Re: About `M-C-e` expand result `'` failed

[Mike Jonkmans]

On Fri, Feb 02, 2024 at 10:09:53AM -0500, Chet Ramey wrote:
> On 2/2/24 8:12 AM, Mike Jonkmans wrote:
> > On Thu, Feb 01, 2024 at 08:14:34PM -0500, Chet Ramey wrote:
> > "There are seven kinds of expansion..." then three sentences later comes
> > quote removal. The reader may wonder whether quote removal is an expansion.
> OK, then how about we enumerate the word expansions without numbering them.

Maybe:

Several kinds of expansion are performed in order: first brace expansion;
then tilde expansion, parameter and variable expansion, command substitution
and arithmetic expansion (done in a left-to-right fashion); word splitting;
pathname expansion and finally quote removal.

Then the alinea about the order and the alinea on quote removal
could be removed.


> shell-expand-line (M-C-e)
>         Expand  the line by performing shell word expansions.  This per-
>         forms alias and history expansion, $'string' and $"string" quot-
>         ing, tilde expansion, parameter and variable  expansion,  arith-
>         metic expansion, word splitting, and quote removal.  See HISTORY
>         EXPANSION below for a description of history expansion.

That form is clearer indeed.
But isn't that missing `, process substitution (if available)'?


> > Maybe it is confusing that a (quote) removal is an expansion. Oh well.
> What is the logic here?
Expansion is making things bigger. Removal is more like contraction.


> > Then after review of the expansion, I could accept it.
> Then undo the editing operation and let the expansions happen all over
> again as part of command execution.

That is a nice tip. I didn't realize that it was possible to undo.
So normally I would avoid using expansions. :)

-- 
Regards, Mike Jonkmans