Re: [Help-bash] Behavior of 'complete -o filenames' unclear

[Chet Ramey]

On 10/4/18 4:46 AM, Michael Siegel wrote:

> In that case, the shell will add a slash to the name, as if it were
> completing directory names within $PWD:
> 
> ~/devel/sandbox/probe$ ls
> a_file  msiism/  tests/
> ~/devel/sandbox/probe$ dbm msi<Tab>  # Results in 'dbm msiism/'
> ~/devel/sandbox/probe$
> 
> Now, the Bash Reference Manual does say that '-o filename' will "perform
> any filename-specific processing"[1], "like adding a slash to directory
> names"[1] and such. What I don't understand is why it is still adding
> the slash when completion is based on file names in $dbm_dir instead of
> $PWD.

How would readline (because readline is adding the slash) know that the
possible completion should be interpreted relative to some other directory
and not $PWD? It's not an absolute pathname, the current working directory
hasn't changed, and there's not currently a way to direct readline
otherwise.

Chet
-- 
``The lyf so short, the craft so long to lerne.'' - Chaucer
                 ``Ars longa, vita brevis'' - Hippocrates
Chet Ramey, UTech, CWRU    address@hidden    http://tiswww.cwru.edu/~chet/