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0 pointspyre13y ago0 comments

I don't know if bash has this, but some commands have tab-completion on the arguments, with a listing for multiple hits:

  $ tar --c<tab>
  --check-device                   -- check device numbers when creating incremental                                                              
  --check-links                    -- print a message if not all links are dumped                                                                 
  --checkpoint                     -- display progress messages every NUMBERth record                                                             
  --checkpoint-action              -- execute ACTION on each checkpoint                                                                           
  --compare                        -- find differences between archive and file system                                                            
  --compress                       -- filter the archive through compress                                                                         
  --concatenate        --catenate  -- append tar files to an archive                                                                              
  --confirmation                   -- ask for confirmation for every action                                                                       
  --create                         -- create a new archive

$ tar --c<tab> --check-device -- check device numbers when creating incremental --check-links -- print a message if not all links are dumped --checkpoint -- display progress messages every NUMBERth record --checkpoint-action -- execute ACTION on each checkpoint --compare -- find differences between archive and file system --compress -- filter the archive through compress --concatenate --catenate -- append tar files to an archive --confirmation -- ask for confirmation for every action --create -- create a new archive

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5 comments · 1 top-level

entropie13y ago· 4 in thread

Bash can do this too.

pyreOP13y ago

I know that bash can do completion. I just wasn't aware if bash dot '--c<tab>' completion, or if it listed possible completions for that.

tomsthumb13y ago

How? That would be handy...

thebillywayne13y ago

Install the bash-completion package. [1] You'll then find a directory /etc/bash_completion.d/ which has all of the commands the package knows about. The number of commands can be extended.

[1] http://bash-completion.alioth.debian.org/

e12e13y ago

On a Debian derivate distribution, do:

  sudo aptitude install bash-completion #or apt-get install...
  #Then in your .bashrc do something like:
  # enable programmable completion features (you don't need to enable
  # this, if it's already enabled in /etc/bash.bashrc).
  if [ -f /etc/bash_completion ]
  then
      . /etc/bash_completion
  fi

The latter (or equivalent) is already in /etc/skel/.bashrc on Debian at least (provided by the bash package), so users created with eg. adduser already have this in their .bashrc. IIRC it may be commented out in Debian stable - I currently run testing, and /etc/skel/.bashrc there contains:

  # enable programmable completion features (you don't need to enable
  # this, if it's already enabled in /etc/bash.bashrc and /etc/profile
  # sources /etc/bash.bashrc).
  if ! shopt -oq posix; then
    if [ -f /usr/share/bash-completion/bash_completion ];   then
      . /usr/share/bash-completion/bash_completion
    elif [ -f /etc/bash_completion ]; then
      . /etc/bash_completion
    fi
  fi

edit: missing words

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