SMENU(1)

📦
version 1.5.0 · 5 versions
, in alpine 3.24, nixos 26.05, nixpkgs unstable, ubuntu resolute, ubuntu stonking

✨ SMENU ✨ (section 1 of the manual, bestie) 💅

okay so. welcome to SMENU(1), from the General Commands Manual, and it is literally one of my favourite little utilities, no cap. grab a strawberry 🍓, we're doing this.

🌸 NAME 🌸

smenu — a filter that lets you interactively select a word from stdin and then outputs the selection to stdout. it's giving "picky eater but make it a program" 💖

🎀 SYNOPSIS 🎀

  [*-h|-help]
  [*-H|-long_help]
  [*-?|-u|-usage]
  [*-V|-version]
  [-n|-lines|-height [height]]
  [-i|-in|-inc|-incl|-include... regex]
  [-e|-ex|-exc|-excl|-exclude... regex]
  [-m|-msg|-message|-title message]
  [-!|-int|-int_string [string]]
  [-a|-attr|-attributes prefix:attr...]
  [-1|-l1|-level1 regex [attr]]
  [-2|-l2|-level2 regex [attr]]
  [-3|-l3|-level3 regex [attr]]
  [-4|-l4|-level4 regex [attr]]
  [-5|-l5|-level5 regex [attr]]
  [-6|-l6|-level6 regex [attr]]
  [-7|-l7|-level7 regex [attr]]
  [-8|-l8|-level8 regex [attr]]
  [-9|-l9|-level9 regex [attr]]
  [-T|-tm|-tag|-tag_mode [delim]]
  [-z|-zap|-zap_glyphs bytes]
  [-P|-pm|-pin|-pin_mode [delim]]
  [-0|-noat|-no_auto_tag]
  [-p|-at|-auto_tag]
  [-N|-number... [regex...]]
  [-U|-unnumber... [regex...]]
  [-F|-en|-embedded_number]
  [-D|-data|-options [parameter...]
  [-b|-blank]
  [-M|-middle|-center]
  [-d|-restore|-delete|-clean|-delete_window|-clean_window]
  [-c|-col|-col_mode|-column]
  [-l|-line|-line_mode]
  [-t|-tab|-tab_mode|-tabulate_mode [cols]]
  [-w|-wide|-wide_mode]
  [-C|-cs|-cols|-cols_select... [directive][selector...]]
  [-R|-rs|-rows|-rows_select... [directive][selector...]]
  [-al|-align... [re_selectors...]]
  [-A|-fc|-first_column regex]
  [-Z|-lc|-last_column regex]
  [-g|-gutter [string]]
  [-k|-ks|-keep_spaces]
  [-W|-ws|-wd|-word_delimiters|-word_separators bytes]
  [-L|-ls|-ld|-line-delimiters|-line_separators bytes]
  [-q|-no_bar|-no_scroll_bar]
  [-no_hbar|-no_hor_scroll_bar]
  [-hbar|-hor_scroll_bar]
  [-S|-subst... /regex/repl/opts]
  [-I|-si|-subst_included... /regex/repl/opts]
  [-E|-se|-subst_excluded... /regex/repl/opts]
  [-ES|-early_subst... /regex/repl/opts]
  [-/|-search_method prefix|substring|fuzzy]
  [-s|-sp|-start|-start_pattern pattern]
  [-x|-tmout|-timeout type [word] delay]
  [-X|-htmout|-hidden_timeout type [word] delay]
  [-r|-auto_validate]
  [-is|-incremental_search]
  [-v|-vb|-visual_bell]
  [-Q|-ignore_quotes]
  [-lim|-limits limit:value...]
  [-f|-forgotten_timeout|-global_timeout timeout]
  [-nm|-no_mouse]
  [-br|-buttons|-button_remapping new_button_1 new_button_3]
  [-dc|-dcd|-double_click|-double_click_delay delay_in_ms]
  [-sb|-sbw|-show_blank_words [blank_char]]

  selectors    ::= See the -C|-cs|-cols description for more details.
  re_selectors ::= RE,...
  directive    ::= i|I|e|E|l|L|r|R|c|C
  parameter    ::= [l|r:<char>]|[a:left|right]|[p:included|all|[w:<num>]|
                [f:yes|no]|[o:<num>[+]]|[n:<num>]|[i:<num>]|[d:<char>]|
                [s:<num>]|[h:trim|cut|keep]
  attr         ::= [fg][/bg][,style]
  RE           ::= <char>regex<char>

  selectors and RE can be freely mixed.
  style can only contain a maximum of 6 characters.
  <char> in RE is any non-blank ASCII character except ','.

heads up, bestie: some parameters are lowkey needy and will only be accepted if others have already been entered earlier in the command line. like they need to be introduced first. iconic behaviour honestly. 🙈

🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

so this tiny little utility is a filter. if you don't hand it an input file, it reads from stdin and writes to stdout. if you do give it a file, it takes its inputs from that file instead. either way, it's flexible like that. 💁♀️

every word it reads gets presented in a scrolling window on your terminal, drawn at the current cursor position, and it does not clear the screen first. so it just. shows up. right there. no dramatic entrance, no wiping your whole terminal. respectful king. 👑

by default, the selection cursor starts out sitting on the first selectable word. that's the default, that's the vibe.

inside that window, words can be displayed:

  • next to each other,
  • with a fixed size,
  • or in rows or columns that respect the line ends as they came in from the input.

and in column mode specifically, words can be centred, left aligned or right aligned. 💅

for the full tea on all that, go look at -C|-cs|-cols|-cols_select, -R|-rs|-rows|-rows_select and -al|-align. they have the details.

there are options that let you explicitly or implicitly include, exclude or align words using extended regular expressions. and here's the thing — once certain words are explicitly excluded, they cannot be re-included later. it's a one-way door. no take-backs. 😭

excluded words get skipped when you move the selection cursor, and they cannot be searched for either. they're just out. not invited to the party. 🚫

the -W|-ws|-wd|-word_delimiters|-word_separators option lets you set which characters (or multibyte sequences) are used to delimit the input words. the default delimiters are: SPACE, \t and \n.

the -L|-ls|-ld|-line-delimiters|-line_separators option means basically the same thing but for lines. yes, -line-delimiters is really in there, it's a whole long-alias situation, we love options with lore. 🫶

special character sequences — a \ followed by one of the characters a, b, t, n, v, f, r, and \ — are understood, and they carry their traditional meanings. classic.

smenu tries really hard to support UTF-8 encoding, both as input and as output. UTF-8 sequences introduced by \u and \U are also understood. 🌈

⚠️ warning, bestie, this one matters: when used together, you need to know that all sequences beginning with \U will be interpreted before the interpretation of sequences beginning with \u begins. order of operations, but make it spicy.

\u can be followed by 2, 4, 6 or 8 hexadecimal characters composing a UTF-8 bytestring. here's an example of using \u to compose a Latin Small Letter E with Acute: \uc3a9.

\U must be followed by exactly 6 hexadecimal digits, including leading zeros, that represent a Unicode codepoint according to ISO 10646 UCS-4. the Latin Small Letter E with Acute from the previous example (codepoint U+00E9) can then be represented as \U0000e9.

and note that with most shells, the \ before u and U needs to be protected or escaped. your shell will absolutely eat it otherwise, no thoughts, head empty. 💀

Quotations (single and double) in the input stream can be used to ignore the word separators, so that a group of words gets taken as a single entity. one unit. a squad. 🧚

non printable characters in words that are not delimiters are converted to their traditional form by default (\n for end-of-line, \t for tabulation, etc.).

an invalid UTF-8 sequence or other non-printable character will be replaced by a dot (.) by default.

but!!! you can change that substitution character to another printable ASCII one, using the command line option -.|-dot|-invalid. 🎀

⚠️ warning: UTF-8 encoded codepoints get quietly converted into the substitution character when your user locale is not UTF-8 aware — like POSIX or C, for example. quietly. no warning. rude but true.

words containing only spaces — whether you typed them directly or they resulted from a substitution — are also rejected, unless they are not selectable. this is on purpose! it lets you do special effects like creating blank lines for example. 🪄 these words are also kept in column mode, selectable or not.

smenu has an option to define a set of characters or UTF-8 sequences that should be ignored when reading words. super useful when the EOL sequence consists of more than one character. yk, like a two-for-one deal but for line endings.

a typical example: DOS or Windows files with lines ending in CRLF. in such a case, one might decide to ignore all CR characters from the input. 💅

⌨️ Keyboard and mouse usage. 🖱️

keyboard:

the cursor can be moved in any direction using the arrow keys of the keyboard: ←, ↓, ↑, → — or the vi direction keys: h, j, k and l. the HOME, END, PgDn and PgUp keys can also be used when available. ✨

the meaning of the movement keys is as follows:

  • ←, h — Previous word
  • SHIFT HOME, CTRL ←, H — Start of line in column or line mode
  • ↑, k — Previous line
  • PgUp, K — Previous page
  • HOME — First word of the window
  • CTRL HOME, CTRL K — First word
  • < — The window's content is shifted to the left while keeping the cursor visible
  • →, l — Next word
  • SHIFT END, CTRL →, L — End of line in column or line mode
  • ↓, j — Next line
  • PgDn, J — Next page
  • END — Last word of the window
  • CTRL END, CTRL J — Last word
  • > — The window's content is shifted to the right while keeping the cursor visible

CTRL ←/H (resp. CTRL →/L) places the cursor so that a maximum number of words (selectable or not) are visible to the left (resp. right) side of the window. 👑

when the content of the window is shifted to the left or right using < or > or the mouse, the cursor always highlights the same word and remains visible. and, lowkey, this can prevent any further shifting operations. just so you know. 🙈

Mouse:

with many terminal emulators, it is possible to use the mouse to interact with the screen content. 🐭✨

⚠️ warning: if groups of extended graphemes are present in the input, mouse-based selection is only accurate if the terminal correctly displays these graphemes. an example of a non-functional terminal is xterm; an example of a functional terminal is wezterm.

when the mouse is supported, the cursor can turn into an arrow (but not always 🫠) and the mouse can then be used as a point and click device, like this:

First (usually left) mouse button — note that buttons can be remapped:

  • a click on a word selects it if it is selectable.
  • a click on a word while holding the CTRL key pressed when tagging/pinning is activated marks/unmarks this word.
  • a click at the ends of the vertical scroll bar (if present) is equivalent to pressing the keyboard's up or down arrow.
    • a click anywhere else on the vertical scroll bar moves the cursor to another word, depending on where you click.
    • the new current word will be positioned at the beginning of a line if possible.
    • a click at the ends of the horizontal scroll bar (if present) is equivalent to pressing the keyboard's left or right arrow.
    • a click anywhere else on the horizontal scroll bar moves the cursor left or right on the line containing the cursor, but does not move it further than the first or last word on that line.
  • a double-click on a word selects it, if selectable, and acts as if the Enter key had been pressed — the double-click delay being configurable. 🔥
  • a click on the left or right horizontal arrow of each line (when visible) shifts the content of the window to the left or right, one word at a time.
    • nothing happens if the cursor risks leaving the window.
    • note that clicking on a left-facing arrow in an empty line means that not all the words in that line could be displayed because of previous shifts or moves. in this case, smenu will try to display the last word of this line, but it is not always possible, as the cursor must remain visible.
    • the keyboard commands < and > can be used in such a case, because the cursor is already on the current line. 🫶

okay that's part 1 done!! more parts coming, don't go anywhere bestie 💖

Third (usually right) mouse button:

  • When tagging or pinning is enabled, a click on a word tags/untags it — but only if it's selectable, bestie.
  • When tagging or pinning is enabled, a click on a word while holding the CTRL key pressed does a whole little routine:
    • If the word clicked is selectable and no word is already marked, then it marks it. periodt.
    • If a word is marked, and the clicked word is selectable and is not the marked word, then:
      • In column mode, if the marked word is in the same column/line as the clicked word, it tags all words bounded by those words in that column/line, as if the Z keyboard command were used.
      • In line or column mode, if the marked word is in the same line as the clicked word, it tags all words bounded by those words in that line.
      • Otherwise, it tags all words bounded by the marked word and the clicked one.
      • And in all cases, the mark is removed. bye mark 👋

Mouse wheel:

  • Rotating the mouse wheel scrolls the contents of the window one line up or down.
  • Rotating the mouse wheel while holding down the CTRL key scrolls the contents of the window one page up or down. Heads up though: this feature may not work depending on the terminal and operating system. 💀
Be sure to use the wheel when the mouse pointer is over the smenu window, because some terminal emulators may otherwise zoom the screen in and out instead. and that is not the vibe. 🙈

Remember that mouse support does not disable the keyboard, so if the mouse is not working properly, just use the keys instead. 🫶

Some terminals may not report clicks after the 223rd line or column, due to a limitation of the old X11 mouse tracking protocol. One example of such a terminal emulator is screen < 4.7.0. tmux as well as screen >= 4.7.0 are fine. 👑

Keyboard and mouse can be used at the same time. no cap.

Remark 1. Some X-Window terminal emulators may not support the enable/disable bracketed pastes escape sequence. In such a case, it may be necessary to explicitly clear the content of the paste buffer before running smenu, so that the mouse buttons (especially for pasting) do their job correctly. This action can easily be performed using the command xsel -c, for example.

Remark 2. Some X-Windows terminal emulators intercept mouse input when some modifiers are used. A typical example is xterm, which displays popup menus in these cases. For xterm (Patch #361 - 2020/10/14 or later), a working workaround is to use the X resource XTerm*omitTranslation:popup-menu, either by adding it in your .Xresources file and registering it with xrdb, or by launching xterm using the -xrm 'XTerm*omitTranslation:popup-menu' command line option. 💅

Remark 3 for BSD systems. In order for the mouse to work properly under (virtualised?) FreeBSD and perhaps other BSD variants, it may be necessary to add the following two lines to the file ~/.Xmodmap:

! Disable button 8 and 9.
pointer = 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 0 0 10 11 12

And run the command: xmodmap ~/.Xmodmap (ignore any warnings issued by this command, she's fine).

This can also be done non-permanently by running the command:

xmodmap -e "pointer = 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 0 0 10 11 12"

If this is not enough, try to disable buttons 8 to 12.

✨ Direct access ✨

If -N|-number, -U|-unnumber or -F|-en|-embedded_number are used, then it becomes possible to directly access a word by entering its number. 💅 The numbering created using these options is done before any words substitution done using -S|-subst /regex/repl/opts, -I|-si|-subst_included or -E|-se|-subst_excluded.

Using a combination of these options, it is easy to control which words will be numbered — add a special symbol in it before using smenu, then remove it (substituted by nothing) afterward using -I|-si|-subst_included, by example. ✨

-E|-se|-subst_excluded gives another way to do that, see below or more.

🦋 Changing input words 🦋

smenu offers the possibility to modify the input words in a sed-like way. Words can be modified at two points: just after they have been read, and after other operations have been applied, such as enabling, disabling or coloring.

The related options are -ES|-subst, -S|-subst, -I|-si|-subst_included and -E|-se|-subst_excluded. Their descriptions can be found in the OPTIONS section. 👑

🔍 Searching for words 🔍

A word can be searched using different algorithms: prefix, substring or fuzzy.

prefix (keys ^ or =) The sequence of characters entered must match the beginning of a word.

substring (keys " or ') The sequence of characters entered must match a substring in a word.

fuzzy (keys ~ or *) All the characters in the entered sequence must appear in the same order in a word, but they need not be consecutive.

The case is also ignored. 🙈

Note that spaces and tabs at the beginning and end of words are ignored when searching for substrings or fuzzy strings.

The cursor is placed, if possible, on the first matching word having the minimum number of gaps between the first and last matching character — see the difference between the actions of the s/S and n/N keys below.

This method also tolerates intermediate symbols not appearing in the words, which will be ignored. If this is the case, the attributes of the approximately matching words are changed into an error version of them, to warn the user of this situation. The erroneous symbols will not be inserted in the search buffer. 🔥

For example: if the word abcdef is present in the standard input, then entering abxcdye puts abcdef in the search buffer, and the word is added to the list of matching words and displayed with an error attribute (in red by default).

This special state will persist until all the symbols following the first erroneous one are deleted (using backspace), or if ESC is pressed to cancel the search session and clear the search buffer.

Note that, when searching, you can use the TAB key or the CTRL I key sequence to try to auto-complete the search pattern, as in bash or ksh. 💅

During a search session, the cursor changes and each character entered is added in (or removed from) the search buffer. The display is refreshed after each change in this buffer.

A 10 seconds timeout (by default) automatically ends the current search session, as if the Enter key had been pressed. This timeout is reset each time a new key is hit in search mode. This delay can be configured using the search entry in the timers section of the configuration file, as shown in the example in the configuration subsection. ⏱️

The slash key (/) can also be used instead of any of these keys. By default it is programmed to do a fuzzy search, but this can be changed by using the command line option (-/|-search_method) or by tuning a configuration file, see below.

All the words matching the current search buffer are enhanced: the characters present in the current search buffer are highlighted in one way, and the other characters in another way. Both of these highlighting methods are configurable. ✨

If the user has entered the search sequence: o, s, then the matching word "words" will be displayed as words when the fuzzy algorithm is in use, depending on the display attributes configured. 🌸

ENTER and all cursor moves terminate the search session but do not clear the list of the matching words and the search buffer.

The user can then use the n/s/SPACE keys (forward) and the N/S keys (Backspace) to navigate in the list of matching words,

When a fuzzy search has been performed, the s/S keys attempt to move the cursor to the next/previous word whose matching part forms a substring of consecutive glyphs. If no such matches exist, s/S and n/N are equivalent. s means next substring match in this context, while n just means next match.

If the user hits the HOME or END key during a search session, then the list of matching words is reduced to the words starting (respectively) ending with the current search pattern, and the window is refreshed. For those who consider HOME and END as non-intuitive, the CTRL A and CTRL Z keys are also available in search mode as an alternative. This behavior is persistent until the user hits the ESC or ENTER key.

For example, if the search pattern in substring mode is sh and the user hits END, then only the words ending with sh will be added in the searched word list and enhanced. 💖

Note that when a matching word is selected, its enhanced characters only show one of the multiple matching possibilities.

When not in a search session, ESC can also be used to clear the list of matching words and to reset the search buffer.

Note that the search buffer is persistent as long as the same search algorithm is used and ESC has not been pressed.

🎀 Selection and Exit 🎀

Pressing q gives the possibility to exit without selecting anything. bye bestie 💅

CTRL C (Abort) also exits the program immediately with a return code equal to 128+SINGINT (by default), without selecting anything. See the -!|-int|-int_string option for more information about the customization of the CTRL C behavior.

By default, ENTER or a double click with the first mouse button, if applicable, writes the selected word to stdout when not in search mode; otherwise it exits from this mode and does nothing more. If you want to be able to select a word even when in search mode, use the -r|-auto_validate option to change this behavior. 👑

🌈 Tagging (multiple selections) 🌈

When the tagging is activated by using the command line -T|-tm|-tag|-tag_mode or -P|-pm|-pin|-pin_mode option, then the keys t, u, INS, DEL, c, r, m, M, T, C, R and U, can be used to tag/untag some words. These tagged words will then be sent to the standard output when ENTER is pressed. 💖

Their meanings is as follows:

  • t — Tags/untags or Pin/unpin the word under the cursor (toggle).
  • u — Untags or unpins the word under the cursor.
  • INS — Tags or pins the word under the cursor.
  • DEL — Untags or unpins the word under the cursor.
  • c — Tags or pins all the selectable words in the current column when no word is marked, otherwise acts like C.
  • r — Tags or pins all the selectable words in the current row/line when no word is marked, otherwise acts like R.
  • m — Marks the current word, the cursor aspect will change until the word is unmarked.
  • M or ESC — Unmarks the current word, other actions will also automatically unmark the word, see below.

T

If no word are marked and the result of a search is still displayed then tags all words found in this search. ✨

If no word has been searched and no word is marked, then the current word is marked, just as if m has been used instead. Otherwise all words between the marked word and the current word are tagged. The marked word will no longer be marked after tagging is complete.

Z

Like T when not in search mode and when the marked words is not on the same column or line as the cursor in column mode.

When in column mode and if the marked word is in the same column or line as the cursor, tags only the words in the same column (respectively line) bounded by the marked word and the cursor. 🎀

C

As for T, C marks the current word if no word is currently marked, just as if m had been used instead.

If a word is already marked, C tags/pins the words between the current and the marked words if they are the same column. The marked word will no longer be marked after tagging is complete.

R

As for T, R marks the current word if no word is currently marked, just as if m had been used instead.

If a word is already marked, R tags/pins the words between the current and the marked words if they are the same row/line. The marked word will no longer be marked after tagging is complete.

U

Untags or unpins the last tagging action.

CTRL T

Untags all the previously tagged/pinned words. The marked word, if any, will no longer be marked after this action.

👀 Important note, bestie: when you use T, C or R with pinning enabled, the order of word selection depends on whether the marked word is before or after the current word.

When a word is marked, the pinning order using c and r increases from the marked word to the current word.

When no words are marked, the pinning order when using c and r always increases from top to bottom and from left to right respectively.

Also note that using some of these keys may be more easily achieved by using the third mouse button (usually the right one) when the mouse is available. See how to use the right mouse buttons in the "Keyboard and mouse usage." at the beginning of this manual. 🖱️💅

✨ Help ✨

A small help message can be displayed when hitting the ? key. This message will last for 30s or until another key or ESC is pressed. 🫶

If the help content is longer than the window, it can be scrolled up or down using the vertical arrow keys or the vi direction keys (j and k). 🌸

✨ Scroll bars ✨

The vertical scroll bar is displayed at the right of the scrolling window. Its appearance is meant to be classical but it has some particularities:

  • The vertical scroll bar is not displayed if all the input words fit on only one line. 😌
  • Otherwise, the vertical scroll bar is always displayed except when the -q option is set. This option completely disables the scroll display of all scroll bars. 💀
  • When the scrolling window has only one line, the vertical scroll bar has only 3 states:
    • v when on all but the last line, indicating that you can go down to see more.
    • ^ when on the last line.
    • | otherwise.
  • When there is more than one line to display, / means that the window displays the first line, \ the last line. | is used to fill the gap, see below the different possible configurations.
\   \   ^   ^   \
|   |   |   |   /
/   v   /   v

A + can also appear in the scroll bar in lieu of the vertical bar, giving the relative position of the cursor line in the bunch of input words. ✨

The horizontal scroll bar is only displayed below the window when the current line is truncated in line of column mode.

If its appearance scrolls up the windows in the screen, the new position of the window will unchanged even it this scroll bar is no more displayed as the line containing the cursor is no more truncated.

✨ Terminal resizing ✨ (also see BUGS/LIMITATIONS)

The windows is redrawn if the terminal is resized. The redrawing is actually done only 1s after the end of the resizing to avoid artifacts on screen. The cursor will remain on the current selected word but may be displayed at another place in the window. 🦋

✨ Unicode support ✨

This utility is Unicode aware and should be able to display correctly any Unicode character (even double-width ones) as long as the current encoding is UTF-8 (UTF-8 in the output of the locale command). 💖

Note that smenu will not attempt to normalize words containing UTF-8 glyphs. Thus \u61\ucc88 (ä) will not be considered equal to \uc3a4 (canonical normalization of ä). It is nevertheless possible to use an external tool such as uconv from the ICU project (https://icu.unicode.org) to do this work before using smenu. 😭

For example: uconv can be used as a filter as in:

cat ... | uconv -x any-nfc | smenu

✨ Optional configuration file ✨

If a file with adequate permissions and the same name as the executable but prefixed with a dot is present in the current directory or in the user's home directory, then it will be parsed as a .ini file. The values read from the file in the home directory will be overridden by the ones read from the local directory (if it is present). 👑

Missing and bad keywords are silently skipped.

The values read, if valid, override the default hard-coded ones.

If a value is invalid an error message is shown and the program terminates. 💀

The values of the timers must be given in units of 1/10 of a second. ⏱️

Here is an example giving the syntax and the names of the keywords allowed:

--8<------------------------------------------------------------------
[colors]
  ; The terminal must have at least 8 colors and/or have attributes
  : like bold and reverse for this to be useful
  ; if not the following settings will be ignored.

  method=ansi             ; classic | ansi (default)

  cursor=0/2              ; cursor attributes
  cursor_on_tag=0/2,u     ; cursor on tag attributes
  shift=6,b               ; shift symbol attributes
  message=0/3             ; message (title) attributes
  bar = 7/4,b             ; scroll bars attributes
  search_field = 0/6      ; search field attributes
  search_text = 7,bu      ; search text attributes
  match_field = 1,b       ; matching words field attributes
  match_text = 7,bu       ; matching words text attributes
  search_err_field = 1    ; approximate search field attributes
  search_err_text = 1,r   ; approximate search text attributes
  ; match_err_field = 3   ; approximate matching words field attributes
  match_err_text = 1      ; approximate matching words text attributes
  ; include = b           ; selectable color attributes
  exclude = 4/0,u         ; non-selectable color attributes
  tag = 0/5               ; tagged (selected) attributes
  daccess = 3,b           ; direct access tag attributes

  special1 = 7/4,b        ; attributes for the special level 1
  special2 = bu           ; attributes for the special level 2
  special3 = /3,b         ; attributes for the special level 3
  special4 = 7/4          ; attributes for the special level 4
  special5 = 7/2,b        ; attributes for the special level 5
  special9 = 2,rb         ; attributes for the special level 9

[window]
  lines = 7               ; default number of lines of the window

[limits]
  word_length = 1024      ; arbitrary max length of input words (int)
  words = 32767           ; arbitrary max number of allowed input
                          ; words (int)
  columns = 128           ; arbitrary max number of columns (int)

[timers]
  search = 100            ; search timeout in 1/10 s
  help = 150              ; duration of the help message in 1/10 s
  window = 7              ; delay before redrawing if the size of the
                          ; terminal's window change in 1/10 s
  direct_access = 6       ; duration allowed to add a new digit to
                          ; the direct word access number in 1/10 s
  forgotten = 9000        ; An explicit delay (in 1/10 s) before smenu
                          ; is forced to stop as if "q" had been pressed.
                          ; Useful when one forgot to make a selection.

[misc]
  default_search_method = substring

[mouse]
  double_click_delay= 200 ; delay in milliseconds
--8<------------------------------------------------------------------
  • The method keyword can take the two possible values displayed above and determines if you want to use the native method (limited to 8 colors) of the ansi method (ISO 8613-6) if your terminal supports more than 8 colors.

The default value corresponds to ansi. 🌈

The attributes syntax is [fg][/bg][[,.+]toggles] where fg and bg are numbers representing the foreground and background color and toggles is a strings which can contain the characters b, d, r, s, u, i, n and l representing respectively bold, dim, reverse, standout, underline, italic, invisible and blink.

  • Spaces are allowed anywhere in the lines and between them, even around the =. ✨
  • Everything following a ; is ignored.
  • When undefined, the default limits are:
words         32767
word_length   512
columns       256

✨ OPTIONS ✨

Not all options may be available, depending on the current context. 👀

When smenu is called and before the first option is evaluated, it is in the Main context. Each option can switch to another context in which only a subset of the options is usable.

For each parameter described below, the contexts in which the associated option is defined as well as the context to which it leads, if any, are given.

An option not defined in a context will force the end of the current context and will be recursively evaluated in the previous contexts until found (or not). If not found, an error message is displayed and smenu is terminated. 💀

The contexts defined in smenu are:

Main

The default context. 🫶

Columns

After the -c|-col|-col_mode|-column parameter.

Lines

After the -l|-line|-line_mode parameter.

Tabulations

After the -t|-tab|-tab_mode|-tabulate_mode parameter.

Tagging

After the -T|-tm|-tag|-tag_mode or -P|-pm|-pin|-pin_mode parameter.

WARNING

Here is a situation that may seem confusing at first glance. 😵‍💫

Imagine the only parameter command line parameter is -cols_select.

Since this is a parameter of an option which is not valid when not in the Columns context, it should have raised an error but it still seems to be accepted.

Okay bestie, so here's the chaos we were talking about — the trick is: when you're not in column mode, -cols_select is indeed not accepted, but its prefix (-col) totally is. So the options get understood as: -col -s_select. And then the same lil' mechanism strikes again, because -s is also valid in column mode, so the final understanding of the command line is: -col -s _select.

Another example that shows long parameters have priority over short parameter combinations: -is will not select only words containing an "s" — nope, it acts in the same way as its alternative name (-incremental_search). 🙈

So if you really want to select only words containing an "s", just add a space after the i, like -i s, or use one of the other -i names such as -inc. 💅

In such cases, you can set the CTXOPT_DEBUG environment variable to any non-empty content.

If we reconsider the -cols_select example with CTXOPT_DEBUG set, the output is now:

CTXOPT_DEBUG: Parameter: -cols_select. Evaluation context: Main.
CTXOPT_DEBUG: Found a valid parameter as a prefix of -cols_select: -col.
CTXOPT_DEBUG: Parameter: -col. Evaluation context: Main.
CTXOPT_DEBUG: Switch to context Columns.
CTXOPT_DEBUG: Parameter: -s_select. Evaluation context: Columns.
CTXOPT_DEBUG: Found a valid parameter as a prefix of -s_select: -s.
CTXOPT_DEBUG: Parameter: -s. Evaluation context: Columns.
CTXOPT_DEBUG: Argument: _select.

In this case, adding a space in the command line: -col -cols_select 1 also solves the issue, and indicates that only the first column should be selectable. ✨

Note, however, that at least one argument for -cols_select is now required:

CTXOPT_DEBUG: Parameter: -col. Evaluation context: Main.
CTXOPT_DEBUG: Switch to context Columns.
CTXOPT_DEBUG: Parameter: -cols_select. Evaluation context: Columns.
CTXOPT_DEBUG: Argument: 1.

The -h|-help and -?|-u|-usage options now display the help and synopsis of the available options in the current context.

Example:

smenu -col -u will only show the usage in the Columns context

The contexts contain all the non-context-changing options, so in practice the usage should be intuitive. You may nevertheless have to adjust some scripts using the old smenu releases — I did in the lvm_menu example. 😭

Some of the advantages of this new system of options are:

  • Long parameter names are allowed. One dash is enough, but two are also allowed for compatibility reasons.
  • An option can be referenced by any number of parameters with short or long names.
  • Auto checking of missing mandatory options, duplicated option,...
  • Only options usable in the current context are allowed.

This option management system is explained in more detail at https://github.com/p-gen/ctxopt.

The description of each command line parameter is as follows:

🌸 The Command Line Parameters, One By One 🌸

  • -h|-help — (Allowed in all contexts.) Display a context specific help messages and exits.
  • -H|-long_help — (Allowed in the "Main" context.) Display a long (non context specific) help messages and exits.
  • -?|-u|-usage — (Allowed in all contexts.) Displays a short help message and exits.
  • -V|-version — (Allowed in the "Main" context.) The .smenu files in the user's home directory and in the current directory, if present, will be ignored when this option is used.
  • -n|-lines|-height [height] — (Allowed in all contexts.) Gives the maximum number of lines in the scrolling selection window.

If -n|-lines|-height is not present the number of lines will be set to 5.

If -n|-lines|-height is present without argument, then the height of the terminal will be used to determine the number of lines. This remains true even if the terminal is resized.

If -n|-lines|-height is present with a numerical argument, this value will be used to determine the number of lines.

  • -i|-in|-inc|-incl|-include... regex — (Allowed in all contexts.) Sets the include filter to match the selectable words. All the other words will become implicitly non-selectable (excluded).

-i|-in|-inc|-incl|-include can be used more than once with cumulative effect.

\u and \U sequences can also be used in the regexp.

  • -e|-ex|-exc|-excl|-exclude... regex — (Allowed in all contexts.) Sets the exclude filter to match the non-selectable words. All the other selectable words will become implicitly selectable (included).

-e|-ex|-exc|-excl|-exclude can be used more than once with cumulative effect. This filter has a higher priority than the include filter.

The regex selections made using -i|-in|-inc|-incl|-include and/or -e|-ex|-exc|-excl|-exclude are done before the possible words alterations made by -I|-si|-subst_included or -E|-se|-subst_excluded (see below).

\u and \U sequences can also be used in the regexp.

  • -m|-msg|-message|-title message — (Allowed in all contexts.) Displays a message (title) above the window. If the current locale is not UTF-8, then all UTF-8 characters will be replaced by the substitution character.

\u and \U sequences can be used in the message.

Note that the message will be truncated if it does not fit on a terminal line.

  • -!|-int|-int_string [string] — (Allowed in all contexts.) The optional string argument, when present, defines the string to be used as the selection string when the CTRL C sequence is entered.

If string is missing then nothing will be selected.

In all cases, when -!|-int|-int_string is present in the command line, the return code of the program will be 0.

This gives the user the choice to make the behavior of CTRL C similar to that of q and Q or to that of the Unix shell leaving the shell with a return code greater than 128.

  • -a|-attr|-attributes prefix:attr... — (Allowed in all contexts.) Sets the display attributes of the elements displayed and the cursor.

At least one attribute prefixed attribute must be given.

prefix can take the following values:

  • i — included words.
  • e — excluded words.
  • c — cursor.
  • b — scroll bar.
  • s — shift indicator.
  • m — message (title).
  • t — tagged words.
  • ct — cursor on tagged words.
  • sf — search field.
  • st — search text.
  • sfe — approximate search field with error.
  • ste — approximate search text with error.
  • mf — matching words field.
  • mt — matching words text.
  • mfe — matching words field with error.
  • mte — matching words text with error.
  • da — direct access tag.

If more than one attribute is given, they must be separated by spaces.

Example: -attr i:/5 e:4,br b:7/3,rb c:7/2,b

See the the -1|-l1|-level1 option below for the description of the attributes syntax after the colon and an example.

  • -1|-l1|-level1 regex [attr]
  • -2|-l2|-level2 regex [attr]
  • -3|-l3|-level3 regex [attr]
  • -4|-l4|-level4 regex [attr]
  • -5|-l5|-level5 regex [attr]
  • -6|-l6|-level6 regex [attr]
  • -7|-l7|-level7 regex [attr]
  • -8|-l8|-level8 regex [attr]
  • -9|-l9|-level9 regex [attr] — (Allowed in all contexts.) Allows one to give a special display color to up to 5 classes of words specified by regular expressions. They are called special levels. Only selectable words will be considered.

By default, the first 5 special levels have their foreground color set to red, green, brown/yellow, purple and cyan and the remaining 4 levels are set to white. All these colors also can be set or modified permanently in the configuration files. See the example file above for an example.

The optional second argument (attr) can be used to override the default or configured attributes of each class. Its syntax is the same as the one used in the configuration file:

[fg][/bg][,{b|d|r|s|u|i|n|l}] | [{b|d|r|s|u|i|n|l}]

Examples of possible attributes are:

2/0,bu green on black bold underline
/2     green background
5      text in purple
rb     reverse bold

\u and \U sequences can be used in the pattern.

  • -z|-zap|-zap_glyphs bytes — (Allowed in all contexts.) Initializes a set of UTF-8 characters to be ignored when reading words from stdin or a file.

Example: The argument '\u0d\ue282ac,' means: ignore all commas, Euro signs and carriage return characters when reading from stdin or a file.

As shown above \u and \U sequences can be used in the bytes set.

  • -T|-tm|-tag|-tag_mode [delim] — (Allowed in the following contexts: "Main", "Columns", "Lines", and "Tabulations", switches to the "Tagging" context.) Allows multiple selections and switches to tag mode. In this mode, several selectable words can be selected without leaving the program.

Tagged words are highlighted (underlined by default).

The current word can be automatically tagged when the ENTER key is pressed to complete the selection process if the -p|-at|-auto_tag option is also set or if no word has been tagged.

Note that nothing is selected when no word is tagged and when the -0|-noat|-no_auto_tag option is also set.

All tagged words (and possibly the world under the cursor) will be sent to the standard output separated by the optional argument given after the option -T|-tm|-tag|-tag_mode.

Note that the delim argument can contain more than one character, can contain UTF-8 characters (in native or \u or \U form) and can even contain control character as in $'\n'.

A single space character is used as the default separator if none is given.

Caution: To get exactly the same behavior as in version 0.9.11 and earlier, you must also use the -p|-at|-auto_tag option.
  • -P|-pm|-pin|-pin_mode [delim] — (Allowed in the following contexts: "Main", "Columns", "Lines", and "Tabulations", switches to the "Tagging" context.)

okay bestie, we're picking up right where we left off — still deep in OPTIONS, no heading needed, we just keep going 💅

Works like -T|-tm|-tag|-tag_mode but, unlike -T|-tm|-tag|-tag_mode, the output depends on the order in which the words were tagged. In other words, the first tagged word comes first in the output, the second tagged word comes next, and so on. order is the whole personality here ✨

  • -p|-at|-auto_tag — (Allowed in the "Tagging" context.) This option modifies the default behavior of the -T|-tm|-tag|-tag_mode and -P|-pm|-pin|-pin_mode options.

An untagged word under the cursor will be automatically tagged when ENTER is pressed. 🫶

  • -0|-noat|-no_auto_tag — (Allowed in the "Tagging" context.) This option modifies the default behavior of the -T|-tm|-tag|-tag_mode and -P|-pm|-pin|-pin_mode options.

An untagged word under the cursor will not be automatically tagged when ENTER is pressed and no other words are tagged. This is true even when the option -p|-at|-auto_tag is also set.

It is ignored if at least one other word is tagged at that time. 🙈

  • -N|-number>da_ctx... [regex] — (Allowed in the following contexts: "Main", "Columns", "Lines" and "Tabulation".)

This option allows you to number selectable words that match a specific regular expression. These numbers are numbered from 1 and allow direct access to the words. numbers as a fast-travel mechanic, lowkey genius ✨

To use this functionality, the user must enter the number which corresponds to the desired entry digit per digit.

Each new digit must be added in a time frame of 1/2 seconds (per default) otherwise the number is considered complete and a newly entered digit will start a new number. If the number does not exists, then the cursor is restored to it's initial position.

The sub-options of the -D|-data|-options option described below can change the way -N|-number sets and formats the numbers.

This option accepts more than one argument and can be used multiple times with cumulative effects.

-N|-number, -U|-unnumber and -F|-en|-embedded_number can be mixed.

  • -U|-unnumber>da_ctx... [regex] — (Allowed in the following contexts: "Main", "Columns", "Lines" and "Tabulation".)

This option allows one to unnumber words. If placed after a previous -N|-number, it can be used to remove the numbering of selected words. If placed before, the word which doesn't match its regular expression will be numbered by default.

This mechanism is similar to to the inclusion/exclusion of words by -i|-in|-inc|-incl|-include and -e|-ex|-exc|-excl|-exclude. 🎀

This option accepts more than one argument and can be used multiple times with cumulative effects.

-U|-unnumber, -N|-number and -F|-en|-embedded_number can be mixed.

  • -F|-en|-embedded_number — (Allowed in the following contexts: "Main", "Columns", "Lines" and "Tabulation".)

This option is similar to -N|-number but does not generate a continuous flow of numbers but extracts them from the word itself. the number is literally just vibing inside the word already 🦋

With this option you can take full control of the numbering of the displayed word. Note that the numbering does not need to be ordered.

The resulting word after the extraction of the number must be non empty.

Some sub-option are required, see the -D|-data|-options option described below.

Notice that for this option to work correctly, all the embedded numbers must have the same number of digits. To get that, a preprocessing may be necessary on the words before using this program. 😭

-F|-en|-embedded_number, -N|-number and -U|-unnumber can be mixed.

  • -D|-data|-options [parameter...] — (Allowed in the Following contexts: "Main", "Columns", "Lines" and "Tabulations".)

This option allows one to change the default behavior of the -N|-number, -U|-unnumber and -F|-en|-embedded_number options.

Its optional parameters are called sub-options and must respect the format x:y where x can be:

  • l (-F|-en|-embedded_number, -N|-number and -U|-unnumber options) — Here y is the UTF-8 character (in native or \u or \U form) to print before the number. The default is a single space.

Example:

echo test | smenu -N -D l:\(

Will display: '(1) test'

  • r (-F|-en|-embedded_number, -N|-number and -U|-unnumber options) — Here y is the UTF-8 character (in native or \u or \U form) to print after the number. The default is ).

Example:

echo test | smenu -N -D r:\>

Will display: ' 1> test'

  • a (-F|-en|-embedded_number, -N|-number and -U|-unnumber options) — Here y is left (or one of its prefixes) if the number must be left aligned, or right (or one of its prefixes) if it must be right aligned. The default is right.

Example:

echo test | smenu -N -D a:right w:3

Will display: ' 1) test'

echo test | smenu -N -D a:left w:3

Will display: ' 1 ) test'

  • p (-F|-en|-embedded_number, -N|-number and -U|-unnumber options) — Here y is included or all for the initial padding of the non numbered words. The keyword included means that only included word will be padded while all means pad all words.

This sub-option may improve compactness when there is a lot of non-selectable words.

The default is all. These keywords can be abbreviated.

⚠️ WARNING: in column/line/tab mode this sub-option is ignored and non numbered words are always padded.

Example:

echo a b c | smenu -eb -N -D l:\( p:a

Will display: (1) a b (2) c

echo a b c | smenu -eb -N -D l:\( p:i

Will display: (1) a b (2) c

  • w (-F|-en|-embedded_number, -N|-number and -U|-unnumber options) — Here y is the width of the number between 1 and 5 included.

For an example, refer to the sub-option a above. 💖

  • f (-F|-en|-embedded_number, -N|-number and -U|-unnumber options) — Here y controls if the numbering must follow the last extracted number (defaults to yes) or if it must remain independent.

The possible values are yes and no but can be abbreviated.

Example:

echo 2a b c | smenu -F -D l:\( f:n n:1 -N

Will display: (2) a (1) b (2) c

echo 2a b c | smenu -F -D l:\( f:y n:1 -N

Will display: (2) a (3) b (4) c

  • m (-F|-en|-embedded_number option) — Here y controls if the numbering of word with missing embedded numbers must be done or not (defaults to yes).

When this sub-option is set to no, the s and f sub-options are ignored.

The possible values are yes and no but can be abbreviated.

Example:

echo 2a b c | smenu -F -D l:\( n:1 m:n -N

Will display: (2) a b c

echo 2a b c | smenu -F -D l:\( n:1 m:y -N

Will display: (2) a (3) b (4) c

  • h (-F|-en|-embedded_number option) — Tells what to do with the characters present before the embedded number if any.

The allowed directives are: trim which discards them if they form an empty word (only made of spaces and tabulations), cut which unconditionally discards them and keep which places them at the beginning of the resulting word.

The default value for this directive is keep, these keywords can be abbreviated.

Example:

echo " 2x" | smenu -F -D l:\( o:1 n:1

Will display:

(2)  x
    ^^
    Selection cursor
echo " 2x" | smenu -F -D l:\( o:1 n:1 h:t

Will display:

(2) x
    ^
    Selection cursor
echo "x2y" | smenu -F -D l:\( o:1 n:1 h:c

Will display: (2) y

  • o (-F|-en|-embedded_number option) — Here y is the offset of the first multibyte character of the number to extract from the word (defaults to 0).

If this offset if immediately followed by the character '+', then the parser will look for the first number (if any) after the given offset instead of using its absolute value to extract the number.

Note that when the '+' is used, it is necessary that the length of all the numbers to extract have the same size as the algorithm looks for a digit to identify the beginning of the number to extract. Hence, for example, 1 should appear as 01 in the input is n is set to 2. 🌸

Example:

echo x2y xx3y | smenu -F -D l:\( o:1+ n:1

will display:

(2) xy (3) xxy
echo x2y xx3y | smenu -F -D l:\( o:1 n:1

will display (note the absence of the '+' character):

(2) xy     xx3y
  • n (-F|-en|-embedded_number option) — Here y is the number of multibyte characters to extract from the word starting at the offset given by the o sub-option.

Example: n:2 will extract and use the first 2 digits of each words from the input stream to number them. 👑

  • i (-F|-en|-embedded_number option) — Here y is number of multibyte characters to ignore after the extracted number.
  • d (-F|-en|-embedded_number, -N|-number and -U|-unnumber options) — Here y is a multibyte separator. When present, this directive instructs smenu to output the selected numbered word(s) prefixed by its(their) direct access number(s) and the given separator.

Only the numbered word(s) will be prefixed.

d stands for decorate. 🎀

This directive can be useful when you want to post-process the output according to its direct access number. ✨

Okay so peep this — an example, bestie:

R=$(echo a b c | smenu -N -D d:-)

which shows you:

1) a  2) b  3) c

and then R will hold the string 2-b if b gets selected. Obsessed. 💖

s (the sub-option for -F|-en|-embedded_number, -N|-number and -U|-unnumber)

Here y is the direct access number that will be set for the first numbered word. Its value is 1 by default, and a value of 0 is possible too (yes, really).

Example:

echo a b c | smenu -N -D s:1000

will display:

1000) a  1001) b  1002) c

To number all words with the default parameters, use the syntax -N, which is a shortcut for: -N -D l:' ' r:')' a:r p:a

When the w sub-option is not given, the width of the numbers is determined automatically — but if -F|-en|-embedded_number is set and the value of the n sub-option is given, then this value is used. iykyk. ✨

✨ more options, we're so back ✨

  • -b|-blank — (Allowed in all contexts.) Replaces all non-printable characters by a blank. And if that turns a word into a totally blank word? It will be potentially deleted. Gone. Poof. 💅
  • .|-dot|-invalid — (Allowed in all contexts.) Sets the substitution character for non-printable characters. When this parameter isn't used, the default substitution character is a single dot. Periodt.
  • -M|-middle|-center — (Allowed in all contexts.) Centers the display if possible. Main character energy, literally.
  • -d|-restore|-delete|-clean|-delete_window|-clean_window — (Allowed in all contexts.) Tells the program to clean up the display before quitting by removing the selection window after use, as if it was never displayed. Not a trace. 🦋
  • -c|-col|-col_mode|-column — (Allowed in the "Main" and "Tagging" contexts, switches to the "Columns" context.) Sets the column mode. In this mode the lines of words do not wrap when the right border of the terminal is reached — they only wrap when a special character is read. Some words will not be displayed without an horizontal scrolling, ngl.

If such a scrolling is needed, some indications may appear on the left and right edge of the window to help the user reach the unseen words. 🫶

In this mode, the width of each column is minimal, to keep the maximum information visible on the terminal.

  • -l|-line|-line_mode — (Allowed in the "Main" and "Tagging" contexts, switches to the "Lines" context.) Sets the line mode. This mode is the same as column mode but without any column alignment.
  • -t|-tab|-tab_mode|-tabulate_mode [cols] — (Allowed in the "Main" and "Tagging" contexts, switches to the "Tabulations" context.) This option sets the tabulation mode and, if a number is specified, attempts to set the number of displayed columns to that number.

In this mode, embedded line separators are ignored if not explicitly set with -L|-ls|-ld|-line-delimiters|-line_separators. The options -A|-fc|-first_column and -Z|-lc|-last_column can nevertheless be used to force words to appear in the first (respectively last) position of the displayed line.

Note that the number of requested columns will be automatically reduced if a word does not fit in the calculated column size.

In this mode each column has the same width.

  • -w|-wide|-wide_mode — (Allowed in the "Columns" and "Tabulations" contexts.) When -t|-tab|-tab_mode|-tabulate_mode is followed by a number of columns, the default is to compact the columns so that they use the least terminal width as possible. This option enlarges the columns in order to use the whole terminal width instead. Glow up, columns edition. ✨

When in column mode, -w|-wide|-wide_mode can be used to force all the columns to have the same size (the largest one). See option -c|-col|-col_mode|-column below.

Note that the column's size is only calculated once, when the words are displayed for the first time. A terminal resize will not update this value. This choice enables a faster display. It's giving efficiency.

  • -C|-cs|-cols|-cols_select... [i|I|e|E|l|L|r|R|c|C|a|A][selectors]... — (Allowed in the "Columns" context.) In column mode, this option is useful for performing specific actions on a set of columns.

These actions vary according to the directive given:

  • You can include (directive i or I) or exclude (e or E) a set of selectable columns.
  • You can specify the kind of alignment (left, right or center) of the set of columns with the directives l, L, r, R, c or C.
  • You can also specify the attributes (colors...) of the set of columns with the directives a or A.

When the directive is missing, the "include" directive is assumed (i).

Note that it is best to use the lower case version of these directives, as their upper case alternative may have other meanings in the future.

In selectors, columns can be designated by their number (starting with 1) or by regular expressions surrounded by delimiters consisting of any printable ASCII character, except spaces and unprotected commas; commas can be protected by backslashes (\).

Column ranges are defined by separating their numbers with a dash. Open interval to the left or right are allowed, so these interval descriptions may be preceded or followed by a dash (e.g. 5-7, -2 or 8- are allowed).

WARNING: ranges of regular expressions are not yet supported. 😭

When using the a|A directive, an attribute must be appended prefixed by a colon (:) as in -C a1-2:6+b per example. Refer to the attribute option (-a|-attr|-attributes) for more details.

Multiple selectors can be regrouped in one argument using commas to separate them.

This option also accepts multiple arguments, each of them being a selector.

A selection by regular expressions means that a column containing a word matching any of these expressions will be included or excluded depending on the letter given after the option or before the selector if there is more than one argument.

Regular expressions and column numbers can be freely mixed.

This option also sets the default alignment of column contents when no arguments are provided. For example: -Cr -Cl1 sets the default alignment to the right and the alignment of the contents of column 1 to the left. At the beginning, no default alignment of the column contents is set.

Regular expression in -C|-cs|-cols|-cols_select and -R|-rs|-rows|-rows_select can contain UTF-8 characters either directly or by using the \u or \U notation. 🌈

Example of columns selection: -Ci2,3,/X./,5-7 forces the cursor to only navigate in columns 2,3,5,6 and 7 and those containing a two characters word starting with 'X'. If e was used in place of i, all the columns would have been selected except the columns 2,3,5,6,7 and those matching the extended regular expression 'X.'.

Example of defining the attributes of a column set: -C a2-6:7/4+b forces the columns from 2 to 6 to be bold and have a foreground color equal to 7 and a background color equal to 4.

Example of mixing alignment and inclusion/exclusion directives: -Ci1-5 -Ce/a+/ -Cr7,/b+/ makes columns 1 to 5 selectable, makes columns whose content starts with "a" non selectable and aligns the content of the column 7 to the left.

Spaces are allowed in the selection string if they are protected.

When an alignment directive is used and without any column selection, then the specified alignment becomes the default one, E.g: -Cr sets alignment the default one to the right.

Other example where multiple selectors are used as multiple arguments: ps | smenu -col -cols e/TTY/ e/CMD/ e3

Warning, if this option appears on the command line before any -R|-rs|-rows|-rows_select option, the specified column alignments will be protected from any future row alignment directives. Otherwise row alignment directives will take precedence. For example:

echo "a b c\naa bb cc\naaaa bbbb cccc" | smenu -c -g\| -C c2 -R r2

Gives:

a   | b  |c
  aa| bb |  cc <-- Col. 2 remains centered as -C was used first.
aaaa|bbbb|cccc

But echo "a b c\naa bb cc\naaaa bbbb cccc" | smenu -c -g\| -R r2 -C c2

Gives:

a   | b  |c
  aa|  bb|  cc <-- -R takes precedence as it was used first.
aaaa|bbbb|cccc
  • -R|-rs|-rows|-rows_select... selectors... — (Allowed in the "Columns" and "Lines" contexts.) Similar to -C|-cs|-cols|-cols_select but for the rows.

Warning, the directives l, L, r, R, c and C are only allowed in column mode.

-C|-cs|-cols|-cols_select and -R|-rs|-rows|-rows_select can be used more than once in a cumulative manner:

The selection mode (selection or de-selection) is given by the first occurrence of the options, the other occurrences will only update the selected or de-selected ranges.

Once a column or a row has been excluded, it cannot be re-included. 💀 That's it, that's the rule.

  • -al|align... regex_selectors... — (Allowed in the "Columns" context.) This option is similar to -C|-cs|-cols|-cols_select and -R|-rs|-rows|-rows_select but allows one to align all words matched by one of the regular expression defined in regex_selectors

This option only accepts a list of regular expressions.

E.g.: -al c/a+/,/b+/

-al|align, -C|-cs|-cols|-cols_select and -R|-rs|-rows|-rows_select can be used more than once in a cumulative manner.

Word alignments with this option take precedence over row and column alignments. 👑

  • -A|-fc|-first_column regex — (Allowed in the following contexts: "Columns", "Lines" and "Tabulations".) In column mode, forces all words matching the given regular expression to be the first one in the displayed line. If you want to only rely on this method to build the lines, just specify an empty regex to set the end-of-line separator with -L|-ls|-ld|-line-delimiters|-line_separators '')

\u and \U sequences can also be used in the regexp after -A / -fc / -first_column. slay 💅

  • -Z, -lc, -last_column regex — (allowed in these contexts: "Columns", "Lines" and "Tabulations")

Basically -A / -fc / -first_column's cousin, except this one forces the word to be the latest of its line. Same little trick with -L / -ls / -ld / -line-delimiters / -line_separators works here too, no cap ✨

And yup, \u and \U sequences can also be used in the regexp after -Z / -lc / -last_column.

  • -g, -gutter [string] — (allowed in the "Columns" and "Tabulations" contexts)

This one replaces the blank after each word in column or tabular mode with a column separator 🎀

The separator gets pulled out of the string argument, and each of its (multibyte) characters is used one after the other to fill the gutter.

If there are more columns than gutter characters, then the last character is the one used for all the remaining columns.

When you don't give it anything, the separator defaults to a vertical bar | (or a full height vertical bar if the locale is set to UTF-8 👑).

Every character can be written in normal form or in \u or \U form inside the string argument.

Example: "|- " will let you separate the first two columns with '|', then '-' gets used, and ' ' will separate the remaining columns if there are any. it's giving custom divider energy fr fr 🌸

  • -k, -ks, -keep_spaces — (allowed in all contexts)

By default, the spaces surrounding the output string get deleted. This option forces them to be retained. protect the spaces at all costs 🫶

  • -W, -ws, -wd, -word_delimiters, -word_separators bytes — (allowed in all contexts)

Use this to specify the characters (or multibyte sequences) that will be used to delimit the input words ✂️

Each character or multibyte sequence in the given argument is understood as a word delimiter.

Multibyte sequences (UTF-8) can be natives of using the same ASCII representation used in words — that's a leading \u or \U followed by up to 8 hexadecimal characters for the former, and 6 hexadecimal characters for the latter.

Non-printable characters in arguments should be given using the standard $'' representation. $'\t' stands for the tabulation character, for example.

The default delimiters are: SPACE, $'\t' and $'\n'. iconic defaults honestly 💜

  • -L, -ls, -ld, -line-delimiters, -line_separators bytes — (allowed in all contexts)

Same vibe as above but for the lines in the input stream 🌈

Each character or multibyte sequence in the given argument is understood as a line delimiter.

Multibyte sequences (UTF-8) can be natives of using the same ASCII representation used in words — a leading \u or \U followed by up to 8 hexadecimal characters for the former and 6 hexadecimal characters for the latter.

Non-printable characters in arguments should be given using the standard $'' representation. $'\n' stands for the newline character, for example.

The default delimiter is: $'\n'.

This option is only useful when the -c / -col / -col_mode / -column or -l option is also set.

The characters (or multibyte sequences) passed to -L / -ls / -ld / -line-delimiters / -line_separators are automatically added to the list of word delimiters, as if -W / -ws / -wd / -word_delimiters / -word_separators was also used. sneaky but make it make sense 💅

And yes, \u and \U sequences can also be used here.

  • -q, -no_bar, -no_scroll_bar — (allowed in all contexts)

Prevents the display of the lateral scroll bar. This also prevents the display of the horizontal scroll bar. bye bars 👋

  • -no_hbar, -no_hor_scroll_bar — (allowed in the "Columns" and "Lines" contexts)

Prevents the display of the horizontal scroll bar.

  • -hbar, -hor_scroll_bar — (allowed in the "Columns" and "Lines" contexts)

Forces the display of the horizontal scroll when at least one line will be truncated. And this happens even if the current line or lines being displayed are not truncated. highkey committed to that bar 😤

When the -no_hbar / -no_hor_scroll_bar or -q / -no_bar / -no_scroll_bar are also present, then this option is ignored.

  • -S, -subst... /regex/repl/[g][v][s] — (allowed in all contexts)

Post-processes the words by applying a regular expression based substitution. The argument must be formatted exactly as in the sed editor.

Just like in sed, matching groups and references to these groups (from \0 to \9 in repl) are supported. These groups must be surrounded by ( and ) in regex. \0 and & are equivalent in repl, same as in the GNU version of sed.

Back reference example:

R=$(echo "[A] [B] [C]" | ./smenu -S '/([^][]+)/:\1:/')

will display "[:A:] [:B:] [:C:]" — obsessed 😭💖

This option can be used more than once. Each substitution will be applied in sequence on each word. That sequence can be stopped if a stop flag is encountered.

flags:

  • The optional trailing g (for global) means that all matching occurrences shall be replaced, not only the first one.
  • The optional trailing v (for visual) means that the altered words will only be used for display and search. The modifications will not be reflected in the returned word.
  • The optional trailing s (for stop) means that no more substitution will be allowed on this word, even if another -S / -subst is used.
  • The optional trailing i (for ignore case) means that the string search operation should ignore the case for this pattern.

Small examples to explain the meaning of v:

R=$(echo a b c | smenu -S /b/B/)

will display "a B c" and R will contain B when B is selected — meanwhile

R=$(echo a b c | smenu -S /b/B/v)

will display the same as above, but R will contain the original word b when B is selected.

In both cases, only the word B will be searchable, and not b. the way that works is so sneaky fr fr 💀

  • -I, -si, -subst_included... /regex/repl/[g][v][s] — (allowed in all contexts)

Post-processes the selectable words by applying a regular expression based substitution (see -S / -subst for details).

  • -E, -se, -subst_excluded... /regex/repl/[g][v][s] — (allowed in all contexts)

Post-processes the excluded (or non-selectable) words by applying a regular expression based substitution (see -S / -subst for details).

The / separator that -I / -si / -subst_included and -E / -se / -subst_excluded are using above can be substituted by any other character except SPACE, \t, \f, \n, \r and \v.

In the three previous options, regex is a POSIX Extended Regular Expression. For details, please refer to the regex(7) manual page.

Additionally, \u and \U sequences can also be used in the regexp. ✨

Okay so if a post-processing action (-S / -subst, -I / -si / -subst_included, -E / -se / -subst_excluded) results in an empty (length = 0) word, then we've got two cases bestie:

  • in column mode:

Substitutions involving empty words can lead to misalignments, so it is necessary to prohibit them and terminate the program. These substitutions have to be made with other tools before using this utility. not the drama we wanted 😭

  • otherwise:

The word is simply removed. bye 💀

  • -ES, -subst... /regex/repl/[g][v][s] — (allowed in all contexts)

Pre-processes words by applying a substitution based on a regular expression. The argument must be formatted as in the sed editor.

The substitutions are made, as the name of the option says, before any other selection or coloring actions are made. early bird energy 🌅

This option can be used more than once. Each substitution will be applied in sequence on each word. That sequence can be stopped if a stop flag is encountered.

In summary, this option is similar to the -S / -subst option described above, except that the substitutions are made earlier and certain flags like visual are ignored.

Note that this option can be used in conjunction with the other substitution options mentioned above. team effort 🫶

  • -, -search_method search_method — (allowed in all contexts)

Affects the / key to a search method. By default / is affected to 'fuzzy', but the argument can be any prefix of 'prefix', 'substring' or 'fuzzy'.

  • -s, -sp, -start, -start_pattern pattern — (allowed in all contexts)

Place the cursor on the first word corresponding to the specified pattern 🎯

Note that although only the first matching word is highlighted, all matching words (if any) can be accessed using n / s / SPACE and N / S keys as if they were the result of one of the search actions.

These matching words can also be tagged at once if the tagging/pinning function is activated. See the "Tagging" section for more info.

ESC can be used to disable navigation among matching words.

pattern can be:

  • A # immediately followed by a number giving the initial position of the cursor (counting from 0).

If the word at this position is excluded, then the first previous non excluded word is selected if it exists, otherwise the first non excluded word is selected.

If this number is greater than the number of words, the cursor will be placed on the latest selectable position.

  • A single # or the string #last to set the initial cursor position on the latest selectable word position.
  • A string starting with a / indicating that we want the cursor to be placed on the first word matching the given regular expression.
  • A string starting with a = indicating that we want the cursor to be placed on that exact word.
  • A normal string. In this case the cursor will be placed on the first word starting with that string (Ca will match Cancel, for example). so handy fr fr 💅
⚠️ Warning, bestie, listen up: when searching for a prefix or a regular expression, smenu only looks for them after an eventual modification, so for example, the command smenu -I/c/x/ -s/c <<< "a b c d" won't find c and put the cursor on a — but smenu -I/c/x/v -s/c <<< "a b c d" will find it and put the cursor on the x, substituting the c on screen only. 💅

Also, \u and \U sequences can be used in the pattern. ✨

  • -x, -tmout, -timeout type [word] delay — sets a timeout ⏰ (allowed in all contexts, no cap). Three types of timeout are possible:
    • current: at the timeout, the word under the cursor and/or the tagged words are sent to the standard output if the ENTER key has been pressed
    • quit: at the timeout, nothing is selected, as if the q key has been pressed
    • word: at the timeout, the word given after the type is selected. Note that this word doesn't need to be part of the words coming from the standard input.

Each type can be shortened as a prefix of its full name ("cur" for "current" or "q" for "quit", per example).

The delay must be set in seconds and cannot be greater than 99999 seconds.

The remaining time (in seconds) is added at the end of the message displayed above the selection window and is updated in real time each second. 🕐

Any key except ENTER, q, Q and CTRL C resets the timer to its initial value.

  • -X, -htmout, -hidden_timeout type [word] delay — allowed in all contexts. Works exactly like -x|-tmout|-timeout, but no periodic remaining messages is displayed above the selection window. Sneaky. 🤫
  • -r, -auto_validate — (allowed in all contexts.) Enables ENTER to validate the selection even in search mode. Slay, no extra keypress. ✅
  • -is, -incremental_search — (allowed in all contexts.) By default, when a new search session is initiated, the current search buffer is reset. When this parameter is set, the next search will start where the last search ended, except if ESC was hit before. This option instructs not to clean the previous search buffer each time a new search session is started. Pick up right where you left off, main character energy. 💖
  • -v, -vb, -visual_bell — (allowed in all contexts.) By default, when searching, an alarm is produced by the terminal when the user enters a character or makes a move which leads to no result or to an error condition. This argument makes this beep visual, by briefly showing the cursor. Aesthetic error handling, fr fr. ✨
  • -Q, -ignore_quotes — (allowed in all contexts.) Using this option will remove the word grouping feature from single and double quotes, which will be considered normal characters. For example: "a b" will be considered by smenu as two words a and b and no more as a single word: a b. Quotes said "not today." 💀
  • -lim, -limits limit:value... — (allowed in all contexts.) This option gives the possibility to modify the default maximum number of words or columns and the maximum permitted word length.

The specified values overload the default settings and/or the settings given in the configuration files.

In order to do that, three sub-options can be used:

  • l:value — to set the maximum word length allowed.
  • w:value — to set the maximum number of words allowed.
  • c:value — to set the maximum number of columns allowed.

Several sub-options, separated by spaces, can be given after this option.

  • -f, -forgotten_timeout, -global_timeout timeout — (allowed in all contexts.) This option defines a global timeout in seconds. The program will end without error after this period of inactivity. 👑

This timer is reset to its initial value each time a key is pressed.

Its default value is "unlimited", but it can be changed by assigning a number (in tenths of seconds) to the "forgotten" entry in the [timers] section of the optional configuration file. See the example in the configuration sub-section.

A timeout value equal to 0 explicitly disables this timer.

  • -nm, -no_mouse — (allowed in all contexts.) This option allows you to disable the mouse even if smenu can use it. Bye mouse, not your era. 🐭🚫
  • -br, -buttons, -button_remapping new_button_1 new_button_3 — (allowed in all contexts.) This option allows one to remap the mouse buttons. The buttons are numbered from 1 to 3 but as smenu only uses buttons 1 and 3, only two arguments are required.

By example, the syntax -br 3 1 will reverse the first (left) and third (right?) buttons.

The default mapping is 1 3.

  • -dc, -dcd, -double_click, -double_click_delay delay_in_ms — (allowed in all contexts.) This option allows one to set the double-click delay in the range of 100 ms (1/10 second) to 500 ms (1/2 second). The default delay of 150 ms (1/6.66 second) will be used if the given value is out of range or invalid.

The double-click capability can also be disabled by setting delay_in_ms to 0.

This setting is also configurable in a configuration file, see the [mouse] section in the example in the configuration sub-section.

  • -sb, -sbw, -show_blank_words [blank_char] — (allowed in all contexts.) Normally, blank words (words containing only space:.!fmt s) are only kept in column mode. When this option is present, these words are converted into a sequence of blank_char (or underscore if the optional parameter is absent) so that they are visible and not ignored when not in column mode.

blank_char must be printable but not a space nor a multibyte character.

Note: these blank words remain blank even if they are now made visible. They can still be excluded using -e ' ' or -e '[ ]' per example.

📝 NOTES

If tabulators (\t) are embedded in the input, there is no way to replace them with the original number of spaces. In this case use another filter (like expand) to pre-process the data. Preach. 🙈

🌈 EXAMPLES

✨ 1

Simple Yes/No/Cancel request with "No" as default choice:

In bash:

read R <<< $(echo "Yes No Cancel" \
             | smenu  -d -m "Please choose:" -s /N)

or

R=$(echo "Yes No Cancel" \
    | smenu -d -m "Please choose:" -s /N)

In ksh:

print "Yes No Cancel"                \
| smenu -d -m "Please choose:" -s /N \
| read R

✨ 2

Get a 3 columns report about VM statistics for the current process in bash/ksh on Linux:

R=$(grep Vm /proc/$$/status | expand | smenu -b -W$'\n' -t3 -g -d)

✨ 3

Create a one column selection window containing the list of the first 20 LVM physical volumes. At the end, the selection window will be erased. This example is written in ksh).

pvs -a -o pv_name --noheadings                 \
| smenu -m "PV list" -n20 -t1 -d -s //dev/root \
| read R

The display will have a look similar to the following, with the cursor set on the word /dev/root:

PV list
/dev/md126           \
/dev/md127           |
/dev/root            | <- cursor here.
/dev/sda2            |
/dev/sdb2            |
/dev/sdc1            |
/dev/sdc2            |
/dev/system/homevol  /

✨ 4 (advanced)

Imagine a file named sample.mnu with the following content:

--8<---------------------------------
"1 First Entry" "3 Third entry"
"2 Second entry" "4 Fourth entry"
@@@ "5 Fifth entry"
@@@
"0 Exit menu"
--8<---------------------------------

Then this quite esoteric command will render it (centered on the screen) as:

+----------------------------------+
|            Test menu             |
|                                  |
| 1) First Entry   3) Third entry  |
| 2) Second entry  4) Fourth entry |
|                  5) Fifth entry  |
|                                  |
| 0) Exit menu                     |
+----------------------------------+

with the cursor on Quit and only the numbers and "Quit" selectable.

R=$(smenu -q -d -s/Exit -M -n 30 -c        \
          -e "@+" -E '/@+/ /'              \
          -F -D n:1 i:1                    \
          -m "Test menu" < sample.mnu)

The selected entry will be available in R

Try to understand it as an exercise. 😭 (you got this tho 🫶)

🌱 ENVIRONMENT

  • NO_COLOR — force a monochrome terminal when set.
  • CTXOPT_DEBUG — put the option parser in debug mode.

💀 BUGS/LIMITATIONS

Some terminal emulators, those notably based on VTE version later than 0.35 (see https://github.com/GNOME/vte/commit/01380d), have a new feature that gives them the possibility to wrap/unwrap already displayed lines when resizing the window.

As far as I know, there is no terminfo entry to disable that. 😭

On these types of terminals, the automatic re-display of the output of smenu will be disturbed and some artifacts may appear on the screen if the terminal window is resized. Not the vibe. 💅

👑 AUTHORS

© 2015-present, Pierre Gentile (p.gen.progs@gmail.com)

And that's a wrap on the SMENU(1) page, bestie!! 🎀 That footer at the bottom is literally just the page name, SMENU(1), sitting there being iconic like the rest of it. Go forth and select some words. Periodt. 💖✨

📦 where this page comes from