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Accepted
beanaroo
Asked: 2012-05-08 01:42:13 +0800 CST

Bash Tab Auto-complete not working for apt

  • 772

apt-get install and apt-cache policy do not complete package names.

I have double checked /etc/bash.bashrc, no irregularities.

Googled for answers but none suffice.

Any help/advice?

bash apt auto-completion

4 Answers

  1. Open /etc/bash.bashrc with gedit or other text editor and uncomment the following lines:

    #if [ -f /etc/bash_completion ] && ! shopt -oq posix; then
#    . /etc/bash_completion
#fi

    It works for me.

    On Ubuntu 16.04 the it looks like this:

    #if ! shopt -oq posix; then
#  if [ -f /usr/share/bash-completion/bash_completion ]; then
#    . /usr/share/bash-completion/bash_completion
#  elif [ -f /etc/bash_completion ]; then
#    . /etc/bash_completion
#  fi
#fi
    • 16
  2. Best Answer

    Actually, I found the solution ~

    Install the auto-complete-el 

    sudo apt-get install auto-complete-el

    Install via the software center

    After installing this package, I got everything back to normal.

    • 12

  3. Is your shell prompt looking like $ instead of user@host:~$? If yes, then it could be case of wrong shell causing problem with autocompletion. Try changing login shell to /bin/bash from /bin/sh as below.

    sudo chsh -s /bin/bash *username*
    • 2

  4. The cause might be that you are missing the package bash-completion. In that case, you can try installing it with

    sudo apt-get install bash-completion

    followed by

    source ~/.bashrc

    for enabling it. (Or just log out and in again).

    • 2