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[Smoot Carl-Mitchell]

On Sat, 2008-09-13 at 20:00 +0200, Nigel Henry wrote:
> On Saturday 13 September 2008 19:18, Knapp wrote:
> > > Any help on the problem above gratefully received.
> > >
> > > Nigel.
> >
> > You mean like
> > sudo vim /etc/X11 (then press tab)
> > I would think you knew that so maybe I am misunderstanding.
> >
> > --
> > Douglas E Knapp
> 
> No, I didn't know the tab thing, but have just tried it with nano as root 
> on /etc/X11, and got a bunch of files and sub-directories displayed, so can 
> see where I'm going now.
> 
> Thanks for the "tab" tip, which has resolved a long running problem.

The "tab" is used to complete filenames.  It is a shell feature and will
work with any command.  You can also "tab" for commmand completion.  Try
typing:

su<tab><tab>

You will get a list of commands (in your search path) which start with
"su".  The first <tab> will try and complete the command name up until
it cannot find a longer unique command prefix.  The second tab will show
you the names of command which match the prefix.  If only a single
command matches the prefix, then the first tab will complete the
command, letting you type in command arguments. Play with the feature a
bit and you will eventually find it indispensable as a way to cut down
on typing when using the CLI.

For details, see the bash manual page.
-- 
Smoot Carl-Mitchell
System/Network Architect
smoot at tic.com
+1 480 922 7313
cell: +1 602 421 9005