config

orderless.info (25629B)

---

 This is orderless.info, produced by makeinfo version 6.8 from
 orderless.texi.
 
 INFO-DIR-SECTION Emacs misc features
 START-INFO-DIR-ENTRY
 * Orderless: (orderless). Completion style for matching regexps in any order.
 END-INFO-DIR-ENTRY
 
 
 File: orderless.info,  Node: Top,  Next: Overview,  Up: (dir)
 
 Orderless
 *********
 
 * Menu:
 
 * Overview::
 * Customization::
 * Integration with other completion UIs::
 * Related packages::
 
 — The Detailed Node Listing —
 
 Customization
 
 * Component matching styles::
 * Component separator regexp::
 * Defining custom orderless styles::
 * Faces for component matches::
 * Pattern compiler::
 * Interactively changing the configuration::
 
 Component matching styles
 
 * Style modifiers::
 * Style dispatchers::
 
 Integration with other completion UIs
 
 * Ivy::
 * Helm::
 * Company::
 
 Related packages
 
 * Ivy and Helm::
 * Prescient::
 * Restricting to current matches in Icicles, Ido and Ivy: Restricting to current matches in Icicles Ido and Ivy.
 
 
 
 File: orderless.info,  Node: Overview,  Next: Customization,  Prev: Top,  Up: Top
 
 1 Overview
 **********
 
 This package provides an ‘orderless’ _completion style_ that divides the
 pattern into space-separated components, and matches candidates that
 match all of the components in any order.  Each component can match in
 any one of several ways: literally, as a regexp, as an initialism, in
 the flex style, or as multiple word prefixes.  By default, regexp and
 literal matches are enabled.
 
    A completion style is a back-end for completion and is used from a
 front-end that provides a completion UI.  Any completion style can be
 used with the default Emacs completion UI (sometimes called minibuffer
 tab completion), with the built-in Icomplete package (which is similar
 to the more well-known Ido Mode), the icomplete-vertical variant from
 Emacs 28 (see the external icomplete-vertical
 (https://github.com/oantolin/icomplete-vertical) package to get that
 functionality on earlier versions of Emacs), or with some third party
 minibuffer completion frameworks such as Mct
 (https://gitlab.com/protesilaos/mct) or Vertico
 (https://github.com/minad/vertico).
 
    All the completion UIs just mentioned are for minibuffer completion,
 used when Emacs commands prompt the user in the minibuffer for some
 input, but there is also completion at point in normal buffers,
 typically used for identifiers in programming languages.  Completion
 styles can also be used for that purpose by completion at point UIs such
 as Corfu (https://github.com/minad/corfu), Company
 (https://company-mode.github.io/) or the function
 ‘consult-completion-in-region’ from Consult
 (https://github.com/minad/consult).
 
    To use a completion style with any of the above mentioned completion
 UIs simply add it as an entry in the variables ‘completion-styles’ and
 ‘completion-category-overrides’ and ‘completion-category-defaults’ (see
 their documentation).
 
    The ‘completion-category-defaults’ variable serves as a default value
 for ‘completion-category-overrides’.  If you want to use ‘orderless’
 exclusively, set both variables to ‘nil’, but be aware that
 ‘completion-category-defaults’ is modified by packages at load time.
 
    With a bit of effort, it might still be possible to use ‘orderless’
 with other completion UIs, even if those UIs don’t support the standard
 Emacs completion styles.  Currently there is support for Ivy
 (https://github.com/abo-abo/swiper) (see below).  Also, while Company
 does support completion styles directly, pressing ‘SPC’ takes you out of
 completion, so comfortably using ‘orderless’ with it takes a bit of
 configuration (see below).
 
    If you use ELPA or MELPA, the easiest way to install ‘orderless’ is
 via ‘package-install’.  If you use ‘use-package’, you can use:
 
      (use-package orderless
        :ensure t
        :custom
        (completion-styles '(orderless basic))
        (completion-category-overrides '((file (styles basic partial-completion)))))
 
    Alternatively, put ‘orderless.el’ somewhere on your ‘load-path’, and
 use the following configuration:
 
      (require 'orderless)
      (setq completion-styles '(orderless basic)
            completion-category-overrides '((file (styles basic partial-completion))))
 
    The ‘basic’ completion style is specified as fallback in addition to
 ‘orderless’ in order to ensure that completion commands which rely on
 dynamic completion tables, e.g., ‘completion-table-dynamic’ or
 ‘completion-table-in-turn’, work correctly.  Furthermore the ‘basic’
 completion style needs to be tried _first_ (not as a fallback) for TRAMP
 hostname completion to work.  In order to achieve that, we add an entry
 for the ‘file’ completion category in the
 ‘completion-category-overrides’ variable.  In addition, the
 ‘partial-completion’ style allows you to use wildcards for file
 completion and partial paths, e.g., ‘/u/s/l’ for ‘/usr/share/local’.
 
    Bug reports are highly welcome and appreciated!
 
 
 File: orderless.info,  Node: Customization,  Next: Integration with other completion UIs,  Prev: Overview,  Up: Top
 
 2 Customization
 ***************
 
 * Menu:
 
 * Component matching styles::
 * Component separator regexp::
 * Defining custom orderless styles::
 * Faces for component matches::
 * Pattern compiler::
 * Interactively changing the configuration::
 
 
 File: orderless.info,  Node: Component matching styles,  Next: Component separator regexp,  Up: Customization
 
 2.1 Component matching styles
 =============================
 
 Each component of a pattern can match in any of several matching styles.
 A matching style is a function from strings to regexps or predicates, so
 it is easy to define new matching styles.  The value returned by a
 matching style can be either a regexp as a string, an s-expression in
 ‘rx’ syntax or a predicate function.  The predefined matching styles
 are:
 
 orderless-regexp
      the component is treated as a regexp that must match somewhere in
      the candidate.
 
      If the component is not a valid regexp, it is ignored.
 
 orderless-literal
      the component is treated as a literal string that must occur in the
      candidate.
 
 orderless-literal-prefix
      the component is treated as a literal string that must occur as a
      prefix of a candidate.
 
 orderless-prefixes
      the component is split at word endings and each piece must match at
      a word boundary in the candidate, occurring in that order.
 
      This is similar to the built-in ‘partial-completion’
      completion-style.  For example, ‘re-re’ matches
      ‘query-replace-regexp’, ‘recode-region’ and
      ‘magit-remote-list-refs’; ‘f-d.t’ matches ‘final-draft.txt’.
 
 orderless-initialism
      each character of the component should appear as the beginning of a
      word in the candidate, in order.
 
      This maps ‘abc’ to ‘\<a.*\<b.*\c’.
 
 orderless-flex
      the characters of the component should appear in that order in the
      candidate, but not necessarily consecutively.
 
      This maps ‘abc’ to ‘a.*b.*c’.
 
 *orderless-without-literal*
      the component is a treated as a literal string that must *not*
      occur in the candidate.
 
      Nothing is highlighted by this style.  This style should not be
      used directly in ‘orderless-matching-styles’ but with a style
      dispatcher instead.  See also the more general style modifier
      ‘orderless-not’.
 
    The variable ‘orderless-matching-styles’ can be set to a list of the
 desired matching styles to use.  By default it enables the literal and
 regexp styles.
 
 * Menu:
 
 * Style modifiers::
 * Style dispatchers::
 
 
 File: orderless.info,  Node: Style modifiers,  Next: Style dispatchers,  Up: Component matching styles
 
 2.1.1 Style modifiers
 ---------------------
 
 Style modifiers are functions which take a predicate function and a
 regular expression as a string and return a new predicate function.
 Style modifiers should not be used directly in
 ‘orderless-matching-styles’ but with a style dispatcher instead.
 
 orderless-annotation
      this style modifier matches the pattern against the annotation
      string of the candidate, instead of against the candidate string.
 
 orderless-not
      this style modifier inverts the pattern, such that candidates pass
      which do not match the pattern.
 
 
 File: orderless.info,  Node: Style dispatchers,  Prev: Style modifiers,  Up: Component matching styles
 
 2.1.2 Style dispatchers
 -----------------------
 
 For more fine-grained control on which matching styles to use for each
 component of the input string, you can customize the variable
 ‘orderless-style-dispatchers’.  You can use this feature to define your
 own “query syntax”.  For example, the default value of
 ‘orderless-style-dispatchers’ lists a single dispatcher called
 ‘orderless-affix-dispatch’ which enables a simple syntax based on
 special characters used as either a prefix or suffix:
 
    • !  modifies the component with ‘orderless-not’.  Both ‘!bad’ and
      ‘bad!’ will match strings that do _not_ contain the pattern ‘bad’.
    • & modifies the component with ‘orderless-annotation’.  The pattern
      will match against the candidate’s annotation (cheesy mnemonic:
      andnotation!).
    • , uses ‘orderless-initialism’.
    • = uses ‘orderless-literal’.
    • ^ uses ‘orderless-literal-prefix’.
    • ~ uses ‘orderless-flex’.
    • % makes the string match ignoring diacritics and similar
      inflections on characters (it uses the function
      ‘char-fold-to-regexp’ to do this).
 
    You can add, remove or change this mapping between affix characters
 and matching styles by customizing the user option
 ‘orderless-affix-dispatch-alist’.  Most users will probably find this
 type of customization sufficient for their query syntax needs, but for
 those desiring further control the rest of this section explains how to
 implement your own style dispatchers.
 
    Style dispatchers are functions which take a component, its index in
 the list of components (starting from 0), and the total number of
 components, and are used to determine the matching styles used for that
 specific component, overriding the default matching styles.
 
    A style dispatcher can either decline to handle the input string or
 component, or it can return which matching styles to use.  It can also,
 if desired, additionally return a new string to use in place of the
 given one.  Consult the documentation of ‘orderless--dispatch’ for full
 details.
 
    As an example of writing your own dispatchers, say you wanted the
 following setup:
 
    • you normally want components to match as regexps,
    • except for the first component, which should always match as an
      initialism —this is pretty useful for, say,
      ‘execute-extended-command’ (‘M-x’) or ‘describe-function’ (‘C-h
      f’),
    • later components ending in ‘~’ should match (the characters other
      than the final ‘~’) in the flex style, and
    • later components starting with ‘!’ should indicate the rest of the
      component is a literal string not contained in the candidate (this
      is part of the functionality of the default configuration).
 
    You can achieve this with the following configuration:
 
      (defun flex-if-twiddle (pattern _index _total)
        (when (string-suffix-p "~" pattern)
          `(orderless-flex . ,(substring pattern 0 -1))))
 
      (defun first-initialism (pattern index _total)
        (if (= index 0) 'orderless-initialism))
 
      (defun not-if-bang (pattern _index _total)
        (cond
         ((equal "!" pattern)
          #'ignore)
         ((string-prefix-p "!" pattern)
          `(orderless-not . ,(substring pattern 1)))))
 
      (setq orderless-matching-styles '(orderless-regexp)
            orderless-style-dispatchers '(first-initialism
                                          flex-if-twiddle
                                          not-if-bang))
 
 
 File: orderless.info,  Node: Component separator regexp,  Next: Defining custom orderless styles,  Prev: Component matching styles,  Up: Customization
 
 2.2 Component separator regexp
 ==============================
 
 The pattern components are space-separated by default: this is
 controlled by the variable ‘orderless-component-separator’, which should
 be set either to a regexp that matches the desired component separator,
 or to a function that takes a string and returns the list of components.
 The default value is a regexp matches a non-empty sequence of spaces.
 It may be useful to add hyphens or slashes (or both), to match symbols
 or file paths, respectively.
 
    Even if you want to split on spaces you might want to be able to
 escape those spaces or to enclose space in double quotes (as in shell
 argument parsing).  For backslash-escaped spaces set
 ‘orderless-component-separator’ to the function
 ‘orderless-escapable-split-on-space’; for shell-like double-quotable
 space, set it to the standard Emacs function ‘split-string-and-unquote’.
 
    If you are implementing a command for which you know you want a
 different separator for the components, bind
 ‘orderless-component-separator’ in a ‘let’ form.
 
 
 File: orderless.info,  Node: Defining custom orderless styles,  Next: Faces for component matches,  Prev: Component separator regexp,  Up: Customization
 
 2.3 Defining custom orderless styles
 ====================================
 
 Orderless allows the definition of custom completion styles using the
 ‘orderless-define-completion-style’ macro.  Any Orderless configuration
 variable can be adjusted locally for the new style, e.g.,
 ‘orderless-matching-styles’.
 
    By default Orderless only enables the regexp and literal matching
 styles.  In the following example an ‘orderless+initialism’ style is
 defined, which additionally enables initialism matching.  This
 completion style can then used when matching candidates of the symbol or
 command completion category.
 
      (orderless-define-completion-style orderless+initialism
        (orderless-matching-styles '(orderless-initialism
                                     orderless-literal
                                     orderless-regexp)))
      (setq completion-category-overrides
            '((command (styles orderless+initialism))
              (symbol (styles orderless+initialism))
              (variable (styles orderless+initialism))))
 
    Note that in order for the ‘orderless+initialism’ style to kick-in
 with the above configuration, you’d need to use commands whose metadata
 indicates that the completion candidates are commands or symbols.  In
 Emacs 28, ‘execute-extended-command’ has metadata indicating you are
 selecting a command, but earlier versions of Emacs lack this metadata.
 Activating ‘marginalia-mode’ from the Marginalia
 (https://github.com/minad/marginalia) package provides this metadata
 automatically for many built-in commands and is recommended if you use
 the above example configuration, or other similarly fine-grained control
 of completion styles according to completion category.
 
 
 File: orderless.info,  Node: Faces for component matches,  Next: Pattern compiler,  Prev: Defining custom orderless styles,  Up: Customization
 
 2.4 Faces for component matches
 ===============================
 
 The portions of a candidate matching each component get highlighted in
 one of four faces, ‘orderless-match-face-?’ where ‘?’ is a number from 0
 to 3.  If the pattern has more than four components, the faces get
 reused cyclically.
 
    If your ‘completion-styles’ (or ‘completion-category-overrides’ for
 some particular category) has more than one entry, remember than Emacs
 tries each completion style in turn and uses the first one returning
 matches.  You will only see these particular faces when the ‘orderless’
 completion is the one that ends up being used, of course.
 
 
 File: orderless.info,  Node: Pattern compiler,  Next: Interactively changing the configuration,  Prev: Faces for component matches,  Up: Customization
 
 2.5 Pattern compiler
 ====================
 
 The default mechanism for turning an input string into a predicate and a
 list of regexps to match against, configured using
 ‘orderless-matching-styles’, is probably flexible enough for the vast
 majority of users.  The patterns are compiled by ‘orderless-compile’.
 Under special circumstances it may be useful to implement a custom
 pattern compiler by advising ‘orderless-compile’.
 
 
 File: orderless.info,  Node: Interactively changing the configuration,  Prev: Pattern compiler,  Up: Customization
 
 2.6 Interactively changing the configuration
 ============================================
 
 You might want to change the separator or the matching style
 configuration on the fly while matching.  There many possible user
 interfaces for this: you could toggle between two chosen configurations,
 cycle among several, have a keymap where each key sets a different
 configurations, have a set of named configurations and be prompted (with
 completion) for one of them, popup a hydra
 (https://github.com/abo-abo/hydra) to choose a configuration, etc.
 Since there are so many possible UIs and which to use is mostly a matter
 of taste, ‘orderless’ does not provide any such commands.  But it’s easy
 to write your own!
 
    For example, say you want to use the keybinding ‘C-l’ to make all
 components match literally.  You could use the following code:
 
      (defun my/match-components-literally ()
        "Components match literally for the rest of the session."
        (interactive)
        (setq-local orderless-matching-styles '(orderless-literal)
                    orderless-style-dispatchers nil))
 
      (define-key minibuffer-local-completion-map (kbd "C-l")
        #'my/match-components-literally)
 
    Using ‘setq-local’ to assign to the configuration variables ensures
 the values are only used for that minibuffer completion session.
 
 
 File: orderless.info,  Node: Integration with other completion UIs,  Next: Related packages,  Prev: Customization,  Up: Top
 
 3 Integration with other completion UIs
 ***************************************
 
 Several excellent completion UIs exist for Emacs in third party
 packages.  They do have a tendency to forsake standard Emacs APIs, so
 integration with them must be done on a case by case basis.
 
    If you manage to use ‘orderless’ with a completion UI not listed
 here, please file an issue or make a pull request so others can benefit
 from your effort.  The functions ‘orderless-filter’,
 ‘orderless-highlight-matches’, ‘orderless--highlight’ and
 ‘orderless--component-regexps’ are likely to help with the integration.
 
 * Menu:
 
 * Ivy::
 * Helm::
 * Company::
 
 
 File: orderless.info,  Node: Ivy,  Next: Helm,  Up: Integration with other completion UIs
 
 3.1 Ivy
 =======
 
 To use ‘orderless’ from Ivy add this to your Ivy configuration:
 
      (setq ivy-re-builders-alist '((t . orderless-ivy-re-builder)))
      (add-to-list 'ivy-highlight-functions-alist '(orderless-ivy-re-builder . orderless-ivy-highlight))
 
 
 File: orderless.info,  Node: Helm,  Next: Company,  Prev: Ivy,  Up: Integration with other completion UIs
 
 3.2 Helm
 ========
 
 To use ‘orderless’ from Helm, simply configure ‘orderless’ as you would
 for completion UIs that use Emacs completion styles and add this to your
 Helm configuration:
 
      (setq helm-completion-style 'emacs)
 
 
 File: orderless.info,  Node: Company,  Prev: Helm,  Up: Integration with other completion UIs
 
 3.3 Company
 ===========
 
 Company comes with a ‘company-capf’ backend that uses the
 completion-at-point functions, which in turn use completion styles.
 This means that the ‘company-capf’ backend will automatically use
 ‘orderless’, no configuration necessary!
 
    But there are a couple of points of discomfort:
 
   1. Pressing SPC takes you out of completion, so with the default
      separator you are limited to one component, which is no fun.  To
      fix this add a separator that is allowed to occur in identifiers,
      for example, for Emacs Lisp code you could use an ampersand:
 
           (setq orderless-component-separator "[ &]")
 
   2. The matching portions of candidates aren’t highlighted.  That’s
      because ‘company-capf’ is hard-coded to look for the
      ‘completions-common-part’ face, and it only use one face,
      ‘company-echo-common’ to highlight candidates.
 
      So, while you can’t get different faces for different components,
      you can at least get the matches highlighted in the sole available
      face with this configuration:
 
           (defun just-one-face (fn &rest args)
             (let ((orderless-match-faces [completions-common-part]))
               (apply fn args)))
 
           (advice-add 'company-capf--candidates :around #'just-one-face)
 
      (Aren’t dynamically scoped variables and the advice system nifty?)
 
    If you would like to use different ‘completion-styles’ with
 ‘company-capf’ instead, you can add this to your configuration:
 
      ;; We follow a suggestion by company maintainer u/hvis:
      ;; https://www.reddit.com/r/emacs/comments/nichkl/comment/gz1jr3s/
      (defun company-completion-styles (capf-fn &rest args)
        (let ((completion-styles '(basic partial-completion)))
          (apply capf-fn args))
 
      (advice-add 'company-capf :around #'company-completion-styles)
 
 
 File: orderless.info,  Node: Related packages,  Prev: Integration with other completion UIs,  Up: Top
 
 4 Related packages
 ******************
 
 * Menu:
 
 * Ivy and Helm::
 * Prescient::
 * Restricting to current matches in Icicles, Ido and Ivy: Restricting to current matches in Icicles Ido and Ivy.
 
 
 File: orderless.info,  Node: Ivy and Helm,  Next: Prescient,  Up: Related packages
 
 4.1 Ivy and Helm
 ================
 
 The well-known and hugely powerful completion frameworks Ivy
 (https://github.com/abo-abo/swiper) and Helm
 (https://github.com/emacs-helm/helm) also provide for matching
 space-separated component regexps in any order.  In Ivy, this is done
 with the ‘ivy--regex-ignore-order’ matcher.  In Helm, it is the default,
 called “multi pattern matching”.
 
    This package is significantly smaller than either of those because it
 solely defines a completion style, meant to be used with any completion
 UI supporting completion styles while both of those provide their own
 completion UI (and many other cool features!).
 
    It is worth pointing out that Helm does provide its multi pattern
 matching as a completion style which could be used with default tab
 completion, Icomplete or other UIs supporting completion styles!  (Ivy
 does not provide a completion style to my knowledge.)  So, for example,
 Icomplete users could, instead of using this package, install Helm and
 configure Icomplete to use it as follows:
 
      (require 'helm)
      (setq completion-styles '(helm basic))
      (icomplete-mode)
 
    (Of course, if you install Helm, you might as well use the Helm UI in
 ‘helm-mode’ rather than Icomplete.)
 
 
 File: orderless.info,  Node: Prescient,  Next: Restricting to current matches in Icicles Ido and Ivy,  Prev: Ivy and Helm,  Up: Related packages
 
 4.2 Prescient
 =============
 
 The prescient.el (https://github.com/radian-software/prescient.el)
 library also provides matching of space-separated components in any
 order.  It offers a completion-style that can be used with Emacs’
 default completion UI, Mct, Vertico or with Icomplete.  Furthermore Ivy
 is supported.  The components can be matched literally, as regexps, as
 initialisms or in the flex style (called “fuzzy” in prescient).
 Prescient does not offer the same flexibility as Orderless with its
 style dispatchers.  However in addition to matching, Prescient supports
 sorting of candidates, while Orderless leaves that up to the candidate
 source and the completion UI.
 
 
 File: orderless.info,  Node: Restricting to current matches in Icicles Ido and Ivy,  Prev: Prescient,  Up: Related packages
 
 4.3 Restricting to current matches in Icicles, Ido and Ivy
 ==========================================================
 
 An effect equivalent to matching multiple components in any order can be
 achieved in completion frameworks that provide a way to restrict further
 matching to the current list of candidates.  If you use the keybinding
 for restriction instead of ‘SPC’ to separate your components, you get
 out of order matching!
 
    • Icicles (https://www.emacswiki.org/emacs/Icicles) calls this
      _progressive completion_ and uses the
      ‘icicle-apropos-complete-and-narrow’ command, bound to ‘S-SPC’, to
      do it.
 
    • Ido has ‘ido-restrict-to-matches’ and binds it to ‘C-SPC’.
 
    • Ivy has ‘ivy-restrict-to-matches’, bound to ‘S-SPC’, so you can get
      the effect of out of order matching without using
      ‘ivy--regex-ignore-order’.
 
 
 
 Tag Table:
 Node: Top235
 Node: Overview975
 Node: Customization5028
 Node: Component matching styles5386
 Node: Style modifiers7677
 Node: Style dispatchers8366
 Node: Component separator regexp12030
 Node: Defining custom orderless styles13267
 Node: Faces for component matches15159
 Node: Pattern compiler15963
 Node: Interactively changing the configuration16554
 Node: Integration with other completion UIs18017
 Node: Ivy18803
 Node: Helm19155
 Node: Company19499
 Node: Related packages21478
 Node: Ivy and Helm21776
 Node: Prescient23110
 Node: Restricting to current matches in Icicles Ido and Ivy23943
 
 End Tag Table
 
 
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