NAME

wimenu - The wmii menu program

SYNOPSIS

wimenu [-i] [-h <history file>] [-n <history count>] [-p <prompt>]

wimenu -v

DESCRIPTION

wimenu is wmii's standard menu program. It's used extensively by wmii and related programs to prompt the user for input. The standard configuration uses it to launch programs, select views, and perform standard actions. It supports basic item completion and history searching.

BASIC ARGUMENTS

Normal use of wimenu shouldn't require any arguments other than the following. More advanced options are documented below.

-h <history file>

Causes wimenu to read its command history from <history file> and to append its result to that file if -n is given.

-i

Causes matching of completion items to be performed in a case insensitive manner.

-n <count>

Write at most <count> items back to the history file. The file is never modified unless this option is provided. Duplicates are filtered out within a 20 item sliding window before this limit is imposed.

-p <prompt>

The string <prompt> will be show before the input field when the menu is opened.

ADVANCED ARGUMENTS

-a

The address at which to connect to wmii.

-K

Prevents wimenu from initializing its default key bindings. WARNING: If you do this, be sure to bind a key with the Accept or Reject action, or you will have no way to exit wimenu.

-k <key file>

Key bindings will be read from <key file>. Bindings appear as:

<key> [action] [args]

where <key> is a key name, similar to the format used by wmii. For action and args, please refer to the default bindings, provided in the source distribution under cmd/menu/keys.txt, or use strings(1) on the wimenu executable (this level of customization is reserved for the determined).

-s <screen>

Suggests that the menu open on Xinerama screen <screen>.

-S <command separator>

Causes each input item to be split at the first occurance of <command sep>. The text to the left of the separator is displayed as a menu option, and the text to the right is displayed when a selection is made.

CUSTOM COMPLETION

Custom, multipart completion data may be proveded by an external application. When the standard input is not a TTY, processing of a set of completions stops at every blank line. After the first new line or EOF, wimenu displays the first set of menu items, and waits for further input. The completion items may be replaced by writing out a new set, again followed by a new line. Every set following the first must begin with a line containing a single decimal number specifying where the new completion results are to be spliced into the input. When an item is selected, text from this position to the position of the caret is replaced.

ARGUMENTS

-c

Prints the contents of the input buffer each time the user inputs a character, as such:

<text before caret>\n<text after caret>\n

EXAMPLE

Let's assume that a script would like to provide a menu with completions first for a command name, then for arguments to that command. Given three commands and argument sets,

foo

1, 2, 3

bar

4, 5, 6

baz

7, 8, 9

the following script provides the appropriate completions:

  #!/bin/sh -f
  
  rm fifo
  mkfifo fifo
  
  # Open wimenu with a fifo as its stdin
  wimenu -c <fifo | awk '
  	BEGIN {
  		# Define the completion results
  		cmds = "foo\nbar\nbaz\n"
  		cmd["foo"] = "1\n2\n3\n"
  		cmd["bar"] = "4\n5\n6\n"
  		cmd["baz"] = "7\n8\n9\n"
  
  		# Print the first set of completions to wimenu’s fifo
  		fifo = "fifo"
  		print cmds >fifo; fflush(fifo)
  	}
  
  	# Store the last line we get and print it when done
  	{ last = $0 }
  	END { print last }
  
  	# Push out a new set of completions
  	function update(str, opts) {
  		print length(str) >fifo # Print the length of the preceding string
  		print opts >fifo        # and the options themself
  		fflush(fifo)
  	}
  
  	# Ensure correct argument count with trailing spaces
  	/ $/ { $0 = $0 "#"; }
  
  	{ # Process the input and provide the completions
  		if (NF == 1)
  			update("", cmds)        # The first arg, command choices
  		else
  			update($1 " ", cmd[$1]) # The second arg, command arguments
  		# Skip the trailing part of the command
  		getline rest
  	}
  '

In theory, this facility can be used for myriad purposes, including hijacking the programmable completion facilities of most shells.

ENVIRONMENT

$WMII_ADDRESS: The address at which to connect to wmii.
$NAMESPACE: The namespace directory to use if no address is provided.