/etc/rc.d and cd /etc/rc.d show different files

Altiris · 06-07-2015, 05:28 PM

Alright so I am new to Slackware and for this portion, I am not going to lie and I did not look around too much to try and solve, mostly because I found something else very interesting/confusing.

So besides me doing "su -" and trying to start /etc/rc.d/rc.postfix I noticed that if I type "/etc/rc.d/ and then press tab to show all files I only get"

Code:

init.d/             rc.httpd            rc.syslog
rc.0                rc.inet1            rc.sysvinit
rc.4                rc.inet2            rc.udev
rc.6                rc.inetd            rc.ulogd
rc.K                rc.local            rc.wireless
rc.M                rc.loop             rc0.d/
rc.S                rc.mcelog           rc1.d/
rc.acpid            rc.messagebus       rc2.d/
rc.alsa             rc.modules          rc3.d/
rc.bind             rc.modules-3.10.17  rc4.d/
rc.consolekit       rc.mysqld           rc5.d/
rc.dovecot          rc.ntpd             rc6.d/
rc.fuse             rc.samba            
rc.gpm              rc.sshd

However if I type "cd /etc/rc.d/ and press tab" I get a lot more files....why is this?

Code:

init.d/             rc.gpm              rc.samba
rc.0                rc.httpd            rc.saslauthd
rc.4                rc.inet1            rc.sendmail
rc.6                rc.inet1.conf       rc.serial
rc.K                rc.inet2            rc.snmpd
rc.M                rc.inetd            rc.sshd
rc.S                rc.ip_forward       rc.syslog
rc.acpid            rc.local            rc.sysstat
rc.alsa             rc.loop             rc.sysvinit
rc.alsa-oss         rc.mcelog           rc.udev
rc.atalk            rc.messagebus       rc.ulogd
rc.autofs           rc.modules          rc.wireless
rc.bind             rc.modules-3.10.17  rc.wireless.conf
rc.bluetooth        rc.mysqld           rc.yp
rc.cgconfig         rc.networkmanager   rc0.d/
rc.cgred            rc.nfsd             rc1.d/
rc.consolekit       rc.ntpd             rc2.d/
rc.cups             rc.pcmcia           rc3.d/
rc.dnsmasq          rc.php-fpm          rc4.d/
rc.dovecot          rc.postfix          rc5.d/
rc.font             rc.postfix.new      rc6.d/
rc.fuse             rc.rpc

Ser Olmy · 06-07-2015, 05:49 PM

If you start typing a command, which is what you do when you type /etc/rc.d/, tab completion will list all executable files and subdirectories. Non-executable files can't possibly be used as commands, and are therefore not shown.

However, if you've already typed a command (for instance, cd) and then use tab completion on a parameter to that command, all available files and directories are listed. bash makes no attempt to figure out what the command you've typed actually does, so when it comes to parameters, it will simply list any file matching what you've typed so far.

Altiris · 06-07-2015, 06:25 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ser Olmy

If you start typing a command, which is what you do when you type /etc/rc.d/, tab completion will list all executable files and subdirectories. Non-executable files can't possibly be used as commands, and are therefore not shown.

However, if you've already typed a command (for instance, cd) and then use tab completion on a parameter to that command, all available files and directories are listed. bash makes no attempt to figure out what the command you've typed actually does, so when it comes to parameters, it will simply list any file matching what you've typed so far.

Ahh I see, did not think of that. Thanks!

genss · 06-07-2015, 06:34 PM

it would be nice if cd didn't let you cd into a file
cd /dir/[TAB] to list files would still be good

lems · 06-08-2015, 01:10 AM

extra/bash-completion? Should let you configure bash so that cd only `cds' into a directory.
With tcsh (which I use) it's `complete cd p/1/d/' in your ~./.tcshrc. (Just for reference.)