Provided by: smenu_0.9.17-1_amd64 
NAME
smenu - filter that allows one to interactively select a word from stdin and outputs the selection to
stdout.
SYNOPSIS
[*-h|-help]
[*-H|-long_help]
[*-?|-u|-usage]
[*-V|-version]
[-n|-lines|-height [height]]
[-i|-in|-inc|-incl|-include... regex]
[-e|-ex|-exc|-excl|-exclude... regex]
[-m|-msg|-message|-title message]
[-!|-int|-int_string [string]]
[-a|-attr|-attributes prefix:attr...]
[-1|-l1|-level1 regex [attr]]
[-2|-l2|-level2 regex [attr]]
[-3|-l3|-level3 regex [attr]]
[-4|-l4|-level4 regex [attr]]
[-5|-l5|-level5 regex [attr]]
[-T|-tm|-tag|-tag_mode [delim]]
[-z|-zap|-zap_glyphs bytes]
[-P|-pm|-pin|-pin_mode [delim]]
[-p|-at|-auto_tag]
[-N|-number... [regex...]]
[-U|-unnumber... [regex...]]
[-F|-en|-embedded_number]
[-D|-data|-options [parameter...]
[-b|-blank]
[-M|-middle|-center]
[-d|-restore|-delete|-clean|-delete_window|-clean_window]
[-c|-col|-col_mode|-column]
[-l|-line|-line_mode]
[-t|-tab|-tab_mode|-tabulate_mode [cols]]
[-w|-wide|-wide_mode]
[-C|-cs|-cols|-cols_select... selector...]
[-R|-rs|-rows|-rows_select... selector...]
[-A|-fc|-first_column regex]
[-Z|-lc|-last_column regex]
[-g|-gutter [string]]
[-k|-ks|-keep_spaces]
[-W|-ws|-wd|-word_delimiters|-word_separators bytes]
[-L|-ls|-ld|-line-delimiters|-line_separators bytes]
[-q|-no_bar|-no-scroll_bar]
[-S|-subst... /regex/repl/opts]
[-I|-si|-subst_included... /regex/repl/opts]
[-E|-se|-subst_excluded... /regex/repl/opts]
[-/|-search_method prefix|substring|fuzzy]
[-s|-sp|-start|-start_pattern pattern]
[-x|-tmout|-timeout type [word] delay]
[-X|-htmout|-hidden_timeout type [word] delay]
[-r|-auto_validate]
[-v|-vb|-visual_bell]
[-Q|-ignore_quotes]
selectors ::= col1[-col2],...|row1[-row2],...|RE,...
parameter ::= [l|r:<char>]|[a:left|right]|[p:included|all|[w:<num>]|
[f:yes|no]|[o:<num>[+]]|[n:<num>]|[i:<num>]|[d:<char>]|
[s:<num>]|[h:trim|cut|keep]
attr ::= [fg][/bg][,style]
RE ::= <char>regex<char>
selectors and RE can be freely mixed.
<char> in RE is any non-blank ASCII character except ','.
Note that some parameters require that others have been previously entered in the command line to be
accepted.
DESCRIPTION
This small utility acts as a filter when no input file is given (reads from stdin and writes to stdout)
or takes its inputs from that file.
All the words read are presented in a scrolling window on the terminal at the current cursor position
without having previously cleared the screen.
The selection cursor is initially positioned on the first selectable word by default.
There are options to explicitly or implicitly include or exclude words using extended regular
expressions. Note that when some words are explicitly excluded they can no longer be re-included after.
Excluded words are skipped when the selection cursor is moved and cannot be searched for.
The -W|-ws|-wd|-word_delimiters|-word_separators option can be used to set the characters (or multibyte
sequences) which will be used to delimit the input words. The default delimiters are: SPACE, \t and \n.
The -L|-ls|-ld|-line-delimiters|-line_separators has a similar meaning for lines.
Special character sequences formed by a \ followed by one of the characters a b t n v f r and \ are
understood and have their traditional meanings.
UTF-8 sequences introduced by \u and \U are also understood.
Warning, when used together, it is important to know that all sequences starting with \U will be
interpreted before the start of interpretation of sequences starting with \u.
\u can be followed by 2,4,6 or 8 hexadecimal characters composing an UTF-8 bytestring. Here is an
example of using \u to compose a lowercase latin e with acute accent: \uc3a9.
\U must be followed by exactly 6 hexadecimal digits, including leading zeros, that represent a unicode
codepoint according to ISO 10646 UCS-4. The lowercase latin e with acute of the previous example
(codepoint U+00E9) can then be represented using the notation: \U0000e9.
Note that with most shells, the \ before u and U need to be protected or escaped.
Quotations (single and double) in the input stream can be used to ignore the word separators so that a
group of words are taken as a single entity.
Non printable characters in words that are not delimiters are converted to their traditional form (\n for
end-of-line, \t for tabulation...) by default.
An invalid UTF-8 sequence or other non-printable character will be replaced by a dot (.) by default.
There is nevertheless a possibility to change this substitution character with another ASCII printable
one with the help of the command line option -.|-dot|-invalid.
Warning, UTF-8 encoded codepoints are quietly converted into the substitution character when the user
locale is not UTF-8 aware like POSIX or C by example.
Words containing only spaces, entered directly or resulting from a substitution, are also rejected unless
they are not selectable. This allows special effects like creating blank lines for example. These words
are also kept in column mode, selectable or not.
smenu has an option to define a set of characters or UTF-8 sequences which should be ignored when reading
words. This can be very useful when dealing with inputs where the EOL sequence consists in more than one
character.
A typical example is DOS or Windows files with lines ending with CRLF. In such a case one might decide
to ignore all CR characters from the input.
Moving among words
The cursor can be moved in every direction by using the keyboard arrow keys (←,↓,↑,→) or the vi direction
keys (h, j, k and l). HOME, END, PgDn and PgUp can also be used, if available, and have the following
meanings:
←, h Previous word
CTRL ←, H Start of line
↑, k Previous line
PgUp, K Previous page
HOME First word of the window
CTRL HOME, SHIFT HOME, CTRL K First word
→, l Next word
CTRL →, L End of line
↓, j Next line
PgDn, J Next page
END Last word of the window
CTRL END, SHIFT END, CTRL J Last word
CTRL ←/H (resp. CTRL →/L) places the cursor so that a maximum number of words (selectable or not) are
visible to the left (reps. right) side of the window.
If -N|-number, -U|-unnumber or -F|-en|-embedded_number are used, then it becomes possible to directly
access a word by entering its number. The numbering created using these option is done before any words
substitution done using -S|-subst /regex/repl/opts, -I|-si|-subst_included or -E|-se|-subst_excluded.
Using a combination of these options, it is easy to control which words will be numbered by adding a
special symbol in it before using smenu and removing it (substituted by nothing) afterward using
-I|-si|-subst_included by example.
-E|-se|-subst_excluded gives another way to do that, see below or more.
Searching for words
A word can be searched using different algorithms: prefix, substring of fuzzy.
prefix (keys ^ or =):
The sequence of characters entered must match the beginning of a word.
substring (keys " or '):
The sequence of characters entered must match a substring in a word.
fuzzy (keys ~ or *):
All the characters in the entered sequence must appear in the same order in a word, but need not
be consecutive.
The case is also ignored.
Note that spaces and tabs at the beginning and end of words are ignored when searching for
substrings or fuzzy strings.
The cursor is placed, if possible, on the first matching word having the minimum number of gaps
between the first and last matching character, see the difference between the actions of the s/S
and n/N keys below.
This method also tolerates intermediate symbols not appearing in the words which will be ignored.
If this is the case, the attributes of the approximatively matching words are changed into an
error versions of them to warn the user to this situation.
The erroneous symbols will not be inserted in the search buffer.
For example: if the word abcdef is present in the standard input, then entering abxcdye puts
abcdef in the search buffer and the word is added to the list of matching words and displayed with
an error attribute (in red by default).
This special state will persist until all the symbols following the first erroneous one are
deleted (using backspace) or if ESC is pressed to cancel the search session and clear the search
buffer.
During a search session, the cursor changes and each character entered is added in (or removed from) the
search buffer. The display is refreshed after each change in this buffer.
A 10 seconds timeout (by default) automatically ends the current search session as if the Enter key had
been pressed. This timeout is reset each time a new key is hit in search mode. This delay can be
configured using the search entry in the timers section of the configuration file as shown in the example
in the configuration subsection.
The slash key (/) can also be used instead of any of these keys. By default it is is programmed to do a
fuzzy search but this can be changed by using the command line option (-/|-search_method) or by tuning a
configuration file, see below.
All the words matching the current search buffer are enhanced: The characters present in the current
search buffer are highlighted in one way and the other characters in another way. Both of these
highlighting methods are configurable.
If the user has entered the search sequence: o, s, then the matching word "words" will be displayed as
words when the fuzzy algorithm is in use depending of the display attributes configured.
ENTER and all cursor moves terminate the search session but do not clear the list of the matching words
and the search buffer.
The user can then use the n/s/SPACE keys (forward) and the N/S keys (backward) to navigate in the list of
matching words,
In fuzzy search mode, the s/S keys attempt to move the cursor to the next/previous word whose matching
part forms a substring of this word. If no such matches exist, s/S and n/N do the same things. To move
the cursor to the next/previous fuzzy match, use the n/N/SPACE keys. s means next substring match in
this context while n just means next match.
If the user hits the HOME or END key during a search session then the list of matching words is reduced
to the words starting (respectively) ending with the current search pattern and the window is refreshed.
For those who consider HOME and END as non-intuitive, the CTRL A and CTRL Z keys are also available in
search mode as an alternative. This behaviour is persistent until the user hit the ESC or ENTER key.
For example, if the search pattern in substring mode is sh and the user hits END, then only the words
ending with sh will be added in the searched word list and enhanced.
Note that when a matching word is selected, its enhanced characters only show one of the multiple
matching possibilities.
When not in a search session ESC can be also used to clear the list of matching words and to reset the
search buffer.
In summary, here is the meaning of the special keys in search mode:
Keys which clear the list of matching words.
Key Meaning Closes
the
search
session
───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
Esc Cancel search Yes
───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
Keys which keep or update the list of matching words.
Key Meaning Closes
the
search
session
───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
← Previous word Yes
↑ Previous line Yes
CTRL ← Start of line Yes
PgUp Previous page Yes
CTRL HOME, SHIFT HOME, CTRL K First word Yes
→ Next word Yes
↓ Next line Yes
CTRL → END of line Yes
PgDn Next pages Yes
CTRL END, SHIFT END, CTRL J Last word Yes
HOME, CTRL A Only keep the words No
starting with the search
pattern
END, CTRL Z Only keep the words No
ending with the search
pattern
INS Tag word No
DEL Untag word No
───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
Note that the search buffer is persistent as long as the same search algorithm is used and ESC has not
been pressed.
Selection and Exit
Pressing q gives the possibility to exit without selecting anything.
CTRL C (Abort) also allows you to exit the program immediately with a return code equal to 128+SINGINT
(by default) without selecting anything. See the -!|-int|-int_string option for more information about
the customization of the CTRL C behaviour.
By default, ENTER writes the selected word to stdout when not in search mode otherwise it exits from this
mode and does nothing more. If you want to be able to select a word even when in search mode, use the
-r|-auto_validate option to change this behavior.
Tagging (multiple selections)
When the tagging is activated by using the command line -T|-tm|-tag|-tag_mode or -P|-pm|-pin|-pin_mode
option, then the keys t, T, INS and DEL can be used to tag/untag some words. These tagged words will
then be output on the standard output when ENTER is pressed.
t Tag/untag or Pin/unpin the word under the cursor (toggle).
T Tag or pin the matching words if any.
U Untag or unpin the matching words if any.
INS Tag or pin the word under the cursor.
DEL Untag or unpin the word under the cursor.
Help
A small help message can be displayed when hitting ?. This display will last for 10s or until a valid
key or ESC is pressed.
Scroll bar
A scroll bar is displayed at the right of the scrolling window. Its appearance is meant to be classical
but it has some particularities:
* The scroll bar is not displayed if all the input words fit on only one line.
* Otherwise, the scroll bar is always displayed except when the -q option is set. This option completely
disables the scroll bar display.
* When the scrolling window has only one line, the scroll bar has only 3 states:
- v when on all but the last line, indicating that you can go down to see more.
- ^ when on the last line.
- | otherwise.
* When there is more than one line to display, / means that the window displays the first line, \ the
last line. | is used to fill the gap, see below the different possible configurations.
\ \ ^ ^ \
| | | | /
/ v / v
A + can also appear in the scroll bar in lieu of the vertical bar, giving the relative position of the
cursor line in the bunch of input words.
Terminal resizing (also see BUGS/LIMITATIONS)
The windows is redrawn if the terminal is resized. The redrawing is actually done only 1s after the end
of the resizing to avoid artefacts on screen. The cursor will remain on the current selected word but
may be displayed at another place in the window.
Unicode support
This utility is Unicode aware and should be able to display correctly any Unicode character (even double-
width ones) as long as the current encoding is UTF-8 (UTF-8 in the output of the locale command).
Configuration
If a file with adequate permissions and the same name as the executable but prefixed with a dot is
present in the current directory or in the user's home directory, then it will be parsed as a ini file.
The values read from the file in the home directory will be overridden by the ones read from the local
directory (if it is present).
Missing and bad keywords are silently skipped.
The values read, if valid, override the default hard-coded ones.
If a value is invalid an error message is shown and the program terminates.
The values of the timers must be given in units of 1/10 of a second.
Here is an example giving the syntax and the names of the keywords allowed:
--8<------------------------------------------------------------------
[colors]
; The terminal must have at least 8 colors and/or have attributes like bold
; and reverse for this to be useful
; if not the following settings will be ignored.
method=ansi ; classic | ansi (default)
cursor=0/2 ; cursor attributes
cursor_on_tag=0/2,u ; cursor on tag attributes
shift=6,b ; shift symbol attributes
message=0/3 ; message (title) attributes
bar = 7/4,b ; scroll bar attributes
search_field = 0/6 ; search field attributes
search_text = 7,bu ; search text attributes
match_field = 1,b ; matching words field attributes
match_text = 7,bu ; matching words text attributes
search_err_field = 1 ; approximate search field attributes
search_err_text = 1,r ; approximate search text attributes
; match_err_field = 3 ; approximate matching words field attributes
match_err_text = 1 ; approximate matching words text attributes
; include = b ; selectable color attributes
exclude = 4/0,u ; non-selectable color attributes
tag = 0/5 ; tagged (selected) attributes
daccess = 3,b ; direct access tag attributes
special1 = 7/4,b ; attributes for the special level 1
special2 = bu ; attributes for the special level 2
special3 = /3,b ; attributes for the special level 3
special4 = 7/4 ; attributes for the special level 4
special5 = 7/2,b ; attributes for the special level 5
[window]
lines = 7 ; default number of lines of the window
[limits]
word_length = 1024 ; arbitrary max length of input words (int)
words = 32767 ; arbitrary max number of allowed input
; words (int)
columns = 128 ; arbitrary max number of columns (int)
[timers]
search = 100 ; search timeout in 1/10 s
help = 150 ; duration of the help message in 1/10 s
window = 7 ; delay before redrawing if the size of the
; terminal's window change in 1/10 s
direct_access = 6 ; duration allowed to add a new digit to
; the direct word access number in 1/10 s
[misc]
default_search_method = substring
--8<------------------------------------------------------------------
* The method keyword can take the two possible values displayed above and determines if you want to use
the native method (limited to 8 colors) of the ansi method (ISO 8613-6) if your terminal supports more
than 8 colors.
The default value corresponds to ansi.
The attributes syntax is [fg][/bg][,toggles] where fg and bg are numbers representing the foreground
and background color and toggles is a strings which can contain the characters b, d, r, s, u and i
standing for bold, dim, reverse, standout, underline and italic.
* Spaces are allowed anywhere in the lines and between them, even around the =.
* Everything following a ; is ignored.
* When undefined, the default limits are:
words 32767
word_length 512
columns 256
OPTIONS
Not all options may be available, depending on the current context.
When smenu is called and before the first option is evaluated, it is in the Main context. Each option
can switch to another context in which only a subset of the options is usable.
For each parameter described below, the contexts in which the associated option is defined as well as the
context to which it leads, if any, are given.
An option not defined in a context will force the end of the current context and will be recursively
evaluated in the previous contexts until found (or not). If not found, an error message is displayed and
smenu is terminated.
The contexts defined in smenu are:
Main
The default context
Columns
After the -c|-col|-col_mode|-column parameter.
Lines
After the -l|-line|-line_mode parameter.
Tabulations
After the -t|-tab|-tab_mode|-tabulate_mode parameter.
Tagging
After the -T|-tm|-tag|-tag_mode or -P|-pm|-pin|-pin_mode parameter.
WARNING
Here is a situation that may seem confusing at first glance.
Imagine the only parameter command line parameter is -cols_select.
Since this is a parameter of an option which is not valid when not in the Columns context, it should
have raised an error but it still seems to be accepted.
The trick is: when not in column mode -cols_select is indeed not accepted but its prefix (-col) is
valid. The options are thus understood as: -col -s_select. The same mechanism occurs again as -s is
also valid in column mode so the final understanding of the command line is: -col -s _select.
In such a case, the user can set the environment variable CTXOPT_DEBUG which any non-empty content.
When run again the following output will appear on the standard error:
CTXOPT_DEBUG: Parameter: -cols_select. Evaluation context: Main.
CTXOPT_DEBUG: Found a valid parameter as a prefix of -cols_select: -col.
CTXOPT_DEBUG: Parameter: -col. Evaluation context: Main.
CTXOPT_DEBUG: Switch to context Columns.
CTXOPT_DEBUG: Parameter: -s_select. Evaluation context: Columns.
CTXOPT_DEBUG: Found a valid parameter as a prefix of -s_select: -s.
CTXOPT_DEBUG: Parameter: -s. Evaluation context: Columns.
CTXOPT_DEBUG: Argument: _select.
The command line: -col -cols_select 1 solves the issue in this case and indicates that only the first
column should be selectable. Note, however, that at least one argument for -cols_select is now required:
CTXOPT_DEBUG: Parameter: -col. Evaluation context: Main.
CTXOPT_DEBUG: Switch to context Columns.
CTXOPT_DEBUG: Parameter: -cols_select. Evaluation context: Columns.
CTXOPT_DEBUG: Argument: 1.
The -h|-help and -?|-u|-usage options now display the help and synopsis of the available options in the
current context.
Example:
smenu -col -u will only show the usage in the Columns context
The contexts contain all the non-context-changing options so, in practice, the usage should be intuitive.
You may nevertheless have to adjust some scripts using the old smenu releases as I did in the lvm_menu
example.
Some of the advantages of this new system of options are:
* Long parameter names are allowed One dash is enough, but two are also allowed for compatibility
reasons.
* An option can be referenced by any number of parameters with short or long names.
* Auto checking of missing mandatory options, duplicated option,...
* Only options usable in the current context are allowed.
This option management system is explained in more detail at https://github.com/p-gen/ctxopt.
The description of each command line parameter is as follows:
-h|-help
(Allowed in all contexts.)
Display a context specific help messages and exits.
-H|-long_help
(Allowed in the "Main" context.)
Display a long (non context specific) help messages and exits.
-?|-u|-usage
(Allowed in all contexts.)
Displays a short help message and exits.
-V|-version
(Allowed in the "Main" context.)
The .smenu files in the user's home directory and in the current directory, if present, will be
ignored when this option is used.
-n|-lines|-height [height]
(Allowed in all contexts.)
Gives the maximum number of lines in the scrolling selection window.
If -n|-lines|-height is not present the number of lines will be set to 5.
If -n|-lines|-height is present without argument, then the height of the terminal will be used to
determine the number of lines. This remains true even if the terminal is resized.
If -n|-lines|-height is present with a numerical argument, this value will be used to determine
the number of lines.
-i|-in|-inc|-incl|-include... regex
(Allowed in all contexts.)
Sets the include filter to match the selectable words. All the other words will become implicitly
non-selectable (excluded)
-i|-in|-inc|-incl|-include can be used more than once with cumulative effect.
\u and \U sequences can also be used in the regexp.
-e|-ex|-exc|-excl|-exclude... regex
(Allowed in all contexts.)
Sets the exclude filter to match the non-selectable words. All the other selectable words will
become implicitly selectable (included)
-e|-ex|-exc|-excl|-exclude can be used more than once with cumulative effect. This filter has a
higher priority than the include filter.
The regex selections made using -i|-in|-inc|-incl|-include and/or -e|-ex|-exc|-excl|-exclude are
done before the possible words alterations made by -I|-si|-subst_included or
-E|-se|-subst_excluded (see below).
\u and \U sequences can also be used in the regexp.
-m|-msg|-message|-title message
(Allowed in all contexts.)
Displays a message (title) above the window. If the current locale is not UTF-8, then all UTF-8
characters will be replaced by the substitution character.
\u and \U sequences can be used in the message.
Note that the message will be truncated if it does not fit on a terminal line.
-!|-int|-int_string [string]
(Allowed in all contexts.)
The optional string argument, when present, defines the string to be used as the selection string
when the CTRL C sequence is entered.
If string is missing then nothing will be selected.
In all cases, when -!|-int|-int_string is present in the command line, the return code of the
program will be 0.
This gives the user the choice to make the behaviour of CTRL C similar to that of q and Q or to
that of the Unix shell leaving the shell with a return code greater than 128.
-a|-attr|-attributes prefix:attr...
(Allowed in all contexts.)
Sets the display attributes of the elements displayed and the cursor.
At least one attribute prefixed attribute must be given.
prefix can take the following values:
i included words.
e excluded words.
c cursor.
b scroll bar.
s shift indicator.
m message (title).
t tagged words.
ct cursor on tagged words.
sf search field.
st search text.
sfe approximate search field with error.
ste approximate search text with error.
mf matching words field.
mt matching words text.
mfe matching words field with error.
mte matching words text with error.
da direct access tag.
If more than one attribute is given, they must be separated by spaces.
Example: -attr i:/5 e:4,br b:7/3,rb c:7/2,b
See the the -1|-l1|-level1 option below for the description of the attributes syntax after the
colon and an example.
-1|-l1|-level1 regex [attr]
-2|-l2|-level2 regex [attr]
-3|-l3|-level3 regex [attr]
-4|-l4|-level4 regex [attr]
-5|-l5|-level5 regex [attr]
(Allowed in all contexts.)
Allows one to give a special display color to up to 5 classes of words specified by regular
expressions. They are called special levels. Only selectable words will be considered.
By default, the 5 special levels have their foreground color set to red, green, brown/yellow,
purple and cyan. All these colors also can be set or modified permanently in the configuration
files. See the example file above for an example.
The optional second argument (attr) can be used to override the default or configured attributes
of each class. Its syntax is the same as the one used in the configuration file:
[fg][/bg][,{b|d|r|s|u|i}] | [{b|d|r|s|u|i}]
Examples of possible attributes are:
2/0,bu green on black bold underline
/2 green background
5 text in purple
rb reverse bold
\u and \U sequences can be used in the pattern.
-z|-zap|-zap_glyphs bytes
(Allowed in all contexts.)
Initializes a set of UTF-8 characters to be ignored when reading words from stdin or a file.
Example: The argument '\u0d\ue282ac,' means: ignore all commas, Euro signs and carriage return
characters when reading from stdin or a file.
As shown above \u and \U sequences can be used in the bytes set.
-T|-tm|-tag|-tag_mode [delim]
(Allowed in the following contexts: "Main", "Columns", "Lines", and "Tabulations", switches to the
"Tagging" context.)
Enables multiple selections or tag mode. In this mode, several selectable words can be selected
without leaving the program.
The current word can be automatically tagged when the ENTER key is pressed to complete the
selection process if the -p|-at|-auto_tag option is also set or if no word has been tagged.
All the tagged words (and possibly the world under the cursor) will be sent to stdout separated by
the optional argument given after the option -T|-tm|-tag|-tag_mode.
Note than this separator can have more than one character, contain UTF-8 characters (in native or
\u or \U form) and can even contain control character as in $'\n'.
A space is used as the default separator if none is given.
Caution: To get exactly the same behavior as in version 0.9.11 and earlier, you must also use the
-p|-at|-auto_tag option.
-P|-pm|-pin|-pin_mode [delim]
(Allowed in the following contexts: "Main", "Columns", "Lines", and "Tabulations", switches to the
"Tagging" context.)
Works like -T|-tm|-tag|-tag_mode but, unlike -T|-tm|-tag|-tag_mode, the output depends on the
order in which the words were tagged. In other words, the first tagged word comes first in the
output, the second tagged word comes next, and so on.
-p|-at|-auto_tag
(Allowed in the "Tagging" context.)
This option modifies the default behavior of the -T|-tm|-tag|-tag_mode and -P|-pm|-pin|-pin_mode
options. An untagged word under the cursor will be automatically tagged when ENTER is pressed.
-N|-number>da_ctx... [regex]
(Allowed in the following contexts: "Main", "Columns", "Lines" and "Tabulation".)
This option allows you to number selectable words that match a specific regular expression. These
numbers are numbered from 1 and allow direct access to the words.
To use this functionality, the user must enter the number which corresponds to the desired entry
digit per digit.
Each new digit must be added in a time frame of 1/2 seconds (per default) otherwise the number is
considered complete and a newly entered digit will start a new number. If the number does not
exists, then the cursor is restored to it's initial position.
The sub-options of the -D|-data|-options option described below can change the way -N|-number sets
and formats the numbers.
This option accepts more than one argument and can be used multiple times with cumulative effects.
-N|-number, -U|-unnumber and -F|-en|-embedded_number can be mixed.
-U|-unnumber>da_ctx... [regex]
(Allowed in the following contexts: "Main", "Columns", "Lines" and "Tabulation".)
This option allows one to unnumber words. If placed after a previous -N|-number, it can be used
to remove the numbering of selected words. If placed before, the word which doesn't match its
regular expression will be numbered by default.
This mechanism is similar to to the inclusion/exclusion of words by -i|-in|-inc|-incl|-include and
-e|-ex|-exc|-excl|-exclude.
This option accepts more than one argument and can be used multiple times with cumulative effects.
-U|-unnumber, -N|-number and -F|-en|-embedded_number can be mixed.
-F|-en|-embedded_number
(Allowed in the following contexts: "Main", "Columns", "Lines" and "Tabulation".)
This option is similar to -N|-number but does not generate a continuous flow of numbers but
extracts them from the word itself.
With this option you can take full control of the numbering of the displayed word. Note that the
numbering does not need to be ordered.
The resulting word after the extraction of the number must be non empty.
Some sub-option are required, see the -D|-data|-options option described below.
Notice that for this option to work correctly, all the embedded numbers must have the same number
of digits. To get that, a preprocessing may be necessary on the words before using this program.
-F|-en|-embedded_number, -N|-number and -U|-unnumber can be mixed.
-D|-data|-options [parameter...]
(Allowed in the Following contexts: "Main", "Columns", "Lines" and "Tabulations".)
This option allows one to change the default behaviour of the -N|-number, -U|-unnumber and
-F|-en|-embedded_number options.
Its optional parameters are called sub-options and must respect the format x:y where x can be:
l (-F|-en|-embedded_number, -N|-number and -U|-unnumber options)
Here y is the UTF-8 character (in native or \u or \U form) to print before the number. The
default is a single space.
r (-F|-en|-embedded_number, -N|-number and -U|-unnumber options)
Here y is the UTF-8 character (in native or \u or \U form) to print after the number. The
default is ).
a (-F|-en|-embedded_number, -N|-number and -U|-unnumber options)
Here y is 'left' (or one of its prefixes) if the number must be left aligned, or 'right'
(or one of its prefixes) if it must be right aligned. The default is right.
p (-F|-en|-embedded_number, -N|-number and -U|-unnumber options)
Here y is 'included' or 'all' for the initial padding of the non numbered words. The
keyword 'included' means that only included word will be padded while 'all' means pad all
words.
The default is all. These keywords can be abbreviated.
w (-F|-en|-embedded_number, -N|-number and -U|-unnumber options)
Here y is the width of the number between 1 and 5 included.
f (-F|-en|-embedded_number, -N|-number and -U|-unnumber options)
Here y controls if the numbering must follow the last extracted number (defaults to yes) or
if it must remain independent.
The possible values are yes and no but can be abbreviated.
m (-F|-en|-embedded_number option)
Here y controls if the numbering of word with missing embedded numbers must be done or not
(defaults to yes).
When this sub-option is set to no, the s and f sub-options are ignored.
The possible values are yes and no but can be abbreviated.
h (-F|-en|-embedded_number option)
Tells what to do with the characters present before the embedded number if any.
The allowed directives are: 'trim' which discads them if they form an empty word (only made
of spaces and tabulations), 'cut' which unconditionally discards them and 'keep' which
places them at the beginning of the resulting word.
The default value for this directive is 'keep', these keywords can be abbeviated.
o (-F|-en|-embedded_number option)
Here y is the offset of the first multibyte character of the number to extract from the
word (defaults to 0).
If this offset if immediately followed by the character '+', then the parser will look for
the first number (if any) after the given offset instead of using its absolute value to
extract the number.
Note that when the '+' is used, it is necessary that the length of all the numbers to
extract have the same size as the algorithm looks for a digit to identify the beginning of
the number to extract. Hence, for example, 1 should appear as 01 in the input is n is set
to 2.
n (-F|-en|-embedded_number option)
Here y is the number of multibyte characters to extract from the word starting at the
offset given by the o sub-option.
Example: n:2 will extract and use the first 2 digits of each words from the input stream to
number them.
i (-F|-en|-embedded_number option)
Here y is number of multibyte characters to ignore after the extracted number
d (-F|-en|-embedded_number, -N|-number and -U|-unnumber options)
Here y is a multibyte separator. When present, this directive instructs smenu to output
the selected numbered word(s) prefixed by its(their) direct access number(s) and the given
separator.
Only the numbered word(s) will be prefixed.
d stands for decorate.
This directive can be useful when you want to post-process the output according to its
direct access number.
s (-F|-en|-embedded_number, -N|-number and -U|-unnumber options)
Here y is the direct access number that will be set for the first numbered word. Its value
is 1 by default, a value of 0 is possible.
Example: -data r:\> l:\< a:l d:_
To number all words with the default parameters, use the syntax: "-N ." which is a shortcut for:
"-N . -D l:' ' r:')' a:r p:a"
The padding sub-option specifies whether spaces must also be added in front of excluded words or
not to improve compactness.
When the w sub-option is not given the width of the numbers is determined automatically but if
-F|-en|-embedded_number is set and the value of the n sub-option is given then this value is used.
-b|-blank
(Allowed in all contexts.)
Replaces all non-printable characters by a blank. If this results in a blank word, it will be
potentially deleted.
-.|-dot|-invalid
(Allowed in all contexts.)
Sets the substitution character for non-printable characters. When this parameter is not used,
the default substitution character is a single dot.
-M|-middle|-center
(Allowed in all contexts.)
Centers the display if possible.
-d|-restore|-delete|-clean|-delete_window|-clean_window
(Allowed in all contexts.)
Tells the program to clean up the display before quitting by removing the selection window after
use as if it was never displayed.
-c|-col|-col_mode|-column
(Allowed in the "Main" and "Tagging" contexts, switches to the "Columns" context.)
Sets the column mode. In this mode the lines of words do not wrap when the right border of the
terminal is reached but only when a special character is read. Some words will not be displayed
without an horizontal scrolling.
If such a scrolling is needed, some indications may appear on the left and right edge of the
window to help the user to reach the unseen words.
In this mode, the width of each column is minimal to keep the maximum information visible on the
terminal.
-l|-line|-line_mode
(Allowed in the "Main" and "Tagging" contexts, switches to the "Lines" context.)
Sets the line mode. This mode is the same as column mode but without any column alignment.
-t|-tab|-tab_mode|-tabulate_mode [cols]
(Allowed in the "Main" and "Tagging" contexts, switches to the "Tabulations" context.)
This option sets the tabulation mode and, if a number is specified, attempts to set the number of
displayed columns to that number.
In this mode, embedded line separators are ignored if not explicitly set with -L|-ls|-ld|-line-
delimiters|-line_separators. The options -A|-fc|-first_column and -Z|-lc|-last_column can
nevertheless be used to force words to appear in the first (respectively last) position of the
displayed line.
Note that the number of requested columns will be automatically reduced if a word does not fit in
the calculated column size.
In this mode each column has the same width.
-w|-wide|-wide_mode
(Allowed in the "Columns" and "Tabulations" contexts.)
When -t|-tab|-tab_mode|-tabulate_mode is followed by a number of columns, the default is to
compact the columns so that they use the less terminal width as possible. This option enlarges
the columns in order to use the whole terminal width.
When in column mode, -w|-wide|-wide_mode can be used to force all the columns to have the same
size (the largest one). See option -c|-col|-col_mode|-column below.
Note that the column's size is only calculated once when the words are displayed for the first
time. A terminal resize will not update this value. This choice enables a faster display.
-C|-cs|-cols|-cols_select... [i|e]selectors...
(Allowed in the "Columns" context.)
I and E have the same meaning as i and e.
In column mode, this option is useful to restrict the selections to a subset of all columns.
Either by including (nothing or i) or by excluding (e) them.
Columns can be designated by their number (1 based) or by a regular expression enclosed in
delimiter made from any non-blank ASCII character excluding the comma.
Range of columns (number or RE) can be given by separated then with a dash.
Multiple selectors can be regrouped in one argument using commas to separate them. This option
also accepts multiple arguments, each of them being a selector.
A selection by regular expressions means that a column containing a word matching any of these
expressions will be included or excluded depending on the letter given after the option or before
the selector if there is more than one argument.
Regular expressions and column numbers can be freely mixed.
Regular expression in -C|-cs|-cols|-cols_select and -R|-rs|-rows|-rows_select can contain UTF-8
characters either directly or by using the \u or \U notation.
Example of columns selection: -Ci2,3,/X./,5-7 forces the cursor to only navigate in columns
2,3,5,6 and 7 and those containing a two characters word starting with 'X'. If e was used in
place of i, all the columns would have been selected except the columns 2,3,5,6,7 and those
matching the extended regular expression 'X.'.
Spaces are allowed in the selection string if they are protected.
Other example where multiple selectors are used as multiple arguments: ps | smenu -col -cols
e/TTY/ e/CMD/ e3
-R|-rs|-rows|-rows_select... selectors...
(Allowed in the "Columns" and "Lines" contexts.)
Similar to -C|-cs|-cols|-cols_select but for the rows.
-C|-cs|-cols|-cols_select and -R|-rs|-rows|-rows_select can be used more than once in a cumulative
manner:
The selection mode (selection or de-selection) is given by the first occurrence of the options,
the other occurrences will only update the selected or de-selected ranges.
Once a column or a row has been excluded, it cannot be re-included.
-A|-fc|-first_column regex
(Allowed in the following contexts: "Columns", "Lines" and "Tabulations".)
In column mode, forces all words matching the given regular expression to be the first one in the
displayed line. If you want to only rely on this method to build the lines, just specify an empty
regex to set the end-of-line separator with -L|-ls|-ld|-line-delimiters|-line_separators '')
\u and \U sequences can also be used in the regexp after -A|-fc|-first_column.
-Z|-lc|-last_column regex
(Allowed in the following contexts: "Columns", "Lines" and "Tabulations".)
Similar to -A|-fc|-first_column but forces the word to be the latest of its line. The same trick
with -L|-ls|-ld|-line-delimiters|-line_separators can also be used.
\u and \U sequences can also be used in the regexp after -Z|-lc|-last_column.
-g|-gutter [string]
(Allowed in the "Columns" and "Tabulations" contexts.)
Replaces the blank after each words in column or tabular mode by a column separator.
This separator is extracted from the string argument and each of its (multibyte) character is used
one after the other to fill the gutter.
If there are more columns that gutter characters then the last character is used for the remaining
columns.
When not given, the separator defaults to a vertical bar | (or a full height vertical bar if the
locale is set to UTF-8).
Each character can be given in normal or \u or \U form in the string argument.
Example: "|- " will allow one to separate the first two columns with '|', then '-' will be used
and ' ' will separate the remaining columns if any.
-k|-ks|-keep_spaces
(Allowed in all contexts.)
By default, the spaces surrounding the output string will be deleted. This option forces them to
be retained.
-W|-ws|-wd|-word_delimiters|-word_separators bytes
(Allowed in all contexts.)
This option can be used to specify the characters (or multibyte sequences) which will be used to
delimit the input words.
Multibyte sequences (UTF-8) can be natives of using the same ASCII representation used in words (a
leading \u or \U following by up to 8 hexadecimal characters for the former and 6 hexadecimal
characters for the latter).
Non-printable characters in arguments should be given using the standard $'' representation.
$'\t' stands for the tabulation character for example.
The default delimiters are: SPACE, $'\t' and $'\n'.
-L|-ls|-ld|-line-delimiters|-line_separators bytes
(Allowed in all contexts.)
This option can be used to specify the characters (or multibyte sequences) which will be used to
delimit the lines in the input stream.
Multibyte sequences (UTF-8) can be natives of using the same ASCII representation used in words (a
leading \u or \U following by up to 8 hexadecimal characters for the former and 6 hexadecimal
characters for the latter).
Non-printable characters in arguments should be given using the standard $'' representation.
$'\n' stands for the newline character for example.
The default delimiter is: $'\n'.
This option is only useful when the -c|-col|-col_mode|-column or -l option is also set.
The characters (or multibyte sequences) passed to -L|-ls|-ld|-line-delimiters|-line_separators are
automatically added to the list of word delimiters as if
-W|-ws|-wd|-word_delimiters|-word_separators was also used.
\u and \U sequences can also be used here.
-q|-no_bar|-no-scroll_bar
(Allowed in all contexts.)
Prevents the display of the scroll bar.
-S|-subst... /regex/repl/[g][v][s]
(Allowed in all contexts.)
Post-processes the words by applying a regular expression based substitution. The argument must
be formatted as in the sed editor.
This option can be used more than once. Each substitution will be applied in sequence on each
word. This sequence can be stopped if a stop flag is encountered.
flags:
* The optional trailing g (for global) means that all matching occurrences shall be replaced and
not only the first one.
* The optional trailing v (for visual) means that the altered words will only be used for display
and search. The modifications will not be reflected in the returned word.
* The optional trailing s (for stop) means that no more substitution will be allowed on this word
even if another -S|-subst is used.
* The optional trailing i (for ignore case) means that the string search operation should ignore
the case for this pattern.
Small example: R=$(echo a b c | smenu -S /b/B/) will display "a B c" and R will contain B if B
is selected meanwhile R=$(echo a b c | smenu -S /b/B/v) will display the same as above but R
will contain the original word b if B is selected. In both cases, only the word B will be
searchable and not b.
-I|-si|-subst_included... /regex/repl/[g][v][s]
(Allowed in all contexts.)
Post-processes the selectable words by applying a regular expression based substitution (see
-S|-subst for details).
-E|-se|-subst_excluded... /regex/repl/[g][v][s]
(Allowed in all contexts.)
Post-processes the excluded (or non-selectable) words by applying a regular expression based
substitution (see -S|-subst for details).
The / separator that -I|-si|-subst_included and -E|-se|-subst_excluded are using above can be
substituted by any other character except SPACE, \t, \f, \n, \r and \v.
In the three previous options, regex is a POSIX Extended Regular Expression. For details, please
refer to the regex manual page.
Additionally \u and \U sequences can also be used in the regexp.
If a post-processing action (-S|-subst, -I|-si|-subst_included, -E|-se|-subst_excluded) results in an
empty (length 0) word, then we have two cases:
in column mode:
Substitutions involving empty words can lead to misalignments, so it is necessary to
prohibit them and terminate the program. These substitutions have to be made with other
tools before using this utility.
otherwise:
The word is simply removed.
-/|-search_method search_method
(Allowed in all contexts.)
Affects the '/' key to a search method. By default '/' is affected to 'fuzzy' but the argument
can be any prefix of 'prefix', 'substring' or 'fuzzy'.
-s|-sp|-start|-start_pattern pattern
(Allowed in all contexts.)
Place the cursor on the first word corresponding to the specified pattern.
pattern can be:
* A # immediately followed by a number giving the initial position of the cursor (counting from
0).
If the word at this position is excluded, then the first previous non excluded word is selected
if it exists, otherwise the first non excluded word is selected.
If this number if greater than the number of words, the cursor will be set on the latest
selectable position.
* A single # or the string #last to set the initial cursor position to the latest selectable word
position.
* A string starting with a / indicating that we want the cursor to be set to the first word
matching the given regular expression.
* A prefix string indicating that we want the cursor to be set on the first word matching the
string given (a will match Cancel by example).
Warning, when searching for a prefix or a regular expression, smenu only looks for them after an
eventual modification, so for example, the command: smenu -I/c/x/ -s/c <<< "a b c d" won't find c
and put the cursor on a but smenu -I/c/x/v -s/c <<< "a b c d" will find it and put the cursor on
the x substituting the c on screen only
\u and \U sequences can be used in the pattern.
-x|-tmout|-timeout type [word] delay
-X|-htmout|-hidden_timeout type [word] delay
(Allowed in all contexts.)
Sets a timeout. Three types of timeout are possible:
current: At the timeout, the word under the cursor and/or the tagged words are sent to the
standard output if the ENTER key has been pressed
quit: At the timeout, nothing is selected as if the q key has been pressed
word: At the timeout, the word given after the type is selected. Note that this word doesn't
need to be part of the words coming from the standard input.
Each type can be be shortened as a prefix of its full name ("cur" for "current" of "q" for "quit"
per example).
The delay must be set in seconds and cannot be above 99999 seconds.
The remaining time (in seconds) is added at the end of the message displayed above the selection
window and is updated in real time each second.
Any key except ENTER, q, Q and CTRL C resets the timer to its initial value.
The -X|-htmout|-hidden_timeout version works like -x|-tmout|-timeout but no periodic remaining
messages is displayed above the selection window.
-r|-auto_validate
(Allowed in all contexts.)
Enables ENTER to validate the selection even in search mode.
-v|-vb|-visual_bell
(Allowed in all contexts.)
By default, when searching, an alarm is produced by the terminal when the user enters a character
or makes a move which lead to no result or to an error condition. This argument make this beep
visual by briefly showing the cursor.
-Q|-ignore_quotes
(Allowed in all contexts.)
Using this option will remove the word grouping feature from single and double quotes which will
be considered normal characters. For example: "a b" will be considered by smenu as two words "a
and b" and no more as a single word: a b.
NOTES
If tabulators (\t) are embedded in the input, there is no way to replace them with the original number of
spaces. In this case use another filter (like expand) to pre-process the data.
EXAMPLES
1
Simple Yes/No/Cancel request with "No" as default choice:
In bash:
read R <<< $(echo "Yes No Cancel" \
| smenu -d -m "Please choose:" -s /N)
or
R=$(echo "Yes No Cancel" \
| smenu -d -m "Please choose:" -s /N)
In ksh:
print "Yes No Cancel" \
| smenu -d -m "Please choose:" -s /N \
| read R
2
Get a 3 columns report about VM statistics for the current process in bash/ksh on Linux:
R=$(grep Vm /proc/$$/status | expand | smenu -b -W$'\n' -t3 -g -d)
3
Create a one column selection window containing the list of the first 20 LVM physical volumes. At the
end, the selection window will be erased. This example is written in ksh).
pvs -a -o pv_name --noheadings \
| smenu -m "PV list" -n20 -t1 -d -s //dev/root \
| read R
The display will have a look similar to the following with the cursor set on the word /dev/root:
PV list
/dev/md126 \
/dev/md127 |
/dev/root | <- cursor here.
/dev/sda2 |
/dev/sdb2 |
/dev/sdc1 |
/dev/sdc2 |
/dev/system/homevol /
4 (advanced)
Imagine a file named sample.mnu with the following content:
--8<---------------------------------
"1 First Entry" "3 Third entry"
"2 Second entry" "4 Fourth entry"
@@@ "5 Fifth entry"
@@@
"0 Exit menu"
--8<---------------------------------
Then this quite esoteric command will render it (centered on the screen) as:
+----------------------------------+
| Test menu |
| |
| 1) First Entry 3) Third entry |
| 2) Second entry 4) Fourth entry |
| 5) Fifth entry |
| |
| 0) Exit menu |
+----------------------------------+
with the cursor on Quit and only the numbers and "Quit" selectable.
R=$(smenu -q -d -s/Exit -M -n 30 -c \
-e "@+" -E '/@+/ /' \
-F -D n:1 i:1 \
-m "Test menu" < sample.mnu)
The selected entry will be available in R
Try to understand it as an exercise.
ENVIRONMENT
NO_COLOR force a monochrome terminal when set.
CTXOPT_DEBUG put the option parser in debug mode.
BUGS/LIMITATIONS
Some terminal emulators, those notably based on VTE version later than 0.35 (see
https://github.com/GNOME/vte/commit/01380d), have a new feature that gives them the possibility to
wrap/unwrap already displayed lines when resizing the window.
As far as I known, there is no terminfo entry to disable that.
On these types of terminals, the automatic re-display of the output of smenu will be disturbed and some
artifacts may appear on the screen if the terminal window is resized.
AUTHORS
© 2015-present, Pierre Gentile (p.gen.progs@gmail.com)
smenu(1)