ISELECT(1) EN ISELECT(1)
Ralf S. Engelschall Ralf S. Engelschall
2007-07-08
NAME
iSelect -- Interactive Selection Tool
SYNOPSIS
iselect [-d STR,STR] [-c] [-f] [-a] [-e] [-p NUM] [-k KEY[:OKEY]] [-m]
[-n STR] [-t STR] [-S] [-K] [-P] [-Q STR] [line1 line2 ...]
iselect [-V]
VERSION
1.4.0 (08-Jul-2007)
DESCRIPTION
Intend
iSelect is an interactive line selection tool for ASCII files,
operating via a full-screen Curses-based terminal session. It can be
used either as an user interface frontend controlled by a
Bourne-Shell, Perl or other type of script backend as its wrapper or
in batch as a pipe filter (usually between grep and the final
executing command). In other words: iSelect was designed to be used
for any types of interactice line-based selections.
Input Data
Input is read either from the command line (line1 line2 ...) where
each argument corresponds to one buffer line or from stdin (when no
arguments are given) where the buffer lines are determined according
to the newline characters.
You can additionally let substrings displayed in Bold mode for non-
selectable lines (because the selectable lines are always displayed
bold) by using the construct ``"<b>"..."</b>"'' as in HTML.
Selections
The selection is either just a single line (default) or multiple lines
(option -m). Per default no lines are selectable. If a line contains
the string ``"<s>"'' (or a string with different delimiters configured
via option -d) at any position this string is stripped and the line is
selectable. Its result (printed to stdout) is the line contents itself
(but without the ``"<s>"'' string of course). If option -a is used all
lines are selectable and their result is again the line itself, i.e.
using option -a is the same as adding ``"<s>"'' to every line of the
input data. When you want a specific result (i.e. not just the line
contents itself), you have to use the special variant ``"<s:result
text>"'' which results in the output ``"result text"'' when the
corresponding line is selected.
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ISELECT(1) EN ISELECT(1)
Ralf S. Engelschall Ralf S. Engelschall
2007-07-08
When you use a specific result via ``"<s:result text>"'' the result
text can contain ``"%[query text]s"'' and ``"%[query text]S"''
constructs. For every such construct an interactive query is done and
the result replaces the construct. The ``"%[query text]S"'' construct
is like ``"%[query text]s"'' except that the empty string as the query
result is not accepted on input.
The Curses-based full-screen selection is always done via /dev/tty,
because the stdin and stdout filehandles are usually tied to the input
and output data streams.
Output Data
The output is the line itself or the string given with ``"<s:result
text>"''. When multiple line selection mode (option -m) is used the
output is all selected lines theirself or their configured result
strings. Output always is written to stdout.
OPTIONS
Input Options
These options control how iSelect parses its input.
-d STR, --delimiter=STR
Sets the delimiters for the selection tags. The default is
`"<,>"', i.e. the selection tags have to read ``"<s>"'' and
``"<s:result text>"''
-c, --strip-comments
Strips all sharp comment lines from the input buffer before
parsing.
-f, --force-browse
Browse always, i.e. even when the input buffer contains no or only
one line.
-a, --all-select
Force all lines to be selectable.
-e, --exit-no-select
Exit immediately if no lines are selectable. In this case not even
the Curses screen is initialized.
Display Options
-p NUM, --position=NUM
Sets the cursor position to line NUM.
-k KEY[:OKEY], --key=KEY[:OKEY]
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ISELECT(1) EN ISELECT(1)
Ralf S. Engelschall Ralf S. Engelschall
2007-07-08
Defines an additional input key. Per default OKEY is "RETURN",
i.e. for instance -kf defines another selection key `"f"'.
-m, --multi-line
Enable multi-line selection where you can select more then one
line via SPACE key.
-n STR, --name=STR
Sets the name string, displayed flush left at the bottom of the
browser window.
-t STR, --title=STR
Sets the title bar string, displayed centered at the bottom of the
browser window.
Output Options
-S, --strip-result
Strip all leading and trailing whitespaces from the result string.
-K, --key-result
Prefix the result string (given on stdout) with the corresponding
selection key which was used. This usually is "RETURN" or
"KEY_RIGHT" but can be any of the additional keys defined by
option -k. When you use -kf and select a line "Foo Bar" with key
`"f"' the result string is ``"f:Foo Bar"''.
-P, --position-result
Prefix the result string (given on stdout) with the corresponding
cursor position followed by a colon. When you selected line N and
this line has the result "Foo Bar" configured the result string is
``"N:Foo Bar"''.
-Q STR, --quit-result=STR
Sets the result string on quit. Default is the empty string.
Giving Feedback
-V, --version
Displays version identification string.
KEYSTROKES
Cursor Movement
Use these to browse through the selection list.
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ISELECT(1) EN ISELECT(1)
Ralf S. Engelschall Ralf S. Engelschall
2007-07-08
CURSOR-UP ..... Move cursor one line up
CURSOR-DOWN ... Move cursor one line down
PAGE-UP ....... Move cursor one page up
PAGE-DOWN ..... Move cursor one page down
g ............. Goto first line
G ............. Goto last line
Line Selection
Use these to select one line and exit in standard mode or one or more
lines in multi-line mode.
RETURN ........ Select line and exit
CURSOR-RIGHT .. Select line and exit
SPACE ......... Select line and stay (multi-line mode only)
Others
Use these to quit iSelect or to show its help and version page.
q ............. Quit (exit without selection)
CURSOR-LEFT ... Quit (exit without selection)
h ............. Help Page
v ............. Version Page
EXAMPLE
As an example we present a real-life situation where iSelect can
enhance an existing functionality. We define two Bash functions (for
your $HOME/.bashrc file) which enhance the built-in `cd' command of
the shell.
# database scan for enhanced cd command
cds () {
(cd $HOME;
find . -type d -print |\
sed -e "s;^\.;$HOME;" |\
sort -u >$HOME/.cdpaths ) &
}
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ISELECT(1) EN ISELECT(1)
Ralf S. Engelschall Ralf S. Engelschall
2007-07-08
# definition of the enhanced cd command
cd () {
if [ -d $1 ]; then
builtin cd $1
else
builtin cd `egrep "/$1[^/]*$" $HOME/.cdpaths |\
iselect -a -Q $1 -n "chdir" \
-t "Change Directory to..."`
fi
PS1="\u@\h:$PWD\n:> "
}
This new `cd' command is compatible with Bashs built-in variant for
the case where the specified directory actually exists. When it
doesn't, the original `cd' would immediately give an error (assuming
we have no CDPATH variable defined). Here this enhanced version tries
harder. First it searches for such a directory in a previously built
(via cds) $HOME/.cdpaths files. When no line was found, iSelect just
returns the given directory as the default result and `cd' then fails
as usual with an error message. When only one directory was found,
iSelect directly results this particular line to `cd'. And only when
more then one directory was found, iSelect opens its Curses-based
selection screen and lets the user choose interactively between those
directories. The chosen directory is then finally given to `cd'.
For more useful examples on how to use iSelect, see the contrib/
directory of the iSelect distribution tarball.
AUTHOR
Ralf S. Engelschall
rse@engelschall.com
www.engelschall.com
SEE ALSO
iSelect Home: http://www.ossp.org/pkg/tool/iselect/
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