For bash: $ help complete complete: complete [-abcdefgjksuv] [-pr] [-DE] [-o option] [-A action] [-G globpat] [-W wordlist] [-F function] [-C command]

For bash: $ help complete complete: complete [-abcdefgjksuv] [-pr] [-DE] [-o option] [-A action] [-G globpat] [-W wordlist] [-F function] [-C command] [-X filterpat] [-P prefix] [-S suffix] [name ...] Specify how arguments are to be completed by Readline. For each NAME, specify how arguments are to be completed. If no options are supplied, existing completion specifications are printed in a way that allows them to be reused as input. Options: -p print existing completion specifications in a reusable format -r remove a completion specification for each NAME, or, if no NAMEs are supplied, all completion specifications -D apply the completions and actions as the default for commands without any specific completion defined -E apply the completions and actions to "empty" commands -- completion attempted on a blank line When completion is attempted, the actions are applied in the order the uppercase-letter options are listed above. The -D option takes precedence over -E. Exit Status: Returns success unless an invalid option is supplied or an error occurs. There are a lot of canned completion approaches, usually tweakable in small ways, but for heavy lifting `complete -F foo bar` will call the function `foo` when you are asking for completion of a command where the first word is `bar`. Information on what words are already on the line, where the cursor is, etc is passed in in shell variables starting with COMP_. See the "Programmable Completion" section of the bash manpage for much more detail. Note that it's settings for a specific shell process, not global across all instances of bash. "The right file in the right location" is only relevant 1) to set up your shells a particular way by default, and 2) if the function called references a file.