Re: Why is TAB-completion in shell not working for some commands?

[Andreas Röhler]

Am 08.11.2011 20:34, schrieb Marius Hofert:
> Hi,
>
> I have a strange problem with OS: Mac OS X 10.7.2 and Emacs: GNU Emacs 
> 24.0.91.1.
>
> If I open a shell with M-x shell, I can TAB-complete several commands, such as 
> ps2pdf and many others. However, I can't seem to TAB-complete all commands. One 
> exception is a2ps. I installed it, it works perfectly fine, I can TAB-complete 
> it from the Mac's terminal, however, I can't TAB-complete it from the shell 
> opened with M-x shell. The simple question is: Why?
>
> Note that if I type "echo $PATH", I get:
> a) from the Mac's terminal:
> /Applications/Emacs.app/Contents/MacOS/:/Applications/Emacs.app/Contents/MacOS/bin/:/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/X11/bin:/usr/texbin:/opt/local/bin:/opt/local/sbin
> b) from the emacs shell:
> /Applications/Emacs.app/Contents/MacOS/:/Applications/Emacs.app/Contents/MacOS/bin/:/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/X11/bin:/usr/texbin:/opt/local/bin:/opt/local/sbin
> =>  exactly the same.
>
> If I type "which a2ps" from the emacs shell, I get: /opt/local/bin/a2ps so the 
> correct place is found, but why is there no TAB-completion?
>
> Cheers,
>
> Marius

AFAIU it might matter, wherefrom you open the shell. It may or will have 
it's own (minor-)mode, where TAB completion is provided or not. In 
different available python-shells for example, TAB completion might be 
performed by different functions.

Call M-x describe-mode from inside shell, to get info which mode is 
behind, which keys are set etc,

Cheers,

Andreas