Emacs/emacs/Completion-Commands
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8.4.2 Completion Commands
Here is a list of the completion commands defined in the minibuffer when completion is allowed.
- TAB
- Complete the text in the minibuffer as much as possible; if unable to complete, display a list of possible completions (
minibuffer-complete
). - SPC
- Complete up to one word from the minibuffer text before point (
minibuffer-complete-word
). This command is not available for arguments that often include spaces, such as file names. - RET
- Submit the text in the minibuffer as the argument, possibly completing first (
minibuffer-complete-and-exit
). See Completion Exit. - ?
- Display a list of completions (
minibuffer-completion-help
).
TAB
(minibuffer-complete
) is the most fundamental
completion command. It searches for all possible completions that
match the existing minibuffer text, and attempts to complete as much
as it can. See Completion Styles, for how completion alternatives
are chosen.
SPC
(minibuffer-complete-word
) completes like
TAB
, but only up to the next hyphen or space. If you have
‘auto-f
’ in the minibuffer and type SPC
, it finds that the
completion is ‘auto-fill-mode
’, but it only inserts ‘ill-
’,
giving ‘auto-fill-
’. Another SPC
at this point completes
all the way to ‘auto-fill-mode
’.
If TAB
or SPC
is unable to complete, it displays a list
of matching completion alternatives (if there are any) in another
window. You can display the same list with ?
(minibuffer-completion-help
). The following commands can be
used with the completion list:
M-v
PageUp
prior
Typing M-v, while in the minibuffer, selects the window showing
the completion list (switch-to-completions
). This paves the
way for using the commands below. PageUp
or prior
does
the same. You can also select the window in other ways
(see Windows).
RET
mouse-1
mouse-2
While in the completion list buffer, this chooses the completion at
point (choose-completion
).
TAB
RIGHT
While in the completion list buffer, these keys move point to the
following completion alternative (next-completion
).
S-TAB
LEFT
While in the completion list buffer, these keys move point to the
previous completion alternative (previous-completion
).
q
While in the completion list buffer, this quits the window showing it
and selects the window showing the minibuffer (quit-window
).
z
While in the completion list buffer, kill it and delete the window
showing it (kill-current-buffer
).
Next: Completion Exit, Previous: Completion Example, Up: Completion [Contents][Index]