# How to setup bash completion for alias of git command

4 messages from 2013-01-12 to 2013-01-21. Participants: Ping Yin, Jonathan Nieder.
Thread: https://gitlist.dev/t/32606

## Ping Yin, 2013-01-12 14:30

Subject: How to setup bash completion for alias of git command
Message-ID: <CACSwcnQu8Rx83mcGYR6NGzEhoreNR6DfiK876LF7pa9PGm30JA@mail.gmail.com>
URL: https://gitlist.dev/e/CACSwcnQu8Rx83mcGYR6NGzEhoreNR6DfiK876LF7pa9PGm30JA%40mail.gmail.com

```
Following setup works for me  in ubuntu (10.04,11.04) for a long time

alias gtlg='git log'
complete -o default -o nospace -F _git_log gtlg

However, in debian (testing, wheezy), it doesn't work

$ gtlg or<TAB>
gtlg or-bash: [: 1: unary operator expected
-bash: [: 1: unary operator expected

$ git --version
git version 1.7.10

Can anybody help?

```

## Ping Yin, 2013-01-13 03:13

Subject: Re: How to setup bash completion for alias of git command
Message-ID: <CACSwcnRs3vxm0L4XrD0mUvgmQfz=qQH1yT7fX9kBwODiWcuxzQ@mail.gmail.com>
URL: https://gitlist.dev/e/CACSwcnRs3vxm0L4XrD0mUvgmQfz%3DqQH1yT7fX9kBwODiWcuxzQ%40mail.gmail.com
In-Reply-To: <CACSwcnQu8Rx83mcGYR6NGzEhoreNR6DfiK876LF7pa9PGm30JA@mail.gmail.com>

```
On Sat, Jan 12, 2013 at 10:30 PM, Ping Yin <pkufranky@gmail.com> wrote:
> Following setup works for me  in ubuntu (10.04,11.04) for a long time
>
> alias gtlg='git log'
> complete -o default -o nospace -F _git_log gtlg
>
> However, in debian (testing, wheezy), it doesn't work
>
> $ gtlg or<TAB>
> gtlg or-bash: [: 1: unary operator expected
> -bash: [: 1: unary operator expected
>

with newest git version built with next branch, the same problem remains.

Ping Yin

```

## Jonathan Nieder, 2013-01-20 11:14

Subject: Re: How to setup bash completion for alias of git command
Message-ID: <20130120111424.GG16339@elie.Belkin>
URL: https://gitlist.dev/e/20130120111424.GG16339%40elie.Belkin
In-Reply-To: <CACSwcnQu8Rx83mcGYR6NGzEhoreNR6DfiK876LF7pa9PGm30JA@mail.gmail.com>

```
Hi Ping,

Ping Yin wrote:

> Following setup works for me  in ubuntu (10.04,11.04) for a long time
>
> alias gtlg='git log'
> complete -o default -o nospace -F _git_log gtlg
>
> However, in debian (testing, wheezy), it doesn't work
>
> $ gtlg or<TAB>
> gtlg or-bash: [: 1: unary operator expected
> -bash: [: 1: unary operator expected

Yes, I can reproduce this.  "git bisect" tells me it was introduced
by v1.7.6-rc0~65^2~4 (completion: remove unnecessary
_get_comp_words_by_ref() invocations, 2011-04-28).  Since then, Felipe
has done work to make reusing subcommand completion easy again, so you
can do

	__git_complete gtlg _git_log

One complication: on some systems, including Ubuntu 13.04, git's bash
completion script is installed to

	/usr/share/bash-completion/completions/git

and sourced on the fly when completing commands starting with "git"
instead of right away from /etc/bash_completion.  On these systems,
the "__git_complete" function would not be usable right away from
your .bashrc file.  I think we should fix this, for example by moving
the function to a separate

	$(git --exec-path)/git-bashrc-functions

library.

Thanks for reporting,
Jonathan

```

## Ping Yin, 2013-01-21 03:55

Subject: Re: How to setup bash completion for alias of git command
Message-ID: <CACSwcnQu0qgKPhDXeDTFTZgh7FBVmaTCTkoJmEsCTUtaM9HU6g@mail.gmail.com>
URL: https://gitlist.dev/e/CACSwcnQu0qgKPhDXeDTFTZgh7FBVmaTCTkoJmEsCTUtaM9HU6g%40mail.gmail.com
In-Reply-To: <20130120111424.GG16339@elie.Belkin>

```
On Sun, Jan 20, 2013 at 7:14 PM, Jonathan Nieder <jrnieder@gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi Ping,
>
> Ping Yin wrote:
>>
>> However, in debian (testing, wheezy), it doesn't work
>>
>> $ gtlg or<TAB>
>> gtlg or-bash: [: 1: unary operator expected
>> -bash: [: 1: unary operator expected
>
> Yes, I can reproduce this.  "git bisect" tells me it was introduced
> by v1.7.6-rc0~65^2~4 (completion: remove unnecessary
> _get_comp_words_by_ref() invocations, 2011-04-28).  Since then, Felipe
> has done work to make reusing subcommand completion easy again, so you
> can do
>
>         __git_complete gtlg _git_log
>

Thanks very much. by following your advice, it works now.

Ping Yin

```