Question: Expanding environment variables during auto complete

[DRSDavidSoft]

Hi there, sorry to bother you, I have a quick question regarding env variables when using auto-complete (either Tab or Ctrl-Space)

I was under the assumption that if I entered something like cd %some_var%\ and hit tab, I could access the sub folders of that path. For example:

C:\Users\David
λ cd %cmder_root%\

If I press tab, nothing happens.

Clink is updated to the latest version and the env var is defined:

C:\Users\David
λ clink update
Checking latest version...
Downloading latest release v1.6.13...
Expanding zip file...

Updated Clink to v1.6.13.

To view the release notes, visit the Releases page:
  https://github.com/chrisant996/clink/releases

C:\Users\David
λ set cmder_root
CMDER_ROOT=C:\development\cmder\vendor\bin\..\..

I'm sorry if this is a duplicate question but I didn't quite find what I was looking for. Is this a supported feature? If not, is it possible to add something like this?

P.S. Also as sidenote, is it possible to reload clink in Cmder after I have changed some configurations, without closing and launching a new shell?

Thank you Chris!

[chrisant996]

You're thinking of https://chrisant996.github.io/clink/clink.html#match_expand_envvars.

[chrisant996]

is it possible to reload clink in Cmder after I have changed some configurations, without closing and launching a new shell?

It depends entirely on what you mean by "changed some configurations". Can you elaborate?

[DRSDavidSoft]

@chrisant996 Thanks for the help! A bit embarrassing that it didn't occur to me to RTFM, surely with a more thorough search I would have found it.

As for reloading the changes, I was wondering if it's possible to do something like this to change prompt variables:

nano %cmder_root%\config\cmder_prompt_config.lua

Which changes the prompt in Clink (as it's used by clink.lua). Essentially, now I need to reload the .lua files and re-assign the clink.prompt.value value.

One more off-topic question (I'm super-sorry for being lazy to read the docs) but is there a way to disable the hints that are shown at the end of the prompt such as "Right=Accept Suggestion")?

[chrisant996]

Refer to docs,

• clink-reload
• Auto-Suggest

[DRSDavidSoft]

Thanks again!

[DRSDavidSoft]

@chrisant996 Is it possible to trigger clink-reload without pressing a key, i.e. something like clink run-command clink-reload?

[chrisant996]

@chrisant996 Is it possible to trigger clink-reload without pressing a key, i.e. something like clink run-command clink-reload?

No. While running a program, e.g. dir or git or clink whatever, there is no input line. When there's no input line, there's no way to run input line commands.

If you frequently run nano %cmder_root%\config\cmder_prompt_config.lua and want to force resetting the Lua engine afterwards (but what if you don't make any changes?) then why not make a key binding to handle it all? That would save you lots of typing, and also automatically forcibly reset the Lua engine.

• The Lua function os.execute() can run a program.
• The Lua function clink.reload() can force resetting the Lua engine the next time the prompt is shown.

E.g. in a file somescript.lua:

function nano_cmder_prompt_config()
    os.execute(`nano %cmder_root%\config\cmder_prompt_config.lua`)
    clink.reload()
end

rl.describemacro("luafunc:nano_cmder_prompt_config", "Use nano to edit cmder_prompt_config.lua, and reset the Lua engine afterwards")

E.g. in your .inputrc file:

"\en":    "luafunc:nano_cmder_prompt_config"    # Alt-N to edit cmder prompt config and reload Lua.

See Customizing Key Bindings for details on key bindings and how to find what input string is produced by different key combinations.

[DRSDavidSoft]

@chrisant996 That's an excellent suggestion, actually!

Of course, I'm more looking into ways to provide easy access for Cmder users to customize their clink shell, so adding a binding like this would be an awesome way to quickly re-configure their prompt.

I also added match.expand_envvars to Cmder's default configuration: https://github.com/cmderdev/cmder/commit/c9b77f618a9314d56bb0572d7209c1d02f0e593e

My original misunderstanding is that I wasn't aware of the "Enhanced default settings" by Clink, since I've never directly installed Clink without Cmder. I'll be reading the documentation more carefully now since I would like to add more of the cool Clink features to my own setup, and maybe as well as Cmder's default clink settings.

Thanks for all these wonderful features!

[chrisant996]

P.S. Alt-N was just an example (a mnemonic for "nano"). It would be best to find a key that isn't already bound to something. Maybe some Ctrl-FN key combination.