity-Crash
Severity-DataLoss
spam
this-will-be-a-breaking-change
Tracking-External
WindowsTerminal_Win32
Work-Item
zAskModeBug
zInbox-Bug
No Label Area-Commandline Help Wanted Issue-Feature Product-Terminal
Milestone
No items
No Milestone
Projects
Clear projects
No project
Assignees
Clear assignees
claunia
No Assignees
1 Participants
Notifications
Due Date
No due date set.
Dependencies

No dependencies set.

Reference: starred/terminal#15232
Delete Branch "%!s()"

Deleting a branch is permanent. Although the deleted branch may continue to exist for a short time before it actually gets removed, it CANNOT be undone in most cases. Continue?