Back
#terminal · 30 Mar 2024 · 1 min read

Terminal Shortcuts: Completion

Let the shell finish your commands and explore what's available.

Tab completion is one of the biggest productivity boosts in the terminal. These shortcuts help you finish commands faster and discover options without memorizing every path or flag.

Complete commands and paths

Tab
Autocomplete the command or file path being typed
Ctrl+I
Same as Tab — sends the ASCII horizontal tab character
TabTab
Show all possible completions when there is more than one match

Explore options

Alt+?
List possible completions for what has been typed so far
~TabTab
List all users on the system

Expand in place

Alt+*
Expand all files and directories in the current directory into the prompt

Tip: Alt + * is like typing * and hitting Tab — it dumps every match directly into your command line. Useful when you want to review exactly what will be affected before running a command.