Package: bash Version: 4.3-8 Followup-For: Bug #740971 Dear Maintainer, Chet,
as you explained (I am just rewording for my own sake) the issue about "ls a(<TAB>" is somehow related to the fact that "(" means that the following command is expected to be run in a _subshell_, and in fact "(<TAB>" gives the same behavior. This and the fact that _all_ the files in the current dir have the same prefix. The user should do "ls a\(<TAB>" to tell bash that he is referring to the "(" in the filename and not to the start-a-subshell character. So this could even be considered the "correct" behavior, although not the most straightforward one. However I found another case when bash completion chokes, this is when multiple special characters are one after another in a particular sequence in the name of a directory containing files with a common prefix. In the case I found, the character pattern is for example: one normal, two special, one normal, three special, one normal. $ mkdir /tmp/bash-test-ao2 $ cd /tmp/bash-test-ao2 $ mkdir a\ \ b\ \ \ c $ touch a\ \ b\ \ \ c/file{1,2} $ ls a<TAB><TAB> The second <TAB> should complete up to: $ ls a\ \ b\ \ \ c/file but it does not, it stops at: $ ls a\ \ b\ \ \ c/ As a counter example, completion works if the directory is named: a\ \ b\ \ c i.e.: one normal, two special, one normal, two special, one normal BTW I did my tests invoking bash with "env -i bash --noprofile --norc" in order to be sure not to add more variables (literally...) to the problem. Thanks, Antonio -- System Information: Debian Release: jessie/sid APT prefers unstable APT policy: (900, 'unstable') Architecture: amd64 (x86_64) Foreign Architectures: i386 Kernel: Linux 3.16.0-ao2 (SMP w/1 CPU core) Locale: LANG=it_IT.utf8, LC_CTYPE=it_IT.utf8 (charmap=UTF-8) Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/bash Versions of packages bash depends on: ii base-files 7.5 ii dash 0.5.7-4 ii debianutils 4.4 ii libc6 2.19-7 ii libncurses5 5.9+20140712-2 ii libtinfo5 5.9+20140712-2 Versions of packages bash recommends: ii bash-completion 1:2.1-4 Versions of packages bash suggests: pn bash-doc <none> -- no debconf information -- Antonio Ospite http://ao2.it A: Because it messes up the order in which people normally read text. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Posting_style Q: Why is top-posting such a bad thing? -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-bugs-dist-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org