!command expansion in csh vs. bash

jhwilliams · 08-24-2007, 02:10 PM

In tcsh, when I type

Code:

tcsh% !command

, followed by a tab, it autocompletes to show the actual command.
In bash, on the other hand, when I type

Code:

bash# !command

, followed by a tab, it does not autocomplete and I have no way of knowing what command is actually going to be executed. However, noone wants to use The Clown SHell; can I get this feature in bash?

MensaWater · 08-24-2007, 02:27 PM

bash# command (no exclamation) + tab DOES autocomplete
unless there is more than one match in which case hitting tab a second time will give you the list of matches.

jhwilliams · 08-24-2007, 03:33 PM

Quote:

bash# command (no exclamation) + tab DOES autocomplete

Indeed. Not of any particular worth for long commands you'd want to rip out of the history due to their length, though.

gilead · 08-24-2007, 04:13 PM

Bash does support history expansion. There's a fair bit of info in the man page so I won't quote it, but if you search in it for HISTORY EXPANSION (in upper case) it's explained reasonably well.

MensaWater · 08-24-2007, 04:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jhwilliams

Indeed. Not of any particular worth for long commands you'd want to rip out of the history due to their length, though.

OK you're talking about history rather than expansion.

My own preference is to do "set -o vi" as I do with ksh. Doing "esc-k" then will let me scroll through shell history. Once there I can do /pattern to search for a specific pattern in shell history. One of my favorites in doing this however is that I can simply hit "v" once I have the command back and that will open a vi session with the command in it - great for working out complicated pipelines then incorporating them within for loops.

jhwilliams · 08-24-2007, 05:07 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jlightner

My own preference is to do "set -o vi"

Hm, trying it out now - not too shabby.

fvu · 08-25-2007, 02:33 AM

When you specify `set show-all-if-ambiguous on' in .inputrc (the readline configuration file), you only have to press TAB once in bash to get the list of possible completions. Re-login after modifications:

Code:

# Produce list of all possible completions at single tab
set show-all-if-ambiguous on

See also:
http://www.fvue.nl/wiki/Bash:_My_configuration

Freddy Vulto
http://fvue.nl/wiki/Bash

jhwilliams · 08-25-2007, 09:52 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by fvu

See also:
http://www.fvue.nl/wiki/Bash:_My_configuration

Line 32 of your .bashrc that sets the main prompt - what is going on in this line?

Code:

export PS1=$'\[\e[0;34m\]\!\[\e[0m\]\[\e[1;32m\]$(stoppedjobs)\[\e[0m\]:\u@\h:\w> '

fvu · 08-27-2007, 03:29 PM

This is an explanation of my bash `PS1' setting as can be found at http://fvue.nl/wiki/Bash:_My_configuration

Code:

# \[\e[0;34m\]   : start blue
# \!             : show history number of command
# \[\e[0m\]      : stop blue
# \[\e[1;32m\]   : start light green
# $(stoppedjobs) : execute shell function `stoppedjobs' which
#                  returns `%' plus number of jobs
#                 (see http://www.fvue.nl/wiki/Bash:_My_configuration)
# \[\e[0m\]      : stop light green
# \u             : show username
# \h             : show hostname
# \w             : show working directory
export PS1=$'\[\e[0;34m\]\!\[\e[0m\]\[\e[1;32m\]$(stoppedjobs)\[\e[0m\]:\u@\h:\w> '

Example prompt:

502%1:freddy@pluto:/usr/local>

See also: http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/Bash-Prompt-HOWTO/

Freddy Vulto
http://fvue.nl/wiki/Bash

syg00 · 08-27-2007, 05:04 PM

<ctrl>-r ???