Generate Shell-Completions

[dwt]

HI there,

I'm currently packaging fast-cli for nixpkgs. For that I'm trying to install shell-completion scripts. As I'm not super knowledgeable about rust command line parsers, but is there a way to get the zig binary to generate it's shell completion scripts dynamically?

[mikkelam]

That's super cool! Happy to hear that you're trying to make a nixpkg!🙌

Unfortunately, the library I'm using for command line argument passing does not support automatic completion generation. There is an open issue here.

Is this a requirement for a nixpkg? I think that leaves two options:

1. Either upstream completion scripts generation in zig-clap
2. Make our own completions here.

I'm not sure what's the best immediate path🤔

[dwt]

No wories, shell completions are not a requirement for nixpkgs, they are really nice to have though, which is why I'm asking. I would advise to work on upstreaming completion scripts and giving me a ping when they are available.

Would that work for you?

[mikkelam]

Shell completions for this CLI tool are barely useful though. All you'll get as options are flags.

I think you should attempt this feature yourself first :P It is a rather large endeavour and you need to align on the specs of completions for the 3 main shells

[dwt]

Ah, I think I'll pass. :) Zig is not my language of choice. It will eventually materialize though. That being said, if you wanted to build completions scripts yourself, I would take a look at carapace which already built out all the infrastructure to support completions with all shells.