Re: How does one disable completion when nothing but tabs or spaces is on the line?

[Linda Walsh]

Chet Ramey wrote:
> On 12/31/12 4:48 PM, Linda A. Walsh wrote:
>   
> > If I have nothing but tabs or spaces on a line, how do I disable completion
> > but have it return the char typed? (space or tab) -- and if bash is looking
> > for a command, then execute any command.
> >     
>
> If you don't want TAB to perform completion, you have two choices:
>   
I did not say I wanted to disable TAB completion. 

I want a conditional disabling similar to that which disables 
empty-command-completion, but I want it:
1) ANY time the cursor is in column 0
2) Any time there is only white space on the line before the cursor.


That's not something that any of the suggestions I've seen allow for.


> If you want to insert a TAB without having it perform completion while
> leaving it bound to `complete', you can:
>
> 1.  Bind some key sequence to `tab-insert' and use that (readline binds
>     M-TAB to that, but bash overrides it)
> 2.  Use the key sequence bound to `quoted-insert' (^V by default) before
>     typing TAB.
>   
----
   Neither would work with normal text processing -- either cut/paste
or a program reading a script and driving a bash session via a pty or 
similar.


>   
> > NOTE: I tried binding a key like 'backquote' ("`") to the completion
> > character,
> > but it seems rebinding in readline doesn't work consistently.  Is that a bug?
> >     
>
> Who can tell?  You don't provide any information that would allow anyone
> to reproduce it.
>   
----
 Create an inputrc file with:

"`": completion
"TAB": self-insert

 I also have tried:

"TAB": tab-insert


   I also noticed bash doesn't recognize META-key sequences in vi-mode.
Yet it does recognize ESC-prefixed cursor-key sequences as not being "ESC",
but I should likely address that in a separate email so as not to 
confuse the issue.