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docs: add shell completion instructions to README #2302

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docs: add shell completion instructions to README
aadelb Dec 31, 2025
04cbbb1
Address review feedback from @sirosen
aadelb Dec 31, 2025
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30 changes: 30 additions & 0 deletions README.md
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Expand Up @@ -644,6 +644,36 @@ This will be indicated in the output with one of the following suffixes:
- [Python extension for VS Code](https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=ms-python.python) for VS Code.
- [pip-requirements.el](https://github.com/Wilfred/pip-requirements.el) for Emacs.

### Shell completions

`pip-tools` supports shell completions for `pip-compile` and `pip-sync`.

For Bash, add this to `~/.bashrc`:

```bash
eval "$(_PIP_COMPILE_COMPLETE=bash_source pip-compile)"
eval "$(_PIP_SYNC_COMPLETE=bash_source pip-sync)"
```

For Zsh, add this to `~/.zshrc`:

```bash
eval "$(_PIP_COMPILE_COMPLETE=zsh_source pip-compile)"
eval "$(_PIP_SYNC_COMPLETE=zsh_source pip-sync)"
```

For Fish, add this to `~/.config/fish/completions/pip-compile.fish`:

```fish
_PIP_COMPILE_COMPLETE=fish_source pip-compile | source
```

And this to `~/.config/fish/completions/pip-sync.fish`:

```fish
_PIP_SYNC_COMPLETE=fish_source pip-sync | source
```

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@sirosen sirosen Dec 31, 2025

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I would rather we didn't instruct users to modify their profile (~/.bashrc or ~/.zshrc), although with fish it's almost unavoidable.

I've found many times that

  • an experienced user doesn't need such instruction
  • novice users will run commands which modify their profile multiple times, resulting in a repetitive and sometimes broken profile

Can we instead provide the eval-based version of this, and trust that users who need to use the non-eval version know what to do?

In particular, I'd like us to imitate the current click docs: https://click.palletsprojects.com/en/stable/shell-completion/#enabling-completion

Note that the docs say "add this to ~/.bashrc" and don't provide a command for doing so automatically.

So I'd much rather see:

  • for bash, add these two evals to your ~/.bashrc
  • for zsh, add these two evals to your ~/.zshrc
  • leave the fish doc alone

Not only is fish more complicated to do any other way, it's also a much more niche shell, with typically more advanced users.

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@sirosen sirosen Jan 2, 2026

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When I said "leave the fish doc alone", I meant that the prior version looked correct to me, namely:

$ _PIP_COMPILE_COMPLETE=fish_source pip-compile > ~/.config/fish/completions/pip-compile.fish
$ _PIP_SYNC_COMPLETE=fish_source pip-sync > ~/.config/fish/completions/pip-sync.fish

The current version is telling people to put the source snippet into a dedicated completion file, which is a very unusual way to do it and not in line with how click documents this feature.

Could you please revert that part?

### Deprecations

This section lists `pip-tools` features that are currently deprecated.
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1 change: 1 addition & 0 deletions changelog.d/+shell_completions.doc.md
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Added documentation for shell completions for `pip-compile` and `pip-sync` -- by {user}`Ahmed-AdelB`.