hi,

i shall first state my problem:

tab-completion indexes system folders (like /usr/bin, /usr/local/bin)! so say i'm in a folder that has two files, 'text' and 'myprog', i type in an 'm' then tab, and i get hundreds of results including 'mysql', 'mysqlconfig', and others as im sure you can imagine. is there a way to set it to default or something else that will only make it index the current folder?

now here's how i managed to cock it up if it helps...

i tried changing my PATH variable so i could execute programs in the current directory without './' - what i added to PATH was ':.' at the end (apparently this is not the way to do it... :S). i tried resetting PATH various times ('unset PATH', 'PATH=$whatever...') but this has not fixed the problem.

using 'unset PATH', of course, removes everything from PATH, which meant that functions (like 'ls') in /usr/bin and /usr/local/bin can't be found. obviously i want those to be found, but i would rather not tab through them!

thank you very much if you can help, and i'm very sorry if there is something i have overlooked that answers this (i did search!)

How did you add "." to PATH? Did you do it in your .bashrc? Because then it will reset PATH to "$PATH;." everytime you log on...

I'm not on my Linux machine right now, but http://www.debian-administration.org/articles/316 suggests that it's done from /etc/bash_completion and /etc/bash_completion.d/, so maybe have a look around in those

I'm curious; what did the person who said it's
"(apparently this is not the way to do it... :S)"
suggest to do instead?

While I agree that it's practically NEVER a good idea
for root, and a certain risk for ordinary users, I'd
say it's reasonable enough when used with care, e.g.,
not in world-writable places like /tmp ...


Cheers,
Tink