bind key to complete filename wherever the context is in Zsh

Question

Sometimes I want a filename instead of what zsh guesses for me. For example, I have a PNG file without a proper .png suffix, which makes zsh think it isn't a picture and won't list it when I type Tab to complete arguments of display.

I am wondering if there is a key sequence that completes for a filename wherever the context is, like ^XC for _correct_filename, or how to configure zsh to do the thing?

Answer 1

You can add a key binding to do what you want:

zle -C complete complete-word complete-files
bindkey '^X\t' complete
complete-files () { compadd - $PREFIX* }

Edit: Added $PREFIX

You can add those lines to your ~/.zshrc file.

That makes the completion list all files when you press Ctrl-x Tab at each step instead of Tab. You could choose another keystroke combination that suits you.

Or to make ImageMagick completions always include all files, try editing (make a backup first) the file /usr/share/zsh/functions/Completion/Unix/_imagemagick (or similar) and change this to comment out the existing line that begins with _files and add the new one shown:

if (( $# )); then
  # _files "$@" -g "*.(#i)(${~formats//:/|})(-.)"
  _files "$@"
  return
fi

Answer 2

Dennis' answer didn't expand tilde for me, so I would get stuff like complete-files: no matches found: ~/ma* when I tried to invoke it on foo ~/ma. I did find an alternate in the zsh FAQ that will expand them, though:

zle -C complete-file complete-word _generic
zstyle ':completion:complete-file::::' completer _files
bindkey '^xF' complete-file