Command line completion

arduino-cli

supports command-line completion (also known as tab completion) for basic commands. Currently

bash

,

zsh

,

fish

, and

powershell

shells are supported

Before you start

In order to generate the file required to make the completion work you have to install Arduino CLI first.

Generate the completion file

To generate the completion file you can use

arduino-cli completion [bash|zsh|fish|powershell] [--no-descriptions]

. By default this command will print on the standard output (the shell window) the content of the completion file. To save to an actual file use the

>

redirect symbol.

Bash

Use

arduino-cli completion bash > arduino-cli.sh

to generate the completion file. At this point you can move that file in

/etc/bash_completion.d/

(root access is required) with

sudo mv arduino-cli.sh /etc/bash_completion.d/

.

A not recommended alternative is to source the completion file in

~/.bashrc

.

Remember to open a new shell to test the functionality.

Zsh

Use

arduino-cli completion zsh > _arduino-cli

to generate the completion file. At this point you can place the file in a directory listed in your

fpath

if you have already created a directory to store your completion.

Or if you want you can create a directory, add it to your

fpath

and copy the file in it:

1. mkdir ~/completion_zsh

2. add

   fpath=($HOME/completion_zsh $fpath)

   at the beginning of your

   ~/.zshrc

   file

3. mv _arduino-cli ~/completion_zsh/

Remember to open a new shell to test the functionality.

Fish

Use

arduino-cli completion fish > arduino-cli.fish

to generate the completion file. At this point you can place the file in

~/.config/fish/completions

as stated in the official documentation. Remember to create the directory if it's not already there

mkdir -p ~/.config/fish/completions/

and then place the completion file in there with

mv arduino-cli.fish ~/.config/fish/completions/

Remember to open a new shell to test the functionality.

Powershell

Use

arduino-cli completion powershell > arduino-cli.ps1

to generate a temporary completion file. At this point you need to add the content of the generated file to your PowerShell profile file.

1. Get-Content -Path arduino-cli.ps1 | Add-Content -Path $profile

   or add it by hand with your favourite text editor.
2. The previous command added two

   using namespace

   lines, move them on top of the

   $profile

   file.
3. If not already done, add the line

   Set-PSReadlineKeyHandler -Key Tab -Function MenuComplete

   to your

   $profile

   file: it is needed to enable the TAB completion in PowerShell.

4. del arduino-cli.ps1

   to remove the temporary file.

Remember to open a new shell to test the functionality.

For more information on tab-completion on PowerShell, please, refer to Autocomplete in PowerShell.

Disabling command and flag descriptions

By default fish, zsh and bash completion have command and flag description enabled by default. If you want to disable this behaviour you can simply pass the

--no-descriptions

flag when calling

completion

command and the generated file will not have descriptions

N.B. This flag is not compatible with powershell

Brew

If you install the

arduino-cli

using homebrew package manager the completion should work out of the box if you have followed the official documentation.