Getting "parse error" from _path_files

["Bart Schaefer" <schaefer@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Cut'n'paste the following into a zsh-3.1.7:

echo "${(@)${(@s:|:)${(@)${(@f)$(< /etc/printcap)}:#[ 	\#]*}%%:*}%%[ 	]*}"
                                         
Note that inside each pair of [ ] are a space and a tab.

I get, at each tab:

_path_files:249: parse error

This is mildly annoying, as it aborts completion without giving the system a
chance to clean up (e.g., it's another case where very bad things happen if
it is _complete_debug that's called).  I vaguely recall forcing something
into a $(...) in some other completer to avoid a similar problem.

There are actually two things at issue here.  The second is that I'd rather
that completion didn't happen when I'm doing cut'n'paste.  I tried putting:

    (( PENDING )) && compstate[insert]=tab

near the top of _main_complete, right after curcontext is set up, and that
seems to help a bit, but I'm rather leery of that solution.  It does need
to use PENDING somehow, though.

Returning to the original issue:  Perhaps it would be possible to special-
case parsing within ${(e)...} so that errors of this sort simply return an
empty value for the parameter rather than aborting the whole call chain?
This would correspond to what happens when you use `eval', as in:

function fail() {
    local x y z
    x='${y'
    eval 'z=${(e)x}'
    echo got here
    z=${(e)x}
    echo did not get here
}

Alternately, of course, we could use `eval' on line 249 of _path_files and
in similar spots, but the quoting may sometimes get messy ...

-- 
Bart Schaefer                                 Brass Lantern Enterprises
http://www.well.com/user/barts              http://www.brasslantern.com

Zsh: http://www.zsh.org | PHPerl Project: http://phperl.sourceforge.net