From: D. Ben Knoble <ben.knoble@gmail.com>
Date: Mon, 16 Feb 2026 18:32:43 GMT
Subject: Re: [PATCH v5 4/4] completion: fix zsh alias listing for subsection aliases
Message-ID: <CALnO6CD3QpEZ=689w3mQpc5Hx0bj3+E8gU-JhstYJ9XOvunxiQ@mail.gmail.com>
In-Reply-To: <20260216161513.2533141-5-jonatan@jontes.page>

On Mon, Feb 16, 2026 at 11:15 AM Jonatan Holmgren <jonatan@jontes.page> wrote:
>
> The zsh completion function __git_zsh_cmd_alias() uses 'git config
> --get-regexp' to enumerate aliases and then strips the "alias." prefix
> from each key. For subsection-style aliases (alias.name.command), this
> leaves "name.command" as the completion candidate instead of just
> "name".
>
> The bash completion does not have this problem because it goes through
> 'git --list-cmds=alias', which calls list_aliases() in C and already
> handles both alias syntaxes correctly. However, zsh needs both the
> alias name and its value for descriptive completion, which
> --list-cmds=alias does not provide.
>
> Add a hidden --aliases-for-completion option to 'git help', following
> the existing --config-for-completion pattern. It outputs NUL-separated
> "name\nvalue" pairs using list_aliases(), which correctly resolves both
> the traditional (alias.name) and subsection (alias.name.command)
> formats. Update __git_zsh_cmd_alias() to use it.

An alternative would to be to post-process and turn
"alias.name.command" into "name", but this solution is easier to parse
(won't mix 2 formats).

> ---
>  builtin/help.c                        | 15 +++++++++++++++
>  contrib/completion/git-completion.zsh |  2 +-
>  2 files changed, 16 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)
>
> diff --git a/builtin/help.c b/builtin/help.c
> index c09cbc8912..f02308a391 100644
> --- a/builtin/help.c
> +++ b/builtin/help.c
> @@ -54,6 +54,7 @@ static enum help_action {
>         HELP_ACTION_DEVELOPER_INTERFACES,
>         HELP_ACTION_CONFIG_FOR_COMPLETION,
>         HELP_ACTION_CONFIG_SECTIONS_FOR_COMPLETION,
> +       HELP_ACTION_ALIASES_FOR_COMPLETION,
>  } cmd_mode;
>
>  static char *html_path;
> @@ -90,6 +91,8 @@ static struct option builtin_help_options[] = {
>                     HELP_ACTION_CONFIG_FOR_COMPLETION, PARSE_OPT_HIDDEN),
>         OPT_CMDMODE_F(0, "config-sections-for-completion", &cmd_mode, "",
>                     HELP_ACTION_CONFIG_SECTIONS_FOR_COMPLETION, PARSE_OPT_HIDDEN),
> +       OPT_CMDMODE_F(0, "aliases-for-completion", &cmd_mode, "",
> +                   HELP_ACTION_ALIASES_FOR_COMPLETION, PARSE_OPT_HIDDEN),
>
>         OPT_END(),
>  };
> @@ -691,6 +694,18 @@ int cmd_help(int argc,
>                                help_format);
>                 list_config_help(SHOW_CONFIG_SECTIONS);
>                 return 0;
> +       case HELP_ACTION_ALIASES_FOR_COMPLETION: {
> +               struct string_list alias_list = STRING_LIST_INIT_DUP;
> +               opt_mode_usage(argc, "--aliases-for-completion",
> +                              help_format);

style nit: I _think_ this line could be unwrapped?

> +               list_aliases(&alias_list);
> +               string_list_sort(&alias_list);

It may not matter much since lists of aliases are probably not
humongous, but do we need to sort? I don't _think_ "git
--list-cmds=alias" does, for example, though I'm not sure about "git
config --get-regexp" that's being replaced. Leaving it in the config
order could even be a feature, so I can put easier-to-complete aliases
earlier in my config?

> +               for (size_t i = 0; i < alias_list.nr; i++)
> +                       printf("%s%c%s%c", alias_list.items[i].string, '\n',
> +                              (char *)alias_list.items[i].util, '\0');
> +               string_list_clear(&alias_list, 1);
> +               return 0;
> +       }
>         case HELP_ACTION_CONFIG:
>                 opt_mode_usage(argc, "--config", help_format);
>                 setup_pager(the_repository);


> diff --git a/contrib/completion/git-completion.zsh b/contrib/completion/git-completion.zsh
> index f5877bd7a1..c32186a977 100644
> --- a/contrib/completion/git-completion.zsh
> +++ b/contrib/completion/git-completion.zsh
> @@ -202,7 +202,7 @@ __git_zsh_cmd_common ()
>  __git_zsh_cmd_alias ()
>  {
>         local -a list
> -       list=(${${(0)"$(git config -z --get-regexp '^alias\.*')"}#alias.})
> +       list=(${(0)"$(git help --aliases-for-completion)"})
>         list=(${(f)"$(printf "%s:alias for '%s'\n" ${(f@)list})"})
>         _describe -t alias-commands 'aliases' list && _ret=0
>  }
> --
> 2.53.0.83.g660bbd62ee.dirty

The Zsh hunk looks straightforwardly correct, especially since the
output format of the new help-mode is unchanged, thanks.

-- 
D. Ben Knoble