bug#4004: filename completion

bug#4004: filename completion

[Colin Williams]

In 23.1.50.1, there's a bad interaction between tab completion and
tramp filenames.  If you try to do tab completion on
"/ssh:remote-host:~/~/te", where the file "test" exists on the remote
host but not locally, the completion says there's no match.

Colin

bug#4004: filename completion

[Michael Albinus]

Colin Williams <lackita@gmail.com> writes:

> In 23.1.50.1, there's a bad interaction between tab completion and
> tramp filenames.  If you try to do tab completion on
> "/ssh:remote-host:~/~/te", where the file "test" exists on the remote
> host but not locally, the completion says there's no match.

For me, it works.

What happens if you try to complete "/ssh:remote-host:~/te"?

Has the file "test" been created on the remote host outside Emacs, while
Tramp was running already?

Have you enabled partial-completion-mode, which is needed for Tramp
sometimes?

> Colin

Best regards, Michael.

bug#4004: filename completion

[Stefan Monnier]

> Have you enabled partial-completion-mode, which is needed for Tramp
> sometimes?

Note that partial-completion-mode is on the way out, so if you need
partial-completion-mode to make it work, it's important to know it.


        Stefan

bug#4004: filename completion

[Michael Albinus]

Stefan Monnier <monnier@iro.umontreal.ca> writes:

>> Have you enabled partial-completion-mode, which is needed for Tramp
>> sometimes?
>
> Note that partial-completion-mode is on the way out, so if you need
> partial-completion-mode to make it work, it's important to know it.

I must check the code, but IIRC partial-completion-mode is just an
indication for Tramp whether some file name completion functionality
shall be enabled, before Tramp is fully loaded. There were people who
disliked Tramp's file name completion.

If partial-completion-mode will be kicked off, Tramp might need another
indication. Just tell me when it happens, that I can change Tramp.

Just now?

>         Stefan

Best regards, Michael.

bug#4004: filename completion

[Stefan Monnier]

>>> Have you enabled partial-completion-mode, which is needed for Tramp
>>> sometimes?
>> 
>> Note that partial-completion-mode is on the way out, so if you need
>> partial-completion-mode to make it work, it's important to know it.

> I must check the code, but IIRC partial-completion-mode is just an
> indication for Tramp whether some file name completion functionality
> shall be enabled, before Tramp is fully loaded. There were people who
> disliked Tramp's file name completion.

Then this needs to be fixed.  Looking at the code, I can't quite
understand what it does: it seems that Tramp's method/user/host
completion is only activated for people you use either
partial-completion-mode, ido, icycle, or XEmacs.  I'm not sure what's
the logic behind it, but I'd rather just activate it based on a specific
configuration variable (or just always activate it, as you do in
XEmacs).  In Emacs-23, the functionality that was previous offered by
partial-completion-mode is enabled by default (tho implemented
differently and activated differently as well).


        Stefan

bug#4004: filename completion

[Michael Albinus]

Stefan Monnier <monnier@iro.umontreal.ca> writes:

[added emacs-devel, we shall continue to discuss there]

>> I must check the code, but IIRC partial-completion-mode is just an
>> indication for Tramp whether some file name completion functionality
>> shall be enabled, before Tramp is fully loaded. There were people who
>> disliked Tramp's file name completion.
>
> Then this needs to be fixed.  Looking at the code, I can't quite
> understand what it does: it seems that Tramp's method/user/host
> completion is only activated for people you use either
> partial-completion-mode, ido, icycle, or XEmacs.  I'm not sure what's
> the logic behind it, but I'd rather just activate it based on a specific
> configuration variable (or just always activate it, as you do in
> XEmacs).  In Emacs-23, the functionality that was previous offered by
> partial-completion-mode is enabled by default (tho implemented
> differently and activated differently as well).

There was a discussion about some years ago, when I did add Tramp's
autoloads. People were annoyed, that even after typing something like
"/a" in the minibuffer, Tramp was already loaded, which raised some
delays. So it was suggested to make Tramp's autoloading optional. It was
even requested that this "optionality" should not be something, which
the user has to disnable herself; users should not be bashed by a new
feature they are not interested in.

The compromise was to find indications, were it could be expected that
the user would appreciate Tramp. partial-completion-mode was the first
candidate, ido and icycle were added later. The XEmacs case is
different, because there is another syntax for Tramp.

If partial-completion-mode is discarded in Emacs, we should either find
a replacement for this "indication", or we shall decide, that Tramp *is*
always loaded as soon as somebody writes an absolute filename in the
minibuffer.

The check for partial-completion-mode shall remain in tramp.el, for
backward compatibility.

>         Stefan

Best regards, Michael.

bug#4004: filename completion

[Stefan Monnier]

> There was a discussion about some years ago, when I did add Tramp's
> autoloads. People were annoyed, that even after typing something like
> "/a" in the minibuffer, Tramp was already loaded, which raised some
> delays. So it was suggested to make Tramp's autoloading optional. It was
> even requested that this "optionality" should not be something, which
> the user has to disnable herself; users should not be bashed by a new
> feature they are not interested in.

That's beginning to make more sense.  But I just tried the following:

   emacs -Q
   C-x C-f /a TAB :

and then

   emacs -Q
   M-: (setq partial-completion-mode t)
   C-x C-f /a TAB :

and I don't see any difference (Tramp gets loaded when I hit : and no
earlier).  Could you show me another example where I can see
the difference, so I can better understand the tradeoffs?


        Stefan

bug#4004: filename completion

[Lennart Borgman]

> and I don't see any difference (Tramp gets loaded when I hit : and no
> earlier).  Could you show me another example where I can see
> the difference, so I can better understand the tradeoffs?

When : is hit? That or something close to it might explain a bug I see
sometimes on w32. Tramp gets loaded when doing local file name
completion. Though it has something to do with my customization too,
it does not happen for "emacs -Q". I have not had time  to track it
down.

bug#4004: marked as done (filename completion)

[Emacs bug Tracking System]

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with message-id <nqvdl5e1vm.fsf@alcatel-lucent.de>
and subject line Re: bug#4004: filename completion
has caused the Emacs bug report #4004,
regarding filename completion
to be marked as done.

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If this is not the case it is now your responsibility to reopen the
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From: Colin Williams <lackita@gmail.com>
To: bug-gnu-emacs@gnu.org
Subject: filename completion
Date: Sat, 1 Aug 2009 12:36:44 -0400
Message-ID: <1b97198a0908010936o1f0b2015w8405a82648a5f869@mail.gmail.com>

In 23.1.50.1, there's a bad interaction between tab completion and
tramp filenames.  If you try to do tab completion on
"/ssh:remote-host:~/~/te", where the file "test" exists on the remote
host but not locally, the completion says there's no match.

Colin



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From: Michael Albinus <michael.albinus@gmx.de>
To: Colin Williams <lackita@gmail.com>
Cc: <4004-done@emacsbugs.donarmstrong.com>
Subject: Re: bug#4004: filename completion
Date: Mon, 03 Aug 2009 10:29:49 +0200
Message-ID: <nqvdl5e1vm.fsf@alcatel-lucent.de>

Colin Williams <lackita@gmail.com> writes:

> So partial completion mode seems to fix the problem.  I thought
> graying out the irrelevant parts of the path was a handy feature, but
> I don't really mind doing without it.

I don't completely understand what you mean with your remark about
"graying out the irrelevant parts", but there was an error, indeed (it
didn't mark parts starting with tilde). I've committed a fix to the
trunk.

Besides this, I believe there is no problem anymore, so I have set this
bug to resolved.

> Cheers,
> Colin

Best regards, Michael.