How to enable autocomplete in iTerm2

Question

Let's say I'm in my root directory, and I have a User folder that I can cd into. In my default Mac terminal, I can just type cd U + tab, and it autocompletes to cd Users/. How do I get this to work in iTerm2?

It used to work just fine in iTerm2, but I must have changed a setting somewhere that disabled it, and I cannot figure out how to get it back.

score 72 · Accepted Answer · answered Nov 18 '17 at 10:38

72

Autocomplete in iTerm2 activates by pressing cmd + ;

answered Nov 18 '17 at 10:38

leealex

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That works, thanks! I was hoping I could just use `tab`. For example, `cd vi` + `tab` would give `cd views`. It works that way in terminal, but not in iTerm2. I guess this is good enough for now. – Farid Nov 18 '17 at 14:36
That still works, this is a different autocomplete with dropdowns. – kmindspark Oct 01 '20 at 06:20
The new binding is `cmd` + `-` + `;` according to https://iterm2.com/features.html – cindyxiaoxiaoli Jan 19 '21 at 16:01
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This used to work automatically for me (automatic autocomplete) without typing cmd+; Any ideas why it has stopped doing this? I liked it. – Ashley Aitken Mar 21 '21 at 03:16
This does not yield the expected behavior, at least not in a latin-american keyboard layout – ihojmanb Dec 27 '21 at 21:20

score 27 · Answer 2 · edited Nov 16 '22 at 08:31

27

Steps to add a keybinding for the TAB key:

CMD + , to enter preferences
open tab Keys
in bottom left: add a Key Binding by clicking on the "+" button
click on area to record key
hit TAB key to record it

In column Action click on "Select Menu Item", and then on the next dropdown select "Open Autocomplete" under the session section.

I changed it using these settings:

screenshot

edited Nov 16 '22 at 08:31

Community

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answered Jul 05 '20 at 13:05

Progreg

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score 22 · Answer 3 · answered May 11 '18 at 01:54

22

You can install bash-completion package to autocomplete by Tab key.

Install bash-completion with brew

answered May 11 '18 at 01:54

Shersh

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doesn't work for me on iterm2 – stefanbschneider Feb 24 '22 at 11:04

score 18 · Answer 4 · answered Dec 19 '18 at 09:56

18

In Iterm 2 , you can activate Autocomplete by pressing command ⌘ + ;

answered Dec 19 '18 at 09:56

Nikhil Kumar Agrawal

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does not work for me (iterm2 build 3.3.9, mac os 10.15.5) – milushov May 31 '20 at 14:53
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Note that, on German keyboards, `;` requires you to also push the shift key. – stefanbschneider Mar 25 '22 at 15:56

score 12 · Answer 5 · answered May 17 '21 at 23:01

Autosuggestions while you type a command in Iterm2 (I believe this is what you where referring to)

Git Clone the zsh-autosuggestions plugin in the OhMyZsh plugin folder. (or just brew install it if on Mac)

$ sudo git clone https://github.com/zsh-users/zsh-autosuggestions ${ZSH_CUSTOM:-~/.oh-my-zsh/custom}/plugins/zsh-autosuggestions

Once that is done, add the plugin in the ~/.zshrc file's plugin list.

plugins=(zsh-autosuggestions)

David Mitchell · Answer 6 · 2021-08-12T14:29:36.823

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You can also enable Auto Command Completion (View > Auto Command Completion) which shows a window with command completion suggestions as you type. You'll have to have shell-integration enabled first, otherwise it will be greyed out in the menu bar.

https://iterm2.com/documentation-shell-integration.html

edited Aug 12 '21 at 14:29

answered Aug 12 '21 at 00:42

David Mitchell

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score 0 · Answer 7 · answered Jul 07 '22 at 09:54

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Anyone looking for the answer when using zsh, add autoload -Uz compinit && compinit to your .zshrc file.

open ~/.zshrc

or

nano ~/.zshrc

or if you are feeling lazy

echo 'autoload -Uz compinit && compinit' >> ~/.zshrc && . ~/.zshrc

answered Jul 07 '22 at 09:54

Lucian Murmurache

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How to enable autocomplete in iTerm2

7 Answers7