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Is it possible to configure bash in such a way that on the first tab autocomplete it lists all possible files and on subsequent ones cycles through the choices?

Both options are easy to do separately and I could bind them to different keys, but the above would be perfect, but I can't find anything about it on the net.

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    It's been a while since I have used ZSH, but I believe its autocomplete functions like this.
    – jordanm
    Commented Nov 8, 2012 at 18:07
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    @jordanm Well seems like an option if nothing else works, but that would also entail updating everything from .bashrc, etc. to the ZSH equivalents, which I'd quite like to avoid.
    – Voo
    Commented Nov 8, 2012 at 18:34

3 Answers 3

Reset to default
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+100

This seems close to what you want:

bind "TAB:menu-complete"
bind "set show-all-if-ambiguous on"
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    Almost perfect, apart from the small flaw that it also autocompletes on the first tab, which can be a bit annoying if I'm just trying to figure out the exact name (i.e. I have to delete quite a bit more characters if I want to change then), but I'm quite willing to live with that.
    – Voo
    Commented Nov 14, 2012 at 5:38
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    How can this easily be undone?
    – dingalapadum
    Commented Oct 13, 2015 at 8:53
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    bind "TAB:complete"; bind "set show-all-if-ambiguous off"
    – Jim Paris
    Commented Oct 14, 2015 at 13:54
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    @Voo add the third line bind "set menu-complete-display-prefix on" will just list the candidates on the first tab without auto-completion.
    – Naitree
    Commented Nov 17, 2015 at 13:00
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    @Naitree can't upvote your suggestion enough. It works and IS so, so much better than the default bash behavior. Thank you.
    – JBeurer
    Commented Dec 6, 2016 at 21:34
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This is what I use. As far as I can tell it does exactly what you want. 

# make tab cycle through commands after listing
bind '"\t":menu-complete'
bind "set show-all-if-ambiguous on"
bind "set completion-ignore-case on"
bind "set menu-complete-display-prefix on"

This works on Mac (10.13 & 10.14) and Ubuntu (16.04 & 18.04).

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    This is seriously the best user experience I've ever had. Thank you!
    – Tom
    Commented Feb 15, 2020 at 3:45
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Have you considered? It was referenced at Superuser ...

[[ $- = *i* ]] && bind TAB:menu-complete
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    menu-complete is only half of what the question is asking. As the question says, "[b]oth options are easy to do separately".
    – jw013
    Commented Nov 8, 2012 at 19:18
  • Yes I know how to change the behavior to one of the two options, but that's the easy part. The real problem is how to combine the two into one.
    – Voo
    Commented Nov 10, 2012 at 4:46
  • Can you explain to me the detail of what's going on in that line?
    – Tom
    Commented Feb 15, 2020 at 1:49

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