-.TH "SELECTOR" "1"
+\" This man page was written by Francois Fleuret <francois@fleuret.org>
+\" and is distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike
+\" 3.0 License.
+
+.TH "SELECTOR" 1 "" "Francois Fleuret"
+
.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> ...]]
+
.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.
+This command was mainly designed as a way to search in the shell
+history, for which it is substantially more efficient than the
+standard readline ^R bidding. The -v option will inject the selected
+line into the tty input buffer, allowing the user to edit the line and
+execute it as a standard command.
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.
+menus. The -x option allows to specify a label delimiter: the part of
+each line before that character will appear during the selection, and
+the part after that character 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
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-z\fP" 10
remove the time prefix from zsh history
.IP "\fB-d\fP" 10
-remove duplicated lines
+remove duplicated lines (note that you can have two different lines
+with the same visible part if you use the -x option)
.IP "\fB-e\fP" 10
-start with the regexp mode activated
+start in regexp mode
.IP "\fB-a\fP" 10
-make the matching case sensitive
+start in case sensitive mode
.IP "\fB-q\fP" 10
make a flash instead of a beep when there is an edition error
.IP "\fB--\fP" 10
.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
+specify the symbol to separate what to show to the user during the
+selection from the line to return
.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
To use selector to search into your bash history, you can use
-.B selector -q -b -i -d -v -w -l 10000 <(history)
+.B selector -q -b -i -d -v -w -l ${HISTSIZE} <(history)
-.SH "KEY-BINDING IN BASH"
+.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 -q -b -i -d -v -w -l 10000 <(history)\\C-m"'
+bind '"\\C-[r":"\\C-a\\C-kselector -q -b -i -d -v -w -l ${HISTSIZE} <(history)\\C-m"'
in your ~/.bashrc.
program does not handle multibyte characters.
.SH "AUTHOR"
-.PP
-Written by Francois Fleuret <francois@fleuret.org>, and distributed
-under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 License.
+
+The selector command was written by Francois Fleuret
+<francois@fleuret.org> and is distributed under the terms of the GNU
+General Public License version 3 as published by the Free Software
+Foundation.
projects / selector.git / blobdiff