How to Enable Autocomplete in Mac Terminal - Tim Leland (2024)

Usually in a Unix/Linux terminal when you press tab it will autocomplete with several options and then it will list the options below for you to select. This is a great feature if you spend a lotof time in the terminal. You could install ZSHto get these features or if you are like me and like to keep things simple, you can enable autocomplete in the mac terminal using bash.

Enable auto-complete in Mac Os terminal

1. Type in terminal nano ~/.inputrc
2. Paste the following on separate lines

3. set completion-ignore-case onset show-all-if-ambiguous onTAB: menu-complete

4. Hit control+O to save changes to .inputrc followed by control+X to exit nano
5. Open a new Terminal window or tab to open a new session with autocomplete enabled
6. Type and hit the tab key

Let me know if this is helpful in the comments below!

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