Eshell

Table of Contents

• Eshell in Helm
  • Completion
    • pcomplete
    • Fix SUDO completion
    • Custom pcomplete functions
  • History

Eshell in Helm

Eshell is a shell-like command interpreter implemented in Emacs Lisp. It invokes no external processes except for those requested by the user.

Completion

pcomplete

pcomplete is already enabled in Eshell, but we want to add Helm support. Add the following to your init file:

(add-hook 'eshell-mode-hook
          (lambda ()
            (eshell-cmpl-initialize)
            (define-key eshell-mode-map [remap eshell-pcomplete] 'helm-esh-pcomplete)
            (define-key eshell-mode-map (kbd "M-p") 'helm-eshell-history)))

Now, the TAB key should provide Helm support for pcomplete.

Fix SUDO completion

When you use sudo in Eshell, there is no completion on the command you enter after sudo. This is true regardless of whether Helm is enabled.

To fix this problem, you can define a pcomplete/sudo function and add it to your configuration.

(defun pcomplete/sudo ()
  (let ((prec (pcomplete-arg 'last -1)))
    (cond ((string= "sudo" prec)
           (while (pcomplete-here*
                   (funcall pcomplete-command-completion-function)
                   (pcomplete-arg 'last) t))))))

However, the above example of pcomplete/sudo will not work in some cases without modifications to some Emacs functions due to unresolved Emacs bugs. To fix this, you can use my pcomplete-extension, which will provide more Helm completions like apt-get and find.

Custom pcomplete functions

You can enhance Emacs pcomplete by writing your own pcomplete functions. See my pcomplete-extension for enhanced completions.

Here an example with find command:

(defun pcomplete/find ()
  (let ((prec (pcomplete-arg 'last -1)))
    (cond ((and (pcomplete-match "^-" 'last)
                (string= "find" prec))
           (pcomplete-opt "HLPDO"))
          ((pcomplete-match "^-" 'last)
           (while (pcomplete-here
                   '("-amin" "-anewer" "-atime" "-cmin" "-cnewer" "-context"
                     "-ctime" "-daystart" "-delete" "-depth" "-empty" "-exec"
                     "-execdir" "-executable" "-false" "-fls" "-follow" "-fprint"
                     "-fprint0" "-fprintf" "-fstype" "-gid" "-group"
                     "-help" "-ignore_readdir_race" "-ilname" "-iname"
                     "-inum" "-ipath" "-iregex" "-iwholename"
                     "-links" "-lname" "-ls" "-maxdepth"
                     "-mindepth" "-mmin" "-mount" "-mtime"
                     "-name" "-newer" "-nogroup" "-noignore_readdir_race"
                     "-noleaf" "-nouser" "-nowarn" "-ok"
                     "-okdir" "-path" "-perm" "-print"
                     "-print0" "-printf" "-prune" "-quit"
                     "-readable" "-regex" "-regextype" "-samefile"
                     "-size" "-true" "-type" "-uid"
                     "-used" "-user" "-version" "-warn"
                     "-wholename" "-writable" "-xdev" "-xtype"))))
          ((string= "-type" prec)
           (while (pcomplete-here (list "b" "c" "d" "p" "f" "l" "s" "D"))))
          ((string= "-xtype" prec)
           (while (pcomplete-here (list "b" "c" "d" "p" "f" "l" "s"))))
          ((or (string= prec "-exec")
               (string= prec "-execdir"))
           (while (pcomplete-here* (funcall pcomplete-command-completion-function)
                                   (pcomplete-arg 'last) t))))
    (while (pcomplete-here (pcomplete-entries) nil 'identity))))

History

To search Eshell history with Helm, use the helm-eshell-history command. The following is an example configuration:

(add-hook 'eshell-mode-hook
          (lambda ()
            (define-key eshell-mode-map
              (kbd "M-p")
              'helm-eshell-history)))