Linux tab autocomplete

lskatz has asked for the wisdom of the Perl Monks concerning the following question:

Hi Perl Monks,
I have a wrapper Perl script which takes one of many preselected parameters, e.g. "one" or "parameterFiveHundred" or "whiteHouse." How can I use Linux's ability to find a correct parameter using tab?

I know that you can push tab to autocomplete a file path, or in the case of apt-get, it will autocomplete "install," and so I know this is possible on some level. Thank you for your help.

Comment on Linux tab autocomplete

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Re: Linux tab autocomplete by chrestomanci (Priest) on Feb 08, 2011 at 17:12 UTC
Assuming you have configured bash as your linux shell (It has been the default under most distros for ages), then the config you want will be under /etc/bash_completion.d/ In there you will find a collection of shell scripts that bash uses to guess what you mean when you hit tab. A google search on "bash autocomplete" should find you some tutorals on how to write one of these scripts.	[reply]
Re: Linux tab autocomplete by Perlbotics (Archbishop) on Feb 08, 2011 at 18:45 UTC
Yes, it's possible as chrestomanci already indicated. You can even use Perl to find proper completions. I found this article about auto-completion for perldoc quite useful (source). It explains, how to configure your bash environment and to interface it with a Perl program that generates completions.	[reply]