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git tpl completion

Print a shell completion script.

git tpl completion <bash|zsh|fish|elvish|powershell>

The script is generated from the same command definition the parser is built from, so it can never offer a flag the binary does not accept.

Installing it

git tpl completion bash > ~/.local/share/bash-completion/completions/git-tpl

git tpl completion zsh > ~/.local/share/zsh/site-functions/_git-tpl

The leading underscore is not decoration — it is how zsh finds the file. The directory must be on your fpath.

git tpl completion fish > ~/.config/fish/completions/git-tpl.fish

git tpl completion elvish > ~/.config/elvish/lib/git-tpl.elv

Then use git-tpl from rc.elv.

git tpl completion powershell | Out-String | Invoke-Expression

Add that line to your $PROFILE to make it permanent.

If you installed git-tpl with Homebrew or from the AUR, the completions are already in place — the packages install them for you.

git tpl <TAB> versus git-tpl <TAB>

The generated script completes git-tpl, the executable your shell sees on PATH. It does not complete git tpl, because that first word is git, and what happens after it belongs to Git's own completion.

git-tpl <TAB> therefore works as soon as the script is installed. git tpl <TAB> needs one line telling Git's completion to defer to it:

_git_tpl() { _git__tpl; }

Git's bash completion looks for a function named after the subcommand. This hands it the one the generated script defines.

Nothing to do when the script is on your fpath: zsh's Git completion falls back to _git-tpl for an unknown subcommand.

Both spellings run the same program either way; only the completion differs.

The man page

The companion to this is the man page, which is what makes git tpl --help work at all — Git intercepts --help for a subcommand and runs man git-tpl. The packages install it. If you installed with cargo install, generate it yourself:

git tpl man --out-dir ~/.local/share/man/man1

Without it, git tpl --help fails with No manual entry for git-tpl. Use git-tpl --help in the meantime, which Git never intercepts.