[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 (')

For the ones not checked off, read #118 (comment) for workarounds.

Original report follows…

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Is there an existing issue for this?

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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]

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

[olets]

v6.1.0

• fixes abbr erase to work with abbreviations containing a caret ^ (cc @Chekote) and abbreviations containing a hash symbol # (cc @scottyeager)
• fixes expansion to support abbreviations containing exclamation points (cc @Chekote)

Thanks again for reporting

//

Going to hide most of the comments in this issue as "resolved" but leaving this open because there's still a little goofiness in erase:

• to erase an abbreviation containing an exclamation point, single quote the abbreviation and double-escape the exclamation point(s):

   abbr 'abc!'=d
   abbr erase 'abc\\!'

• to erase an abbreviation containing double quotes, single quote the abbreviation and escape the quotation mark(s):

   abbr 'a"b"c'=d
   abbr erase 'a\"b\"c'

There are failing tests for those in the branch issues/118 if anyone reading this wants to work on a fix.

As always, can manually delete the abbreviation by editing ABBR_USER_ABBREVIATIONS_FILE and then running exec zsh or abbr load.

Or use a session abbreviation (abbr -S 'abc!') for abbreviations you know you'll erase soon.