Problem
- If I used my alias for installing an application
(
inst application), I would have to know the full application name
because I would not have bash completion. This was very annoying
when installing libraries because they often have weird version
strings tacked on to their ends. - If I used the full command (
sudo aptitude install application), I
would have bash completion and would therefore not have to know the
whole application name. I could simply type libxul and get
libxul0d.
On one hand, I would type a short command plus a complected application
name, on the other I would type a long command and a simple application
name. I wanted to be able to type a short command with a simple
application name.
Solution
I wrote my own bash completion rules. They are based on the default aptitude
bash completion rules but customized for aliases.
# Install Completion
#
_aptitude_all()
{
local cur dashoptions
COMPREPLY=()
cur=`_get_cword`
dashoptions='-S -u -i -h --help --version -s --simulate -d \
--download-only -P --prompt -y --assume-yes -F \
--display-format -O --sort -w --width -f -r -g \
--with-recommends --with-suggests -R -G \
--without-recommends --without-suggests -t \
--target-release -V --show-versions -D --show-deps\
-Z -v --verbose --purge-unused'
if [[ "$cur" == -* ]]; then
COMPREPLY=( $( compgen -W "$dashoptions" -- $cur ) )
else
COMPREPLY=( $( apt-cache pkgnames $cur 2> /dev/null ) )
fi
return 0
}
_aptitude_installed()
{
local cur dashoptions
COMPREPLY=()
cur=`_get_cword`
dashoptions='-S -u -i -h --help --version -s --simulate -d \
--download-only -P --prompt -y --assume-yes -F \
--display-format -O --sort -w --width -f -r -g \
--with-recommends --with-suggests -R -G \
--without-recommends --without-suggests -t \
--target-release -V --show-versions -D --show-deps\
-Z -v --verbose --purge-unused'
if [[ "$cur" == -* ]]; then
COMPREPLY=( $( compgen -W "$dashoptions" -- $cur ) )
else
COMPREPLY=( $( _comp_dpkg_installed_packages $cur ) )
fi
return 0
}
complete -F _aptitude_all $default inst
complete -F _aptitude_all $default upgrade
complete -F _aptitude_all $default apt-info
complete -F _aptitude_all $default apt-changes
complete -F _aptitude_all $default apt-download
complete -F _aptitude_installed $default uninst
complete -F _aptitude_installed $default reinst
complete -F _aptitude_installed $default purge
Just copy it into a file such as ~/.bash_completion and source the file in
your ~/.bashrc by adding ". ~/.bash_completion".
Change/Add/Remove the aliases at the end of the file. The lines that
start with complete -F _aptitude_all complete any available or
installed package and lines that start with
complete -F _aptitude_installed complete only installed packages.
inst, upgrade, apt-info, apt-changes.... are my aliases. You must use
YOUR ALIASES for this to work. To add aliases, read
this.
