Writing Scripts

Manual++
1

Interaction with external tools from a Kakoune session is supported
through the use of scripts. Once loaded by the editor (either
automatically or manually), they allow extending the functionalities
provided by default through commands and hooks.

Their implementation should be kept as simple as possible, as they are
not meant to be generic tools themselves but a mere API to actual
software.

                                               +------+
                                          +--> | tmux |
                                          |    +------+
                                          |
        +---------+                       |    +------+
        | Kakoune | <------->  scripts  +-+--> | X11  |
        +---------+                       |    +------+
                                          |
                                          |    +------+
                                          +--> | ...  |
                                               +------+

Dependencies

The amount of dependencies of a given script should be kept to a minimum
for practicality reasons, and have to be reasonable and expected
considering the purpose of the script itself.

Examples:

  • the clang.kak script provides with code completion using the
    clang compiler

  • the tmux.kak script provides with terminal splitting using the
    tmux multiplexer

  • the ctags.kak script provides with symbol lookups using the
    readtags utility provided by some ctags implementations

Naming convention

All options and commands declared in a Kakoune script have to be
prefixed with the name of the script, or a one word description of the
purpose of the script.

Examples:

  • in tmux.kak: command tmux-new-window

  • in comment.kak: option comment_line

The following conventions apply as well:

  • options: if a separator is needed to separate a multiple word
    option name, an underscore should be used to allow shell scopes to
    use them

  • commands: if a separator is needed, a hyphen is usually used to
    differentiate a command name from an option’s

Documentation

Non-hidden commands and options should always be declared with a
documentation string, so that their purpose is clearly described
whenever completed upon interactively from the prompt.

POSIX shell

Shell expansions are a useful tool to interact with an external utility,
and the shell code that they contain should be as portable as possible.
As such, scripts that rely on those expansions have to be implemented
with POSIX in mind, most shells follow this standard nowadays which
somewhat guarantees that the script will be portable across the most
common systems.

Common shell patterns

Printing variables

In order to print a string that contains a variable expansion, prefer
printf to echo, as the latter is implementation defined and may
interpret some characters differently depending on the shell (e.g.
flags, backslashes).

        printf %s\\n "${var}"
        printf "value: %s\\n" "${var}"

The following won’t cause any issues, as the string to print doesn’t
contain ambiguous characters:

        echo "set global scrolloff 999,0"

Variable base name

Replace $(basename "${var}") with "${var##*/}".

Testing

The [[ keyword is provided by bash, and should be replaced with [.

Standard error redirection

Redirecting both standard and error streams is simplified in the bash
shell with the &> operator, however this syntax is not portable and
has to be replaced with the following: >/dev/null 2>&1.

Regular expression

The bash shell provides with a [[ keyword that supports the =~
operator to match a regular expression against a variable. This
functionality can be implemented with the expr utility:

  • expr "${var}" : '[a-z]*' >/dev/null returns successfully when the
    variable is empty or only contains lowercase characters, otherwise a
    non-zero exit code is returned

  • expr "${var}" : '\([a-z]*\)' prints the variable when empty or
    only contains lowercase characters

Note that the regular expression matches the whole string, using the ^
and $ anchors is an undefined behavior.

Running a process in the background

In order to get a process running in the background without having it
quit when the shell scope that spawns it terminates, use the following
syntax:

        {
            command
        } </dev/null >/dev/null 2>&1 &
1 Like
2

I don’t know if this belong here but could you give an example on how to use kak -p ?
I tried
kak -s myses
and in another terminal
echo 'ihello' | kak -p myses
and also
echo "execute-keys 'ihello' " | kak -p myses
Expecting to write “hello” in my buffer but nothing happend.
Am I using it right ?

3

Ok I got it.
You need to use the -client option like so:

echo "execute-keys -client $client_id 'ihello' " | kak -p myses

4

If you just want to modify the buffer and don’t want to mess with the client’s state (like whether it’s in insert mode, etc.) you could also do something like:

echo "execute-keys -buffer /path/to/file 'ihello'" | kak -p myses

The documentation describes -buffer as “run in a disposable context for each given buffer”, where “context” includes things like “are we in insert mode” and “where is the cursor”.

3 Likes
5

Theme song it:

Punk D 2005, Technologic, Human After All, Spotify, Youtube, viewed 17 September,

Writing kak scripts

A Kakoune session supports interaction with external tools through the use of
scripts. As they’re a mere API to software, keep their implementation as simple
as possible. Once loaded either automatically or manually by the editor, they
allow extending software functionalities through commands and hooks.

	                                       +------+
	                                  +--> | tmux |
	                                  |    +------+
	                                  |
	+---------+                       |    +------+
	| Kakoune | <------->  scripts  +-+--> | X11  |
	+---------+                       |    +------+
	                                  |
	                                  |    +------+
	                                  +--> | ...  |
	                                       +------+

Dependencies

Minimise third party dependencies within kak scripts for practical reasons and
ensure correlation to the script itself.

Examples:

  • the clang.kak script provides with code completion using the clang
    compiler

  • the tmux.kak script provides with terminal splitting using the
    tmux multiplexer

  • the ctags.kak script provides with symbol lookups using the
    readtags utility provided by some ctags implementations

Naming conventions

Declare options and commands in kakoune script with a prefix of the script name
or a one word purpose description of the script.

Examples:

  • in tmux.kak: command tmux-new-window

  • in comment.kak: option comment_line

Apply the following conventions:

  • options: use underscores to separate multiple word option names, this
    allows shell scopes to use them.

  • commands: use hyphens to differentiate a command name from an option’s.

Documentation

Declare non-hidden commands and options with a documentation string, to
describe clearly their purpose upon interactive completion from the prompt.

declare-option -docstring "run shell command to look for a given pattern" str ag_menu_cmd "ag --all-text --vimgrep"

define-command -params 1.. -file-completion \
    -docstring %{ag-menu <pattern> [targets]: search one or more targets for a given pattern} \
    ag-menu %{ evaluate-commands %sh{
        readonly PATTERN="$1"
        shift
        eval "${kak_opt_ag_menu_cmd}" "${PATTERN}" -- "$@" | awk "
            /^[^:]*:[0-9]*:[0-9]*:/ {
                # escape all simple quotes
                gsub(/'/, \"''\")
                # gather filename and coordinates into an array
                split(\$0, s, \":\")
                # remove the coordinates information from the matched line
                sub(\"^[^:]*:[0-9]*:[0-9]*:\", \"\")
                # strip the matched line
                sub(\"^[ \t]*|[ \t]*\$\", \"\")

                candidates = candidates \" \" \"'\" s[1] \":\" s[2] \":\" s[3] \" \" \$0 \"' ' edit! %{\" s[1] \"} \" s[2] \" \" s[3] \"'\"
            }

            END {
                if (length(candidates))
                    print \"menu\" candidates
            }
        "
} }

map -docstring "ag-menu | pattern match on word(s) in target directory" global user g ': ag-menu '
# source edited: grepmenu.kak by lenormf

POSIX shell

Shell expansions benefit interactions with external utilities. For portability
most scripts on common systems need to implement with POSIX in mind, with most
shells conforming to this standard, a script that relies on those expansions
need be mindful of inconsistencies.

Common shell patterns

Printing variables

To print strings which contain a variable expansion, prefer printf to echo,
as the latter is implementation defined and may interpret some characters
differently depending on the shell (e.g. flags, backslashes).

	printf %s\\n "${var}"
	printf "value: %s\\n" "${var}"

The following snippet prints the string as there are no ambiguous characters:

	echo "set global scrolloff 999,0"

For more information about portability issues with echo, refer to Rich’s sh tricks.

Variable base name

Replace $(basename "${var}")+ with +"${var##*/}".

Testing

The [[ keyword is provided by bash, replace with [ for the shell.

Standard error redirection

Redirecting both standard and error streams is simplified in the bash shell
with the &> operator. This syntax isn’t portable and has to be replaced with
the following: >/dev/null 2>&1. See the Illustrated Redirection Tutorial
for more information.

Regular expression

The +bash+ shell provides a [[ keyword that supports the =~
operator to match a regular expression against a variable. This
functionality can be implemented with the expr utility:

  • expr "${var}" : '[a-z]*' >/dev/null returns successfully when the
    variable is empty or only contains lower case characters, otherwise a
    non-zero exit code is returned

  • expr "${var}" : '\([a-z]*\)' prints the variable when empty or
    only contains lower case characters

Note that the regular expression matches the whole string, using the ^
and $ anchors is an undefined behaviour.

Running a process in the background

To get a process running in the background without having it quit when the
shell scope that spawns it terminates, use the following syntax with braces for
a mulitline commands:

{
    command
    command
} </dev/null >/dev/null 2>&1 &

With commands on a single-line use parentheses:

( command ) </dev/null >/dev/null 2>&1 &
1 Like