How to add descriptions to search results

[jadhaidar]

Hi there, I am trying to add descriptions to search results in the terminal similar to how it works when autocompleting git commands, for example:

Specifically, I'd like add descriptions to some of the less frequently used git aliases that I have so I can quickly remember what they do without having to open the aliases file to see what they map to.

I did try to search for answers but couldn't find much (searching for "descriptions" in the Q&A category returns 0 results), and I couldn't find anything mentioning this in the docs. But seeing that it works for the git commands for example then I imagine it should be doable for other commands as well no?

[tg0h]

I keep all my aliases in multiple files in the $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/zsh/aliases directory

the function searches all my aliases and displays them on the left

• comments are shown in another colour
• the preview of the file is shown on the right
• I press enter if i need to edit the alias in nvim

dependencies needed

• rg (ripgrep) to search for aliases
• bat to preview the alias file and center the preview on the selected alias

zsh function ae to display my aliases

#!bin/zsh
#filename of this is ae
export _fzf_home_alias_dir="$XDG_CONFIG_HOME/zsh/aliases"

_fzf_home_getAliases(){
  # match alias aliasName='blah'
  # match alias -g aliasName='blah'
  # match alias -g aliasName="blah"

  # \x1b is an escape code

  rg \
    --follow \
    --color always \
    --field-context-separator '' \
    --no-context-separator \
    -e "(^alias)(\s*)(-g)?(\s*)(?P<aliasName>(.*))(=)" -r '$aliasName ' \
    --field-match-separator ' ' \
    $_fzf_home_alias_dir \
    -g '!**/archive/*' \
    | gsed "s!$_fzf_home_alias_dir!!" \
    | gsed -E 's!(#)(\s*)!\1 !' \
    | gsed -E "s/#.*/"$'\x1b[38;2;82;96;255m'"&"$'\e[m'"/"
}

function ae(){
  # search home functions

  local result=$(
  _fzf_home_getAliases | fzf --ansi \
    --preview="fzf_home_alias_preview {1} {2}" \
    --bind "enter:execute(fzf_home_alias_edit {1} {2} < /dev/tty > /dev/tty 2>&1)+abort"
)
}

ae

script fzf_home_alias_preview

this script provides the right hand preview of the file in the screenshot

#!/bin/zsh
# filename is fzf_home_alias_preview

# fzf_home_alias_preview <inputFile> <inputAlias>
# search for <inputAlias> in <inputFile>, find line number of inputAlias and provide to fzf-bat-preview
# needs to match
# alias test='test alias'
# alias test="test alias"
# alias -g test="test alias"
# alias -g test="test alias" # comments

local inputFile=$1
local inputAlias=$2

local aliasLineNumber
local file=$_fzf_home_alias_dir$inputFile

rg --only-matching --multiline --line-number --with-filename \
   -e "^alias(\s*)(-g)?(\s*)$inputAlias" $file \
   | rg '(?::)(\d+)(?::)' --only-matching --replace '$1' \
   | read -r aliasLineNumber _

fzf-bat-preview $_fzf_home_alias_dir$inputFile $aliasLineNumber

script fzf-bat-preview to preview selected alias file with bat

centers the preview on the selected alias

#!/bin/zsh
# fzf-bat-preview <file> <highlightLineNumber>
# centres the preview with the specified win height

# number of lines to show
local WIN_HEIGHT=40

local file=$1
local highlightLine=$2
local winHeight=$WIN_HEIGHT

# subtract 3 for the header
local centreLine=$(( (winHeight - 3) / 2 ))

# if the highlight line is too small, start at 0 and not a negative number
local start=$(( highlightLine - centreLine ))
if [ $start -lt 0 ]; then
  start=0
fi

local end=$(( start + winHeight ))

bat --color always --highlight-line $highlightLine --line-range $start:$end --paging never "$file"

script to edit with nvim if i press enter

#!/bin/zsh
# filename is fzf_home_alias_edit

  local inputFile=$1
  local inputAlias=$2
  cache=$XDG_STATE_HOME/dir-switcher/cache # store MRU files for each directory here

local file=$_fzf_home_alias_dir$inputFile

rg --only-matching --multiline --line-number --with-filename \
   -e "^alias(\s*)(-g)?(\s*)$inputAlias" $file \
   | rg '(?::)(\d+)(?::)' --only-matching --replace '$1' \
   | read -r aliasLineNumber _
 
# center the screen after opening the alias text file with nvim
  nvim $file +$aliasLineNumber -c 'normal! zz'

[oldfatcrab]

hey man I used fzf-tab to make it so...

not sure if that helps you:

diff

demo video