XPICK(1) XPICK(1)
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NAME
xpick - pick arguments via an X window
SYNOPSIS
xpick [ -toolkit option] [ -n ] [ - | arg ... ]
xapply [ - | arg ... ]
DESCRIPTION
xpick displays a window containing its arguments, each of which is
selectable by clicking mouse button 1. Clicking with mouse button 1
on an already selected item deselects it. Clicking with mouse button
3 extends or reduces contiguous selections.
Hitting the ok command button causes the selected arguments to be
echoed to standard output and xpick to terminate.
The set, clear and invert buttons each change the selection state of
the arguments according to the pattern in text widget to their right.
All arguments are compared with the pattern and matching items set,
cleared, or inverted accordingly. Pattern matching follows that of
sh(1) except that the empty pattern matches everything and ~ or ^ as
well as ! may be used for character class negation.
If the user resizes the xpick window then the number of columns
displayed is adjusted to fit the new window width, and a vertical
scroll bar added if necessary.
OPTIONS
- Offer each line of standard input, rather than the
arguments, for selection.
-n Display in n columns.
EXAMPLE
rm `xpick *`
or perhaps
rm `ls -ld * | xpick -1 - | awk '{print $8}'`
Or, using the xapply script (which calls xpick)
xapply ll
or
xapply "nroff -man"
ACCELERATORS
All keyboard input is directed to the pattern text widget. Typing
<return> is equivalent to hitting the set command button.
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XPICK(1) XPICK(1)
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WIDGETS
In order to specify further resources, it is useful to know the
hierarchy of the widgets which compose xpick. In the notation below,
indentation indicates hierarchical structure. The widget class name
is given first, followed by the widget instance name.
Xpick xpick
Paned vpaned
Paned hpaned
Command ok
Command set
Command clear
Command invert
Text pattern
Viewport viewport
MultiList multiList
USEFUL RESOURCES (with typical default setting)
*multiList.defaultColumns:4
RESTRICTIONS
Pattern meta characters cannot be escaped.
SEE ALSO
sh(1), X(1) Athena Widget Set
AUTHOR
Gerry Tomlinson (gerry.tomlinson@newcastle.ac.uk)
COPYRIGHT
Copyright 1993, The Computing Laboratory, University of Newcastle Upon
Tyne
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Xpick is based on pick, described in "The Unix Programming
Environment", by B.W. Kernighan & R. Pike, & included in Unix V8.
It uses the Multilist widget by Brian Totty <totty@cs.uiuc.edu> from
the Free Widget Foundation widget set.
The pattern matching code is adapted from that of the rc shell by
Byron Rakitzis <byron@archone.tamu.edu>.
- 2 - Formatted: November 3, 2025
