question regarding CLI Tab-search

[Fraser Campbell]

On Wednesday 29 December 2004 08:44, Matt Cahill wrote:

>   So, to my amazement, somebody finally revealed to me that I can find the
> names of files on my system by entering the first digits and then hitting

Actually, you're find the names of executable files contained in your path 
(probably you realized this).

> Tab twice (using an xconsole at least).  What is the name of this feature? 
> I'd love to read up more about it (for example, why I can find apps as root
> but not as user and how I would change such settings) before I post
> questions here.  I'm a little surprised that I wasn't aware of it before
> now...

I learned a lot of commands that way, a-TAB-TAB, b-TAB-TAB, etc ;-)

As Robert mentioned completion is shell dependent.  In zsh for get scrollable 
options for your TAB completion.  Try "ls -TAB" ... you'll be able to scroll 
through all the options of ls (with documentation on their purpose).

As another example of zsh completion I can scroll through subversion client 
commands and subversion client command options ...

  fraser at venus% svn TAB
    add       cleanup   diff      info      mkdir     propget   revert
    blame     commit    export    list      move      proplist  status
    cat       copy      help      log       propdel   propset   switch
    checkout  delete    import    merge     propedit  resolved  update

  fraser at venus% svn info -TAB
    --config-dir  --recursive   -R

I don't bother using this but some people find it cool ;-)  Completions are 
programmable so can a lot with it, as an example you can complete remote 
filenames with the ssh/scp commands.

-- 
Fraser Campbell <fraser-Txk5XLRqZ6CsTnJN9+BGXg at public.gmane.org>                 http://www.wehave.net/
Georgetown, Ontario, Canada                               Debian GNU/Linux
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