Linux Auto-completion

sources: ask Ubuntu (parameters) and stackoverflow (path completion)

---

Use:

A way for my custom commands to have their parameters/arguments be auto-completed rather than having to type out the entire word, plus it can be used to show the different options that are available

Simple options

For commands that only care about options rather than file paths

Example code:

_foo() {
	local cur prev opts
	COMPREPLY=()
	cur="${COMP_WORDS[COMP_CWORD]}"
	prev="${COMP_WORDS[COMP_CWORD-1]}"
	opts="--help --verbose --version"

	if [[ ${cur} == -* ]] ; then
		COMPREPLY=( $(compgen -W "${opts}" -- ${cur}) )
		return 0
	fi
}

## `foo` <tab> <tab> would show autocomplete above wordlist
complete -F _foo foo

(You place this in the /etc/bash_completion.d/ directory)

Or if you don’t want to lose where it is by putting it in that obscure directory, you can source in in your .bashrc by adding this line:

source /path/to/your/autocomplete.sh

---

Or you can make one automatically with my command_autocomp_maker.sh custom command that I made so that I can easily transfer over my commands without there being an annoying bridge of config between them and since they are pretty simple themselves

Complex options + file paths

source: stack overflow

For commands that are more specific, you can add options for parameters to include /path/ completion, such as: command1 --install /path/to/file where you can set it to only have the --install parameter include /path/ completion.

__command_name_autocomplete()
{
	local cur prev opts
	COMPREPLY=()
	cur="${COMP_WORDS[COMP_CWORD]}"
	prev="${COMP_WORDS[COMP_CWORD-1]}"
	opts="--help -h --install -i --run -r --rebuild -rb --show-running-containers -ps --stop -s --remove -rm --logs -l --bash -b --sass -css --unit-tests -t"
	containers="nginx php mysql mongo node"
	sass="watch"
	# By default, autocomplete with options
	if [[ ${prev} == command_name ]] ; then
		COMPREPLY=( $(compgen -W "${opts}" -- ${cur}) )	
		return 0
	fi
	# By default, autocomplete with options
	if [[ ${cur} == -* ]] ; then
		COMPREPLY=( $(compgen -W "${opts}" -- ${cur}) )
		return 0	
	fi
	
	# For --install and -i options, autocomplete with folder
	if [ ${prev} == --install ] || [ ${prev} == -i ] ; then
		COMPREPLY=( $(compgen -d -- ${cur}) )
		return 0	
	fi
	
	# For --stop --remove --logs and --bash, autocomplete with containers
	if [ ${prev} == --stop ] || [ ${prev} == -s ] || [ ${prev} == --remove ] || [ ${prev} == -rm ] || [ ${prev} == --logs ] || [ ${prev} == -l ] || [ ${prev} == --bash ] || [ ${prev} == -b ] ; then
		COMPREPLY=( $(compgen -W "${containers}" -- ${cur}) )
		return 0
	fi
	
	# For --sass and -css, complete with sass options
	if [ ${prev} == --sass ] || [ ${prev} == -css ] ; then
		COMPREPLY=( $(compgen -W "${sass}" -- ${cur}) )
		return 0
	fi
	
	# For --unit-tests and -t, complete with relative to command_name folder paths
	if [ ${prev} == --unit-tests ] || [ ${prev} == -t ] ; then
		COMPREPLY=( $(compgen -d -- ${cur}) )
		return 0
	fi

}

complete -o filenames -F __command_name_autocomplete command_name