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

[Chet Ramey]

On 1/1/13 6:31 PM, Linda Walsh wrote:
> 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.

OK, if readline as it currently exists doesn't offer the feature you want,
why not take a shot at writing it?  You might find that others like it as
well, though none of them have spoken up so far.

>> 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.

I would argue that neither of those -- and certainly not the latter --
constitutes `normal text processing' as readline is most often used.


> ----
>  Create an inputrc file with:
> 
> "`": completion
> "TAB": self-insert

What you've done here is bind backquote to a non-existent function and the
three-character sequence `T'`A'`B' to `B'.

A few minutes of testing with an inputrc consisting of

"`": complete
TAB: self-insert

seems to produce expected behavior.

Chet

-- 
``The lyf so short, the craft so long to lerne.'' - Chaucer
                 ``Ars longa, vita brevis'' - Hippocrates
Chet Ramey, ITS, CWRU    chet@case.edu    http://cnswww.cns.cwru.edu/~chet/