terminal autocompletion adds space after "cp" target folder using Tab

[Christof Buchbender]

Binary package hint: gnome-terminal

When using "cp" or "mv" the tab auto-completion of the target folder adds a space after the autocompleted folder name. This makes the navigation to sub-folders cumbersome since one has to delete this additional space first. I found this change in behavior after upgrading from Maverick 10.10 to Natty 11.04 beta 2. An example is:

"cp someFile Doc[pressing Tab]" -> "cp someFile Documents[additional Space]"

Description: Ubuntu 11.04
Release: 11.04

gnome-terminal:
  Installed: 2.32.1-0ubuntu3
  Candidate: 2.32.1-0ubuntu3
  Version table:
 *** 2.32.1-0ubuntu3 0
        500 http://ubuntu.cica.es/ubuntu/ natty/main amd64 Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 11.04
Package: gnome-terminal 2.32.1-0ubuntu3
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.38-8.42-generic 2.6.38.2
Uname: Linux 2.6.38-8-generic x86_64
NonfreeKernelModules: wl fglrx
Architecture: amd64
Date: Fri Apr 22 11:06:00 2011
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 10.04.1 LTS "Lucid Lynx" - Release amd64 (20100816.1)
ProcEnviron:
 LANGUAGE=en_US:en
 LANG=en_US.utf8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: gnome-terminal
UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to natty on 2011-04-20 (1 days ago)

[Mark Fraser (launchpad-mfraz)]

Also does it with other commands such as ls.

[Mark Fraser (launchpad-mfraz)]

I'm using Kubuntu 11.04 beta 2 and this affects me so it isn't gnome-terminal, I would say bash-completion.

[Mark Fraser (launchpad-mfraz)]

From reading https://alioth.debian.org/tracker/?group_id=100114&atid=413095&func=detail&aid=312903 it looks like it could be the fault of Adobe Acrobat, but why I don't have the same problem in 10.10 is odd.

[Christof Buchbender (ascurion)]

Yes, I find the same behavior using ls,rm,ln,mkdir. However, I just saw that for commands to open programs, e.g. acroread or gimp, the behavior is normal adding a \ after folders when giving a additional variable, i.e. a file to open, to the program in the command line using the tab completion. Strangely, also the command "more" does behave normal, while "less" does not.

[Christof Buchbender (ascurion)]

Following your comment that the problem could stem from Adobe Acrobat, I just removed the Acrobat Reader package from my system. You were right, now the bash-completion does behave normal. So the problems really seems to come from Adobe Acrobat.

[Christof Buchbender (ascurion)]

After the update of Adobe Acrobat today, the bash-completion is back to its normal behavior. So this bug is no issue anymore and was not due to gnome-terminal.

[Todor Kouyoumdjiev (todor-k)]

For me it worked after installing acroread-fonts from mediubuntu

[dogmatic69 (dogmatic69)]

I got this after installing wine.

It was very annoying so 'apt-get remove wine' and 'apt-get autoremove' and things are back to normal

[Leo (mystixx22)]

The problem [1], [2] is /etc/bash_completion.d/acroread.sh.
Just remove it and then execute . /etc/bash_completion.
Worked for me.

[1] http://stackoverflow.com/questions/5852389/bash-autocomplete-doesnt-escape-space-and-doesnt-mark-directories-in-ubuntu-11
[2] http://forums.adobe.com/thread/745833

[Chrescht (sekateur)]

I installed acroread from the binary file from adobe.com and did not have a /etc/bash_completion.d/acroread.sh file.
Uninstalling the latter and installing from canonical with "apt-get install acroread" have me back a working bash_completion.
Ubuntu 12.04.1 LTS
3.2.0-32-generic
acroread 9.4.7

[screamwork (scream-work)]

#10 - removing acroread.sh did it for me. thx

[Shervin Asgari (shervin)]

I have the same problem. Trying to delete the acroread file and hopefully it will work

[Greg Rundlett (greg.rundlett)]

#10 works for me. Thanks Leo.

There is some debate at https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/acroread/+bug/769866 whether there is a bug in the underlying bash_completion script as well.