completion regression?

completion regression?

[Nick Roberts]

Completion doesn't seem to work as well as it used to, e.g in version 5.2.  The
manual doesn't differentiate but AFAICS there are three types: command,
filename and location.  Successful completion now always leaves a trailing
space but its only really needed for commands (so following words can then be
typed).  It's not needed for locations and is a nuisance for filenames because
using it on a filename requires the space to be deleted after successfully
completing on each component/directory.  It used to add a slash instead, which
is much more useful.

-- 
Nick                                           http://www.inet.net.nz/~nickrob

Re: completion regression?

[Daniel Jacobowitz]

On Mon, Oct 09, 2006 at 10:41:55AM +1300, Nick Roberts wrote:
> 
> Completion doesn't seem to work as well as it used to, e.g in version 5.2.  The
> manual doesn't differentiate but AFAICS there are three types: command,
> filename and location.  Successful completion now always leaves a trailing
> space but its only really needed for commands (so following words can then be
> typed).  It's not needed for locations and is a nuisance for filenames because
> using it on a filename requires the space to be deleted after successfully
> completing on each component/directory.  It used to add a slash instead, which
> is much more useful.

Are you sure this isn't just happening for the very first time you do
it?  This is a known bug, and I got a new hook added to readline5 that
would let us fix it, but never had time to get back to it.  If it
worked before, I don't remember what changed that required the new
hook.

And obviously I've forgotten the details, since I just pulled up gdb
and typed "file /bin<tab>" and got a slash.

-- 
Daniel Jacobowitz
CodeSourcery

Re: completion regression?

[Nick Roberts]

 > Are you sure this isn't just happening for the very first time you do
 > it?  This is a known bug, and I got a new hook added to readline5 that
 > would let us fix it, but never had time to get back to it.  If it
 > worked before, I don't remember what changed that required the new
 > hook.

I didn't think of trying it again.  You're right it only happens the first
time.  It's still a bit of a nuisance because if you don't delete the space you
can end up with a huge completion list, which you can't abort from in Emacs
without it getting confused.  It used to work first time but I don't know how
easy it is to fix.

-- 
Nick http://www.inet.net.nz/~nickrob

Re: completion regression?

[Nick Roberts]

 > Are you sure this isn't just happening for the very first time you do
 > it?  This is a known bug, and I got a new hook added to readline5 that
 > would let us fix it, but never had time to get back to it.  If it
 > worked before, I don't remember what changed that required the new
 > hook.

Actually, looking more carefully, I see now that Emacs causes most of the
problem.

 > And obviously I've forgotten the details, since I just pulled up gdb
 > and typed "file /bin<tab>" and got a slash.

I don't think there is a regression now.  The only (tiny) problem appears
completing on a sub-directory for the first time:

cd src/gd<TAB> gives "cd src/gdb "

and that exists in earlier versions.

In fact I see that completion has _improved_ and the "complete" command now
completes on filenames e.g from src/gdb directory:

(gdb) cd test<TAB><TAB>
testrun.log  testrun.sum  testsuite/

Formerly

(gdb) complete cd test
(gdb)

Currently:

(top-gdb) complete cd test
cd testrun.log
cd testrun.sum
cd testsuite
(gdb)

Could the "complete" command also add trailing slashes as with completion
from the command line? i.e

(top-gdb) complete cd test
cd testrun.log
cd testrun.sum
cd testsuite/
(gdb)


-- 
Nick                                           http://www.inet.net.nz/~nickrob