{"id":44017,"date":"2023-05-22T16:29:44","date_gmt":"2023-05-22T16:29:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/?p=44017"},"modified":"2023-05-22T16:29:44","modified_gmt":"2023-05-22T16:29:44","slug":"re-enable-tab-key-auto-completion-ubuntu","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/index.php\/2023\/05\/re-enable-tab-key-auto-completion-ubuntu\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Enable\/Re-enable ‘Tab’ Key Auto-Completion in Ubuntu 22.04"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The ‘Tab’ key bash auto-completion does not work for you? Here’s how to re-enable this feature in Ubuntu.<\/p>\n

When typing in terminal\/command console, user can press ‘Tab’ key to auto-complete command, options, file path & name. This feature is quite useful and available out-of-the-box for every user with home directory.<\/p>\n

If you broke something done and the feature does no longer work, then this tutorial could help.<\/p>\n

Step 1: Install bash-completion package<\/h3>\n

For Debian, Ubuntu, and most other Linux, this feature is implemented by bash-completion<\/code> package files. So the first step is to make sure that package is installed on your system.<\/p>\n

To do so, open terminal\/command console and run command:<\/p>\n

sudo apt install bash-completion<\/pre>\n
\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n
Step 2: Enable Bash Completion<\/h3>\n
For each user, there’s a .bashrc<\/code> file in user home directory. The file runs automatically on every login, and it contains the rule to enable bash completion.<\/p>\n
1. First, run command to edit the file:<\/p>\n
nano ~\/.bashrc<\/pre>\n
2. When the file opens, add the following lines or make sure the lines below exist:<\/p>\n
if ! shopt -oq posix; then\r\n  if [ -f \/usr\/share\/bash-completion\/bash_completion ]; then\r\n    . \/usr\/share\/bash-completion\/bash_completion\r\n  elif [ -f \/etc\/bash_completion ]; then\r\n    . \/etc\/bash_completion\r\n  fi\r\nfi<\/pre>\n
To save file, press Ctrl+X<\/b>, type y<\/b> and hit Enter.<\/p>\n
\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n
You can alternatively edit the system wide config file:<\/p>\n
sudo nano \/etc\/bash.bashrc<\/pre>\n
Then enable the corresponding lines (remove #<\/b> at the beginning for each line<\/em>), so it applies to all users at login.<\/p>\n
\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n
After saving the change, it should work immediately in new terminal window or command console.<\/p>\n
In addition<\/h3>\n
The default configuration files for bash completion is located in “\/usr\/share\/bash-completion”. However, some Linux Distro or may be 3rd party program may add rules by creating files under “\/etc\/bash_completion.d\/”.<\/p>\n
So, if the feature does not work for a specific command, go check the config file under “\/etc\/bash_completion.d\/”.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The ‘Tab’ key bash auto-completion does not work for you? Here’s how to re-enable this feature in Ubuntu. When typing in terminal\/command console, user can press ‘Tab’ key to auto-complete command, options, file path & name. This feature is quite useful and available out-of-the-box for every user with home directory. If you broke something done […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":37909,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[19],"class_list":["post-44017","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-howtos","tag-command-skill"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44017","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44017"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44017\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37909"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44017"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44017"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44017"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}