bash4 tab completion causes shell to hang/crash

[augiedoggie]

The new version of bash is having problems with tab completion. When I type 'cd /' and then a tab to complete the path, the shell either crashes or hangs. This happens on gcc2 and gcc4 on real hardware and via virtualbox.

[anevilyak]

This doesn't seem to be the case globally....for cd I can reproduce it but for instance just tab completing a path to a file such as an executable works for me at least, maybe a problem with the completion rules file?

[axeld]

Does the problem go away if you remove the /etc/bash_completion* files?

[augiedoggie]

I haven't tried removing the files, but, it does go away with programmable completion disabled using 'shopt -u progcomp' . I did look into it a little bit. Seems to be triggered somewhere in the _filedir() function of /etc/bash_completion.

I can test removing the files later.

[augiedoggie]

Many other commands are causing the shell to exit. I've tried chown/chgrp/kill/find/scp/etc... and all of these do the same thing when attempting to complete. I've also tried using the bash_completion file from Ubuntu and I get the same results. Moving the bash_completion files out of the way does allow the commands to work using basic file completion.

[augiedoggie]

Found a possible fix after searching through the Ubuntu launchpad diffs. The full diff file is ​here. Attaching a small patch which seems to fix the problem for me.

[augiedoggie]

Fix for tab completion problems

[korli]

Fix the issue by applying patches 001 to 035 in hrev34030