# bash-completion
[](https://travis-ci.org/scop/bash-completion)
## Installation
The easiest way to install this software is to use a package; it is
available in many operating system distributions. The package's name
is usually bash-completion. Depending on the package, you may still
need to source it from either `/etc/bashrc` or `~/.bashrc` (or any
other file sourcing those). You can do this by simply using:
```shell
# Use bash-completion, if available
[[ $PS1 && -f /usr/share/bash-completion/bash_completion ]] && \
. /usr/share/bash-completion/bash_completion
```
(if you happen to have *only* bash >= 4.1 installed, see further if not)
If you don't have the package readily available for your distribution, or
you simply don't want to use one, you can install bash completion using the
standard commands for GNU autotools packages:
```shell
autoreconf -i # if not installing from prepared release tarball
./configure
make
make check # optional, requires dejagnu and tcllib
make install # as root
```
These commands install the completions and helpers, as well as a
`profile.d` script that loads `bash_completion` where appropriate.
If your system does not use the `profile.d` directory (usually below
`/etc`) mechanismâi.e. does not automatically source shell scripts in
itâyou can source the `$sysconfdir/profile.d/bash_completion.sh`
script in `/etc/bashrc` or `~/.bashrc`.
The `profile.d` script provides a configuration file hook that can be
used to prevent loading `bash_completion` on per user basis when it's
installed system wide. To do this:
1. Turn off programmable completion with `shopt -u progcomp` in
`$XDG_CONFIG_HOME/bash_completion` (or `~/.config/bash_completion`
if `$XDG_CONFIG_HOME` is not set)
2. Turn it back on (for example in `~/.bashrc`) if you want to use
programmable completion for other purposes.
### macOS (OS X)
If you're using macOS (formerly OS X), `/etc/bashrc` is apparently not sourced at
all. In that case, you can put the `bash_completion` file in `/sw/etc`
and add the following code to `~/.bash_profile`:
```shell
if [ -f /sw/etc/bash_completion ]; then
. /sw/etc/bash_completion
fi
```
## Troubleshooting
If you find that a given function is producing errors or does not work
as it should under certain circumstances when you attempt completion,
try running `set -v` or `set -x` prior to attempting the completion
again. This will produce useful debugging output that will aid us in
fixing the problem if you are unable to do so yourself. Turn off the
trace output by running either `set +v` or `set +x`.
To debug dynamic loading of a completion, tracing needs to be turned
on before the debugged completion is attempted the first time. The
easiest way to do this is to start a new shell session, and to turn
tracing on in it before doing anything else there.
## Known problems
1. There seems to be some issue with using the bash built-in `cd` within
Makefiles. When invoked as `/bin/sh` within `Makefile`s, bash seems
to have a problem changing directory via the `cd` command. A
work-around for this is to define `SHELL=/bin/bash` within your
`Makefile`. This is believed to be a bug in bash.
2. Many of the completion functions assume GNU versions of the various
text utilities that they call (e.g. `grep`, `sed`, and `awk`). Your
mileage may vary.
3. If you are seeing 'unbound variable' warnings from bash when
hitting <kbd><Tab></kbd>, this is because you have either `set -u`
or `set -o nounset` somewhere in your start-up files. This causes bash
to flag the use of any uninitialised shell variables as an error.
Whilst we try to avoid references to uninitialised variables in the
code, there seem to be at least some cases where bash issues this
warning even though the variable in question has been initialised.
One place this appears to occur is within the `_muttconffiles()`
helper function used by `mutt` completion, where the function calls
itself recursively. This seems to confuse bash and it issues
spurious warnings if `nounset` is set.
## FAQ
**Q. The bash completion code inhibits some commands from completing on
files with extensions that are legitimate in my environment. Do I
have to disable completion for that command in order to complete on
the files that I need to?**
A. No. Use `M-/` to (in the words of the bash man page) attempt file
name completion on the text to the left of the cursor. This will
circumvent any file type restrictions put in place by the bash
completion code.
**Q. How can I insert my own local completions without having to
reinsert them every time you issue a new release?**
A. Put them in `~/.bash_completion`, which is parsed at the end of the
main completion script. See also the next question.
**Q. I author/maintain package X and would like to maintain my own
completion code for this package. Where should I put it to be sure
that interactive bash shells will find it and source it?**
A. Install it in one of the directories pointed to by
bash-completion's `pkgconfig` file variables. There are two
alternatives:
- The recommended directory is `completionsdir`, which you can get with
`pkg-config --variable=completionsdir bash-completion`. From this
directory, completions are loaded on-demand based on invoked commands' names,
so be sure to name your completion file accordingly, and to include
(for example) symbolic links in case the file provides completions
for more than one command.
- The other directory (which only present for backwards compatibility)
is `compatdir` (get it with
`pkg-config --variable=compatdir bash-completion`) from which files
are loaded when `bash_completion` is loaded.
For packages using GNU autotools the installation can be handled
for example like this in `configure.ac`:
```
PKG_CHECK_VAR(bashcompdir, [bash-completion], [completionsdir], ,
bashcompdir="${sysconfdir}/bash_completion.d")
AC_SUBST(bashcompdir)
```
...accompanied by this in `Makefile.am`:
```makefile
bashcompdir = @bashcompdir@
dist_bashcomp_DATA = # completion files go here
```
For cmake we ship the `bash-completion-config.cmake` and
`bash-completion-config-version.cmake` files. Example usage:
```
find_package(bash-completion)
if(BASH_COMPLETION_FOUND)
message(STATUS
"Using bash completion dir ${BASH_COMPLETION_COMPLETIONSDIR}")
else()
set (BASH_COMPLETION_COMPLETIONSDIR "/etc/bash_completion.d")
message (STATUS
"Using fallback bash completion dir ${BASH_COMPLETION_COMPLETIONSDIR}")
endif()
install(FILES your-completion-file DESTINATION
${BASH_COMPLETION_COMPLETIONSDIR})
```
**Q. I use CVS in combination with passwordless SSH access to my remote
repository. How can I have the `cvs` command complete on remotely
checked-out files where relevant?**
A. Define `$COMP_CVS_REMOTE`. Setting this to anything will result in
the behaviour you would like.
**Q. When I'm running a `./configure` script and completion returns a list
of long options to me, some of these take a parameter,
e.g. `--this-option=DESCRIPTION`.**
**Running `./configure --help` lists these descriptions, but
everything after the `=` is stripped when returning completions, so
I don't know what kind of data is expected as a given option's
parameter.**
**Is there a way of getting `./configure` completion to return the
entire option string, so that I can see what kind of data is
required and then simply delete the descriptive text and add my own
data?**
A. Define `$COMP_CONFIGURE_HINTS`. Setting this to anything will
result in the behaviour you would like.
**Q. When doing tar completion on a file within a tar file like this:**
```
tar tzvf foo.tar.gz <Tab>
```
**the pathnames contained in the tar file are not displayed
correctly. The slashes are removed, and everything looks like it's
in a single directory. Why is this?**
A. It's a choice we had to make. bash's programmable completion is
limited in how it handles the list of possible completions it
returns.
Because the paths returned from within the tar file are likely not
existing paths on the file system, `-o dirnames` must be passed to
the `complete` built-in to make it treat them as such. However,
then bash will append a space when completing on directories during
pathname completion to the tar files themselves.
It's more important to have proper completion of paths to tar files
than it is to have completion for their contents, so this sacrifice
was made and `-o filenames` is used with complete instead.
If you would rather have correct path completion for tar file
contents, define `$COMP_TAR_INTERNAL_PATHS` *before* sourcing
`bash_completion`.
**Q. When completing on a symlink to a directory, bash does not append
the trailing `/` and I have to hit <kbd><Tab></kbd> again.
I don't like this.**
A. This has nothing to do with `bash_completion`. It's the default for
completing symlinks to directories since bash 2.05a, and was added
because sometimes you want to operate on the symlink itself, rather
than what it points to.
You can get the pre-2.05a behaviour back by putting `set
mark-symlinked-directories on` in your `/etc/inputrc` or
`~/.inputrc` file.
**Q. Completion goes awry when I try to complete on something that contains
a colon.**
A. This is actually a 'feature' of bash. bash recognises a colon as
starting a new completion token, which is often what you want when
completing something like a `PATH` variable:
```shell
export PATH=/bin:/sbin:/usr<Tab>
```
Without the special treatment of the colon, the above wouldn't work
without programmable completion, so it has long been a feature of
the shell.
Unfortunately, you don't want the colon to be treated as a special
case when doing something like:
```shell
man File::B<Tab>
```
Here, the colons make bash think that it's completing a new token
that begins with 'B'.
Unfortunately, there's no way to turn this off. The only thing you
can do is escape the colons with a backslash.
**Q. Why is `rpm` completion so slow with `-q`?**
A. Probably because the database is being queried every time and this uses a
lot of memory.
You can make this faster by pregenerating the list of installed
packages on the system. Make sure you have a readable file called
`/var/log/rpmpkgs`. It's generated by `/etc/cron.daily/rpm` on
some Red Hat and Mandrake and derivative Linux systems.
If you don't have such a cron job, make one:
```shell
#!/bin/sh
rpm -qa --qf '%{name}-%{version}-%{release}.%{arch}.rpm\n' 2>&1 \
| sort > /var/log/rpmpkgs
```
rpm completion will use this flat text file instead of the RPM database,
unless it detects that the database has changed since the file was created,
in which case it will still use the database to ensure accuracy.
**Q. bash-completion interferes with my `command_not_found_handler` function!**
A. If your `command_not_found_handler` function is not intended to
address (possibly missing) commands invoked during bash
programmable completion functions, you can account for this
by, for example, testing if the `$COMP_`\* variables are set and
taking appropriate bypass or other action.
**Q. Can tab completion be made even easier?**
A. The `readline(3)` library offers a few settings that can make tab
completion easier (or at least different) to use.
For example, try putting the following in either `/etc/inputrc` or
`~/.inputrc`:
```
set show-all-if-ambiguous on
```
This will allow single tab completion as opposed to requiring a
double tab. This makes things much more pleasant, in our opinion.
```
set visible-stats on
```
This will suffix each returned file completion with a character
denoting its type, in a similar way to `ls(1)` with `-F` or `--classify`.
```
set page-completions off
```
This turns off the use of the internal pager when returning long
completion lists.
**Q. Is bash the be-all-and-end-all of completion as far as shells go?**
A. Absolutely not. zsh has an extremely sophisticated completion system
that offers many features absent from the bash implementation. Its
users often cannot resist pointing this out. More information can
be found at: http://www.zsh.org/
