How to make PowerShell tab completion work like Bash

Question

Let's say I have the following files in my current directory:

buildBar.bat
buildFoo.bat
buildHouse.bat

And I type the following at my command prompt, ./bu and then TAB.

• In Bash, it gets expanded to ./build

• In PowerShell, it gets expanded to ./buildBar.bat -- the first item in the list.

• In Cmd, the behavior is the same as PowerShell.

I prefer the Bash behaviour - is there a way to make PowerShell behave like Bash?

Answer 1

New versions of PowerShell include PSReadline, which can be used to do this:

Set-PSReadlineKeyHandler -Key Tab -Function Complete

To make it permanent, put this command into C:\Users\[User]\Documents\WindowsPowerShell\profile.ps1.

Answer 2

It is now possible to get PowerShell to do Bash-style completion, using PSReadline.

Check out blog post Bash-like tab completion in PowerShell.

Answer 3

tab only completes the command name not its previous arguments/parameters.

to also autocomplete the complete command with arguments from history set the below keybinding.

Set-PSReadlineKeyHandler -Key UpArrow -Function HistorySearchBackward
Set-PSReadlineKeyHandler -Key DownArrow -Function HistorySearchForward

Now, type few characters of command name and use up/down arrow to autocomplete this command (with arguments) from history.

real time saver.

Answer 4

Take a look here, not really your desiderata:

PowerTab

but I think is the best tab expansion feature for PowerShell console!!!

Answer 5

# keep or reset to powershell default
Set-PSReadlineKeyHandler -Key Shift+Tab -Function TabCompletePrevious

# define Ctrl+Tab like default Tab behavior
Set-PSReadlineKeyHandler -Key Ctrl+Tab -Function TabCompleteNext

# define Tab like bash
Set-PSReadlineKeyHandler -Key Tab -Function Complete

Answer 6

Modify the TabExpansion function to achieve what you want. Remember that perhaps it completes till the end if you press tab again the new suggestion modify from where you originally press the key. I strongly prefer the actual behaviour, I want the line writted as fast as possible. Finally don't forget the wildcard expansion, for example: bu*h[Tab] automatically completes to buildHouse.bat

Answer 7

With Powershell Core we can set the PredictionSource property for PSReadLine as History to get auto suggestion. Refer to the YouTube video for more details https://youtu.be/I0iIZe0dUNw