Re: Question: Is there any way to use the bash completion feature from Emacs shell mode.

[Dan Hitt]

Tab completion certainly works, but it's the emacs completion, not the
bash completion.

Unfortunately, i don't have a good example of the difference right
now, but i'll bet Chiaki does.

(Bash can be much more intelligent about how to complete than emacs,
of course, because it has a much sharper picture of what the user is
doing and how the user is configured, while all emacs can do is
observe from a distance.)

Now, Bob's suggestion to use term-mode may just work, not sure.

I never used term mode since trying it out a few decades ago, because
i would get stuck in a buffer and not be able to get out --- unless it
was a graphical emacs and i could use the mouse to choose another
buffer --- but that would defeat the whole power of parking the mouse
and controlling everything by the keyboard.

However, Bob said that you substitute Control X with Control C, and
man that works.

So you can switch buffers using, e.g., Control-C o.

I'd still be interested in a more deeply integrated bash, but if term
doesn't have other problems, it's a very good proxy.

dan

On Sun, Oct 9, 2016 at 11:06 PM, Eli Zaretskii <eliz@gnu.org> wrote:
>> From: Dan Hitt <dan.hitt@gmail.com>
>> Date: Sun, 9 Oct 2016 11:11:24 -0700
>> Cc: help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org
>>
>> On Sat, Oct 8, 2016 at 12:14 PM, ISHIKAWA,chiaki <ishikawa@yk.rim.or.jp> 
>> wrote:
>> > Hi,
>> > I have been using GNU emacs more than 30 years and thank you for 
>> > maintaining
>> > the great package.
>> >
>> > I have a question.
>> >
>> > Bash, the GNU shell interpreter has a feature called completion, and
>> > over the years, people have created various completion databases for many
>> > commands which are useful.
>> >
>> .......
>> > However, due to various reasons, I prefer to run bash inside Emacs's shell
>> > buffer. It is easy to copy&paste the result of bash output and reuse
>> > commands is one reason. (I am so used to keyboard and copy&paste using 
>> > mouse
>> > or other pointing device takes much longer.)
>> >
>> > Unfortunately, bash's completion feature does not work in Emacs shell mode.
>> > Obviously, [TAB] is stolen by Emacs for its own handling of TAB character.
>> > Emacs's tab completion for filenames works great.
>> > But I would like Bash's completion somehow works, too.
>>
>> This is also my experience (in almost every detail).
>>
>> As the OP says, emacs has improved over the decades, and all the time
>> new features are showing up, such as ibuffer.  And emacs can do a lot
>> of tricks, such as looking at jpg files.
>>
>> So, perhaps there is some mode like octave mode, that could run a bash
>> shell with much deeper integration (perhaps by keeping a second
>> interface to the inferior bash, such as through a socket or
>> something?)?  Or perhaps instead of bash it could be some derivative
>> of bash?  Or some derivative of zsh?
>
> I guess I don't understand what you guys are saying, because
> completion with TAB and M-? keys does work for me in shell-mode.  I
> see completion on commands, files, and environment variables.
>
> What am I missing?
>