Hdi2u S11

Tab completion

• Fear of the command line often means, fear of typing too much. Everybody fears this, so there are tools.
• Tab completion is probably the most important tool, and relies on your pressing the TAB key
• It tries to complete the filename or program name you have started typing, saving you typing time and reducing spelling errors.

cd kir

• followed by TAB. If there is only one directory with a name starting with the letters "kir", the rest of the name will be completed for you.
• if there are several options, you need to supply more "hint-letters" and press TAB multiple times.

Exercises

• Type ls testseq and use tab completion.
• This will show you a list of files that start with testseq.
• You now have the option of completing the filename yourself, or "tabbing" through the filenames available.
• It limits itself to files in your current directory.
• What happens if you type TAB immediately after ls?
• How can you find out all commands available on the system?

Answer

• The first word of a command line is usually a command, so TAB looks for commands, not files.
• By giving no hints at all to TAB, it will look for all possible commands.