[Bug report] Cannot programmatically delete abbreviations containing certain characters

[Chekote]

@olets's maintainer edit: this generalized into several bugs related. Summarizing here.

erase outputs a success message but doesn't actually delete if the abbreviation contains

• a caret (^) (original report)
• a hash symbol (#)
• an exclamation point (!) *
• double quotation marks (") *
• single quotation marks (')

* Read #118 (comment) for workarounds.

Original report follows…

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Is there an existing issue for this?

• I have searched the existing issues

Update the issue title

• I have updated the title

Expected Behavior

The abbreviation should be deleted.

Actual Behavior

zsh-abbr claims the abbreviation was deleted, but it is not.

Steps To Reproduce

1. Add the abbreviation:

$ abbr a^='echo "Do something"'
Added the regular user abbreviation `a^`

2. Run the abbreviation:

$ a^

3. Notice the abbreviation runs as expected.

$ echo "Do something"
Do something

4. Delete the abbreviation:

$ abbr e a^
Erased regular user abbreviation `a^`

5. Try to run the abbreviation

$ a^

6. Notice that it runs, even those zsh-abbr claimed it was erased.

$ echo "Do something"
Do something

Environment

zsh-abbr version 5.4.1
zsh 5.9 (x86_64-apple-darwin23.0)
OSTYPE darwin23.0

Installation method

Homebrew

Installation method details

Homebrew 4.3.0-20-g1f603d3

Anything else?

No response

[olets]

Thanks for the report!

I'm able to replicate this. Added breaking tests in the new branch  118-caret  edit: now named118-failed-erasure edit: now named issues/118. The caret ^ is the source of the problem. Possible they'll have to be disallowed. For now, a workaround is to not use carets in abbreviations.

- $ abbr a^='echo "Do something"'
+ $ abbr a='echo "Do something"'

You'll need to manually delete the a^ abbreviation from the user abbreviations file (see #119)

[Chekote]

Thanks for the quick response ❤️

This also happens with the exclamation mark. I am migrating from Fish to Zsh, and these are the abbreviations that I have set up from Fish. If at all possible, it would be ideal if these could be supported so I don't have to retrain my dumb brain 😆

Thanks for updating the title. I got confused by the output of abbr and thought Added the regular user abbreviation said Added the regular expression abbreviation. My dumb brain assumes "regular" is always followed by "expression" 🤦

[Chekote]

I just discovered something interesting:

If I add the following abbreviation:

abbr dcr!='docker container run --rm'

It ends up in the user file as:

abbr "dcr\!"="docker container run --rm"

Which doesn't expand properly in the shell. But if I edit the user file to remove the backslash:

abbr "dcr!"="docker container run --rm"

Then it works as expected.

But if I add another abbreviation via the abbr command, it adds the backslash back in.

[olets]

If at all possible, it would be ideal if these could be supported so I don't have to retrain my dumb brain

I hear that!

Will look into the caret. But heads up that it'll be at least a few days before I have time to investigate, maybe longer.

This also happens with the exclamation mark.

Good find! I can replicate. Updating the title and adding a failing test

I just discovered something interesting [escaped exclamation point]

• Tracked in ! is escaped in v5, but wasn’t in v4 #84 edit: I was incorrect. 84 tracks exclamation points in the expansion. Here we're talking about exclamation point in the abbreviation

But if I add another abbreviation via the abbr command, it adds the backslash back in.

Expected, that's because the full file is rewritten.

Thanks for updating the title

No worries! I don't feel users should have to use or know jargon.

[olets]

Abbreviations with quotation marks also can't be deleted.

• Reported in Improved completions [for #145] #128

Looks relevant https://unix.stackexchange.com/a/626529/248959