\fR, \fB--title \fI<title>\fR add a title in the modeline .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 .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 .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 .SH "EXAMPLES" To use selector to search into your bash history .B selector -q --bash <(history) 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 \(aq\(dq\\C-[r\(dq:\(dq\\C-a\\C-kselector -q -b -i -d -v -w -l ${HISTSIZE} <(history)\\C-m\(dq\(aq in your .IR ~/.bashrc . This bindings 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. .SH "BUGS" 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" 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.

.TH "SELECTOR" "1.1.2" "April 2010" "Francois Fleuret" "User Commands" \" This man page was written by Francois Fleuret \" 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 .SH "SYNOPSIS" \fBselector\fP [\fIoptions\fR] [\fI\fR [\fI\fR ...]] .SH "DESCRIPTION" \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 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. 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 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 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 key "^R" switches between the multi-substring and the regexp selection mode, and "^I" between the case-sensitive and case-insensitive modes. .SH "OPTIONS" .TP \fB-h\fR, \fB--help\fR display help and exit .TP \fB-m\fR, \fB--monochrome\fR force the monochrome mode .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 .TP \fB-z\fR, \fB--remove-zsh-prefix\fR remove the time prefix from zsh history .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-q\fR, \fB--no-beep\fR make a flash instead of a beep when there is an edition error .TP \fB--\fR, \fB--rest-are-files\fR state that all following arguments are filenames .TP \fB--bash\fR standard setting for bash history search, same as -b -i -d -v -w -l ${HISTSIZE} .TP \fB-t \fI\fR, \fB--title \fI<title>\fR add a title in the modeline .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 .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 .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 .SH "EXAMPLES" To use selector to search into your bash history .B selector -q --bash <(history) 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 \(aq\(dq\\C-[r\(dq:\(dq\\C-a\\C-kselector -q -b -i -d -v -w -l ${HISTSIZE} <(history)\\C-m\(dq\(aq in your .IR ~/.bashrc . This bindings 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. .SH "BUGS" 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" 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.