carapace-sh Bash Shell In-Depth Reference
Comprehensive reference for bash shell internals, with emphasis on the completion system and how external tools hook into it.
Sub-Resources
Load the reference that matches your task. When in doubt, load multiple references.
| Keywords | Reference |
|---|---|
| complete, compgen, compopt, COMPREPLY, COMP_WORDS, COMP_CWORD, COMP_LINE, COMP_POINT, COMP_TYPE, COMP_WORDBREAKS, compspec, completion function, _init_completion, _comp_initialize, _completion_loader, dynamic loading, exit status 124, bash-completion helpers, _filedir, _comp_compgen, _comp_split, _comp_quote, _comp_dequote, _comp_reassemble, _comp_xfunc, completion registration, completion options, nospace, filenames, noquote, nosort, plusdirs, bashdefault, default, dirnames, fullquote, menu-complete | references/completion.md |
| Readline, .inputrc, bind, key binding, editing mode, emacs, vi, completion variables, mark-directories, show-all-if-ambiguous, colored-stats, visible-stats, completion-prefix-display-length, colored-completion-prefix, bell-style, completion-display-width, page-completions, completion-query-items, menu-complete-display-prefix, skip-completed-text, macro, kill-ring, yank, bracketed-paste, READLINE_LINE, READLINE_POINT, READLINE_MARK, READLINE_ARGUMENT | references/readline.md |
| quoting, single quotes, double quotes, ANSI-C quoting, $'...', escape character, backslash, word splitting, IFS, pathname expansion, globbing, brace expansion, tilde expansion, parameter expansion, command substitution, arithmetic expansion, process substitution, COMP_WORDBREAKS quoting, dequoting, _comp_dequote, _comp_quote, FIGNORE, nullglob, dotglob | references/quoting-expansion.md |
| execution, subshell, fork, exec, process group, pipeline, job control, signal, trap, DEBUG trap, EXIT trap, ERR trap, RETURN trap, PROMPT_COMMAND, PS0, PS1, PS2, PS3, PS4, prompt escape, foreground, background, SIGINT, SIGHUP, SIGTTIN, SIGTTOU, disown, huponexit, lastpipe, pipefail, command_not_found_handle | references/execution.md |
| startup, .bashrc, .bash_profile, .profile, /etc/profile, login shell, interactive shell, non-interactive, BASH_ENV, ENV, --login, --norc, --noprofile, sh invocation, POSIX mode, remote shell, SSH, elevated privileges, shell options, shopt, set | references/startup.md |
Quick Guide
- How do I write a completion function? → references/completion.md
- How does Readline handle completion display? → references/readline.md
- How does quoting affect completions? → references/quoting-expansion.md
- How does bash execute commands and handle signals? → references/execution.md
- Which startup files does bash read? → references/startup.md
- What are the COMP_ variables?* → references/completion.md
- How does the bash-completion project work? → references/completion.md
- How do I configure .inputrc for completion? → references/readline.md
- How does COMP_WORDBREAKS break words? → references/completion.md and references/quoting-expansion.md
- How do I control nospace/filenames/noquote? → references/completion.md
- How do traps and PROMPT_COMMAND work? → references/execution.md
- How do I debug completion functions? → references/completion.md
Cross-Project References
For carapace-specific bash integration (snippet, patch phase, value formatting), see the carapace-dev skill → references/shell-bash.md.