Command and filename completion

You can reduce the amount of typing you have to do by using command completion and filename completion.

To do this, type part of the command's or file's name, and then press Esc twice (i.e., Esc Esc ) or Tab once. The shell fills as much of the name as it can; you can then type the rest of the name—or type more of it, and then press Esc Esc or Tab again.

For example, suppose your system has executables called my_magnificent_app and my_wonderful_app:

• If you type my_ followed by Esc Esc or Tab, the shell can't complete the command name because what you've typed isn't enough to distinguish between the possibilities.
• If you type my_w followed by Esc Esc or Tab, the system completes the command name, my_wonderful_app.

If you haven't typed enough to uniquely identify the command or file, you can press Esc = to get a list of the possible completions.

You can control which keys the shell uses for completing names by setting the shell's complete key binding. For example, the command that lets you use the Tab key is as follows:

bind '^I'=complete

You can use bind on the command line or in the ksh profile. For more information about the bind command and the key bindings, see “emacs interactive input-line editing” in the documentation for ksh in the Utilities Reference; for information about the profiles for ksh, see also “Configuring your shell” in Configuring Your Environment.