text segments containing "%"

[amoldeshpande]

I have text segments like this

		{
		  "type": "text",
		  "style": "powerline",
		  "foreground": "#ffffff",
		  "background": "#0077c2",
		  "properties": {
			"text" : "%c03"
		  }
		},

With the current version of posh, the %c03 gets turned into %%c03%, which causes tcsh to treat the % as escaped and disregard the prompt specification.

What is the workaround for the case where I need the % literally in the text segment ?

thanks.

[JanDeDobbeleer]

To be clear, you want tcsh to replace it? Because that we don't support.

[amoldeshpande]

Sorry, I don't understand your question. I need posh to generate an unescaped %c03 in the text segment. It used to work before and doesn't any more.

[lnu]

I did a fix to avoid variable expansion here for this reason
What do we want to do with variable expansion: support it everywhere(postfix, prefix,...) or only in the text segment? Because without the fix any % character with an existing variable will be expanded and sometimes where you don't expect it :).
Moreover, since % is only applicable to zsh, you cannot really have a cross shell theme or you will end with variable names in pwsh and expanded variables in zsh.

[JanDeDobbeleer]

I would argue that for a literal %, a glyph can be used instead. Otherwise we enter a world of pain.

[lnu]

I don't know what's best... but env variables are available through templating:

 "text": "{{.Folder}}"

So maybe it's not as customizable as using prompt variables... but if you're using omp it's to have the same shell everywhere and to help you built it, without relying on specific variables/sequences from shells?

[amoldeshpande]

ok, based on the suggestion I was able to use \u0025 instead of % . I would rather have a way to have literal text segments (perhaps a segment called literal_text ) than this hack, but I guess it works for me. thanks.

[lnu]

I'm not sure to have understood exactly what you wanted to do... could you put a screenshot of your actual prompt and a copy of your theme?

[amoldeshpande]

The relevant segment of the theme is up in the first message. I can't seem to upload an image, but here's the summary:

Ignoring posh for a second, if I set my tcsh prompt:

set ellipsis
set prompt='%c03 >'

It results in the following:

J:/github/UnrealEngine/Engine >cd Source/
J:...UnrealEngine/Engine/Source >echo "$prompt"
%c03 >
 J:...UnrealEngine/Engine/Source >

Basically, tcsh is keeping the last 3 components of the path and replacing the preceding with an ellipsis.

So, I was trying to achieve the same thing with posh by adding a text segment to the theme, as I indicated in my first comment. This used to give me a literal %c03 in the string for the prompt spec.

I need the ellipsis behavior as it keeps the prompt to a manageable size. I don't think .Folder offers the same functionality. Even if it does, the core issue is that there are many other %-using prompt specifications that tcsh (and probably zsh) uses, and having to specify those with a unicode sequence feels hacky to me.

Hope that makes sense.

[lnu]

What’s the issue with the \u0025?

[amoldeshpande]

it just resolves to % (which makes sense) so is also escaped.

[JanDeDobbeleer]

Ah yes. It's a literal percentage. Because the above reasons we will not be adding support for this. I will however extend the path styles to also display paths like this.

[amoldeshpande]

can you explain why you are opposed to a literal passthrough option with a flag ?

If you check the tcsh man page at https://linux.die.net/man/1/tcsh and search for the prompt variable section (or search for % and you'll find the section) there are several different prompt expansions settable with %.

zsh https://zsh.sourceforge.io/Doc/Release/Prompt-Expansion.html#Prompt-Expansion has even more.

It seems self-defeating to emulate a subset with other mechanisms when the shells themselves are perfectly capable of handling these things.

You could add a flag to the text segment like no_escapes:true or whatever . This would turn off interpretation of the text segment and pass it as-is to the shell. If a user wants to do that, why not support it ?

[JanDeDobbeleer]

Because we escape when the full prompt is rendered to avoid having to deal with knowing intent or not (for example when used in templates). That context isn't available to the renderer (or the segment tbh). I can explore the path to use a replacement character for this, and then substitute that after we escape for unwanted side effects, but also there issues can happen. I'll give that strategy a go.