Activation script does not work on macOS

[Gim6626]

I tried to use argcomplete in zsh but could not make it work. Then I found pyzshcomplete and decided to try it. I've installed pip package to virtualenv on my MacBook, tried to execute ~/.local/bin/activate_pyzshcomplete as it was described in docs https://pypi.org/project/pyzshcomplete/ but there was no such script. I found env/bin/activate_pyzshcomplete, tried it and got:

(env) d.vinokurov@MacBook-Pro-DVinokurov lptl % ./env/bin/activate_pyzshcomplete
Copying completion scripts... 
An error occured during installation: Can't find zsh completion folder. It should be located in /usr/share/zsh/functions/Completion/Unix. If you see this error, please report it on the pyzshcomplete issue tracker.

Then I looked at code and tried to replace target_dir in zsh_completion_function_dir function to /usr/local/share/zsh/site-functions/ (found in https://stackoverflow.com/a/25292346/1927853 that completion scripts are there), files _python_or_script and _python_script appears, but completion does not work too.

So I've created issue here.

Please help me.

[dan1994]

Thanks for reporting! I don't have a Mac, so I'd be happy if you gave me some help in the debugging process (Should probably get a docker for this in the future).

First things first: Did you try restarting zsh after the files were copied? If you don't do this then zsh wouldn't know they exist as it searches for them when it starts up. You can also type into your terminal _python_or_script or _python_script and see if it recognizes them.

If they are still unrecognized it might be you need to put them in a nested directory. From what I see on Ubuntu, my FPATH variable contains a lot of directories nested under /usr/share/zsh/functions, but not the directory itself. So moving the scripts into, say, /usr/local/share/zsh/site-functions/Completion/Unix should work (assuming that's where completion scripts are found on Mac). Don't forget to restart zsh afterwards.

If the scripts are recognized, then please provide the following: a MVP showing a script with completion that doesn't work + the debugging output of zsh for attempted completion. You can do this by writing the partial command line prior to completion and pressing ctrl+x+? instead of tab (e.g. python my_script.py <ctrl+x+?>. zsh should show you the name of a log file with the output.

[Gim6626]

Thanks for reporting!

Thanks for your work on this project!

Did you try restarting zsh after the files were copied?

Of course I did. That was not a problem.

Speaking about my issue - seems that I found solution. Tried to setup from scratch on other Mac - it worked.

At first, target_dir should be replaced before activate_pyzshcomplete execution as I've written if first post.

Second, this lines should be added to .zshrc:

autoload -Uz compinit
compinit

Then restart zsh and autocomplete should start working.

Also, if you get “insecure directories” error while starting zsh like this:

zsh compinit: insecure directories, run compaudit for list.
Ignore insecure directories and continue [y] or abort compinit [n]?

you should type “y“ and then run compaudit, you will get something like this:

There are insecure directories:
/usr/local/share/zsh/site-functions
/usr/local/share/zsh

This is list of trouble directories. To fix it you should run following command for each directory listed in compaudit output:

sudo chmod 755 DIRECTORY

On next zsh start everything should be fine. But you may not face this issue at all, on second Mac which I tried there was no such issue.

[dan1994]

If I'm correct, then no autocompletion should have worked prior to adding compinit to your .zshrc (not just for python).

Are you not using Oh My Zsh by any chance? Because I think it takes care of all of these things (see oh-my-zsh.sh). I can't recommend it enough as it takes care of all the boiler plate of zsh for you.

I'll add a section for prerequisites such as making sure autocompletion is enabled in zsh, and provide a fix for the script on Macs.

[Gim6626]

If I'm correct, then no autocompletion should have worked

Without compinit lines at least commands and files names autocomplete works. Are there any other autocomplete features that I should check?

Are you not using Oh My Zsh by any chance?

I even don't know what is it :) I've got clear zsh as it is installed on macOS without any addons.

Actually I'm not very familiar with zsh and could understand something wrongly. I use bash and just needed to check if autocomplete for my work Python script is ok in zsh.

[dan1994]

Are there any other autocomplete features that I should check?

You could try checking out things like ps and see if you get all the flags and process numbers. zsh may have a basic autocomplete for filenames that works without compinit but I'm not sure.

I use bash and just needed to check if autocomplete for my work Python script is ok in zsh.

If you want to stay with bash you can use argcomplete (which this project was inspired by).

I even don't know what is it :) I've got clear zsh as it is installed on macOS without any addons.

Oh My Zsh is a community driven projects aimed at configuring zsh and providing a lot of customization to the user (such as themes and plugins). I don't know a single person who uses zsh without it. They have an easy installation process documented in their readme.