Bash: Tab completion with cdable_vars

Question

I've been relying on this hack for jumping around in the file system for a couple of years before finding out today that I can do the same thing using native Bash by activating the option cdable_vars.

The only thing I miss is tab completion. If I put this in my .bashrc or .bash_profile:

shopt -s cdable_vars
export mydir="$HOME/my/nested/directory"

Tab completion isn't expanding mydir when I try to cd into it from the prompt. Is there a way to activate this behavior in Bash?

Answer 1

To activate this completion you need the bash-completion package.

If the package is installed (often by default) just add these lines in your .bashrc

if [ -f /etc/bash_completion ]; then
 . /etc/bash_completion
fi

If not: https://repology.org/project/bash-completion/versions

• mrzool: Weird, I've always used completion everywhere without having this installed. Anyway now it does what I want, thanks a lot!
• xralf: The tab completion works with the cd command, though I use the path often with the mv command, which does not work. I wonder, if it could work as well.
• Max Coplan: @djangoliv Your link is broken