Re: path completion with cd <tab> - similar to tcsh

[Peter Toft]

On Mon, 18 Apr 2011 20:12:24 -0400, Chet Ramey wrote:
> On 4/14/11 6:19 PM, Peter Toft wrote:
>
> > I have an annoying bash-problem on Red Hat Linux 5.x. If I e.g. try 
> > to move
> > to a subdirectory of another directory (e.g. $HOME), where the 
> > tab-expand
> > works poorly;
> >
> > Assume $HOME=/home/pto
>
> You should see whether or not you have a completion already defined 
> by
> running `complete -p cd'.  It would also help to know the version of 
> bash
> you're using.  That will help establish a baseline.  (And RHL 5.x?  
> That's
> pretty old.)

Right! bash --version gives -> 3.2.25(1)-release 
(x86_64-redhat-linux-gnu)

RH5.6 is not cutting edge (but I need it for tools-reasons), but I also 
dislike
the current working method on e.g. Ubuntu 10.10, so I really like to 
get into the dirt on this one :)

$ complete -p cd
bash: complete: cd: no completion specification


> > "cd $HOME<TAB>" is expanded to "cd /home/pto " (without the quotes).
> > I get $HOME expanded - quite ok - but I get an annoying space efter 
> > the path.
> > I will never like that space, I strongly prefer if I could get
> > "cd $HOME<TAB>" expanded to "cd /home/pto/" (without the quotes) so 
> > I could
> > continue to press <TAB> and see the allowed sub-directories - much 
> > faster
> > for me.
> >
> > I have also understood I can do
> > $ complete -o nospace  cd
> > to change the mode of operation, but this seems to disable the 
> > auto-complete
> > function when doing cd $VARIABLE<TAB>.
>
> You need to add -o bashdefault to restore the bash default 
> completions,
> which include shell variable completion.

oki, but "complete -o bashdefault -o nospace cd" will give me tab 
complete
on the possible environment variables, e.g.
$ cd $HOME<tab>
shows "$HOME", which is nice, but I prefer the expanding, and
$ cd $HOME/<tab>
does nothing (with the -o bashdefault)

> > Any hints on this? Can I set the mode of operation as I like where 
> > the
> > infamous space is replaced by a slash when doing "cd ... <TAB>"?
>
> Right now, you cannot do this using only the built-in bash completion
> mechanisms.  The best you can do is to suppress the space.  You can 
> write
> a function to do this, though, and bind it using complete -F funcname 
> cd.

That would be really nice, hints to do so would be very welcomed!

> You can't prevent the `$' from being backslash-quoted and still quote
> other filenames containing shell meta-characters unless you use a
> shell function.
>
> Chet

Thanx Chet for your efforts.

BTW; Anyone who has the february emails from this list;
"I am guestimating, that you have discussed this in February
 (cf. http://www.gossamer-threads.com/lists/gentoo/user/227574)
 but the February archive seems to be lost;
 http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-bash/2011-02/msg00274.html
 so I cannot get the details of it."
Anyone who can forward the february-emails?

Best

Peter

--
Peter Toft, PhD
http://petertoft.dk