/shtab

↔️ Automagic shell tab completion for Python CLI applications

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  • What: Automatically generate shell tab completion scripts for Python CLI apps
  • Why: Speed & correctness. Alternatives like argcomplete and pyzshcomplete are slow and have side-effects
  • How: shtab processes an argparse.ArgumentParser object to generate a tab completion script for your shell
  • Outputs tab completion scripts for
    • bash
    • zsh
    • tcsh
  • Supports
  • Supports arguments, options and subparsers
  • Supports choices (e.g. --say={hello,goodbye})
  • Supports file and directory path completion
  • Supports custom path completion (e.g. --file={*.txt})

Choose one of:

  • pip install shtab, or
  • conda install -c conda-forge shtab

See operating system-specific instructions in the docs.

There are two ways of using shtab:

  • CLI Usage: shtab's own CLI interface for external applications
    • may not require any code modifications whatsoever
    • end-users execute shtab your_cli_app.your_parser_object
  • Library Usage: as a library integrated into your CLI application
    • adds a couple of lines to your application
    • argument mode: end-users execute your_cli_app --print-completion {bash,zsh,tcsh}
    • subparser mode: end-users execute your_cli_app completion {bash,zsh,tcsh}

See the docs for usage examples.

Not working? Check out frequently asked questions.

  • argcomplete
    • executes the underlying script every time <TAB> is pressed (slow and has side-effects)
    • only provides bash completion
  • pyzshcomplete
    • executes the underlying script every time <TAB> is pressed (slow and has side-effects)
    • only provides zsh completion
  • click
    • different framework completely replacing the builtin argparse
    • solves multiple problems (rather than POSIX-style "do one thing well")

Please do open issues & pull requests! Some ideas:

  • support fish
  • support powershell

See CONTRIBUTING.md for more guidance.

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