[Bash-completion-devel] Bug#618734: bash: autocomplete fails with 'tar jcvf' and non .bz2 file

[Adam Nielsen]

>> For example, if you rename an archive to
>> really-long-filename.tar.bz2.old (adding .old onto the end), when you try to
>> recreate the archive by typing "tar jcvf really<tab>" (intending to delete the
>> '.old' part) it won't autocomplete so you have to type the whole long filename
>> from scratch.
>
> I think this behavior is intended.  Uninstalling bash-completion might
> be an okay workaround.

Thanks for the quick reply!  Just for the record I can see the reasoning 
behind this behaviour, but I think it might be wrong when using the "c" 
option to create an archive.  I can certainly see the usefulness of only 
matching .bz2 files when extracting an archive, but when creating an 
archive I don't think you would often want to create it over the top of 
an existing file - so if you use tab completion in this case, you are 
probably wanting it to match any old file to save typing.

Also thanks for the retitle - I did try Alt+Tab, Ctrl+Tab, etc. in case 
there was a key to unconditionally complete the pathname so this would 
be a good solution too.

Thanks again,
Adam.