     ISELECT(1)                          EN                           ISELECT(1)
     Ralf S. Engelschall                                     Ralf S. Engelschall

                                     2007-07-08

     NAME
          iSelect -- Interactive Selection Tool

     SYNOPSIS
          iselect [-d STR,STR] [-c] [-f] [-a] [-e] [-p NUM] [-k KEY[:OKEY]] [-m]
          [-n STR] [-t STR] [-S] [-K] [-P] [-Q STR] [line1 line2 ...]

          iselect [-V]

     VERSION
          1.4.0 (08-Jul-2007)

     DESCRIPTION
          Intend

          iSelect is an interactive line selection tool for ASCII files,
          operating via a full-screen Curses-based terminal session. It can be
          used either as an user interface frontend controlled by a
          Bourne-Shell, Perl or other type of script backend as its wrapper or
          in batch as a pipe filter (usually between grep and the final
          executing command). In other words: iSelect was designed to be used
          for any types of interactice line-based selections.

          Input Data

          Input is read either from the command line (line1 line2 ...) where
          each argument corresponds to one buffer line or from stdin (when no
          arguments are given) where the buffer lines are determined according
          to the newline characters.

          You can additionally let substrings displayed in Bold mode for non-
          selectable lines (because the selectable lines are always displayed
          bold) by using the construct ``"<b>"..."</b>"'' as in HTML.

          Selections

          The selection is either just a single line (default) or multiple lines
          (option -m). Per default no lines are selectable. If a line contains
          the string ``"<s>"'' (or a string with different delimiters configured
          via option -d) at any position this string is stripped and the line is
          selectable. Its result (printed to stdout) is the line contents itself
          (but without the ``"<s>"'' string of course). If option -a is used all
          lines are selectable and their result is again the line itself, i.e.
          using option -a is the same as adding ``"<s>"'' to every line of the
          input data.  When you want a specific result (i.e. not just the line
          contents itself), you have to use the special variant ``"<s:result
          text>"'' which results in the output ``"result text"'' when the
          corresponding line is selected.

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     ISELECT(1)                          EN                           ISELECT(1)
     Ralf S. Engelschall                                     Ralf S. Engelschall

                                     2007-07-08

          When you use a specific result via ``"<s:result text>"'' the result
          text can contain ``"%[query text]s"'' and ``"%[query text]S"''
          constructs. For every such construct an interactive query is done and
          the result replaces the construct.  The ``"%[query text]S"'' construct
          is like ``"%[query text]s"'' except that the empty string as the query
          result is not accepted on input.

          The Curses-based full-screen selection is always done via /dev/tty,
          because the stdin and stdout filehandles are usually tied to the input
          and output data streams.

          Output Data

          The output is the line itself or the string given with ``"<s:result
          text>"''.  When multiple line selection mode (option -m) is used the
          output is all selected lines theirself or their configured result
          strings.  Output always is written to stdout.

     OPTIONS
          Input Options

          These options control how iSelect parses its input.

          -d STR, --delimiter=STR
              Sets the delimiters for the selection tags. The default is
              `"<,>"', i.e. the selection tags have to read ``"<s>"'' and
              ``"<s:result text>"''

          -c, --strip-comments
              Strips all sharp comment lines from the input buffer before
              parsing.

          -f, --force-browse
              Browse always, i.e. even when the input buffer contains no or only
              one line.

          -a, --all-select
              Force all lines to be selectable.

          -e, --exit-no-select
              Exit immediately if no lines are selectable. In this case not even
              the Curses screen is initialized.

          Display Options

          -p NUM, --position=NUM
              Sets the cursor position to line NUM.

          -k KEY[:OKEY], --key=KEY[:OKEY]

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     ISELECT(1)                          EN                           ISELECT(1)
     Ralf S. Engelschall                                     Ralf S. Engelschall

                                     2007-07-08

              Defines an additional input key. Per default OKEY is "RETURN",
              i.e.  for instance -kf defines another selection key `"f"'.

          -m, --multi-line
              Enable multi-line selection where you can select more then one
              line via SPACE key.

          -n STR, --name=STR
              Sets the name string, displayed flush left at the bottom of the
              browser window.

          -t STR, --title=STR
              Sets the title bar string, displayed centered at the bottom of the
              browser window.

          Output Options

          -S, --strip-result
              Strip all leading and trailing whitespaces from the result string.

          -K, --key-result
              Prefix the result string (given on stdout) with the corresponding
              selection key which was used. This usually is "RETURN" or
              "KEY_RIGHT" but can be any of the additional keys defined by
              option -k.  When you use -kf and select a line "Foo Bar" with key
              `"f"' the result string is ``"f:Foo Bar"''.

          -P, --position-result
              Prefix the result string (given on stdout) with the corresponding
              cursor position followed by a colon. When you selected line N and
              this line has the result "Foo Bar" configured the result string is
              ``"N:Foo Bar"''.

          -Q STR, --quit-result=STR
              Sets the result string on quit. Default is the empty string.

          Giving Feedback

          -V, --version
              Displays version identification string.

     KEYSTROKES
          Cursor Movement

          Use these to browse through the selection list.

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     ISELECT(1)                          EN                           ISELECT(1)
     Ralf S. Engelschall                                     Ralf S. Engelschall

                                     2007-07-08

            CURSOR-UP ..... Move cursor one line up
            CURSOR-DOWN ... Move cursor one line down
            PAGE-UP ....... Move cursor one page up
            PAGE-DOWN ..... Move cursor one page down
            g ............. Goto first line
            G ............. Goto last line

          Line Selection

          Use these to select one line and exit in standard mode or one or more
          lines in multi-line mode.

            RETURN ........ Select line and exit
            CURSOR-RIGHT .. Select line and exit
            SPACE ......... Select line and stay (multi-line mode only)

          Others

          Use these to quit iSelect or to show its help and version page.

            q ............. Quit (exit without selection)
            CURSOR-LEFT ... Quit (exit without selection)
            h ............. Help Page
            v ............. Version Page

     EXAMPLE
          As an example we present a real-life situation where iSelect can
          enhance an existing functionality. We define two Bash functions (for
          your $HOME/.bashrc file) which enhance the built-in `cd' command of
          the shell.

           #   database scan for enhanced cd command
           cds () {
               (cd $HOME;
                find . -type d -print |\
                sed -e "s;^\.;$HOME;" |\
                sort -u >$HOME/.cdpaths ) &
           }

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     ISELECT(1)                          EN                           ISELECT(1)
     Ralf S. Engelschall                                     Ralf S. Engelschall

                                     2007-07-08

           #   definition of the enhanced cd command
           cd () {
               if [ -d $1 ]; then
                    builtin cd $1
               else
                    builtin cd `egrep "/$1[^/]*$" $HOME/.cdpaths |\
                                iselect -a -Q $1 -n "chdir" \
                                        -t "Change Directory to..."`
               fi
               PS1="\u@\h:$PWD\n:> "
           }

          This new `cd' command is compatible with Bashs built-in variant for
          the case where the specified directory actually exists. When it
          doesn't, the original `cd' would immediately give an error (assuming
          we have no CDPATH variable defined).  Here this enhanced version tries
          harder. First it searches for such a directory in a previously built
          (via cds) $HOME/.cdpaths files. When no line was found, iSelect just
          returns the given directory as the default result and `cd' then fails
          as usual with an error message. When only one directory was found,
          iSelect directly results this particular line to `cd'. And only when
          more then one directory was found, iSelect opens its Curses-based
          selection screen and lets the user choose interactively between those
          directories. The chosen directory is then finally given to `cd'.

          For more useful examples on how to use iSelect, see the contrib/
          directory of the iSelect distribution tarball.

     AUTHOR
            Ralf S. Engelschall
            rse@engelschall.com
            www.engelschall.com

     SEE ALSO
            iSelect Home: http://www.ossp.org/pkg/tool/iselect/

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