Bash autocomplete with wildcards doesn't work

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1

Hi, I just switched from Arch running Gnome to Manjaro running XFCE. In Gnome I was able to use bash autocomplete with wildcards but that functionality does not work on my system now.

For example, if I have a directory called Stuff and I type cd *f, pressing TAB would autocomplete it to cd Stuff. Similarly, if I have two directories called Downloads and Documents and I type cd D* then press TAB TAB, I want to see Documents/ Downloads/.

How can I get this functionality in my system?

System specs:

$ echo $BASH_VERSION
5.0.18(1)-release

System:
  Kernel: 5.8.16-2-MANJARO x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: N/A 
  parameters: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-5.8-x86_64 
  root=UUID=b6fb2e8b-3700-4370-94dc-da42962edaa6 rw quiet apparmor=1 
  security=apparmor udev.log_priority=3 
  Desktop: Xfce 4.14.2 tk: Gtk 3.24.20 info: xfce4-panel wm: xfwm4 
  dm: LightDM 1.30.0 Distro: Manjaro Linux 
Machine:
  Type: Desktop System: ASUSTeK product: N/A v: N/A serial: <filter> 
  Mobo: ASUSTeK model: WS C246 PRO v: Rev 1.xx serial: <filter> 
  UEFI: American Megatrends v: 0802 date: 11/30/2018 
CPU:
  Topology: 8-Core model: Intel Core i9-9900K bits: 64 type: MT MCP 
  arch: Kaby Lake family: 6 model-id: 9E (158) stepping: C (12) microcode: D6 
  L2 cache: 16.0 MiB 
  flags: avx avx2 lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 bogomips: 115232 
  Speed: 4600 MHz min/max: 800/5000 MHz Core speeds (MHz): 1: 4600 2: 4600 
  3: 4600 4: 4600 5: 4600 6: 4600 7: 4600 8: 4600 9: 4600 10: 4600 11: 4600 
  12: 4600 13: 4600 14: 4600 15: 4600 16: 4600 
  Vulnerabilities: Type: itlb_multihit status: KVM: VMX unsupported 
  Type: l1tf status: Not affected 
  Type: mds mitigation: Clear CPU buffers; SMT vulnerable 
  Type: meltdown status: Not affected 
  Type: spec_store_bypass 
  mitigation: Speculative Store Bypass disabled via prctl and seccomp 
  Type: spectre_v1 
  mitigation: usercopy/swapgs barriers and __user pointer sanitization 
  Type: spectre_v2 mitigation: Full generic retpoline, IBPB: conditional, 
  IBRS_FW, STIBP: conditional, RSB filling 
  Type: srbds mitigation: Microcode 
  Type: tsx_async_abort mitigation: Clear CPU buffers; SMT vulnerable 
Graphics:
  Device-1: NVIDIA TU106 [GeForce RTX 2070] vendor: PNY driver: nouveau 
  v: kernel bus ID: 01:00.0 chip ID: 10de:1f02 
  Display: x11 server: X.Org 1.20.9 driver: modesetting,nouveau 
  alternate: fbdev,nv,vesa display ID: :0.0 screens: 1 
  Screen-1: 0 s-res: 7680x2160 s-dpi: 96 s-size: 2032x571mm (80.0x22.5") 
  s-diag: 2111mm (83.1") 
  Monitor-1: DP-1 res: 3840x2160 hz: 60 dpi: 163 size: 600x340mm (23.6x13.4") 
  diag: 690mm (27.2") 
  Monitor-2: HDMI-1 res: 3840x2160 hz: 60 dpi: 163 
  size: 600x340mm (23.6x13.4") diag: 690mm (27.2") 
  OpenGL: renderer: llvmpipe (LLVM 10.0.1 256 bits) v: 3.3 Mesa 20.1.8 
  compat-v: 3.1 direct render: Yes

Thanks

2

Install it?

sudo pacman -S bash-completion
1 Like
3

@megavolt thanks, but tried that, didn’t work.

4

@mcsimenc

Are you using bash?

echo $SHELL

Are the completions there?

ls /usr/share/bash-completion/completions/
5

Adding set show-all-if-ambiguous on to ~/.inputrc file solves second part (cd D*) and with set completion-ignore-case on sould be case insensitive.

6

@megavolt yes, I’m using bash, v5.0.18(1)-release, and the completions directory has many files. However, I don’t need program-specific completions, rather a global functionality.

@ddns thanks, I tried those set commands but cd D* still doesn’t expand.

7

Try adding in .bashrc

# Autocompletion
[ -r /usr/share/bash-completion/bash_completion ] && . /usr/share/bash-completion/bash_completion
8

@ddns also no change with that one.

9

Success! Sort of. An answer comes from this post, explaining it is not straightforward to achieve this functionality using TAB, but there are other keybindings that will work: Alt+g

10

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