Re: shell-mode autocompletion uglinesses

[Felix E. Klee]

Kai Großjohann wrote:
>> 1. When I enter
>>      ls /usr/
>>    and press tab nothing happens. What I expect, however, is that I get a
>>    list of choices containing all files and directories in "/usr/".
> 
> What happens if you press TAB again?

Nothing.
 
>>    Then I press "n tab" and the shell command expands into
>>      ls /usr/include
>>    as intended. Now, however, the *Completions* buffer is still there
>>    although it is not needed anymore. How do I make it go away once I
>>    have finished my completion?
> 
> I think pcomplete has a mechanism for making the completions buffer
> disappear.  At least I know that eshell does this.

Yes, it works even in shell-mode. After a short delay the *Completions* 
buffer disappears.

>> If I cannot change the above behavior I'd rather use tab autocompletion
>> as implemented in my shell (BASH). Is this possible?
> 
> Once upon a time, there was a file which purported to use the tcsh
> tab completion in shell mode.  It was years ago.  Maybe it also works
> for bash.  I have no idea how to find the file.  It had `tcsh' in its
> name and possibly also `complet'.

Thanks, I'll try to find it if pcomplete is still insufficient.

> Another alternative would be to set up shell mode to use pcomplete
> now.  Hm.  Ah!  Maybe it's sufficient to
> 
>     (require 'shell)
>     (define-key shell-mode-map (kbd "TAB") 'pcomplete)
> 
> How about you try this?

Thanks! Now the examples above work. However there's a new problem:
1. I create a new shell.
2. I enter "ls pro", hit tab and get "ls projects".
3. After hitting enter and seeing the contents I type "ls pro" again.
4. Now, autocompletion doesn't work anymore, nothing happens.
So, somehow pcomplete seems to become corrupted. After its first 
autocompletion it can't autocomplete directories in the home directory any 
more. In addition pcomple sometimes hangs or is slow and I have to hit 
"C-g" to cancel it. 

I'm using 
  GNU Emacs 21.2.1 (i586-suse-linux, X toolkit, Xaw3d scroll bars) of
  2002-09-11 on amdsimb

Felix